Spiritual Swordmanship Part 2 SPIRITUAL SWORDSMANSHIP or Defending Yourself against False Doctrines SECTION B BASIC INTERPRETIVE THRUST

The easiest way to determine the AUTHOR’S intent in a passage is to ask it a series of simple questions – WHO?, WHEN?, WHERE?, HOW?, WHAT?, WHY?, and even SO WHAT? (These are sometimes referred to as the “journalism” questions). In order to answer the questions, you will need to examine MORE than just the passage quoted, but will find the answers in the context of the entire Book where the passage is quoted. After doing that, see if either your interpretation or his interpretation, should they be different, is closest to agreement with the Bible. God NEVER contradicts himself! A good help would be to follow the cross-referneces that are often in the margins of the Bible. A false teaching will ALWAYS differ from the original purpose of the author; so you can spot – and refute – false teachings quite easily and effectively by using this simple method. It may sound like more work that you’d like to go through, and may even seem to be rude, at times, but it is a workable means to keep from being fooled by false teachings and deceiving spirits. It may be much easier to simple believe what someone tells you, particularily if you sound authoritative and have a positive, glowing personality, but Satan and his demonic forces prey upon those who blindly follow – see II Corinthians 11:3,4,13-15. The Bible commands each of us to TEST ALL THINGS< to TEST EVERYONE to make CERTAIN that their teaching is truthful, and with your eternal destiny at stake, you cannot afford to be lazy – CAN YOU?
“BUT THAT’S JUST YOUR INTERPRETATION”
Should the interpretation you receive differ from the teacher – as they will if your friend is a false teacher – then the teacher may attempt to disregard your interpretation and dismiss it because it is a variation, based upon you “pre-suppositions.” This allows him to retain his interpretation as an acceptable interpretation, even more correct option, which ignors the fact that HIS interpretation is based upon HIS presuppositions
! Esentially he is correct
in his assertion that this is merely a matter of interpretation, and you can (and perhaps SHOULD) agree with him about this point – But point out the interpretative method that you used (the “journalism” questions) is designed to help you understand what the Author really meant by what he said. Then ask him what HIS interpretative method (the method HE used to determine the meaning of the passage) is or was, and what he is trying to determine by using that method. Sometimes, he will insist that it is the same one you use – then ask to see the steps that he took to reach his conclusions. But, usually, the significance of the real difference in means and purpose of interpreting Scriptures won’t sink in until it has been repeated several times, which means you should, at this point, invite him to continue in his efforts to show the Biblical basis of his teaching. Each and every time – even when it gets a bit tough to do – he uses the Bible, go through the exact same procedure, asking the questions and explaining your purpose. Sooner or later (if his teaching is false) he will begin to relaize that HIS method is to see in the passage what he WANTS to see (often because someone else told HIM that it was there!), and his sole purpose is to support the teaching. He has taken his belief to the text to be supported, rather than going to the text to learn what IT HAS to teach. Once that relaization is made, it is usually a simple matter to go on and teach the Gospel message that the Bible really teaches. It is somewhat easy to do, but there are a few “traps” you need to watch out for:

THE RETRANSLATION TRAP
A false teaching or system that claims to be “Christian” often uses the EXACT same words you would hear being used in a true, Biblically sound Christian gathering. There is a subtle danger here. In nearly every case, these special words and phrases mean something different to the false teacher or follower than they do to you. They have been re-interpreted, usually without your friend even being aware of it. They now mean something very different and foreign to the meaning that you attach to them. So there are a couple of things you need to remember and do anytime you are dealing with someone that you suspect is teaching heresy. First is to avoid using those special meaning words of Christianity that are so familiar to you, such as “saved”,”BornAgain”,”
Savior”,”Son of God”,”Gospel”
and many others. try to use phrases that DEFINE these terms, or other words that means the same thing that are not used in the cliche’ manner that these are. Secondly, be certain that you both understand what each of you mean when these terms ARE used when you are speaking about spiritual matters of any kind. Make certain that you define what YOU mean when YOU say “Christ dies for my sins” or anything else in a spiriual sense. Ask HIM what “Jesus is THE Christ” REALLY means to him – get him to clearly and totally define it – or any other term you both may be using. This may take a bit of doing, but keep at it until you are positive that you both understand each other. If there is any complaint, just tell your friend that with eternity “hanging” on the very meaning of these terms, you are required to be absolutely certain that you both understand what the other means by what he says.

—-END OF SECTION B —–
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