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“INTERPRETING” THE SCRIPTURE
Chapter 2
Let me set before you the picture of a father. He has many children and vast possessions. The “business” of tending his estates and developing their resources is truly colossal. Add to this the fact that he employs vast numbers of men and women, and we can begin to grasp a portion of its endless ramifications, and interests involved. We look now to his numerous and growing sons, from little toddlers well up into the teens. May we not logically suppose that in that father’s heart is a keen desire to see his sons eventually become a part and parcel of the “business rnanagement”? And may we not logically deduce that in view of the responsibilities he has in mind for them, that he will be vitally interested in both their education, as well as preparatory training to fit them for the posts ahead? And further more, as a man who has come up “the hard way,” having suffered treachery within every quarter of his interest, estates and business, he will be keenly aware of the vital importance which INTEGRITY and CHARACTER play in man’s relationship with man. Wherefore, we may rightly infer that he will also be attentive to that tutorship of his sons which deals with, or is fundamental to the inculcation of RIGHT PRINCIPLE.
Now for the sixty-four dollar question! Is it at all likely that he will personally speak to his sons in language which is beyond their understanding? That he will speak to them of HIGHLY VITAL ISSUES but use ambiguous words and involved speech which can only, confuse their youthful and childish minds? That he will do this knowing full well that as children with probing minds they will ask questions, seeking an explanation from this one and that one of his hired help; people with various perspectives and mental calibre who will give conflicting ‘interpretations’ to his involved statements? HARDLY!.
As a man of attainments and vast responsibility, he will understand the vital importance of youthful minds absorbing THE CORRECT UNDERSTANDING OF ALL which is in his heart to commit to them. THEREFORE WILL HE SPEAK CLEARLY! Have we not here a resonably fair parallel to that of our “Heavenly Father”? Did not our Lord say: “IF a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father…; HOW MUCH MORE SHALL YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER GIVE….” (Lk. 11:11-13). Has He not suffered and survived the Lucifer in His Kingdom? And has He not portrayed impending posts of responsibility unto His chosen (see Matt. 19:28 and 25:21). Yet our churches and their clergy from time immemorial have proclaimed that Scripture must be INTERPRETED! And that THEY are the chosen CUSTODIANS of God’s Truth; that those not of such rank must listen carefully to what THEY tell us, and BELIEVE whatever balderdash they concoct – lest our ‘souls’ enter into ‘eternal torment.’ THIS IS THE AGE OF SCIENCE! This is the era of man’s INTELLECTUAL ASSERTION! These are the days of people “being FROM MISSOURI”! The parrotings of an ecclesiastical super conclave is destined to soon get drowned out and forever stilled in the unleashing of the little ATOM’S power, when the madness of man shall toss aside the pillars of Dagon’s temple, that all which is not OF THE LIGHT may be destroyed!
But let us glance back to earlier days. Man’s way of life was primitive. ‘Education’ was the exclusive privilege of the few. Then arrived the time that God selected Abram to father “a peculiar people unto Himself.” In due time, God gave a REVELATION of Himself to man, together with commandments, laws and ordinances. The chosen recipient was Moses: man of great learning. Carefully did he record the communications received. Then was a certain tribe of Israel chosen to be the CUSTODIANS of God’s Revelation and ordinances for man. Elected ones were ordained to the service. THAT entailed EDUCATION! They became known as the “scribes.” Among them were the higher intellectuals who carefully studied the innumerable Laws and Ordinances; these became known as Masters of the Law, and eventually named “Lawyers.” Let us bear in mind that the common mass of people had no appreciable education, and could neither read nor write! Thus were they forced (through ignorance) to be wholly dependent on a growing ‘caste’ among their own: DEPENDENT ON THEM FOR EVERYTHING PERTAINING T0 GOD!
