List of preventible reasons people misinterpret the Bible
Posted : 11 Mar, 2024 06:33 PM
Seven reasons why people misinterpret the Bible
LThis list is by no means exhaustive; these are just some observations from my own ministry. Notice that there is some overlap and several of them involve not reading the Bible at all, which is generally a prerequisite to misinterpretation but, given the anti-intellectual bent of our culture and of modern Christianity, is no longer the obstacle it once was:
1. People misinterpret the Bible because they don’t bother to read the Bible. Sometimes they simply go with a foggy memory of something they thought they heard or read years before. They won’t admit this, though, they will claim that they know they read it in there somewhere but they just can’t find it now. Sometimes they did read something but their memory is foggy and they don’t remember it correctly. Either way the result is the same: misunderstanding and misinterpretation.
2. People misinterpret the Bible because they rely on their memory of something that a pastor may or may not have said about a verse or passage one time. Every preacher knows what it is like to have someone grossly misinterpret something you’ve said from the pulpit. Usually one of several things will happen. Sometimes, things you say take on a life of their own; they are twisted in the hearer’s mind until they don’t resemble at all what you said. Other times, the hearer connects facts or conclusions that you never intended to be connected. Sometimes someone will mistake an idea you were criticizing for an idea you espouse (like the time when I was a child and my pastor mentioned purgatory in a sermon, a handful of people thought that he was teaching that as doctrine; what was frightening was not the ones who misunderstood and got mad, but the ones who simply accepted it and thought that was what we were supposed to believe).
The most frustrating thing happens more often than the average person might think: someone will simply think they heard the pastor say something he didn’t say and then run with it (R. C. Sproul has an interesting story about once when this happened to him, thankfully, they were taping the lesson that day). Either way, either you or another preacher will end up slandered or painted with the brush of false teaching and the person will persist in false belief. Because of this, I try to cut other guys slack when I hear things told about them and I try to do the same.
3. People misinterpret the Bible because they read the Bible, but only small portions at a time and they interpret the verses in isolation. This is especially prevalent among those who read devotional books like Our Daily Bread and who use study Bibles like the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, which depend so much on using single verses or proof texts to communicate their points.
4. People misinterpret the Bible because they allow the culture to interpret the Bible for them. They read a verse and instead of thinking about its meaning in context or in light of the rest of the Bible, they think of how that verse relates to something they read in a magazine or the latest self-help book or heard on Oprah (or watching Joel Osteen).
5. People misinterpret the Bible because they allow their own presuppositions and ideas to cloud their interpretation of verses and passages.
6. People misinterpret the Bible because they allow theological systems or denominational distinctives to color their interpretation.
7. People misinterpret the Bible because they don’t go to church and listen to preaching or they don’t go to a church where they can listen to preaching (because there isn’t much biblical preaching going on).
List of preventible reasons people misinterpret the Bible
Posted : 11 Mar, 2024 11:20 PM
Above article from Melvin Jones.
Here’s more reasons people misunderstand the Bible by IPL
Why Do People Misinterpret The Bible
What would happen if we all did not know how to properly interpret what people say or what we read? Would we all get offended, confused or bewildered? That is exactly what happens with the Bible on a daily basis. People will pick up the Bible, read a part of it, and then take it out of context and not get the full understanding of what it means. Misunderstanding the Bible leads to people believing that there are contradictions in it because they do not know how to properly read and interpret the Bible, they forget that the Bible goes more in depth and repeats important events, and Jesus’ death is easily misunderstood.
One of the main reasons that people misinterpret the Bible is because they do not know how to properly read it. You should never …show more content…
It is just how if you are talking to your mom about something that happened at school, you will more than likely give her a brief overview, but if you are talking to one of your friends, you will tell them every detail. One of the most common misconceptions that people will find is that light can not be made without the sun, moon are stars. On the first day of creation, “God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” (“Genesis 1, NIV”). Then, on day four, he created two lights “the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night” (“Genesis 1, NIV”) which were the sun and the moon. This is typically misunderstood as light being created twice, but it is actually light being created once by energy and then specific light sources being created. Another common supposed contradiction is that Genesis 1 and 2 contradict each other because things are created twice. In Genesis 1, the Bible gives us a brief overview of what happen within the seven day span. Day and night, water and land, plants, trees and fruits, sun, moon and stars were all created within the seven days as explained in Genesis 1. In Genesis 2, however, heaven and earth’s creation is further explained and man is formed. Genesis 2 is not saying that heaven and earth are separated a second time, but it is rather giving a more in depth
