gctp17r

Staying In The Box

Over the years I have discovered that simply looking at Bible verses in their original contexts will clear up many theological conflicts. We must examine the words of a message in their contextual environment. Context is defined as that which precedes and / or follows any part of a discourse and can throw light on the meanings of the Source's message. It is the environment or setting in which a text occurs.

We have been discussing the social context since the beginning of the course. It is the context that includes the time, place, and culture in which the utterance was made. It is the historical, anthropological, and sociological environment in which the text he is translating was made. Much of it is not recorded specifically in the text itself, but must be researched. As in the story about John the Baptist, the people involved in the stories share a common understanding of their world. Words like Christmas, Thanksgiving, graduation, etc. are much more than just the meaning given in a dictionary. This is the context that least understood by those from another culture, place and time period.

The immediate context, however, is much more easy to deal with. It consists of the words, phrases, and sentences that surround the text in question. This is the discourse or textual context. The immediate context also includes the situational context, that is, the social context in which the utterance was made. In addition it should provide the identity of speaker and addressee, their relationship, and the purpose of the text in the mind of the speaker.

As you study the scriptural basis that are used to support numerous theological doctrines you will repeatedly discover verses that have been taken completely out of context. When you view the verses in their original context, most will not support the doctrines. Taking words out of context allows anyone to make them mean just about anything they want -- including things that would be very offensive to the Source. When a word, sentence or paragraph is removed from its contextual environment the original meaning can be completely lost and a new unrelated meaning substituted in its place.

Let's see what happens when we "cut & paste" a couple of verses in the New Testament.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 KJV)

“Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. (James 2:19 KJV)

We could create a new doctrine by taking a few words out of context from each of the verses and putting them together. In this case we will prove that the devils are believers and will have eternal life. The Bible says -- "whosoever believeth . . . has everlasting life" and "the devils also believe." Therefore, since the devils are believers, they will have eternal life. This example isn't much more extreme than some of the doctrinal creations of theologians.

Of course, there is one more little detail in the above example that I am sure a few of you noticed -- devils. According to my old BS (Belief System) there was only one devil. There isn't supposed to be a group of devils.

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