Knowing this first,
that no prophecy of
Scripture
is of any private
interpretation,
for prophecy never
came
by the will of man,
but holy men of God
spoke as they were
moved
by the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 1: 20 -- 21
In the last
blog I began by speaking in regard to what is the beginning, that is "what
is truth" and the only way we can answer this question is to understand
where the final authority is for if we do not then each one decide for
themselves what it is to be. Scripture
is the final authority therefore it is important and prudent of us to read
translations of the manuscripts we have that are based upon the majority of the
extent manuscripts we have and not include interpretations or other manuscripts
that are not clearly authoritative. For
instance in the above Scripture Peter states that "holy men of God
spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." This translation of the Greek Scriptures is
found in such works as the New King James and the Authorized King James Version
but it's not found in such versions as the New International Version. The NIV the manuscripts they chose to use
simply says: "but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the
Holy Spirit." Now this may be seemingly to point to
something of small consequence, but is it, where the men that were moved by the
Holy Spirit holy or just men? Well
then, what is the answer? The answer
lies in the fact that the, number of manuscripts that are available that state
that men were holy and not just men are numerous. At the very least it makes us wonder why the translators chose
not to state this when there are many, many, manuscripts that contradict what
they wrote. I say this because it is
important to understand that the Bible we use, that which is the final
authority, must be the Bible that is correctly translated from the original
Greek manuscripts that we have and this must be done through textual criticism
that is finding the truth rather than just interpolating a person's theology,
ideology, or philosophy. By using the
wrong manuscripts we will come to the wrong conclusions and begin to do
things and believe things that the original writers never intended. As Peter so stated: “that no prophecy of Scripture is of any
private interpretation.” Our
authority must not be a type of authority that ebb’s and flows, or one that is
based upon the emotions, experiences, and dreams so as to give some
justification for certain non-biblical actions or beliefs. To give some validity to search in the
emotions, and experiences and dreams the Holy Spirit is invoked or given credit
for such feelings or ideas. Often, when
confronted by the plain teaching of the Bible they disagree, and often they
will say such as "God told me," or "God spoke to me," etc.
Well, if God speaks to a person then what a person says that he has heard from
God must be in line with the authority of Scripture for if this was not done,
or this was not true, then the Bible would not be finished. The clear warning given to Christians in
John's Revelation: "For I testify to
everyone who hears the word of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to
these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;
and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall
take away his part from the book of life, from the holy city, and from the
things which are written in this book" (Revelation 22:18 -- 19). From all argue that this is only written for
the book of Revelation and that is true but there is a principle here that we
must follow and that principle is we are not to add or subtract from the
writings that are inspired by God. Even
when God spoke to the prophets of old, God spoke through them those things that
He wanted to have said and recorded as his Word. God gave us the metric to judge whether or not the word. That a man whether he calls himself a
prophet or not is actually speaking by the Holy Spirit who is inspiring him to
speak or write and this metric is and was, what they said or prophesied had
to come true 100% of the time or what they said was false: "But the profit who presumes to speak a word in my That name,
which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other
gods, that prophet shall die. And if
you say in your heart," How shall I know the word which the LORD has not
spoken?" "When a prophet
speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass,
that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it
presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him" (Deuteronomy 18: 20 --
22). We have been given the metric
or rubric that we need to be able to judge what is being spoken or done and
this has been given to us by the authority of the Word of God. We can examine, and we have been commanded to
do so, so that we can test and prove what is being said or done so that the
church of God is kept pure according to Scripture and not by some man's
interpretation or belief. The
Corinthian church had overstepped the authority of the Word of God that had
been preached to them by Paul and by other letters that were written. Other men of God were inspired by God to
write, those letters were copied and sent to other churches to be read as well
so that they had no excuse making cause for Paul to reprimand them and to show
them a better way, the way that they should actually be seeking and following
and doing. Those letters are available to us today, therefore, we have no
excuse, but we can change and turn our life over to the faithful and
authoritative word of God.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
converting
the soul;
the testimony of LORD is sure,
making wise the simple.
Psalm 19: 7
God is your
strength, lean on Him
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