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Carnal Interpretations of the Word of God
CARNAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE WORD OF GOD
Text: " ...and with His stripes we are healed." --Isaiah 53:5d
We ought to expect the carnally minded to interpret the Word of God after a carnal fashion. For instance, in John, chapter 3, in response to Christ’s sermon "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (verse 3), Nicodemus responds in verse 4, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?" Such is the understanding of a carnal man that he must interpret spiritual things in a carnal fashion.
In John chapter 4, the Messiah told the Samaritan woman, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." --verses 13, 14. To this the woman answered, "Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." --verse 15. Thus she, like Nicodemus, gave the sublime, the spiritual, the Heavenly Word --a base, a material, an earthly interpretation.
In John chapter 6, our blessed Lord discoursed, "Verily, verily I say unto you, ‘Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.’" --verses 53-57 And we read in verse 66, "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him."
Carnally minded men must be expected to interpret Holy Scripture in a profane way because they do not value the Word of God any more than Esau. The materially minded will necessarily interpret the Word of God after a material fashion.
For instance: it is popular for some radio preachers like Mr. Kenneth Hagin, and Mr. Kenneth Copeland to take the last phrase in verse 5 of Isaiah, chapter 53, " ...and with His stripes we are healed," and to make it mean a PHYSICAL healing. This is handling the Word of God deceitfully because the three other phrases in the verse form the context for this last phrase, just as this verse, being but a part of the chapter, is to be interpreted in the larger context of the chapter.
QUESTION #1--"Is there, anything in the context of the verse that speaks of healing of the physical body?" Let us see.
"But He was wounded for our transgressions" --nothing here refers to our body, but it does speak of our rebellion to God. It refers to the physical wounding of Christ Who suffered for our spiritual anarchy.
"He was bruised for our iniquities" --This refers to the bruising of our Redeemer Who suffered in behalf of our spiritual corruption --our depraved nature which is a body of death clings to all the adopted children of Adam’s helpless race. But it has nothing at all to do with our physical body.
"The chastisement of our peace was upon Him" --Does this in any way refer to our earthly body? --Not at all. Twenty-one manuscripts and six editions of Scripture regularly translate the phrase "our peace" with the words "our pacification" which means "that by which we are brought into a state of peace and favor with God." Nothing here has to do with the carnal body.
Therefore, to take the summarizing phrase "and with His stripes we are healed" and to give it a physical meaning is to wrest the Scriptures from their moorings.
QUESTION # 2 -- "Do any of the reputable commentators on the Scriptures give this last phrase a physical meaning?" --Look and see. And the next time you hear a "new fangled interpretation" --BEWARE!
Text: " ...It must needs be that offences come..." –Matthew l8:7b
"My lessons, it is said, give offence," said Luther. "I answer that the Gospel of Christ cannot be preached without offence!"
Truth is by its very nature offensive to every wrong way as light is offensive to darkness, and as salt is offensive to corruption.
In recent years there has been an effort made to remove the offence of the Gospel in order to make it more palatable --more appealing. The Gospel, however, has suffered for when Truth has been excised of all that is offensive, it is no longer the WHOLE Truth. Truth cannot be pared down. If you cut it, it will bleed. "It MUST NEEDS BE THAT OFFENCES COME."
Our Lord was no diplomat when He cried, "Woe unto you Scribes, and Pharisees, hypocrites! Woe unto you ye blind guides. Ye fools and blind. Ye serpents, ye generation of Vipers, HOW CAN YE ESCAPE THE DAMNATION OF HELL?" --Matthew 23: 13,16,17,33.
When He preached in John chapter 6 "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you," --verse 53, "many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him." --verse 66.
When in John chapter 10, He declared "I and My Father are One, verse 30, "the Jews took up stones again to stone Him ...because that ’Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God.’" --verses 31,33. Jesus did not soft-peddle Truth.
And, when He cleansed the temple by overturning the tables of the moneychangers and by driving them out with a whip, He was quite offensive
. Paul said, "I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some,"—I Corinthians 9:22, but he did not compromise the Truth of God to do it. For in Acts, chapter 10, he had to be let down in a basket over the wall of Damascus when the Jews lay in wait to kill him. And when he preached in Jerusalem, the Greeks plotted his death, while in Lystra, he was stoned and then was dragged out of the city and left for dead. Paul did not stand "juste milieux"."...It MUST needs be that offences come..."