John 3:5 - Born of Water and Spirit - Misinterpreted

   One key to remember in interpreting any scripture is context.   This can refer to the context of the passages surrounding it as the most important aspect.  But also the context of who is in the discussion and how they would have understood it.  Because it was written to them first and so they would have to understand it.  But also the context of the rest of scripture.  Basically does other sections of scriptures similar to this help to explain what it means? 

   Notice at this point there is nothing about our context and how it applies to us.  That's because placing ourselves and our context in the picture first is a cause for misinterpretation real quick.  Similar to people reading the news and then reading Revelations and trying to say that it's talking about this or that.  The problem is while things may look similar the rest of the passages would be true too and probably not even talking about those things.  You have to look at what it first meant to the hearers and readers it was written to first and understand it in that light.

  I chose this scripture for now because it was one I heard a pastor on the radio use.  Of course he used a shortened version of it:
       5. Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
  The pastor went on to talk about this meant you have to be baptized and believe to be saved.  My heart sank as I've seen this before on several occasions.   But he forgot an important part, context.  So let's add some more of the text and see what is being said.
      ^5.  Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You  must be born again.’ 
The text now makes it clear Jesus is talking about birth.  First the original birth, being born of water.  Then being born again of spirit.   Especially in light of making the comparison of flesh giving birth to flesh, and spirit giving birth to spirit.  Making a contrast.  There is nothing in this context at all that is talking about baptism at all.  

  If that isn't enough the rest of the context shows that what is required is that belief, or trust in Jesus is all that is required.  
¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

 1 John 5 uses similar language to speak of Jesus as coming by water and by blood. 

  So why do people get mixed up?  Lots of reasons.  Some are looking to find fault with the scripture. So instead of trying to actually make sense of what is being said they just look for anything they don't understand.   Another reason is I blame the churches for not doing their duty and teaching proper skills to interpret scripture.  Most books are written so close to our time frame and culture in history we understand pretty well.  But the Bible, while written for us it was written to people initially living many thousands of years ago in some cases, in a totally different culture and country.  So You have to understand that first.   Other reasons people are looking for something that already justifies what they believe already.   That is personal bias.  While we all have personal biases, that's a given.  We must understand what those biases are and attempt to set them aside and ask what does this scripture say outside of what I believe?   If our purpose is to find truth then it follows that the truth is there regardless of whether we believe it or not.  That and if the truth conflicts with what we believe we may have to change what we believe.  That is the hardest part.  Accepting the truth and then conforming to that truth and accepting it.    Another reason is people read one quick scripture without reading at least the chapter together.  Then quickly trying to say what it means without careful examination.   There are many other reasons I'm sure.  

 So why is scripture hard to understand in some cases and sometimes easy?   Well think of it this way.  Are you ready to understand all that is written in it?  Is there things you can understand?   Of course.  As you apply what you do understand then as you work through the things you don't become clearer.   Most people have spent their whole lives reading the Bible and even the best can say the more they learn the more they realize how little they do know.   The Bible is truly living and active.  As Mark Twain said "It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."

 One book I highly recommend is "How To Read The Bible For All It's Worth" by Gordon D. Fee.  It's a small book not much bigger than your hand and very easy to read and understand.  It talks about these issues of context and all and on a level that most can understand.   Believe me it will go a long ways toward keeping you from going off on wild tangents and crazy interpretations as many do.  

 

Interpreting Scripture

I'm sure this one will grow as there is so much ground to cover.

   Lack in this area has caused some of the major problems with divisions, skepticism, and confusion than anything else.  Of course some people can make a charge that because of those things God didn't do a good job of communicating.  That or it shows it had to have been written by men only and God had nothing to do with it.  Those are different topics.  Here I want to concentrate on interpreting scripture and it's problems and challenges.

  So why is a book that's so important be so hard to understand at many points?  There are many reasons for that.   For one how many books have you read in your life that were written to people that lived in some cases many thousands of years ago, in a different land with a different culture?   Most people would have to admit to saying "NONE".  So does that make it impossible?  Not at all.  Does it make it very challenging? YES.

 Another point to make is the Bible being inspired by God would naturally convey a huge amount of teaching in a lot of areas that you're just simply not going to grasp it all immediately.  Many of the teachings too build on previous teachings and after learning some of the precepts you recognize new teachings that appear.    Being God's word sometimes you're just not mature enough in your walk to understand some things and you would probably be overwhelmed by it.  Believe me there is plenty that are very plain to understand.   I keep thinking of a quote by Mark Twain - "It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.".

  But so is any truth.  What does knowing any truth mean?  It means that if you hold to one view and the truth comes along you have to either deny the truth or accept the truth.  If you accept the truth it may mean you have to change what you believe and hold very dear.   Unless you're willing to seek, find, and make whatever changes are necessary when you find the truth you're wasting your time.   What if you do find truth?  It could mean family members disown you, people laugh and mock at you, and possibly death.   But really, how valuable is knowing the truth?   Well in this case and many others it's a matter of knowing who you are, your destiny, but also how to live confidently under many circumstances knowing what the truth is.  At the same time feeling bad for those that don't know the truth.

