Have you ever heard the story of the Prodigal Son?
“Seems God told him to build an ark because it was going to rain fire and brimstone, so he built Him an ark and put the tables of the covenant and Aaron’s rod that budded in the ark. Then he set the ark loose in the bulrushes where it was found by a pool woman who had not a cake nor oil in her cruse …
The young man then went to Jerusalem and he fell among thieves. Thorns sprung up around him and choked him. But he went on and met the queen of Sheba and she gave him thirty pieces of silver that she got out of the mouth of a fish. With that the young man bought ten changes of raiment and a foal that he rode into the city as the people put palm branches in his path. As he was riding he caught his long hair in a tree and he hanged there forty days and forty nights. Ravens brought him food and he got water from a rock until one night Delilah showed up and cut off his hair. He fell on stoney ground and when he got up he went into the highways and the hedges looking for the fields which were white unto harvest. When he got back to Jerusalem he saw Jezebel sitting in the top of a sycamore tree and the young man told her to come down. She refused saying that she had just bought five yoke of oxen and must go to prove them. The young man took his sling and five smooth stones and knocked Jezebel out of the tree, and he knocked her down seventy times seven times so that great was the fall of her. And of the fragments of her they took up twelve baskets full. Now whose wife will she be in the day of judgement?”
This method of verse twisting is well known to the charlatans and phony ‘fake healers’ making millions from their mindless minions.
While everything in the story is Bible-based, clearly the telling of it is entirely wrong. So, it is not enough to be ‘scriptural’ but, we must be dispensational in our approach to Gods word, because verses must be left in their context. Further, verses must be applied to their intended audience and not just anybody. There is a verse which says to take your plowshare and make a sword (Joel 3:10) and another verse which tells the reader to take his sword and make a plowshare (Micah 4:3). Since you cannot do both because the verses are mutually exclusive, the concept of identifying the context and the intended audience are clearly critical. It turns out that neither verse applies to us today.
One part of the Bible is said to be that which “all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.” (Acts 3:24)
That stands in contrast to “the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,” (Romans 16:25) “which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.” (Ephesians 3:9)
Is it any wonder there are so many denominations with so many doctrines in conflict? Clearly, there must be something more to Bible study than merely stringing verses together and arguing about them.
2 Timothy 2:15
STUDY to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, RIGHTLY DIVIDING the word of truth.
Rightly dividing the word of truth erases the confusion and unlocks your bible, so that you may get the intended benefit out of Gods word that he intends for you to have.
Grace and Peace!