Twisting Scripture

Martin Luther’s ministry as a reformer was in the early 16th Century. However, even back then people were trying to force their own man-made doctrines on the Bible. Nothing has changed. People still do this. The use of the Bible this way is always eisegetical. That is, it is reading into the text that which is not there. This does violence to the authority of scripture and it’s inerrancy. Every heresy started this way. Also, much of the rebellion against traditional churches these days is born within those who believe that established denominations are guilty of doing the same thing. This has tragic consequences. No matter how we “feel” about these things, we must not fall into the mistake of throwing out the baby with the bath water. I am not alone in contending that the Church is ripe for another Reformation. However, currently there are many counterfeit reformations taking place that are extra-Biblical in nature. In their zeal to reform, they have done away with the Authority of Scripture as our baseline. This is huge error and we must take a stand and not give in the least little bit on the truth and veracity of God’s Word, that it is inerrant and complete. As you read the following devotional by Martin Luther, I pray that the Lord will place the burden of remaining in this war on your heart as He has mine. – Mike Ratliff

by Martin Luther

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. (John 14:16)

When otherwise intelligent people hear these words of Christ, they cleverly reply, “Those aren’t God’s words, but those of a mere human. If he were God, he would say, ‘I myself will send you another Counselor.'” These people want to instruct the Holy Spirit and make find distinctions with grammar and logic. They insist that anyone who has to ask for something can’t be God. Therefore, Christ cannot be God. They argue persuasively and even assert that the Holy Spirit doesn’t know how to speak correctly. In their eyes, whatever the Holy Spirit says or does is wrong. They find fault with everything. They aren’t godly enough to take the time to compare these verses with others. Instead, they take a verse here and a verse there. They pounce on a couple of words and distort them in order to obscure what the Bible means. If it were valid to tear one or two words from the text and forget about the rest, then I also could twist Scripture any way that I wanted.

But this is the correct way to approach Scripture: look at the entire passage; look at what comes before and after the verse. In this case, you will find that Christ speaks both as God and as man. This is powerful proof that Jesus is both true man and true God, as our teaching and faith hold. How can we explain that Jesus speaks as God and as man at the same time? He can speak either way, because he possesses both divine and human natures. If Jesus spoke everywhere as God, no one could prove that he was a true man. If he spoke as a man all the time, no one would know that he is also true God.

From Faith Alone A Daily Devotional

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