• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About My Blog
  • Contact Me
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy
    • Scripture Source
    • Disclamer

Jeff Insights

Insights Into Christianity and Culture

  • Poetry
  • All Posts
  • Archive

Scripture Hopping

April 29, 2018 By Jeff 2 Comments

Share, These Buttons help.

  • Facebook2
  • Twitter

There is a tendency to pick small snippets of scripture to create a narrative in the church. Many pastors have a specific topic in church and quickly find verses with the keywords they are using for the message on any given Sunday. They say they are using verses so automatically they believe they are preaching the truth. Let’s start with a specific verse I used in my first blog post.

Jerimiah 29:11 (NASB):

“’For I know the plans that I have for You,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’”

Your given a small snippet of a chapter when you read this verse. When you read it all by itself what conclusions do you make? You may conclude given in a message comparing it with many other verses about God’s plan for you that your life will get better, that your life will get better materially and without consequence. Let’s read further…

Jerimiah 29:12 (NASB):

“’Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.’”

Then you realize that the Lord was talking about an action for that to happen. Almost a redemptive action needs to take place for his plans to be carried out. We also don’t get what the pronoun is referring to. So, let’s read some more.

Jerimiah 29:4 (NASB):

“’Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,’”

So, the first conclusion you made at the beginning that he is talking about you the individual believer in God become null and void. You were misled into a belief that your live will get better just from this verse. This verse many times is used to prop up the prosperity gospel without context. The people were in exile into Babylon for years. There is also a passage not so prosperous for some in the chapter.

Jerimiah 29:21 (NASB)

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you falsely in My name, ‘Behold, I will deliver them in the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will slay them before your eyes.’”

Dag. It looks like there is a huge requirement for Israel for such a blessing given to them. I suggest you read all of chapter 29 and all the chapters in which I quote a verse in my blogs and all future blogs. Context is far important of a thing to waste when teaching scripture. We find verse like this and combine it with others to change meaning. When verses are added together they complete a narrative. For example:

1 Peter 2:21 (NASB)

“For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,”

This verse is then follow by Jeremiah 29:11. It then put a “but” into the word suffered. Like expanding on the narrative that things will get better even though you are suffering now. When you pick verses from the bible don’t do it to manipulate a narrative. Do it to find Truth. Second Peter chapter 2 discusses the problem of false prophets and false teachers. I will leave you with this daunting verse.

2 Peter 2:2-3 (NASB)

“Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

Feel free to leave a comment if you agree or disagree with my analysis.

Related posts:

  1. Being Specific In Preaching Too many times teachers within the church speak in generalities instead of specifics. We don’t preach to what the congregation and the culture is personally...
  2. Preaching What is Relevant Our churches are constantly telling people what they want to hear. They are constantly preaching things that don’t even convict the congregation. Many times, every...
  3. Understanding Manipulation As A Sin The first lie is always that the ends justify the means.  Even then the outcomes don’t equate to a righteous outcome. Logic breaks down when...
  4. The Best Evil Looks Righteous Evil exist because we twist what is evil into what we think is righteous. Unfortunately, our society believes evil is subject to gradation. We determine...

Filed Under: Church Doctrine Tagged With: christianity, false teachers, truth

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. C.R. says

    April 30, 2018 at 6:28 pm

    I love the line, “Context is far to important of a thing to waste when teaching scripture.” We need to understand that scripture is not our words, and as soon as we open our mouth to quote it, we are held to a standard that demands we don’t make it our own by twisting it to fit our narrative. Great post Jeff.

    Reply
    • Jeff says

      April 30, 2018 at 8:05 pm

      Yes, also many times when we read scripture we want to read snippets that not only confirm our own biases but we look for things that we want to reflect our culture and leave out scripture that is at odds with it. The cultural side of my issues I hope to write about soon.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

20 + fifteen =

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Insights Into My Insight

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

More to See

Living in an Age of Truth Resistance

January 14, 2021 By Jeff

Being Fair for the Sake of Fairness

November 23, 2020 By Jeff

Tags

christianity church coronavirus crowdfunding culture determinism donate doubt false teachers fear forgiveness free will idolatry impatience lie life love news persecution philosophy poetry politics predestination prosperity gospel purpose righteous schedule sin time truth virtue

Footer

Subscribe

Get my Insights into my Insight.

Tell People to check out my blog as well.

Get My Blogs and Insight Into My Insights

Recent

  • The Mob Of Public Opinion
  • Living in an Age of Truth Resistance
  • Being Fair for the Sake of Fairness
  • Seeking Virtue
  • When We’re Free

Search

Tags

christianity church coronavirus crowdfunding culture determinism donate doubt false teachers fear forgiveness free will idolatry impatience lie life love news persecution philosophy poetry politics predestination prosperity gospel purpose righteous schedule sin time truth virtue

Copyright © 2023 · Jeffrey Richardson · All Rights Reserved

  • 2