A reader asks, “How can we conform to Scripture that we all interpret in different ways?” And, “How do you know your Christianity is the right one among all others?” And when I replied that the Bible is the right Christianity, she said I’d dodged the issue.
Well, let me try again.
First, just because people insist on imposing their own emotions and opinions on it doesn’t mean that Scripture has no meaning. St. Peter: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:20-21).
In other words, the Bible is delivered to us, by the Holy Ghost, as objective truth. No one has any business subjecting it to any private interpretation. An extreme example of that would be “Clergy for Choice,” blaspheming by their celebration of abortion as “doing God’s work.” Or those who perform same-sex parodies of marriage. Or bless adulterous unions. If any of those “interpretations” is anything but blatantly wrong, then words really have no meaning and we might as well give up trying to communicate with one another. Those “interpretations” flatly contradict the plain language of the Scriptures.
Second, I kind of lost patience with that turn of phrase, “your Christianity.” In our stupid colleges and universities we learn that there is no true truth, but only “your truth” and “my truth”–and whoever has the most power, their version of the truth prevails.
The Lord Our God did not intend for us to live that way. He is a Person who created us, who loves us, who made us in His image, yet by no means the same as Himself; who is all-wise, all-righteous: and He is our objective truth; He is the starting-point for all that we can ever know to be true. So if there is any “my Christianity,” that would be a form of self-worship. There is no yours or mine. We are here to seek God’s will, and to do it.
All right, we can’t. We do insist on bending, folding, spindling, and mutilating the absolute truth communicated to us by God. If we did not do that, we would not need a Savior: there would have been no reason for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to come into this world in the flesh.
Now, just because we never arrive at 100% of the absolutely true meaning of the Scriptures does not mean that we always come away with nothing. Sanctification is not a wave of a magic wand. It is a process. It takes a lifetime. It is accomplished in stages by the Holy Spirit, and the sovereign will of God.
All powers on the earth are under God and will be held accountable to Him, and be judged by Him.
Those who are satisfied with their own bizarre and heretical “interpretations” of Scripture had best enjoy it while they can.