World-View Confusion

Do you have a Biblical World-view?

If you’re a Christian, maybe you just assume that you do, and have never given it too much thought. Or, maybe you’re not even sure what a “Biblical” world-view is and why having one would be so important anyway.

A worldview is the paradigm or grid through which we see and evaluate the world and everything that happens to us. It’s like a pair glasses we wear that colors what we see and how we perceive it. In his book, “Think Like Jesus”, George Barna defines a Biblical worldview like this: “A Biblical worldview is thinking like Jesus. It is a way of making our faith practical to every situation we face each day. A Biblical worldview is a way of dealing with the world such that we ACT like Jesus twenty-four hours a day because we THINK like Jesus...It’s like having a pair of special eyeglasses we wear that enables us to see things differently, to see things from GOD’s point of view, and to respond to those perceptions in the way He would prescribe if He were to provide us with direct and personal revelation.”

Shockingly, in his 2021 research survey, George discovered that only 9% of born again Christians have a Biblical worldview.

Barna said, “For the purposes of the research, a biblical worldview was defined as believing that absolute moral truths exist; that such truth is defined by the Bible; and firm belief in six specific religious views.

Those views were

• that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life;
  
  
• God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe and He stills rules it today;
  
  
• salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned;
  
  
• Satan is real;
  
  
• a Christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people;
  
  
• and the Bible is accurate in all of its teachings.”
  

In his book “Scripture Twisting”, James W. Sire identifies twenty common ways the Bible is twisted and misread, and he describes World-view confusion as “the most fundamental misreading of all.”

Read the excerpts below from chapter 9 in his book, which he titles, “World-View Confusion: The Heart of the Matter”.

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“We come finally to the most fundamental misreading of all. Or rather, we return to it…World-view confusion is either the major cause or the major result of all other reading errors. For what is at stake is the overall pattern of meaning that distinguishes one cult from another, one religion from another, one world view from another.

Misreading No. 20: World-View Confusion

World-view confusion occurs whenever a reader of Scripture fails to interpret the Bible within the intellectual and broadly cultural framework of the Bible itself but uses instead a foreign frame of reference.

The usual way in which it appears is for scriptural statements, stories, commands or symbols which have a particular meaning or set of related meanings within the Biblical frame of reference to be lifted out and placed within another frame of reference.

The result is that the original, intended meaning is lost or distorted, and a new and quite different meaning is substituted.

Here, I think, is the key to understanding world-view confusion: Instead of yielding to the intentions of the Bible, the reader simply searches for elements that superficially seem to agree with his preconceived notion; after finding those elements, the reader extracts them from their context and places them in his own.

Responsible readers, on the other hand, are humble readers. They give up their own ambition to find in Scripture what they want to find. They bow before the meaning system they are dealing with. They say to Scripture and God who stands behind it, ‘What do you mean? What are you saying? Teach me. If I understood You yesterday, confirm that to me today. If I misunderstood You yesterday, correct me today.'”

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Will you commit to studying the Word of God in its entirety, using sound exegesis so that you will “NOT be conformed to this age, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind, so that you may DISCERN what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

Will you “BE CAREFUL so that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

Will you make prayer a priority, and allow Jesus to shape your worldview?

As Paul warned the Church in Ephesus, “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. EVEN FROM YOUR OWN NUMBER men will arise and DISTORT THE TRUTH in order to draw away disciples after them. So BE ON YOUR GUARD!”

The Authority of Scripture

In the last letter Peter wrote before his death, he said, “[Paul] writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people DISTORT, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, BE ON YOUR GUARD so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.” (2 Peter 3:16-17)

In his book, “Scripture Twisting”, James W. Sire discusses some common ways Scripture is distorted. The excerpts from his book below show how the Authority of Scripture is twisted.

[Note before reading: “Esoteric” means “requiring special knowledge to understand; only a select few who have been initiated in the secret knowledge can know, understand, or participate.”]

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Misreading No. 17: Esoteric Interpretation

Under the assumption that the Bible contains a hidden, esoteric, meaning which is open only to those who are initiated into its secrets, the interpreter declares the significance of Biblical passages without giving much if any explanation for his or her interpretation.