By the time that our Lord came to earth, this ‘caste’ had grown in number and power to the end that oppression stalked the land, and the Laws of God Almighty had degenerated to formal RITUALISM! Into the very teeth of this selfish and lordly caste did He hurl the most stinging of His rebukes:”Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Therefore you will be punished more severely. ” “Matthew 23:14
Remember – beloved – how the fathers of our Christian Faith were devout MEMBERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE! Have not the children aped their mother? Have we not a vast ‘caste’ in our midst today who “devour widows’ houses and for A PRETENCE MAKE LONG PRAYERS”? Or am I misinformed that this ‘caste’ has, and still does “offer long prayers” for a suitable fee, pretending (yes, CLAIMING) that such prayer will release the soul of some departed from ‘purgatory”?! (This is not intended as a broadside against one church, but against her numerons daughters as well.) We have today precisely the same situation existent throughout Christendom. We have the preachers, ‘teachers’ and spiritial ‘lights’ who write and teach and preach according to the instruction of the ‘theologians,’ who fill the place of the ‘lawyers’ of old. Said the Christ to them:”Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” Luke 11:52
THUS is it today. We have the long-frocked Theologians who have taken away from the masses the KEY TO UNDERSTANDING; they were too gross and carnal to enter themselves, and those who sought to enter they prevented!
The first millennium of Christianity saw the undisputed sway of the Catholic church. Before the era of learning entered, they filled the seat of the ancient scribes and lawyers. When LEARNING commenced to be the possession of the many instead of the few, they hurriedly forbade their faithful to read the Scripture”.! (Forces of tyranny and oppression have always feared the UNDERSTANDING engenderedby LIGHT!) Then came the “Reformation,” bequeathing to man RELIGIOUS LIBERTY! But what has its appointed ‘caste’ done? Have they led the people to God? But NO! to the brink of suicide!
Instead of rising to their glorious heritage in freely proclaimmg God’s Truth, they have fought among themselves in quest for power and rulership. They have established ‘colleges’ and institutions for the propagating of man’s erudition. First there was gross darkness and idolatry under the oppression of an ecclesiastic oligarchy. Now we have CONFUSION caused by a thousand discordant voices, ALL claiming to be the “IT” of God! Just what is the vital difference between ignorance fostered in darkness, or BEFUDDLEMENT caused by multitudinous voices?? BACK TO THE BIBLE! Give ‘theologians’ the boot, and get BACK TO THE WORD OF GOD! THIS have I said and it bears repeating: Has God the intelligence to say what He means? And has He the HONESTY to mean what He says?
How can there by any controversy as to its right answer? Then BACK TO THE BIBLE! “Search the Scriptures”diligently (Jn. 5:39; Acts 17:11) and see for yourself what TRUTH is! Today is the age of LEARNING. Almost everyone in the western world is fully capable of DISCERNING THE TRUTH unaided; the only difficulty being how to fully cast out the BIAS and preconceived ideas previously gathered through indoctrination. For, so long as certain ideas and concepts RULE WITHIN, so long WILL TRUTH EVADE US! Can you conceive of a righteous and loving Heavenly FATHER who uses confusing ‘double talk’ to His children; requiring a special caste to “interpret the Scripture”? Any decent FATHER speaks to his children in language they can understand! Can we attribute less sanity and righteousness to God? THEN BACK TO THE BIBLE! Can we have hundreds of sects and denominations within Christendom, yet ALL of them be right? Even a fool knows the answer to that one! Therefore, BACK TO THE BIBLE!
Let us now take a look at a very VITAL Scripture with reference to this study:…no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.2 Peter 1:20-21
Here we have one of the clearest of denunciations of man’s practice to “interpret the Scripture.” Yet ask any ‘theologian’ or ‘scribe’ these days about the above passage, and they will immediately ‘interpret’ it. Boldly and brazenly will they declare that “it doesn’t mean what it seems to say”! For, say they, we see by the 21st verse that the Prophets of old “spoke as they were moved by God,” wherefore (say they) that the ‘interpretation’ mentioned in verse 20 is THE SAME THING; i.e., that the Prophets did not speak their own ideas!
