ANYWAY, there IS a point to this post. one of the chapters examines the "Purpose Driven Life" book. a very interesting argument came up that i had never heard before, but now i'm really curious about it. i guess rick warren quotes a lot of 1-liners from the Bible and uses them to go along with what he's saying? i've never read the book, i'm just going by the examples this Fools Gold book gives. and macarthur says that that is quoting the Bible inaccurately just to support warren's views. at first, i'm like "well yeah, it is wrong to just take a phrase out of Scripture and use that to argue your point". but then macarthur says that some people argue that the apostles, and even Christ, pulled 1-liners out of the Old Testament to make some of their points...which is true. i wouldn't say "pulled" though, i would say..."quoted". now, obviously they had a right to do that because the New Testament is the Word of God and It is inspired so it's not like they were wrong to do that. but then the question arises - why do people these days who quote a phrase from the OT get hammered by some people for taking things out of context? is it wrong?
the only reason i can think of right now that it'd be wrong is because we aren't the apostles and our sermons/messages/whatevers aren't directly given by the Holy Spirit. well, they can be, but like...you know what i mean? :) we don't have the same authority that the apostles had in their writing. is that a valid point? and is that the only point that backs up stating that it's wrong to quote things from the OT?
one passage that some people (mainly baptists...and i don't know why that is, maybe it just seems like it 'cause i usually only talk about things like this with my friends and people i'm around...who are mainly all baptists) really give people a hard time on is when someone quotes Jeremiah 29:11 which says:
"11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
there is so much truth to that passage and even though God is saying it to...shoot...the Israelites? i could be wrong, but He's saying it to a specific people group. :) but is it not true that God has a plan for each of our lives? is it not true that God only has our best in mind? to say that we can't claim that passage as Truth for our lives is...man, i don't know, it just doesn't seem correct to say that.
alright, my break time ended a little bit ago, i gotta get back to work. thoughts, opinions, views, definitely welcome. i also accept money donations into my paypal account.
:D (BIG smile)
keep it real.
~jen~
1 comment:
That's funny, I don't know what made you think of that exact verse...the Jer. one, but I've always had a hard time quoting that one for my life now too. When we were in Israel we started off studying O.T. (even though we couldn't call it that, we had to call it the "Hebrew Text" so we didn't think it was old and outdated:) times and people. We talked about the prophets, their lives and their teachings. Once we got to the N.T. times we looked at the "religious beliefs" of the people of Jesus' and the disciples' times. They were incredibly devout studiers of the Text and in that time, it was ONLY the O.T. books. They knew those books inside and out. So when Jesus and the disciples were teaching, they quoted from the O.T. because the people knew it so well. Jesus showed the Jews the parts of the O.T. law that He was fulfilling and they didnt' have to follow anymore...like sacrificing and all those weird rules in there. So we can't go quoting those old laws saying they are true. I think that's what alot of people now adays maybe do. They either don't understand or don't realize that all God's laws don't apply to all people. Does that even make sence? Sometimes it is so hard to know what is in context and what isn't...but there are somethings that obviously are.
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