The Bible must be read in its proper context




A MAN prayed, “Lord, what do You want me to do, show me from Your Word.” 

        He then opened the Bible to read:

"And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.” Matthew‬ ‭27‬:‭5‬ ‭

        He flipped to another page of the Bible:

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:37

        Then, the man flipped his Bible a third time and turned to John 13:37 hoping to get a verse which God will speak to him. Lo and behold, a verse caught his attention: 

After this, Satan then entered him. Therefore Jesus said to him, “What you are doing, do it quickly.” John 13:27

        Don't laugh! 

        This shows we need to understand the socio-economic and political context in order to interpret the Bible as we read daily from His Word. This is why theological education is relevant even to the lay people. A lot of our theological programs are available in Malaysia via online delivery.

        The above example was what I was taught in one of the sermons I heard as a young man.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

STOP LISTENING TO ALL KINDS OF FALSE PROPHECIES. READ YOUR BIBLE INSTEAD!

Image
  These days with Zoom, we can attend all sorts of classes taught by good Bible teachers from across the world.           With the recent Trump vs Biden presidential election, there also many false prophets and false teachers! It takes just some discretion to find out who they are. Most of them love to quote, "God spoke to me" or "Jesus appeared to me in a vision to tell me what is going to happen." You will hear this time and again in a number of videos. WARNING! Matt. 24:24 “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect." It is time for us to read our Bible -- the Word of God -- instead of going after these false prophets!          Let us begin with the presidential election.     Donald Trump vs Joe Biden Presidential Election                    In the Old Testament, we are told that the punishment of false prophets is stoning to death. This shows
Read more

HOW RIDICULOUS CAN THIS FALSE PROPHET STRETCH THE SCRIPTURES?

False prophet, Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj is spewing out all sorts of theological rubbish and sadly, people are gullible to follow after him.      As our Lord warned us that in the last days, there will be many of such false prophets who will deceive even the elect, we ought to be more careful.      In this video, the false prophet from India made the following bizarre claims that:  (1) The Lord told him why his 22-year-old associate was called home. He claimed that God told him that there was a need to recruit young people so that God could raise up an army with these young people.       This is absolutely rubbish! The LORD of Sabaoth is already the LORD of a great army. In fact, in Hebrew,  יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת is translated as "LORD of Hosts", which means that He is the Lord of a mighty army.      God does not need an additional young person in the army of God in the way this false prophet puts it. Instead, all of us -- whether we die young or old  ( כָּל )-- will be given a new b
Read more

Take Speculation out of Revelation

Image
  Ottheinrich (Rev4-5)  By Stephen Ng   A lot of things in Revelation are not for speculation. To be true to the meaning of the metaphors and symbols used this concluding book of the New Testament, we have to take Speculation out of Revelation.          The author John wrote this: “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book” (Rev 22:18). This is a very strong word of caution against all sorts of speculations.          Instead, we should be like Mary mulling over the word of God when the Angel Gabriel first revealed to her that she would have a son, whose name will be as Hebrew suggests, יְשׁוּעָ means, ‘Saviour.’          Mary did not jump into the conclusion like the zealots, who were looking for a political deliverer. When Jesus entered into Jerusalem on a colt, the people shouted, “Hosanna!” (which in Hebrew, means, ‘Deliver us, please!’). Understandably,
Read more

DO YOU BELIEVE IN A FALSE PROPHET AND APOSTLE?

Image
              They no longer use crystal balls, but laptops.           I  will show you from the scriptures that the office of prophets and apostles is the very foundation of God's household; thereafter, I will give you some hints on how to exercise some discernment.               The Bible tells us in  Hebrews 1:1-3 that: God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.          In short, in these last days (or in Greek,  ἐσχάτου) our focus is to hear the Son of God. He no longer speaks through the agency of the prophets as He did "long ago" (πάλαι), but through Christ Himself. The Bible is the written Word of God that we should always go to if we want to know who our God is
Read more

Be Warned of latest group from Korea entering Malaysia

Image
  I was asked about a so-called 'mission' group known as InterCP International from Korea.          A friend of a fellow OCFer has a daughter who is supposed to join  a short trip with  a “mission” group. The father wanted to know more about this organisation, and started enquiring about it more.          I thought this was the Mission Frontiers  that I had known back in Australia.  Even the title of the brochure used words that were similar to the organisation.           However, something prompted me to take a look at the organisation's website again. I made enquiries with a number of people,  but no one appears to know anything about this organisation which has set its base in Malaysia, until a missionary friend of mine responded. She said she would check with a Korean missionary counterpart of hers.           This is his advice. I have modified the names of the people in the chat to protect their identity. Marilyn James is my friend while Richard Richardson is a Korean.
Read more

