God's Word, or Our Words?

God provided us with a Bible, at an incredible cost for its many cast members, many of whom suffered or died so that we can learn from their lives, their mistakes, and their triumphs. Many also suffered and died through history, just for preserving this book, even for translating it into English. It's a precious book, God knows that all serious Christians know that. So to see the many ways it has been mangled, twisted, and re-interpreted by some for their own purposes is just unacceptable. There are enough people who claim to have new revelations and new interpretations and we must learn to recognise when this is happening and reject it. The Bible has only one author, God, and the task we have is to know exactly what is in His heart as we read his words.

So how do we read and interpret the Bible? How can we tell what is in the heart of God as we read His words? We begin with two Greek words, exegesis, and eisegesis. Exegesis is the act of reading the words of the Bible and only receiving the truth that God put there. Eisegsis is the act of reading the Bible and only receiving what agrees with your own ideas. The first technique is, I hope you agree, the way we should approach hte Bible. The other one is the chosen route of our TV preacher and may God forgive him!¹

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Footnotes:

1. Steve Maltz, How the Church Lost the Way, Saffron Planet, pp 72