Last night I was very frustrated. I went to scripture to find some encouragement and I ended up reading Galatians and the beginning of Romans. I hate trying to figure out salvation. There are parts of the bible that just do not seem to fit in my understanding of what salvation is and it drives me crazy. I started reading Romans and ended up literally throwing my bible across the room because I was so confused and frustrated. I sometimes just have to wonder how the heck we are suppose to understand the bible. I mean it was written so ridiculously long ago, in a different language, in a different culture and to a completely different group of people that we in the 21st century know very little about. Our only reliable source of truth is the scripture yet I wonder how God expects us to understand it. Our hermeneutics(the art of biblical interpretation) is inherently flawed and no matter how much we fight the baggage we bring into our reading of scripture it is still there to a greater or lesser degree. Most would say that the Holy Spirit guides us in our interpretation which I believe is true yet so many different bible obsessive, Christ loving Christians still can have different interpretations of passages in scripture so I am just perplexed.
I think there are some things about God and even salvation that we were never meant to understand but what about the explanations in the bible that I don't seem to make sense? obviously they are there for our understanding. So what shall we do when those don't confuse us?
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May my soul run earnestly after you and continually rejoice in and display your steadfast love
About Me
- Victor Ware
- Mesa, Arizona, United States
3 comments:
Dear Victor,
Don't be discouraged, and definately DON'T heave your Bible across the room! That is God's Word. Maybe you need an easier version to understand what it is saying. The Holy Spirit will put in your mind what it means, if you ask in prayer before you study. God doesn't want us to be confused when we read His Word.
Satan is the author of confusion. He will delight in the fact that you aren't able to understand certain passages. Bible scholars through the ages have pondered what you are reading, and even they come up with different interpretations. Don't read just a single passage, read around that passage to get the full meaning. Use references to that passage and see what others think it means.
Love,
Grandma
aw man I meant to ask you at church what you were reading that was frustrating you but I forgot. I was just reading Galatians too and I had been going in circles about 1 john but then one verse in Galatians gave me the right mindset to read it in. it was 3:3 “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” and even though I had read it a million times, that verse meant so much more since I had been contemplating salvation.
I keep wondering if in 1 John 2:1 when Paul says “…But if anybody does sin , we have one who speaks to the father in our defense-- Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” if he is saying it with an almost sarcastic tone. Because of course we are going to sin. There is only one who didn’t, hence the name the Righteous One.
Since he is starting with that verse, I am thinking when he says “ The man who says, ‘I know him,‘ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him” in v.4 , truth is not the same as salvation. But I’m not sure what exactly it would mean.
and in 3:6 when he says “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.” it is talking about active sin rather than passive sin. and so anyone who still actively sins would fall into one of the two categories of people ( since it says “either…or” instead of “neither…nor” it would be separate) : people who have not seen him (people who are not saved, which are the people he refers to as the children of the devil later who do not have salvation) and people who have not known him. These I think would be new Christians since “known” is used rather than “know”, they haven’t known Christ long enough to be reformed from their broken state, but they do not necessarily not have salvation.
I don’t know, I guess I am still more perplexed than I thought. I’m not so good at hermeneutics but I am working on it. I finished part two of that sermon and it is so amazing. my favorite part is where he says that we have to read out of scripture and not into scripture. I’m tired, this message probably didn’t make any sense.
-kayla :)
Hi again,
When it talks about sin, it means to continue in a specific sin. We are sinners by nature. When we are saved, our original sin is taken away, and we can pray daily for the sins we commit to be forgiven. We will still sin, but if you knowingly continue in a sin, that is wrong. This does not take away your salvation, but it hurts God to see you in it.
Grandpa and I feel you need to seek another translation, which will make things more clear. Only when we get to heaven will we understand it all. Your salvation is secure. Continue each day and let the Holy Spirit guide you. You know in your heart when you are doing something wrong. If you continue in that, that is sin that needs to be prayed about.
I am using the Holman Christian Standard Bible, and it stays pretty close to the original word.
Your Uncle Kevin steered me to that translation, and I really like and understand it.
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