Paul said to Timothy:-
'But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose,
.. faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions,
.... which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra;
...... what persecutions I endured:
........ but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
.......... Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
............ But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of,
.. knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
.... And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures,
...... which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
........ through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
.. for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
.... That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.'
(2 Timothy 3:1-170)
Hello there,
The Bible is the most abused book in the world. In the hands of both scholars and laymen it has suffered the indignity of being used to support all manner of dogmas, beliefs and fancies.
Correct interpretation and Divine understanding is the need of all of us, isn't it? Is there some way of interpreting the Word of God so that human opinion is ruled out and Divine understanding given?’ I believe there is, I believe that God means what He says and has a meaning for everything He says in His Word. If this is not so, then all search is useless and we can never be sure of what He wishes to convey to us.
So, I believe that the Word of God should be taken literally: but that does not mean that figures of speech, symbols, allegory and type are to be ignored or taken literally. These are a study in themselves and need to be considered separately. However behind all figures of speech is 'literality', otherwise they could convey no certain meaning to us at all. The literal meaning of a word is the basic, customary meaning of that word, and therefore to interpret literally is nothing more or less than interpreting words in their normal customary and proper manner, and only in this way can divergences of opinion be eliminated, and the authority of Scripture honoured.
Praise God!
In Christ Jesus
Chris