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NASB | Acts 17:11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 17:11 Now these people were more noble and open-minded than those in Thessalonica, so they received the message [of salvation through faith in the Christ] with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. |
Subject: Do not aim to spiritualize every passage |
Bible Note: Pure fantasy...it goes on all the time... Spiritualizing the Bible ____________________ If the meaning of the Bible "cannot be discerned through the normal understanding of language, how can it be discerned?" ____________________ '...And then thirdly, another thing just to mention by way of avoidance...avoid spiritualizing or allegorizing the Bible. Spiritualizing or allegorizing the Bible. This is that which gives to the Bible some kind of mystical meaning. In other words, what is on the surface is not the meaning, but what is hidden becomes the meaning. This is very popular. We could talk about allegorizing, it's quite...it's not quite as popular today as it used to be, although it's finding a resurgence. Allegorizing means to say that the historical meaning is not the real meaning, and in fact may be nothing but a fabrication. The historical meaning is not the real meaning, the real meaning is the spiritual meaning hidden beneath the surface. And once you say that something in the Bible is an allegory, that is it is only a symbol of the reality, you have just made it impossible to know what that reality is because if that reality cannot be discerned through the normal understanding of language, how can it be discerned? 'For example, a book was written a number of years ago called If I Perish, I Perish, it was purported to be a commentary on the book of Esther. And in it, Esther, it was allegorizing the book of Esther so that Esther became the Holy Spirit and the whole story of the book was the operation of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer in the battle between the flesh and the Spirit and spiritual warfare and so forth. Much of what was in the book was true New Testament truth but it had absolutely nothing to do with the book of Esther so it therefore convoluted the meaning of Esther and no person reading the book of Esther ever would have understood that meaning. No normal understanding of Esther would have yielded that. (...) 'I went from that to the series on Nehemiah in which [someone might claim that] Nehemiah was the Holy Spirit. The king's pool which is in the city, you know, when they were building the wall, he mentions the king's pool, was the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the building of the wall, the mortar between the bricks was tongues. And the whole point of Nehemiah is that God wants to send the Holy Spirit to baptize you with the Spirit and build the fallen walls of your human personality through speaking in tongues. 'Now, you see, if you're going to do that with the Bible you can't get that from the text. It's pure fantasy. But it goes on all the time and I've often said...sometimes I say to our pastors, "You don't need the Bible for that, if you're going to do that you can use anything...you can use anything." You can preach Little Bo Peep, you could...you could start off by saying...Little Bo Peep, oh she was only little but God can use the little ones. And her name was...her name was Bo Peep...what a name of insignificance, what a name of ridicule, but God uses those who have been ridiculed. Little Bo Peep, she lost her sheep, all over this world sheep are lost. Doesn't know where to find them. The only part I couldn't figure out was what you do with wagging their tails behind them. 'It's a very dangerous thing to allegorize or spiritualize Scripture. What it means is what it says when rightly understood in its historic context.' ____________________ (http://gty.org/ resources.php?section[equals sign]transcripts) Grace to You Transcipts GC 90-157 "How to Study Your Bible: Interpretation" by John MacArthur |