"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."
1 Thessalonians 5:21.
With all the MISINFORMATION out there, it's very difficult to "PROVE ALL THINGS". Nearly impossible to ALWAYS know who is telling the TRUTH & who is LYING.
Thankfully, when we read the Bible, we don't have to PROVE ALL THINGS....because the Bible is TRUE, it never LIES. What we do have to PROVE are the human interpretations put on the Bible. Our job is to determine, with the help of the Holy Spirit, which interpretations are TRUE and which interpretations are LIES and to "HOLD FAST" to the true ones.
There are many parts of the Bible that are not hard to understand, even a child can understand them, they are as CLEAR AS NOON DAY.
And then there are other parts that are not so clear, and that is where we often other humans understanding of those parts and that is where we must PROVE ALL THINGS.
I agree. But by what means does one "prove all things"? In context,
1 Thessalonians 5:21 is talking specifically about
prophecies:
1 Thessalonians 5:20-21
20 Do not despise prophecies,
21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.
Paul is urging the Thessalonian Christians to test everything coming to them
as a prophecy and to hold fast to those prophecies, proved by testing, to be good. Where in Scripture are other prophecies tested? Well, in the OT, the means of testing the legitimacy of a prophecy (and the one who gave it) was spelled out pretty clearly:
Deuteronomy 18:20-22
20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’
21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’—
22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
There are a huge number of modern-day "prophets" who have failed this test spectacularly and, in some cases, repeatedly. And yet, many still give heed to them, encouraged to do so by ridiculous word-games the so-called "prophets" employ, twisting and contorting their role as a prophet (and God's word) so as to allow for their prophetic failure.
Generally, though, how should a Christian test the biblical interpretation of fellow believers? In the highly relativistic cultural current of modern western societies - a current flowing strongly through the Church, too - the idea that there is such a thing as objective, universal, authoritative truth is rejected, if not in word, certainly in deed. The idea that a Christian can really, truly know what is Truth - objective, absolute Truth - has become a fringe perspective. Today, the Bible is up for grabs, essentially, every man or woman shaping it to conform to that which is right in their own eyes. This is not because the Bible is actually so amorphous in its content as to allow such a thing, but because the relativistic thinking within Christianity necessitates an individual-centered, "What do you think?" approach to all truth.
Anyway, I test my interpretation of Scripture by way of sound hermeneutical principles and/or rules:
- What is the immediate context of a verse or passage? How does that context constrain or clarify how I understand what is communicated?
- Does my interpretation square with the larger context of the rest of Scripture? Am I putting verses/passages in contradiction to one another in shaping my views? How does the rest of Scripture qualify or clarify my interpretation of a particular verse or passage?
- With what type of literature am I dealing? Poetry? Wisdom literature? Prophecy? Historical account? etc. How does the genre impact how I may interpret whatever Scripture I'm looking at?
- How does the historical/cultural context of what I'm reading shape its meaning? How would the original readers of Scripture have understood what they were reading?
- How were words and phrases used commonly at the time of their writing in Scripture?
And so on.
These hermeneutical guides help guard against an assortment of potential faulty interpretations of God's word. These interpretive guides don't, though, serve as a replacement for the illumination of the Spirit whose teaching I must always prayerfully seek as I study the Bible. Ultimately, the Spirit opens up divine truth to me, revealing the mind and heart of God to all His children. (
John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:10-16)
It has also helped me a great deal to have a good grasp on basic rules of logic and principles of sound reasoning. I find fewer and fewer Christians think well. Like the secular world, Christians have a shorter and shorter attention span; they think largely in sound-byte form, using meme logic, that is often highly specious, rhetorically slippery, and full of slogans and catch-phrases. As a result, the average Christian cannot assess what they are being taught, they can't critically analyze the scriptural interpretations of other believers properly. They don't recognize logical fallacies; they don't see non sequiturs; they don't know what the Law of Non-Contradiction is, or the Law of Excluded Middle, or the Indiscernibility of Identicals, and so on. When, then, faulty thinking is employed in the interpretation of God's word, Christians who don't have a good grip on basic rules of logic and principles of reason have no idea they are encountering faulty thinking and the bad scriptural interpretation that inevitably comes out of it.
Isaiah 1:18
18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD...
Acts 17:1-3
1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
1 Corinthians 13:11
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 
