By
Gary Ray Branscome
To help us be certain of what His Word teaches, God included in that Word
specific guidelines for understanding what it says. When those guidelines are
followed, we can confidently carry out the work that God intended for us to do,
however, without them any confidence we think we have is an illusion.
The first of those guidelines has to do with
the source of doctrine. Since the Bible's content was determined solely by the
will of God, even though He sometimes moved His penmen to record the words of
men, everything that was recorded was recorded by the will of God (2Peter
1:21). As a result, all that the Bible says agrees together to provide us with
a unified, internally coherent, body of God-given knowledge (Proverbs 4:2).
Since the truths explicitly stated in Scripture have
been inspired by God, the Bible calls them “good doctrine” (Proverbs
4:2), “sound doctrine” (Titus 1:9), and “His doctrine”
(1Timothy 6:1). Furthermore, because the meaning that God intends for us
to get out of His Word is nothing other than “what you read”
(2Corinthians 1:13), the Bible tells us that we can “learn” that
“doctrine” (Isaiah 29:24, 1Timothy 4:6), “consent” to
that doctrine (1Timothy 6:3), “abide” in that
“doctrine” (2 John 9), and “teach no other doctrine”
(1Timothy 1:3).
[The following passages relate to the two preceding paragraphs. John
7:16,17, Galatians 1:11,12, Psalm 19:7, Titus 2:10, Deuteronomy 6:1,
1Corinthians 14:37, John 7:17, 1Timothy 6:3,4, 2Timothy 4:3, 1Timothy 4:16,
Titus 2:7, Timothy 4:13, 1Timothy 5:17, Acts 17:11, John 5:39, 1Corinthians
10:15, Romans 16:17, 2John 10, Galatians 1:8,9, Colossians 1:10, 1Peter 3:15,
2Peter 3:18, 2Peter 1:5,8, Colossians 1:9, Ephesians 1:16-18, Ephesians
3:16-18, Matthew 22:29, 1John 4:1,6, Isaiah 29:24, 2Timothy 3:14, Deuteronomy
31:12-13, John 8:31-32, Colossians 3:16, John 15:7, John 17:8, 1Thessalonians
2:13, Proverbs 2:1, Proverbs 10:8, Proverbs 4:10, Proverbs 8:10, Proverbs
19:20, Ezekiel 3:10, Zephaniah 3:7, Acts 2:41, Acts 8:14, Acts 11:1,
1Thessalonians 1:6, Colossians 2:6, Jude 3, Proverbs 22:20,21, 1Peter 3:15,
Titus 3:10.]
Since the only doctrine that God wants us to teach are the truths that He has plainly stated in
Scripture, we should eliminate all unscriptural ideas from our theology. To
that end, we should be careful not to read our own ideas into the Word of God,
or confuse our own interpretations, explanations, and conclusions with what the
Bible says (Proverbs 30:6, 2Peter 1:20).
In other words, because Christ wants us to
“continue in” His Word (John
[The following passages relate to the two preceding
paragraphs. Deuteronomy 4:2, Deuteronomy 12:32, Rev. 22:18, Deuteronomy 5:32,
Deuteronomy 17:11,20, Colossians 2:8, Proverbs 3:5, Proverbs 23:4, Matthew
15:9, Mark 7:7, Jeremiah 23:16,26, 1Timothy 1:3, Galatians 1:8, 2Peter 1:20,
Proverbs 3:5, Proverbs 23:4, 2Peter 3:16, 1Timothy 1:6,7, 2Corinthians 2:17,
Psalm 56:5, Deuteronomy 18:20, John 7:18.]
Since it would be dishonest for us to quote someone,
while reading into their words a meaning other than that supported by the
grammar and context of those words, the only authoritative meaning for the
words of Scripture, is the natural grammatical meaning of the words
(2Corinthians 1:13 and 4:2). The same meaning those words would have in
ordinary conversation or usage.
In other words, because the Bible uses plain
language (2Corinthians
[The following passages relate to the two preceding paragraphs. Proverbs
Since the truth that God wants us to get from His Word
is nothing other than what we read, the true doctrine consists of what the
Bible plainly says. Therefore, what we should be teaching, is the words and
sentences that God inspired, not subjective abstractions or explanations of
what is said (Isaiah 28:9-10, 2Peter 1:20, 2Corinthians 1:13).
In other words, because the true doctrine is clearly
stated in Scripture “here a little, and there a little” (Isaiah
28:9), that “doctrine” is “inspired of God” (2Timothy
[The following passages relate to the two preceding
paragraphs. 1Timothy 1:3, Matthew 7:28,29, Mark 4:2, Mark 7:7, Matthew 15:9,
2Corinthians 3:12, 2Timothy 3:16, Proverbs 30:6, 1Timothy 5:17, Deuteronomy
18:20, Revelation 22:18, Proverbs 30:6.]
Since the true doctrine consists of what God has plainly said in His Word,
every idea that contradicts that doctrine must be rejected (Romans 3:4).
Man’s word must yield to God’s Word, and interpretations that
contradict what the Bible explicitly says, must be discarded (1Thessalonians
Moreover, because the true doctrine has the
authority of God behind it (John
[The following passages relate to the two preceding
paragraphs. John 16:25, John 16:29, 2Corinthians 1:13, 2Corinthians 3:12,
Proverbs 8:8,9, Colossians 3:16, Proverbs 4:10, Daniel 10:21, 2Peter 1:19,
Proverbs 8:8-9, John 10:34-35, Galatians 3:16, Proverbs 3:5, Proverbs 23:4,
1Corinthians 8:2, 1Corinthians 4:4, 1Corinthians 3:18,19, 2Timothy 3:16, 2Peter
1:20,21.]
Since the truth that God wants you to get from His
Word is nothing other than “what you read,” in order to know what
the Bible teaches on any given topic we must first find out if there are any
passages that explicitly address that topic (2Corinthians 1:13, Isaiah
28:9-10). This requires honesty, for the carnal mind is more interested in
finding support for its own ideas than in learning what God wants us to learn
(Romans 8:7, Jeremiah 17:9).
In short, because God has revealed His doctrine
“line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little”
(Isaiah 28:9-10), we need to “search” (Acts
[The following passages relate to the two preceding
paragraphs. John
Since the only valid meaning of any passage is the
plain grammatical meaning of the words, we must never force a passage to
address a topic it was never intended to address (2Peter 1:20, Psalm 56:5).
Furthermore, because the intended meaning is not
hidden (2Corinthians 4:3), if we have a question as to the meaning of a passage
we should interpret it to teach the same doctrine that is taught in passages
that are so clear that they need no interpretation (1Corinthians 3:12).
[The following passages relate to the two preceding paragraphs. Romans
7:14, John 6:63, Psalm 119:105, Isaiah 28:9,10, Romans 12:6, Romans 3:4, John
17:17.]
Finally, since the Bible was written to testify of
Christ and the forgiveness available through His sacrificial death in our stead
(John
Taken together, those truths explicitly stated in
Scripture are the standard to which all teaching must conform, and by which all
doctrine is to be judged (Isaiah
[The following passages relate to the two preceding paragraphs. John