December 13, 2005

The Consistent Word - The Inconsistent Interpretation

by Roger Best

One of the beauties of the study of God’s Word is its consistency and yet among those who read and study it there are many glaring inconsistencies. Why so much disagreement of doctrinal issues within the evangelical Church when all claim belief in the same Bible? Let’s briefly examine this problem.

As the Word of God is studied one will quickly notice the confirming evidence of it’s consistency on whatever subject matter. For example, the four gospels harmonize completely as one may give more or less detail. An example would be Matthew 24:3 where it says “the disciples” went to the Mount of Olives to question Jesus. Well, was it all the disciples or just a few? Mark 13:3 tells us it was Peter, James, John, and Andrew. Matthew is correct in saying disciples because of course all four were, but Mark gives the details and names the four who went. In the Epistles, Paul is consistent in his writings; Peter is consistent in his writings; John is consistent is his writings; and all are consistent with each other. There are no contradictions!

In the area of prophecy this becomes an obvious factor and yet there are so many different opinions on so many important points. It is important to understand that the Old Testament prophecies are as true as are the New Testament ones and they fit together perfectly. One must always look at the Word of God as one book. We have a tendency to want to divide it into sections. It is important to recognize the consistency of the New Testament passages as well. The events of Matthew 24:3-31 harmonize beautifully with Revelation 6. If you take Scripture at face value you don’t have to make Matthew 24 Armageddon, just read it for what it says and it fits with all of Scripture.

Early in our days of teaching the Prewarth rapture position, we came up with a premise and a set of simple rules to help in the important area of interpreting prophetic Scripture. Of all that I have taught over the years, this is certainly one of the most important helps that any believer can have. In fact, I am of the opinion that the subject of hermeneutics, how to interpret the Bible, ought to have a more prominent place in our Bible colleges and seminaries. It is only reasonable to believe that if we all took a proper approach to Scripture, there would be fewer inconsistencies in our doctrinal positions.

The premise is simply this: “It is not our purpose to define truth, but rather to discover truth.” The Word of God is truth, it is bound to God Himself who is truth, if He is truth and He is, then His Word is truth. John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth, thy word is truth.” The Word of God is truth; therefore if two of us disagree on any passage of Scripture at least one is wrong. There may be more than one application of the passage but only one meaning and our purpose is to discover that meaning. The following five simple rules are a good place to begin:

1. Always take Scripture in its natural, normal, customary sense whenever possible.
2. Scripture must always be taken in context.
3. Compare Scripture with Scripture.
4. Recognize that there are no contradictions in Scripture.
5. Recognize the near/far implications and applications in prophetic passages. (This rule applies to the study of prophetic Scripture.)

A face value approach to Scripture is so important in the discovery of truth. In 2 Corinthians 1:13 the apostle Paul writes, “For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand until the end.” The Bible is given to us for our understanding and the believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit has the ability to understand it if he will just spend some time in study.

Let us look for a moment at how this plays out in a practical way. I have never had a person who holds to the pretribulation rapture view sit down with me and show me from the Word of God why they believe it. The most common answer to the question, “Why do you believe in the pretrib rapture?” is “That’s what I have always been taught.” In fact in my many discussions with people on this subject, more often than not the approach is to attempt to discredit the prewrath view rather than substantiate the pretrib view. There is a reason for that approach and it is because if one takes a face value (literal) approach to Scripture there is no substantiation for the pretrib view in Scripture.

Yet many hold to the pretrib view tenaciously while they practice glaring inconsistencies in other areas of doctrine. I recently heard of a Bible college that no longer takes a stand for six literal days of creation. In fact they now have a theistic evolutionist teaching in the theology department and yet they dismissed a professor for no longer holding to the pretrib rapture position. Another pastor who is adamantly pretrib said he questioned whether the first two chapters of Genesis can be taken literally. What happened to standing for the truth? We seem to be so influenced today by political correctness, to the point that rather than taking a stand for truth we are willing to water it down so it is acceptable to the general public. Certainly we wouldn’t want anyone to be offended!

One of the beauties of the prewrath position on the timing of the rapture of the church is that the Old Testament prophecies fit with the New Testament prophecies. Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, Revelation 6-7 all fit together with great consistency. There is no need for assuming or manipulating, but rather we can just take these great passages for what they say. Remember truth is consistent!