Esoteric interpretation assumes that the Bible does NOT mean what it says on the surface. Unless one has the special insight given only to the few, the elite, one will remain forever on the outside.

Misreading No. 18: SUPPLEMENTING Biblical Authority

Supplementing Biblical Authority is when New revelation from post biblical prophets either replaces or is added to the Bible as authority.

With supplementing Biblical authority, we have reached the logical end of all misreadings. As we will soon see, Jesus put the Old Testament in the highest position of authority. The New Testament follows in that vein. Now we see the results of putting that authority aside.

The visions of the mediums go BEYOND the teaching of the Bible, contradicting both the Bible and each other.

Misreading No. 19: REJECTING Biblical Authority

Either the Bible as a whole or texts from the Bible are examined and rejected because they do not square with other authorities — such as reason and other revelation — which do not appear to agree with them.

Rejecting Biblical authority is not so much a mistake in reading as an attitude one takes before beginning to read or, perhaps, a conclusion one comes to after reading.

Captive to the Word of God

Where did you get that idea? What is your authority? What evidence do you have for relying on this authority? These are crucial questions and we should be thankful to the person who challenges us with them. For if we haven’t thought through why we believe, what we believe can easily fall prey to any attractive idea that comes along.

Esoteric interpretation can lead us far away from the Biblical pattern of thought. Supplementing that authority with other religious texts or with teachings and visions of current gurus can lead us even further until we may…challenge Biblical authority, or…reject Biblical authority completely.”

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Have you been ensnared by the dangers of esoteric interpretation? Or of undermining the authority of Scripture by either supplementing Biblical authority or rejecting Biblical authority altogether? Will you repent of these sins and stand on the Word of God?

“We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness, and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God, without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.”

~ The Lausanne Covenant, Article 2

Accurately Handling the Word of Truth

In 2 Timothy 2:15, Paul advised Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, ACCURATELY handling the word of truth.”

In previous blog posts, we’ve already touched on the importance of studying God’s Word in its entirety and reading Scripture in context. See below for more excerpts from James W. Sire’s book, “Scripture Twisting”, on common ways Scripture is distorted when we are reasoning from Scripture.

Misreading No. 13: Confused Definition

No deductive argument can proceed properly if we do not have a clear concept of each term in the argument. For example, if stealing in Exodus 20:15 does NOT mean something very general like “taking ANYTHING that is not rightfully yours,” then it CANNOT include [something specific, such as] tampering with scales.

To understand Scripture, we need to have a clear idea of its key terms.

Misreading No. 14: Ignoring Alternative Explanation

Just as we can SELECT evidence to justify our preconceived ideas, we can [also] IGNORE the alternative explanations for that evidence.

We see a strange glowing light outside our window, and if we have been susceptible to recent movies or television, we may suddenly conclude that we are seeing a flying saucer — maybe a space ship complete with extraterrestrial beings. But lots of things glow strangely in the dark — the full moon see with your glasses off (well, at least, as seen by me with my glasses off), the headlight of a car seen through a forest, a campfire, a flashlight, the running lights of a commercial airliner and so on. To say you have just had a close encounter with the extraterrestrial without exhausting the other more ordinary explanations would be irresponsible if not irrational.

So, too, it is a fallacy to adopt an eccentric explanation when an ordinary one fits the data. At least, it is a fallacy to adopt it with a sense of certainty. Withholding judgment is required.

Misreading No. 15: The Obvious Fallacy

Interpretations of some Biblical texts require great study. Even then, honest scholars are uncertain and disagree with each other. Yet we frequently find cult writers drawing conclusions with great ease and expecting us to follow their lead. The impression the interpreter wants to give is that the case is closed. His view is the obvious one.

Obviously, the way to avoid the obvious fallacy is to NOT be misled by the characterization any writer puts on the quality of his own argument. Look to see if it is so. Is the logic valid, the evidence all there? Is it treated fairly? Are alternatives acknowledged and refuted?

A related fallacy occurs when one develops a series of interlinking, eccentric POSSIBLE readings, and then concludes that since these eccentric interpretations support each other, they must be true. Thus, a series of speculations join together to achieve the strength of what appears to be an integrated world view.

