Page 272 … Seeing the Word(s)
Next, quite importantly, you make the bold proclamation that, “The Bible is what God Almighty gave us for instructions to life.”
True enough, my Friend … and the Bible itself notes in many places that it is necessary to “weed out” the parts of it that are clearly from men; to discard the parts of it that clearly contradict the wisdom & truth of Jesus’ message of perfect & unending LOVE … I mean, even Paul knew as much (after all, even he stumbled upon Truth every now & then ) when he said “Test [the Scriptures]; holding on only to what is Good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21) – not what is comfortable or what is popular or what is easy, mind you, but what is GOOD; namely, whatever bears the Good Fruit of Peace & Love & Harmony (see Matthew 21:43 + Galatians 5:22-23) …
After all, there are literally hundreds of full-blown contradictions in the books of the Bible, and it makes sense that there would be … The Bible itself knows that “The Word of God is living and active” (Hebrews 4:12), and that as such it is necessary for each of us to “judge for ourselves what is Right” (Luke 12:57). And when we do that discerning, when we read the Scriptures and see direct contradictions between verses, or feel tension between interpretations of verses, or even discover fundamental conflict between various over-arching theologies encapsulated by its verses (e.g. the Path of Paul vs. The Way of Jesus Christ – see pages 202-204 herein), how fortunate Christians are to know that the Bible itself tells them how to judge which verse or interpretation or theology is more “of God” and which is only “of man”!
Simply stated – where an Old Testament passage contradicts a New Testament one, the Bible says that the New Testament passage “wins” (see 2 Corinthians 3:9-15 & Hebrews 7:18-22 & Hebrews 8:6-13). And similarly, when a passage from Paul (or any other biblical author) in the New Testament contradicts a teaching from Jesus Christ in the Gospels, the Bible itself tells us that Jesus “wins” (see Matthew 15:14 + Philippians 3:4-5, 2 John 1:9, John 1:17 & 1 Corinthians 3:11) … It is well worth it for every Christian to keep these Truths in mind while reading the Bible again – as if for the first time!
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