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for example. In order to understand
Christ's enigmatic statement in the
last verse of chapter 16, you have to
read all the way to verse 9 of chapter
17. Yet, people tend to stop reading
at chapter breaks. Sometimes an
important key to understanding a
difficult scripture is just to continue
reading beyon.d the chapter break.
Get All the Scriptures
No one scripture can of itself, taken
out of context, be used to establish
the truth. "Knowing this first, that
no prophecy of the scripture is of any
prívate interpretation"
(11
Peter
1:20).
God has put His Bible together in
a very unusual manner. He has writ–
ten it so that men could study it
intricately in its original languages,
poring over its pages for their entire
lifetime- and yet never come to a
knowledge of the truth. Many people
have memorized great sections of the
Bible and yet not come to realize
what those sections mean. You must
take the whole Bible in its entire
context, getting all of the scriptures
in that Bible on any one . subject,
before you can come to the knowl–
edge of that particular subject from
God's point of view.
"Whom shall he teach knowledge?
and whom shall he make to under–
stand doctrine? them that are
weaned from the milk, and drawn
from the breasts. For precept must be
upon precept, precept upon precept;
line upon line, line upon line; here a
little, and there a little . .." (Isaiah
28:9-10).
That is how the converted mind is
to study the Bible. Yet, when the
unconverted study God's Word a
little here and a little there, they are
still not able to understand the mes–
sage of God's truth because they do
not have His Holy Spirit guiding
them. That Holy Spirit- the very
mind and understanding of God- is
the power that inspired those words
in the first place, and without that
Spirit to inspire the understanding,
the door to the Word of God remains
shut! (The Holy Spirit is given only
to those who obey God- Acts 5:32.)
Continuing from Isaiah: " .. . But the
word of the Lord was unto them
[those who disobey] precept upon
32
precept, precept upon precept; line
upon line, line upon line; here a little,
and there a little; that they might go,
and fall backward, and be broken,
and snared, and taken" (Isaiah
28:13).
Oftentimes people think that the
Bible
is
contradicting itself when
actually all it is doing is supplement–
ing itself. A good example of this is
found in Matthew 27:37 as compared
to Luke 23:38. Here Matthew and
Luke appear to contradict one anoth–
er in their statements asto what was
written on the sign affixed to the
cross upon which J esus Christ was
crucified.
Now while you're going through
this article just take time to get your
Bible and use this example to prove
that getting all of the scriptures on
any one subject will give you God's
understanding on it. In order to find
out what was written on that sign,
who wrote it, and how many lan–
guages it was written in, you will
need to put at least four scriptures
together, not just two. So turn first to
Matthew 27:37, and writedown what
the Bible says was written on that
sign. Then, go right on to Mark 15:26
and write beneath what you have
written what Mark says was written
on that sign. Then do the same with
Luke 23:38 and also John 19:19. Put
them all together and you will see
what was written on that sign.
If
one of these scriptures were
left out you would not know that it
· was Pilate who did the writing.
If
two of these scriptures were left out,
you would not know that the writ–
ing was originally done in three
languages. These four bits of infor–
mation, each from a different au–
thor, supply us with a complete
record of what was written there
originally. No one scripture contra–
dicts the other-each only serves to
complement and round out the
information of the other.
Here is one important key in help–
ing you grasp this point: Two or more
Bible writers may approach the same
subject from different angles. One
writer may follow a strict chronologi–
cal order. Another groups associated
ideas together. One may write a
detailed history. Another will omit
sorne events. Still another will com-
press a group of minor events
together in a manner in which they
appear
to contradict another detailed
account. But always remember that
these accounts of the same event(s)
complement- not contradict-each
other.
Let the Bible lnterpret
the Bible
So many people write in and com–
ment how much they enjoy
Mr. Arm–
strong's interpretation
of the Bible.
Time and again you will hear Mr.
Armstrong explain to the television
and radio audience that it is not his
interpretation that is being heard,
but only plain biblical truth!
Romans 3:4 is a good clear princi–
pie to live by in this rule of Bible
study: " ... Let God be true, but
every man a liar."
The book of Revelation has long
been an enigma to the people of the
world. God says it is a book of
reve/ation.
THE WORLD SAYS
it is a
book of hidden mystery. People have
come up with many weird interpreta–
tions for the book of Revelation- yet
the book of Revelation is vivid in its
own clear description and needs no
interpretation.
Take the case of the seven golden
candlesticks that John saw in Révela–
tion
l.
You don't have to wonder
what these seven golden candlesticks
are- all you have to do is read on
until you come, in the context, to
verse 20; and that verse tells you
plainly that the seven candlesticks
are the seven churches. In verse 16 it
states that John saw seven stars in
the hand of the Son of man. There is
no need to go into great eloquenl
illustrations of what the seven stars
are, because again verse 20 reveals
the plain Bible
tru~h-no
interpreta–
tion necessary-that the seven stars
are the angels of the seven churches.
And so it goes through the rest of the
Bible.
All you haveto do is be patient and
search. God's Word and you will
come up with God's clear answers to
the muddled questions of mankind.
Don't Put Vague Scriptures First
Perhaps a better general .statement of
yet another rule of Bible study would
be: Never establish a doctrine by a
The PLAIN TRUTH