Domains for Sale -

Acts 17:11 Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so. ASV

As a Christian, I personally believe in the absolute trustworthiness and inerrancy of the Bible as the inspired word of God (in the original writings). I believe that it is the final authority in all matters of truth and doctrine. Some Christians do not. That is reason number one. If one doesn’t believe that the Bible is the Book that I’ve described, but only a book that has collectively recorded the ideas and philosophies of a number of men who share some common righteous notions, from which we can learn some good things, one is going to disagree about a great many things with other Christians. The Bible has consistently been proven accurate over time whenever anybody has attacked it. It’s detractors and critics have fallen one after another along the way and will continue to do so. That isn’t hard to understand. As God’s word, His love letter to us, the Bible has total integrity. Those who attack it do not.

The second reason for the many doctrinal disagreements Christians have (in my opinion) is that many Christians fail miserably when it comes to spending regular time in the Word. I have been in that category. When you don’t read the Word, how can you know it? People will drift to one denomination or another because they were raised in it, or because they like what they hear doctrinally expressed, without bothering to look into the Word and see if what they espouse as their belief even matches up with scripture. Many times the answer is plain. It is simple. But unfortunately, the answer is ignored.

The third reason, is simply a flawed or weak hermeneutic. Hermeneutics are what one might call the systematic science and practice of interpretation. That’s a rather dry way of describing something that needs to be spiritually centered on the Lord as everything should be, but that’s essentially what it is. The key to hermeneutics is to be centered on the Lord. He’s the way, the truth and the life behind the words, because they are His. He wrote them. He used men and their lives like pens, but He wrote them. (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:16) The Bible tells us that we are to acknowledge Him in all things. (Proverbs 3:5-6) How important do you suppose that is when we’re interpreting His word? We need to be consistent in this. He’s consistent, so we to be consistent. This sort of comes back to reason one, and it has to do also with our approach to language. There are basically two sorts of language. There is figurative language, and there is literal language. For example, Matthew 3:1 makes a simple historical declaration; "In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea,". The meaning is literal. There isn’t anything figurative about it. Coupled with the chapter before it, we know the approximate time in history (while Jesus was dwelling in Nazareth), and we know the location (the wilderness of Judea) and we know who, namely John the Baptist.

On the other hand, in John 10:9 Jesus says, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." Anyone with any sense knows that Jesus wasn’t trying to convince us that He was a flat piece of wood fastened to a structure on hinges. It should be apparent that He was speaking metaphorically. Even so, by using this kind of figurative language He still conveyed literal truth, because we must go through Him, through His authority in order to have salvation, to have peace with God the Father. Having at least a simple grasp of these two language concepts is foundational for one to have any meaningful understanding of the text.

The fourth reason people arrive at differing conclusions and beliefs about what the Scriptures say is in my mind, the most commonly seen reason—context. I see this most basic interpretational mistake made quite often. People read something in the Bible that strikes a cord with them, that fits into their presupposition about a particular subject, or even one that doesn’t, and they just run with it. The contextual setting of any passage must be considered. It has to be considered in its immediate context, the context of the book it appears in, the Testamentary context it appears in, and ultimately it has to be viewed in the entire context of the Bible. If one doesn’t bother to do these things, any problematical passage has the potential to take on a life of its own. We’ve seen plenty of cultic or heretical practices develop this way. "Baptism for the dead", for example, based on an errant interpretation of 1st Corinthians 15:29, or 1 Peter 4:6.

Like I said before, this post is not comprehensive. One additional thing to consider is the influence of society on presupposition-type thinking. This often leads people into an epistemologically dualistic worldview. It also leads people to believe that God is someone that He decidedly is not, as in the case of people who deny the progressive revelation of the Triune nature of God in the Bible. The nice thing is, that among my friends who do believe in the Jesus of the Bible, (even those who hold that some of the non-essential doctrinal beliefs I adhere to might actually be mistaken in their eyes) we share a belief that the only true basis of Christian fellowship is His(Agape) love, which is greater than any differences we possess and without which we have no right to claim ourselves Christians.

Peace in His name,
Kabar