Flawed and false teachings are spreading fast

Image
  In recent years, we have seen an increase in all kinds of flawed and some even blatantly  false teachings that pastors have no choice but to find ways to warn, educate and protect their flocks against these ravenous wolves.           It is not enough these days to just have a good Sunday sermon; even more important is both Word-based and proper theological grounding for your flock, and making sure that they are fully aware of the various kinds of false teachings these days. A lot of people "join" these groups without realizing what they are getting into.         Due to the widespread usage of social media, these influences are also spreading very fast and unknowingly affecting your church members . Overnight, we see such people appearing on the social media with all kinds of strange doctrines.           There are also many warnings a nd exposé made by individuals or groups about some preachers such as Kenneth Copeland, Peter Wagner and the New Apostolic Reformation, Kenn
Read more

BE CAUTIOUS LEST WE BE FOUND SPEAKING FALSE PROPHECIES

Image
  We have to be extra cautious not to turn our own New Year well wishes into a prophecy lest we be found to be giving false prophecies (see video).           I believe God has also used the US presidential election to confound many so-called popular "prophets" and "apostles" who claimed that Donald Trump would become a second-term president. Religion is used as a tool towards a political agenda.           One even said he was asked to look into God’s scroll and urged people to pray:  "Between Nov 3 and Jan 20, anything can happen to overturn, right? So, you want to don't stop praying till Nov 3, you want to continue till Mr Trump is safely installed (inaugurated) on Jan 20."  (1)         Watch how this jerk from India speaks:           I am not a fan of Trump and I didn’t even know who Joe Biden is until the election but I saw how false prophets were making all sorts of declarations that Trump would win. One even used Divine Code to make such predicti
Read more

DOING CHURCH AND SEMINARY DIFFERENTLY IN 21st CENTURY

Image
29 March 2020 It was just in December 2019 that I wrote on my blog urging seminaries to go on the digital platform to reach a wider audience, especially countries where training of lay leaders is still very lacking or where it is too expensive to set up a seminary. This was just three months ago and I sensed the deep resistance. However, God in His wonderful ways lifted up this resistance with His one little finger what I could not do through my clarion call. He sent the COVID-19 outbreak to force all of us to go online. In short, digital. Would we still let go of this platform after the Movement Control Order (MCO) is lifted, or would we make this part of a permanent hybrid platform for both churches and seminaries? In short, we have the physical seminary or church; at the same time, the classes and services are broadcast online. Are we ready for this new way of doing church and seminary? This is a question that I would like us to think about seriously. When things go
Read more

APPALLING AND SHOCKING DISTORTION OF SCRIPTURES

Image
          In my earlier blog post, I wrote, " Grounded in Scriptures to avoid being swayed by all winds of doctrines ." For the sake of people who find my blog posts a bit too long to digest, I have summarised below. Some I will name later if they persist with their flawed teachings; others are already making an impact on many that have been misled with their false teachings. In the last days, we know that we have many wolves in sheep's clothings. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------           It is shocking when I heard a preacher claimed that the letter Alef א  has a hidden meaning in it -- that it represents the crucifixion of Christ.           Confidently, he described how the letter aleph is made up of the letter wav ו (meaning, a peg) and two yods י (meaning, two hands).          Of course, people without any knowledge of the Hebrew language would be mesmerised, but not for me. As a atudent of
Read more

WHAT ABOUT THE GIFT OF PROPHECY?

Image
  There have been many debates in the social media whether Trump or Biden should win in the presidential election. That is because a lot of people have been listening to false prophets who claim that they heard the Lord telling them that Trump would serve the next term.          Whether Trump or Biden will be the president of the United States of America is really none of my business. As God has even used Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar or even the Persian King Cyrus, there is no reason why God cannot use both of them to fulfill His blueprint which even Satan will never be able to guess or know.           What I am more interested is: "What does God say in His Word?" What is the role of the prophets both in the Old Testament and the present era? Are there still prophets today? What about prophecy as a gift of the Holy Spirit?  Let me Illustrate           We have 66 books in the entire Bible. Many of us have not even read all 66 books of the Bible and if a Bible quiz is conduct
Read more