Find Out What the Bible Really Says
Back to The Bible's Difficult Scriptures Explained!
Applying rule number five of Bible study often resolves misunderstandings. Many misconceptions result because the world is blind to the plain truth of God’s Word. For example, professing Christianity universally teaches that Christ used parables to make His meaning clearer for the “simple minds” of the first century. Not so! “Simplemindedness” was not limited to the first century—there is an abundance of it today.
Why did Christ speak in parables? The Bible says, “And the disciples came, and said unto Him, Why speak You unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given” (Matt. 13:10-11). Why can’t the world understand this?
Spiritual blindness!
Christ continues, “For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Isa 13:12-15).
Isa 13:16-17 refer only to Christ’s disciples and His Church—not to the world or churchianity: “But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.”
Most of the world cannot be faulted for their blindness. Their opportunity for salvation will come when God calls them at a later time. The fact that blindness has been lifted from one’s eyes should be humbling. It is the only reason that we can now understand the Bible.
Notice Luke 17:20-21: “…The kingdom of God comes not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! Or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” To say that God’s kingdom is within people goes against many detailed prophecies in the Bible. Why this apparent contradiction?
First of all, the word “within” occurs only in the King James Version. The next rule helps solve this dilemma.
Rule #6: Examine the Context