Misreading No. 16: Virtue by Association

We have all heard of guilt by association. “Johnny must be a bad boy. Look at the company he keeps.” Or, “How could Sarah be a Christian. Didn’t I see her hanging out with that guy from Gary?”

This argument works in the other direction as well: “Billy goes to church. He’s such a good boy.” This is the way the argument is used by cult writers.

If you can associate your view with Jesus, the Bible, the apostles, the patriarchs—any of the good guys of the Judeo-Christian tradition—you have enhanced the credibility of your argument. The fallacy itself takes several forms.

Naming names, summoning up great witnesses, sounding like the Bible, proclaiming universality for your eccentric view — all these carry no logical weight unless what is said about them turns out on other grounds to be true. So we must be wary of any such attempt to authenticate eccentric religious doctrine.

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Have you heard anyone reasoning from Scripture like this before? Have YOU misread Scripture by reasoning in any of these ways?

How accurate are you when handling God’s Word? Are you trying to understand the meaning and intention of the Writer? Or have you been been over-curious and gone beyond the bounds of Scripture to bring your own meaning to the text?

Are you willing to stand corrected if you’ve been in error?

In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul said that “All Scripture is GOD BREATHED…” Every word is from the mouth of God. It’s important that we get God’s Word’s correct.

Examining the Scriptures daily

Are you interpreting Scripture like a Berean? You should be. Acts 17:11 says, the Bereans “were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” (Acts 17:11)

The Bereans were eager to hear the Word of God, but they also verified the accuracy of the message they heard by searching the Scriptures for themselves to make certain that what they had heard lined up with Scripture.

As Charles Stanley says, “We aren’t free to interpret the Bible any way we want. The goal is to discover what God meant rather than to find a meaning we like. Remember, it’s our Father’s approval we are seeking—not our own or that of others. Therefore, let’s devote time to studying Scripture, use our resources to learn about context, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us to the truth.”

The excerpts below, from James W. Sire’s book, “Scripture Twisting”, will help you identify some common ways the Bible is misread. (I highly recommend reading his entire book, as he includes a total of 20.)

Check for yourself. Are you listening to messages where verses are taken out of context or the person is making any of the following errors in their logic or inductive reasoning?

Misreading No. 10: Saying but not Citing.

“The first task of anyone who wishes to make a case based on data is to place the data into evidence. When we try to make a case from Scripture, for example, we often hear the rejoinder, “But the Bible is full of contradictions”. Usually when one asks for an example, the respondent is at a loss, or he gives an example which will not stand up under even the most cursory analysis.

In any case, the proponent of any position must show us his facts. Jesus did not just tell John’s disciples what he had been doing; He showed them. Sometimes, however, cult writers do not do this. They proclaim that there is evidence, but they don’t show us.

Evidence which is said to exist, but not shown to exist is not sufficient for any inductive argument.

If someone would have us believe that the Bible teaches any particular doctrine – either orthodox or eccentric – we must ask them, first, to quote “chapter and verse” and, second, to explain why these Scriptures TAKEN IN CONTEXT are relevant to the issue. Apart from this, we would be well to remain skeptical and unconvinced.

Misreading No. 11: Selective Citing.

Another misuse of evidence in argument comes when only a portion of the relevant texts is cited.

You can “prove” almost anything from the Bible is you are allowed to select verses or portions of verses as if they told the whole story.

Misreading No. 12: Inadequate Evidence

Some parts of the Bible are obscure, puzzling to say the lease. Scholars simply don’t know what is being said or referred to. Sometimes even when we have considered all the evidence seemingly available in Scripture there is not enough to satisfy our curiosity or to draw solid conclusions.

The Scripture does not answer every question we bring to it, though only by asking and seeking are we likely to discover just which questions can’t be answered.

The inadequacy of Scriptural data, however, has not kept people from speculating. Oftentimes, then, seeing how their speculation matches other evidence or other speculation, the speculators conclude their speculation is true.

