Why Are There So Many Interpretations
Among Religions Concerning Passages in the Bible or Other Religious Texts, Even
Among Different Denominations Within The Same Religion?
You
would think that the word of God, a perfect being, would be fairly easy to
interpret. So, why all the debate? It
seems almost like the ones who wrote the Bible, or God, if you believe it is
the inspired word of God, deliberately made it arcane and confusing. After all,
hundreds of Biblical contradictions have been documented. The huge number of
contradictions, combined with vagueness and mystery, has left the Bible and its
themes open to broad interpretations, and groups have always been very good at
picking specific verses to support their positions while ignoring those that
oppose them. Even groups within the same religion interpret scripture very
differently on both mundane and serious matters, such as . . .
·
How
followers should dress
·
How
to keep one’s hair
·
What
to eat or not eat
·
The
role of women in the church and in marriage
·
Procedures
for baptism
·
What
it means to be “saved,” and once saved, can one backslide?
·
How
to discipline children
·
The
use of birth control
·
Rules
concerning divorce and remarriage
·
Who’s
going to get to heaven
·
If
and when the rapture will occur
·
Homosexuality
The
danger is that people actually base their lives on how they interpret certain
Biblical passages. People can justify some really weird behavior (a la serpent
handlers) when they think their behavior is sanctioned by the Bible, and
actually, God. With the broad range of Biblical interpretations, how can we
know which groups or religions may be correct?
Obviously, only one religion can be correct. It’s much more likely,
though, that they all have it wrong.
I don't think so many religious denominations have it wrong, they simply have man made doctrine that is " misinterepted" in some area's. We must take into consideration anything involving humans is going to have errors.
ReplyDeleteI am of the Baptist faith, simply because I think what the bible has written in it, is true. I belive the baptist doctrine that was created by man, and used to operate a religious organization, was very closely written to bibical teaching. It really come's down to wheather people believe the bible is a " devine book of instructions to live by " written by men who were inspired of God.
Most of the above matters listed above are what I consider unsound man made doctrine, not really bibical based. ( my opinion only :).
"We must take into consideration anything involving humans is going to have errors." This is my point exactly. The Bible was written by human hands. Therefore, how do we know that those writing the books had the word of God? How do we know that they didn't add their own beliefs and attitudes? Several books were not included in the Bible. Why? Who made these decisions? You would think that if the Bible was truly the word of God, there would not be so many contradictions among various books and sections.
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