First things first

[johnd]

2 Peter 1:20-21
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

John 5:39-40
39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me,
40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

1 Thessalonians 5:21
21 Test everything. Hold on to the good.

1 John 4:1
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Acts 17:11
11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

 

[johnd]

Taking God's word for it begins with identifying God's word (the Bible). That is so obvious as to be profound. But people, congregations, denominations, et al. resort to human (so-called) wisdom, tradition, interpretation to use as a lens to view scripture.

When you learn to set aside the things you parrot and delve into the word to see what is actually there, you will be astounded by what God has placed in his word.

 

[McScribe]

I very much agree with that. For example in the temptation of Christ by Satan each quotes scripture and to understand Jesus' rebuttals you need to know what is being talked about.

 

[johnd]

I very much agree with that. For example in the temptation of Christ by Satan each quotes scripture and to understand Jesus' rebuttals you need to know what is being talked about.

Interesting.

An in depth study of the temptations of Jesus will bring about a lot of insight to the incarnation many might overlook otherwise. For example, Jesus clearly did miracles in scripture (raised the dead, restored sight to the blind, cleansed the lepers, restored a severed ear... but he did not miraculously slap a muzzle on the devil. He did not send him off to another dimension or even a far place on earth. He did not even exterminate the devil at his most brazen proposal of all time (that God incarnate should bow down to him).

Think of it. We guys bristle when our wives remind us to... take out the trash... or other such tasks we either forget to do or don't want to do or consider beneath us somehow... imagine the anger Jesus must have felt.

I will get back to this later...

But for now suffice it to say it was deliberate that he dealt with the devil using nothing more than the tools available to any man.

 

[McScribe]

There is also a restraint shown in the story of the resurrection of Lazarus. Jesus weeps to see the grief of the people, and yet when Martha tells him "if you had been here he would not have died" he explains that he held back from being there to glorify God. Jesus' obedience to the will of the Father is a constant refrain. We tend though to be like the disciples and hope for revelation that comes entirely from our interpretation of scripture, not from our actual relationship with God.

 

[episkopos]

JohnD, just getting to this posting from 2003. First things first! If the order is switched then we start to have problems. There is a book by name Proton which discusses the times in the Bible when this topic comes up. Proton means first things first.
Anything that is not done first seems to lose its significance.
Anything that is not done first may never be done
It is an insult to give the second place to that which should be first.
Problems abound when that which is to be first becomes second

Shalom

 

[silvia12345]

yeah, sure