 Back to interpretation itself.  What makes it so difficult?   I mentioned some of the points like time.  The time of when some of the scripture was written may separate us by thousands of years.   With that comes things like words, phrases, lifestyle and a host of other things.  So reading the Bible in the context of who it was written to originally, the history and culture in that time, what those people were going through, and what God was trying to convey to them and to us come into play.

 The process of interpretation is a process called Observation, Interpretation, and Application.   In that order specifically.   But many readers today mix it up.  Usually by reading a passage, reading into it our culture and interpreting it in light of our culture.  You can imagine how well that works.   For instance someone reading the book of Revelations and then reading the newspaper today and saying that that's what Revelations was talking about.   This could end you up reading all sorts of things into the Bible that just aren't there.  That or may or may not be but the approach is all wrong.

 So the first step is Observation.  Not just meaning reading it but reading it and trying to get a sense of the time when it was written, the history and culture surrounding what was going on and the people themselves.  In many cases reading large sections and even re-reading many sections do you get a sense of what the people were dealing with in their own lives daily.   At this point how it relates to you is totally irrelevant because you didn't exist at that time.  Asking yourself things like who, what, where, when, how, and why?    If you're looking at the scripture looking to find fault then you're missing the point.  By the same token if you're looking at it to support what you're believe already is just as dangerous.  The point should be getting at the truth.   What is being said at that point and time to those people?  There's nothing wrong either about studying the people and culture of that time from other books to get an idea what the people were like, some of their customs, etc.  Study their history, the history of their country, history and culture of countries surrounding them at the time can be helpful too.   Even studying words and sayings can shed some light in some areas.   It depends on what you do or don't understand of what is going on in a particular section. 

  Interpretation is more "what does it mean?".  By that I don't mean what does it mean to me or you.  This is not at that point yet.   Of course having a very solid foundation of just observation itself makes interpretation easier.  You have to ask yourself what did this mean to the writers and what they were conveying?   What was God trying to communicate through the writers to the readers and hearers?  How did the readers or hearers respond?   Pretty much what was going on?  Again if you notice you and me are not involved in the story itself.   Interjecting yourself into the story would again cause confusion as we're still talking about a remote situation.    You may even look into the original language at words or phrases to find out more detail as to what something means. 

 The first two steps of Observation and Interpretation and the order are paramount if you even plan on getting anywhere toward understanding what to do with what you learned.   This is actually where you come into the picture.   Application.  How does what I've learned apply to me, right here and right now?   It means applying the truth to your life. 

   As you observe and interpret scripture you find out that certain lessons can be learned.   This is getting into Application.   How do I apply these principals to my life?  For instance God told Abraham he would have a son with his wife.   He believed God but then decided he needed to help God and instead of waiting for what God had planned he had a child through Hagar which was an Egyptian handmaiden.   That was not God's plan and causes all sorts of problems from that point on.  One lesson is to wait on God's plan and God's timing.   Learning patience is critical.  But also while God still used Abraham even in that situation it still haunted him and paid for it in various ways.    So we need to learn to be patient that while God has something in store for us it comes in His time, not ours.   Also any attempt on our part to get there quicker we an end up paying for in the long run.   So looking at how people reacted to God, and how God reacted to what they did is key to understanding how God works within the lives of people.   But also interesting that for the most part people act in many cases the same way they did then.

 When I was first rethinking what God was all about, if He did exist, and how He would have communicated with us I knew that interpretation of scripture had to be at least one key.  Knowing whether it was God's word was first.  That was another adventure.  But in any case I had seen where people had all sorts of crazy ideas of what the same scripture meant.  So I was first wanting to know how I would go about this.   One of the first books I got and was very instrumental to me was "How To Read The Bible For All It's Worth" by Gordon D. Fee.  It's a small but very easy to read and extremely helpful in pointing out some of these methods at getting to the truth and shows some of the pitfalls that many people fall into when reading and interpreting the Bible.

  Through all this I realized the church itself is not doing it's duty of making disciples.   Many are making converts, handing them a Bible and sending them on their way.   But there is a huge part missing.  That is helping them with how to get the most from God's word.  Now, a HUGE warning here.  I am NOT saying they're are supposed to just tell you what it means FIRST and then you go read it.   That's tainting the process.  Many cults follow this method.  They don't want you to read the Bible for yourself.  They want to tell you what it means, then read and interpret it in the light of their rose glasses that they put on your basically.   That is simple WRONG.  If the Bible means what is says and says what it means there is no reason any serious study should not arrive at the same conclusions.   But of course cults know that you would not arrive at their conclusion because it's been distorted and Satan loves mixing truth with lies.   But a church should do it's best to give you the means with which to use the processes mentioned above to observe, interpret and apply the scriptures yourselves.    Now, that's not to say that discussions with your church group isn't important as there are some that are more mature and studied a lot longer than you have that you can go to.  Does it mean take every word they say as truth?  Not necessarily.   I challenge you to take what they say and compare it to what the Bible says and see if it makes sense.    It's possible that what they told you was wrong.   But my challenge has always been that if someone disagrees with me they too must make a logical defense of what they believe and why on a topic, not just state that it's true.   I've had discussions with a pastor before on some very hard teachings.    We went back and forth on various topics.  We ended up both changing our views, realizing we both had our preconceptions and were off a bit.  But we become the best of friends and knew we could talk to each other about some of the hardest things we were dealing with and we would be open and honest with each other and challenge each others thinking enough to get each other on track.   I still miss those conversations with him.