The antidote to such arguments is not to seal ourselves off from anything not from our own particular Christian tradition. For one thing, that is not possible, especially today with all manner of ideas vying for attention on television, the radio, the movies, and the newspaper. Second, that would imply that we (our tradition, our denomination, our pastor, our fellowship group, our friends) have a corner on the truth. That is simply not true.

The antidote to these arguments is to examine them carefully, asking, ‘What is the source (chapter and verse please)? Are all the relevant data there? Is it adequate? How do traditional Christians deal with the data?

The more you know the Scripture, the more deeply you study it on your own, the easier you will find the answers to those questions when you need them.”

Who’s ‘Propheting’?

The Devotional booklet, “Our Daily Bread” tells an interesting story about Christopher Columbus…

“On one of Christopher Columbus’ voyages, he found that his crew’s food supply was almost depleted. Anchored off the island of Jamaica, he was grateful to be given food by the islanders. But as time went on, the gifts of food decreased so that the crew began to starve.

Columbus knew from an astronomy book that a lunar eclipse would soon occur. He called the native chiefs together and told them God was angry about their selfishness and would blot out the moon. At first the islanders scoffed. But when they watched the night’s silver disc slowly become dark, they became terrified and quickly brought food. Columbus said that if he prayed, the moon would be restored. Though we may empathize with his circumstances, Columbus’ “message from God” was dishonest and self-serving.

The purpose of sharing God’s truth is to profit others, not to prosper ourselves.”

See more examples below of how others distort Scripture to suit their own purposes. These excerpts are taken from James W. Sire’s excellent book, “Scripture Twisting”:

Misreading No. 7: Word Play

“The Bible must be recognized as a work of literature in its native tongue as well as in translation. If we are to do a word study, that is, examine the etymology (word origin), definitions, use of the word in various Biblical texts and so forth, we must work from the [original] Greek or Hebrew.

Some study can be accomplished by use of an English-language concordance, but it must be checked against the words in the original [language].

Misreading No. 8: The Figurative Fallacy [spiritualizing, mistaking the literal for the figurative or the figurative for the literal]

The figurative fallacy is far more difficult to avoid than word play. Every reader must determine the way language is being used.

Does the fact that in John 4 the word “water” is used both literally and figuratively mean that it is always used this way in Scripture? And is the figurative meaning always the same?

The important point in all this to remember is that as responsible Bible readers, we must understand the text in the manner in which it was written.

Misreading No. 9: Speculative Reading of Predictive Prophecy

There is nothing in Scripture more difficult to treat with certainty than the interpretation of predictive prophecy, especially those prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments which were not fulfilled by the time of the New Testament era and interpreted as such by New Testament authors.

This is where dubious interpretations of predictive prophecy are explained as specific events.

The principle of good reading we want to raise as a result is simply this: when the New Testament declares an Old Testament prophecy to be fulfilled, do not look for another fulfillment; when any prophecy does not appear to be fulfilled, measure all modern attempts to identify its fulfillment against the backdrop of the rest of the Bible. And refuse to accept any interpretation which serves to substantiate a religious philosophy that is nonbiblical in other more obvious ways.”

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Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “The time is coming when people will NOT endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

Be on your guard! (Acts 20:30-31a) Don’t go beyond the bounds of Scripture!

Context is King!

DISinformation and MISinformation are highly effective in the art of war. And satan, who understands this better than anyone, has been using this technique since the Garden of Eden when he said, “Did God really say…???”

One way satan wages his MISinformation/DISinformation campaign is by taking Scripture out of context. He knows that when a Scripture is taken out of context, he can make the Bible say anything he wants.

I’ve included three more excerpts below from James W. Sire’s book on “Scripture Twisting” as we continue to examine some common ways that Scripture is distorted.

Misreading No. 4: Ignoring the Immediate Context

“From the standpoint of the Bible as literature, the simplest error of reading is the failure to consider the immediate context of the verse or passage in question. The literature of the cults is FILLED with illustrations of this basic mistake.

The text of Scripture should first be understood within the context in which it occurs. Any reading which contradicts the meaning of the text IN CONTEXT cannot be a proper interpretation.

Misreading No. 5: Collapsing Contexts

When two or more unrelated texts are treated as if they belonged together, we have the fallacy of collapsing contexts. This reading error can be especially knotty because it is the corruption of a perfectly good principle of reading: to compare Scripture with Scripture.

