7/19/12 Henry,
62
After picking up a
few groceries I decided to try to initiate a gospel conversation before heading
up to the cash registers. One person I
spoke with was an older man named Henry, who welcomed a conversation about his
beliefs. He said something I found hard
to argue with. "The Bible can be
interpreted in so many ways. How can we
know which one is right?" Before I started
witnessing regularly I think I would have argued against his claim. I might have thought "There is only one
way to interpret it - my way!" But
I have met so many people who have had very different interpretations of the Bible.
Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, other cults
members, people from mainline denominational churches, modern evangelicals and
others have told me their very different interpretations of different parts of
the Bible. But Henry reached a
conclusion that I absolutely don't agree with. He decided that since so many people have so
many opinions about it, it isn't worth reading. In fact, he hasn't read it since his catechism
class about 50 years ago as a teenager. In the meantime, he has formed opinions of God
that are based only on his own wishful thinking, and ideas about what the Bible
says that simply are not true. I really couldn't
share biblical truths with Henry because if he didn't like them he would simply
say "Well that's your interpretation". Among the people I've talked to who claim
there are many interpretations I've noticed a simple and logical pattern: the
further they get away from actually reading what it says and start depending on
the opinions of others, the more they misinterpret it. I had a simple challenge for Henry and for
anyone who says it is subject to interpretation - "You've got to read it
for yourself!".
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