Month: January 2022

The Bible is paradoxical.

Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16)

OK, great. So if they have good fruit, then they’re a good apple, right? Um… not so fast.

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” (Matthew 7:22)

Clearly, these people had good fruit, but they were bad apples.

So how exactly do know who’s a good apple and who’s a bad apple?

If they have bad fruit, they’re probably a bad apple, but even good apples have bad fruit sometimes. Case in point… The man after God’s own heart, David, who orchestrated a married man’s death to cover up his adultery.

If they have good fruit, they might be a good apple, but they could also be a bad apple.

So the conclusion is… it’s pretty much impossible to know for sure, who’s a good or bad apple.

It is no surprise over the centuries, people twist the Bible to say whatever they want. And it’s no different today. No we might not want to admit that we do, but we do. Whatever we like in the Bible, we keep. Whatever we don’t like, we dismiss. What do I mean by this?

You remember when the Catholics were selling indulgences? They needed money so they preyed on the illiterate and told them that if they buy indulgences they can help their deceased ones go to heaven. You can imagine the Bible verses or Biblical concepts that were spun to get people to give money away. Now that’s a pretty egregious example. Let’s look at some modern day ones.

In 1 Corinthians 11, women are to have their heads covered when praying or prophesying. Very few women would say that it applies to this day. It’s dismissed as cultural. And the women who want to do head coverings will say that it applies to today. You kinda get my point here? We cherry pick what we want the Bible to say.

Same thing with remarriage. The Bible prohibits remarriage if you had the adulterous affair or you “fell out of love”, but people don’t care about what the Bible says about this. They’ll spin it somehow to make it seem like “Yeah, I was wrong, but no one’s perfect. Plus, I met a new person who’s cool. I think God wants to give me another chance so I’m gonna marry him/her.” And of course, you can cherry pick any verses you want about how God’s giving you a second chance to justify your actions.

OK. I think you get what I’m saying. So this is just a warning to both me and you not to spin the Bible into saying what we want to hear. If we do, we’re gonna be in big trouble.