A Christian scientist with the Institute for Creation Research has stated in an interview with World Magazine his rules for interpreting the Bible which was taught to him at Moody Bible Institute.
“Give words their normal meaning in their normal context.” If you allow a religious authority to tell you that Scripture is mystical, hard to understand, with elusive meanings, then you need a special class of people to inform you of what Scripture says, and you are in bondage to those people. [1]
So when Peter says “that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right” (Acts 10:34-35) do we accept the normal meaning of this passage or do we qualify it with the additional statement that we must also believe in Jesus and his death for our sins in order for God to accept us?
So when Paul, in talking to the Galatians about what the relationship between Christians should be, states: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8), do we accept the normal meaning of this passage or do we qualify it with the additional statement that we must also believe in Jesus and his death for our sins in order to gain eternal life?
So when James says: “You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone” (James 2:24), do we, like Martin Luther, call James an epistle of straw or do we accept it as the word of God and believe what it tells us?
In regards to the doctrine of salvation, we Christians we need to decide whether we will ignore the 70 passages in the New Testament that teach salvation is through means other than belief in Jesus and his death for our sin or whether we will accept the normal meaning within its normal context of those 70 passages.
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[1] Marvin Olasky, “The impossible improbable”, World Magazine, March 4, 2017, p. 24.
