Often, we face these common opinions :
“It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere”
“All religions lead to God, but there have different routes”
“Your belief is true for you, but it’s not true for me”

What is wrong here ? Well, many of statements like these are based on “relativism”, and off course when you use this method, your statement is not objective. The value depends on where you see it from, and as you can see it from many angles, it could have many faces ! What is wrong ? Truth is Objective ! It doesn’t matter who sees it and from which angle of view, the Truth is the Truth, that should be seen as the same from every point of view.

Now, until here I believe you agree with me, as Christian you would say “Jesus Christ is the only Way, the Truth and the Life”. Cool ? Now what do you think about these arguments that often occur amongst Christians, when we read bible and discuss about it :

“That’s your interpretation of the passage, but mine is different”

“It doesn’t matter if we disagree on the meaning of a passage, as long as we really believe what we believe”

“The bible tells us a fact, a history and quotes, it’s up to us how to interpret them”

Can you guys see the similarity with the first 3 statements above ? It’s back to objectivity,… about the Truth ! There surely must be only one way to interpret the passage, as it only gives one message. The truth has only one face ! The problem is, we are often trapped in the struggle of “What I think the bible says” versus “What the bible really says”.

I am sure you recognize the danger of handling the bible in the wrong way.

Now, there are some common wrong ways, and please beware of them :
1. The Chocolate Box
It’s about “Choose & Pick”. When comes to a box a chocolate, I would love those with nuts, and avoid those with fruits. I also don’t like solid chocolate. Sometime we treat bible as a box of chocolate. We like verses that tell us about “God is good, He is merciful, He is full of love” and we avoid verses that tell us that “God is just, and there is punishment”. Here is other example, perhaps I would love

Deuteronomy 14:22 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.

and

Leviticus 27:32 The entire tithe of the herd and flock-every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod-will be holy to the LORD.

and act as if I don’t know this:

Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

I pick my chocolate, I prefer to set aside one tenth and enjoy the rest, rather than giving all to God ! … Giving all ? well… all my heart, my soul, my mind, my strength… what do you think ? oh yahh… there is also chocolate with dried plum that I don’t like :

Acts 2 : 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

That’s Chocolate box.

2. The Coat Hanger
This is not much different from “Proof-text”. We read a passage. We think we know what it means. We use what we think it means, and reject all other teaching. Why ? Because we like what we think it means,.. because it sounds great and we are happy about it ! Let’s use an example….

Matthew 18 : 19″Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

Whoaa…. cool isn’t it ? Our church, just a small church… but there are about 300 hundreds of us… let’s pray asking for new Musical Instruments, we need new electric guitar, and the drum set.. oh ya…the sound system as well, the old microphone makes me sound like sick frog. mm.. can we ? it says so in the bible, doesn’t it ?

Hang on… just a minute, come back again to the passage,.. it says “Again,…” that means, this is a repetition, ther is something before that… did you check it out before making any conclusion ? Have a look at verses before that…

15″If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
18″I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

So,.. when He said “…if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for…”, could it refer to “…take one or two others along…” ??? could it mean (in my simple words that come from my slow brain) : “if there is someone who sins against you, and you pray for that person, together with two or three people of church, God will bring him back to His way”. ??? Nah… perhaps I would prefer “Ask together and God will grant your wish”. This coat hanger is for my blue coat, not the black one… for the black coat I will use that other coat hanger… it looks better.

3. The Hidden Treasure
It’s kind of “to allegorise” what you find in the bible. This is simply “look for something in the bible, that is actually is not there”. when I can’t find it, I’ll make up one ! Just simply pick a verse, and see… there is something hidden there,.. something that really suit what I’m looking for… whoaa.. I’m so smart, I can see what other can’t see in the bible ! Believe it or not, there is a preacher in a big famous church in Singapore, spoke to thousands of congregation about.. zodiac ! Where does it come from ? Well… he found it in the story about Abraham :

Genesis 15: 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars-if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

and Joseph :

Genesis 37: 9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

So,.. the bible mentioned about 12 star signs,.. and they actually refer to the 12 tribes of Israel. These 12 signs,… Libra, Scorpio, Taurus, etc… have different talents, gifts, and different visions, as the 12 tribes of Israel. So, don’t trust the woman magazine about what your zodiac says this week, but check the bible to find your vision, cos the bible describes very clear about the star signs. or… does it ? mm… can you find something else “hidden”, that I never realise for so many years reading bible ?

4. Aesop’s Fabel
This is to “moralise”. We often use bible to jastify what we think is “right” and “wrong”. Hehehe… can you remember the time when we discuss about something, I would jump and say “It is not correct,.. in the bible it says blah blah blah…” and after that someone else would jump and say “You are wrong, you shouldn’t do that because the bible says blah blah blah…” The bible has been my offence tool, and at the same time becomes someone’s else deffence ! Do you know where is the similar case happen ? where can you use the same book for offence and defence ? The Law Court ! Yess… we realise it or not, we’ve been using bible as the law book, that contains all chapters and verses of law and regulation, what is allowed and what is prohibited. Well… off course there are guidelines for us, to help us live a Godly life, but is that all Bible about ?

5. The Biography Archive.
This is to use bible as character studies. well, the title says all. Often one of us uses bible to study hard on David, and try to live like David. or,.. Pick Job experience, how he suffered, and then we live a poor life, with understanding that “All I have, I have to give to others, I have to serve with my everything, this is my testimony. With suffering, I can be closer to God as I have killed all my worldy needs”. Need another example ? well.. don’t be surprised that there are numbers of preachers try to “expertise” on the life of Paul, as they try to be a great teacher as Paul used to be. Is that wrong ? well… think again, when Bible tells story about Job, is that really about Job or about God ? is it about Paul or about God ? mm… did we miss something there ?

6. The Spiritual Connection
Ahh.. this is one of the most interesting, and I experience this a lot ! It happens when we over-spiritualise something in the bible. Just a simple story, but we try draw connection to the spiritual life. mm.. let’s see an example, remember the story about Jesus calms the storm ?

Matthew 8 : 23Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
26He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
27The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

And… the preacher will say… “what storm do you have in your life ? is it about your finance ? Husband-wife relationship ? study ? career ? Let Jesus calm all storms in your life !” mm… sounds cool… really. but perhaps for a slow+simple brain of mine will interpret the passage as this “Jesus is in control over nature”. or,.. should I draw the spiritual connection between the storm on the lake and my messy study life ?

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OK, I know this has been super duper long email. hehehe,.. apologize for that, I was too excited to share this to you guys. Perhaps just a little reminder to close this,… if you realize that you have been interpreting the bible in wrong way, just come back again to the bible,.. and read it as a bible. yup.. simple, don’t make things too complicated, it’s not a magic book or mistery that you have to think so hard to understand. well,.. just look at me,.. and see how bible can do for a slow brain like mine,.. hehehee.. if you wanna discuss further about reading bible, I’ve got some online material that I find useful, just feel free to reply this email, but remember to delete all my writing,.. other wise this bomb-mail will come back tome… ohh noo… =p

Vic, would you pass this to other OCFers ?

Hin, would you pass it to other MSFers ?

Van, pass it to your fellowship too, if you want to.

Eteph… now you know that I’m so talkative… hehehe…

Pass it on….

If you forward this to 10 people, God will still love you

If you forward this to 50 people, God will still love you

If you forward this to 100 people, God will still love you

If you forward this to 500 people, God will still love you

His love is everlasting ! mm… lucky you…

ciao,

St.