Okay, an additional note.
A great many believers think, hope, believe, 'know' that they have "The Truth" because they have been told that they have the truth, a common circular argument within the religious community. Yet, where did all of this mishandling of scripture come from? The truth? Most misinterpretation of scripture comes from the same folks that teach that ‘scripture is to interpret scripture’ and who have received their biblical instruction from teachers who, themselves, were ill equipped in their knowledge of the original biblical languages. The same teachers who could not correctly decipher the meanings of scriptural passages because they did not know nor understand the historical, cultural, religious, or linguistic context of what they were teaching.
The fundamental problem is twofold. First, as noted above, there is a serious lack of knowledge and understanding in the foundation of teacher’s own believe system. In other words, teachers attempt to teach with absolute authority, biblical subjects that they themselves do not truly know nor understand. For example, Emperor Constantine was successful in divorcing his Western Church from its biblical roots, thereby cutting the Western Church loose from its foundation, the Jewish Rabbi, the Hebrew Messiah, Jesus Christ (HaMaschiah Yeshua Natzeret Ben HaAdonai Elohim) and even erased Christ’s religion from its doctrine/ Then to make matters worse, we have completed the job by recasting Jesus into a Western European, who migrated to the North America continent about 300 years ago.
The second problems is once one has become convinced that they have ‘the truth’, they have stopped learning – they are no longer teachable. Most people will reject anything new to their understanding because they fear that the others around them will reject them, for even considering making any changes to their personal believe system. Frequently, when a church leader speaks of studying the Bible, they are not talking about discovering more of the truth of God contained within those scriptures, they are talking about a religious indoctrination according to the currently acceptable church dogma, as prescribed by a group of self-appointed men who authorized themselves to make such decisions on behalf (and independent) of everyone else. Accordingly, it seems that Pastors think of themselves as another latter-day Mosses, and that they now sit upon his seat at the head of the congregation, whereby they issue their personal Bible commentaries for all to hear and obey – questions and discussions are not allowed, only obedience.
Are these harsh indictments? Yes, but they are also true. In addition to the testimony of hundreds of others (even thousands), I have witnessed firsthand many such failings within spiritual leadership myself, in a good many churches all across this land. What passes for teaching among so many churches are right/wrong games, where the pastor’s view of scripture puts him/her and if you will agree as instructed, above all of those other churches in the world – even better than some that are pastured by men/women in the same religious organization! Like the Roman Catholic Church with their history of child molestations, sooner or later the spiritual molestation that goes on within the Protestant communities will burst forth and will have to be dealt with.
The lesson to take away from this thread is this. Anyone who manipulates scripture, in any manner whatsoever, regardless of their purpose or justification, does violence to the word of God to their own destruction, and perhaps to the destruction of many others. Even so, what is one to do when the teachers themselves are uninstructed?
Fear God and Him alone, is not a cry you will hear from many pulpits. Nor will you hear the words, “Follow me as I follow Christ, and test everything I say and do to see if it be true.”, where the speaker actually means and practices it
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