  As a final note scripture interprets scripture.   What I mean is in many cases the same principals are taught in many places in the Bible.  So if you're not sure if you're interpreting a particular section or principal right you can do word searches, phrase searches, or look up various discussions on the same topic.   Usually then you get enough of an overall view that you hone in better what you were looking for.   I recommend reading through the whole Bible at least once.  This gives you a quick big picture.  Plus as you go back and study pieces sometimes you will recall similar situations or even phrases that are similar.  The more you read and study the better understanding you get.  Believe me people spend a lifetime studying and always find more to learn so it's not like you will run out of things to learn from reading and studying the Bible.  

Multiple Denominations Does Not Mean Divisions Within The Church

I will update as I look over it and find some areas I may need to expand on.

   I keep hearing the charge from many that they don't believe in the Christian church as there are too many divisions, just look at all the denominations. To a point that's true.  But denominations doesn't mean there isn't unity at some points either.

  Here is the heart of the Christian faith.   The quote goes like this:  "in essentials unity, non-essentials liberty, in all things love".   So what does this mean exactly?   The essentials of the faith are basically those components that if not held to differentiate those of the Christian faith delivered to the saints and those of false religions.   One of the earliest known creeds of the faith is called the Apostle's Creed as it was written fairly close to the writings of the New Testament:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
    the Maker of heaven and earth,
    and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
    born of the virgin Mary,
    suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell. [See Calvin]

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
    and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
    from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
    the holy catholic church;
    the communion of saints;
    the forgiveness of sins;
    the resurrection of the body;
    and the life everlasting.

Amen.

*Note catholic church here means universal.  Not the Catholic church proper.

   Some others had to be added because of heresies that arose.    For instance the Athenasian Creed arose because of the heresy of Athanasius.  Because he tried to state that Christ had a beginning which is in contrast to scripture.  So the key centers about the nature of God and Jesus, the person and work of Jesus, and the good news of the gospel. 

   Most of the heresies and distortions come from misrepresenting one or more of these areas.   Some teach that God was born on some planet and became God.  Which totally ignores plain common sense and a distortion of what the Bible teaches.  Others teach that Jesus was just a man, no more or no less.  The logical conclusion of that is that he leads to all sorts of problems about his work and salvation at all.   The ironic thing is even with all the distortions out there you start to get a sense of what the true teaching is.  Since they distort one or more teachings they do have parts of the truth.  Which is what Satan does, he mixes truth with distortions and leads people away.   But if you took all the ones that mix truth with distortions you see what it is they try to distort and which ones many do repeat that for the basics.   But obviously the best way is get the truth undistorted.   I'll leave a lot of the details of the nature and work of God and Jesus for separate discussions.

    So why are there denominations?  From a simple perspective it's preferences.  But these preferences are on trivial matters that have nothing with the truth of the gospel itself.  For instance some churches lift up their hands and shout praises.  Others are more reserved and quiet.  Neither is right or wrong and I sure wouldn't be comfortable if it's not my way of worshiping.  Again falling back on "essentials unity" we can unite and call each other brothers and sisters in Christ if we follow the essentials.   Then on "non-essential liberty, while we agree on the essentials we an have our own way of living out that faith within the body of Christ just simply because of grouping ourselves with people that pray, sing, etc like we prefer.  Not a thing wrong with that and makes perfect sense seeing we're all different.  

   Some people equate different denominations with the Bible not being clear on it's teachings and that no one knows the truth so we have different denominations.   While most of that is clearly not understanding what denominations is there is cases also where that is the truth.   Some, while claiming to be another denomination is not just another denomination but not even part of the true church following sound doctrine.  These can fall under heresies, false gospel, and some even under one or more definitions of cult.   So when you look at these names it's easy to get confused as to who believes what and are they correct or not?   That question in itself was why I left the church when I was younger but then questioned later about how someone can know the truth or not.   That too would make another topic of discussion.  For instance the reliability of scripture and interpreting scripture.

  So when a person is looking for a church that is part of a particular denomination even that becomes a challenge as some churches even within a denomination may not hold to some of it's denominations foundations.  It's not until you ask a lot of questions and get to know what foundational teachings they hold to do you find out the truth.

 So denominations doesn't necessarily mean there isn't core teachings that aren't known as well as many teachings that people can vary on but aren't necessary in regards to salvation etc.