Interpretation of the Bible

Interpretation of the Bible

1.One verse or portion of Scripture cannot be interpreted out of harmony with the rest of the Bible.

2.Single verses of Scripture must be read, understood and interpreted in their proper context. The verses and chapters preceding and following need to be taken into consideration when interpreting any portion of Scripture.

3.Every verse or portion of Old Testament must be understood and interpreted in the light of the New Testament. The Bible is progressive revelation. The Old Testament predicts the coming of the Messiah. The Gospels describe His coming. The Letters (from Acts through the Epistle of Jude) describe what He accomplished in His death, burial and resurrection. You cannot properly understand the Old Testament without the New Testament revelation of Jesus Christ. Even those who wrote the books of the Old Testament did not fully understand what they were writing about since Jesus Christ was not yet revealed (1 Peter 1:10-11). For those who have understanding of the New Testament, the Old Testament becomes a true source of the revelation knowledge from God, containing valuable instructions.

4.The Scripture interprets itself. This rule of Bible interpretation originated with Martin Luther. If you have questions concerning certain passages of the Bible, do not look for answers in human ideas, opinions or commentaries. Use a concordance and find other verses that contain the same word or phrase as the scripture in question. Then compare all verses to gain understanding of what the entire Bible teaches on that subject.

5.Deuteronomy 28:15-22, 27-29, 35, 58-61 These verses clearly show that sickness is a curse of the law. Terrible diseases specifically mentioned there - every kind of sickness and disease according to verse 61 -- are part of the punishment for breaking God's law. The King James (or Authorised) Version of the Bible may suggest that God Himself gives His people all those diseases and sufferings. We read ''them will the LORD bring upon thee.'' Dr Robert Young, the author of "Helps and Hints To Bible Interpretation," explains that the original Hebrew active verb used used here can have either a permissive or causative sense, subject to the discretion of the translators and the context. In other words, the translators from the Hebrew text had to decide whether to translate this passage as God causing sickness to come upon His people or only allowing it to come upon them because of their disobedience. However, in order to agree with what the rest of the Bible teaches, this portion of the Scripture should correctly be translated as ''the Lord will allow them to come upon you.'' In the King James (or Authorised) Version of the Bible we can see where other verbs were translated with the causative meaning when their real meaning should have been permissive. To see an example of that let's look at Isaiah 45:7: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." Does God create evil? No, He doesn't. To do so would make Him a devil. God allows evil but He does not create it. Amos 3:6: "Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?" Can God (whom the Bible clearly teaches is good)commit evil? If God commits evil, He has no moral right to judge the devil or people for doing the same. No, God only allows evil. There is a major difference between creating evil and allowing it. In I Samuel 16:14 we read, "But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him." Do evil spirits originate with the Lord? No, Saul had broken his relationship with God and God permitted an evil spirit to torment him. All those verbs should have been translated in the permissive sense. But because English (or Polish)has no equivalent verb form to the Hebrew active verb, discrepencies in translation have caused doctrinal confusion. No, God did not send plagues and sicknesses on His people, contrary to what the verses in Deutronomy 28 seem to say. Jesus Christ came to reveal God (John 14:9; Hebrew 1:1-3), and Jesus went about healing the sick. He never once denied healing to any person who came to Him asking to be healed. In the Old Testament, God's people removed themselves from His protection by breaking His commandments. Because He is a just God, He had to allow tribulation to come upon them. Their sins and evil deeds brought all those terrible plagues.

Some sicknesses are mentioned in chapter 28 of the Book of Deuteronomy, where the curse for breaking the Law is described. We even find specific names of some of the diseases: pestilence, flu, fever (meaning typhoid fever, scarlet fever, smallpox and other infectious febrile diseases), different types of inflammation, drought, blight and mildew, scabies, blindness, madness. According to verse 60 we can add all the sicknesses of Egypt. Verse 61 adds "Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring (or allow) upon thee, until thou be destroyed."

Based on this we may conclude that sickness is part of the curse resulting from breaking the Law of God. BUT praise God - "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law" (Galatians 3:13a).