More double talk from God – according to that! But what else can they say? Admit for a split moment that it MEANS WHAT IT SAYS and their whole system of ‘theology’ falls apart, leaving them not a leg left to stand on! For, their theology is injected by INTERPRETATIONS from opening to close! For, without ‘interpretation’ of Scripture there could be no room for multitudinous sects and divisions. The present Babylonish systen within Christendom is founded on INTERPRETATION: without it they disintegrate!
Perhaps an incident which occurred some time back will help to illustrate the TRUTH of the point involved. I had applied to the Tax department of the Government for a refund on “Sales Tax” paid on the purchase of ink., paper and envelopes. For, they have a ruling that literature for the promulgation of religion” shall not be subject to Sales tax (10%). When the Official arrived to check the invoices, etc., he deleted various items from the list. He went on to explain that envelopes used in the mailing of religious literature were ‘incidental’, and not “for the promulgation of religion”. Summing up he used these words (substantially): “After all, the government reserves the right to INTERPRET its own inactments; for, it cannot leave to PRlVATE INDIVIDUALS the right to INTERPRET ITS CLAUS ES”‘! Unwittingly this government official was REstating what Peter wrote 19 centuries ago: that private individuals had no right to INTERPRET the declarations of God (government); for, God (government) must be the interpreter of His own declarations, IF, as and when interpretation is called for!
Therefore is it written:”Do not INTERPRETATIONS belong to God?”
Genesis 40:8
Peter was, clearly stating a simple but highly important Truth, saying that PRIVATE INTERPRETATIONS were out of order, “for” (vs.21) said he, the Revelations were given by God (therefore could not be interpreted by man)! Wherever interpretations are called for, THAT MUST PROCEED FROM GOD!
Many will now retort: surely there are many Scriptures in apparent conflict which must be INTERPRETED! Let us see…First let me state plainly: there is NO Scripture which man has the slightest right to “interpret’. Secondly, such passages which appear in need of interpretation MUST BE ILLUMINATED, CLEARLY AND INDISPUTABLY, BY SOME OTHER PORTION OF GOD’S WORD. And finally,most passages instead of needing ‘interpretation’, need merely understanding of the words employed, often necessitating reference to the ORIGINAL TEXTS which have been translated to bring out the IDEAS OF THE TRANSLATOR rather than the Divine Word as originally given.
Now to take a few instances. The one of II Peter 1:20 as given on the preceding page, is a striking instance of how our ‘theologians’ with great nonchalance, brazenly CONTORT the Word of God in order to ‘save face’. Similarly do they treat any other passage of Scripture which does not happen to fit into their own particular ‘theology’. Yet the passage is so clear and undisputable that a 10-12 year-old child can show forth its meaning. And it takes the gall of a ‘theologian’ to contort it to a lie!
Jesus said:”Follow Me; and let the dead bury their dead”! Matthew 8:22
Since recorded time it has not been seen that a corpse arose to bury another. Manifestly then, this passage calls for ILLUMINATION. Yet we have no right to advance our own ideas. But let us bear in mind that Jesus was a Spirit-conscious being, and many of His sayings were uttered from the spiritual perspective….
In Matthew 9:24, also in Mark and Luke, we see where our Lord said: “…the maid is not dead, but sleeps” (and they laughed Him to scorn). Indeed as we study his language, we find that He was loath to take any cognizance of the physical body, for, to Him it was but MATTER, every molecule and atom of which OBEYED HIS EVERY WORD, whether they constituted millions of tons of water in the sea, or the decomposing cells in a corpse. In recognition of Christ’s SPIRIT-perspective, the illustrious Paul wrote to the Ephesians (2:1).
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…”
Almost identical words are used in Co1ossians 2:13. Whereby we see that the apparently difficult becomes very simple as soon as we apply THE REVEALED WORD OF GOD. Had Jesus been given to voluble speech, He might have said Let those who live in the death-dealing consciousness of a carnal concept; swayed by their every lust and subject to the penalty of transgression, arise to entomb the corpse. But you who have been awakened by the Word of God, GO AND PREACH THE GOSPEL (of Life)!
By Mikkel Dahl
