READING UNBIBLICAL
IDEAS INTO THE TEXT
THE PROBLEM OF AN OVERACTIVE
IMAGINATION
When it comes to understanding Scripture, one
of the
biggest problems people encounter is an overactive imagination. When
some people read
a text they imagine interpretations that contradict what the Bible
says.
Then, when they find out that their ideas contradict the Bible, instead
of
humbly rejecting their own ideas they reject what the Bible says,
devising
explanations aimed at getting around what it says. In contrast, the
Bible calls
on us to cast “down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts
itself
against the knowledge of God,” bringing every thought into captivity
(2Corinthians 10:5). In other words, if things that we imagine
contradict the
Bible, true submission requires us to reject those ideas that
contradict the
Bible, not to reinterpret the Bible in order to make it agree with
those ideas
(Isaiah 8:20).
One very common example of this is
found in Genesis 6:1-2 which says, “And it came to pass, when men began
to
multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,
That the
sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took them
wives
of all whom they chose.” The problem comes when people imagine that the
“sons
of God” mentioned here were not humans, but angels. That imagined
interpretation is a problem, because it contradicts the Bible which
tells us
that angels “neither marry, nor are given in marriage, (Matthew