We are responsible as good readers of the Bible to make use of every text bearing on the subject we wish to understand. To select some texts which agree with our preconceived ideas and ignore those that don’t is, in fact, a major mistake. But it is equally possible to put texts together which don’t belong together. This, too, can produce confusion.

The principle is to see each text first in its own immediate and then larger contexts; if these context overlap with the contexts of other texts, these other texts may be relevant. That is, if two or more texts talk about the same subject in a similar way, then when we study them together we are not collapsing the contexts. But even as we put them together, we want to keep in mind their original contexts.

Misreading No. 6: Overspecification

As human beings we tend to be curious—sometimes over-curious, longing to know what we do not know, to go a step beyond the ordinary person in insight and knowledge.

In science this curiosity leads to new hypotheses, new experiments—sometimes down blind alleys and sometimes to new knowledge. In business it leads to speculation and hence sometimes to financial success and sometimes to bankruptcy. In religion it leads to study, to speculative theology, and sometimes to new spiritual insight, and sometimes to answers to our questions BEYOND what can yet be truly known through Scripture.

Misreading the Bible in this way is a constant temptation for all of us. Somehow we want the Bible to say just what WE want the Bible to say, and so we read into it a meaning that is either not possible at all or is FAR MORE SPECIFIC than the text actually confirms. In reading and interpreting Scripture, we should strive to draw from any given text only so much as is specified by that text taken in context and from any given set of texts only so much as they specify when seen first in their immediate contexts and then in the larger framework of Scriptural thought.”

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As Paul warned in Acts 20:30-31a, “FROM YOUR OWN NUMBER, men will arise and DISTORT THE TRUTH! So BE ON YOUR GUARD!”

Study the entirety of God’s Word for yourself. Take the time to VERIFY the context. Look at what comes before or after the verse being quoted. Look at the people being addressed, the theme of the book, and the social, cultural, or political climate during the time the text was written. Pay attention, and don’t go beyond the bounds of Scripture.

‘Propheting’ from the Gospel

Not much has changed since the apostle Paul’s day when he warned the Church in Ephesus, saying, “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and DISTORT THE TRUTH in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!”

Studying the entirety of God’s Word for yourself will help you to spot the Scripture twisting of false prophets, false teachers, heretics, cult leaders, and others who are oftentimes motivated by increasing their book, CD, and DVD sales… gaining more digital downloads of their teachings…raising their popularity on radio and television…increasing their conference numbers…and getting more “likes”, “clicks” or Subscribers on their Social Media.

In 2 Corinthians 2:17, Paul says, “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.”

For my next few blog posts, I will share some helpful excerpts from James W. Sire’s book on “Scripture Twisting”, which will shine a light on some of the more common ways that Scripture is distorted.

Misreading No. 1: Inaccurate Quotation

The Bible is not always quoted accurately. So if you’re confronted by someone who quotes the Bible, CHECK TO SEE if their basic claim is true. Does the Bible say what the person says it does?

Misreading No. 2: Twisted Translation

To get at the meaning of the Bible, we need to have an accurate text. If there are errors in the text before us, we are bound to be misled. Some religious movements have addressed this problem by providing their own translations.

Current translations, they hold, are inaccurate in some crucial aspects. The fact is, of course, that no single translation or group of translations are beyond improvement.

That is why scholars in every generation, especially since the reformation, have worked to provide an ever more reliable Greek and Hebrew text, and why translators have been at work as well to turn this text into more and more accurate vernacular translations.

Misreading No. 3: The Biblical Hook

When Scripture is quoted, especially at the beginning of an argument which turns out to promote a cult doctrine or point of view, it may be that it is being used primarily as a hook to grasp the attention of readers or listeners.

“The Bible says” gets the attention, but what follows the quotation may be far from traditional Christian teaching and far from the intention of the Bible itself.

Be on your guard, and tomorrow, I’ll share more ways that God’s Word is distorted.

Feel the Burn!

“And they said to one another,
‘Did not our heart BURN WITHIN US
while [Jesus] talked with us on the road,
and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

~ Luke 24:32