Craig Keener: Bad Bible Proof-Texts (Part 1)

today we're talking about bad proof texts I'm going to start with some Old Testament examples but first when somebody quotes you out of context and distorts your meaning how do you feel I've been quoted out of context a number of times sometimes by scholars sometimes by journalists although I appreciate the mention but sometimes occasionally it's been such that the meaning sounds almost exactly the opposite of what I intended and I find it very embarrassing what do you do when somebody quotes you out of context do you sue them and yet very often we quote the Bible out of context is God gonna sue us I'll give you an example from Psalm 50 verse 10 where it says the cattle on a Thousand Hills belong to God every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a Thousand Hills what does that mean that God has lots of cows and you know he has some despairs so he'll give us some and you know since we don't really need any cows many of us will just sell them off get the cash and buy what we want maybe we should examine the context first the context of Psalm 50 is a covenant lawsuit where God is suing his people it says he summons the heavens above and the earth that he may judge his people well back in Deuteronomy God said that they were the witnesses the Covenant the heavens on the earth so he's summoning them to a legal situation gather to me Mike consecrated once I made a covenant with me by sacrifice the heavens proclaim God's righteousness for God is Judge here my people and I will testify against you oh now now they're in trouble God is the judge and God is also going to testify as a witness and then God tells him what he's not prosecuting them for he says I don't reprove you for your sacrifices and your offerings because quite frankly Israel I don't actually need them many people in the ancient Near East thought that God's depended on on the people sacrifice so the gods would become weak from not eating enough well God says if I were hungry if I really were hungry I wouldn't tell you the world is mine and all that's in it the point he's making is not a I have some extra callus here take some the point that he's making is don't think that your sacrifices make you right with me look I don't need your cows they all belong to me anyway if I wanted one I would just take it now that doesn't mean God won't provide for our needs it does mean that that's not a verse to use to support it another verse that sometimes gets quoted out of context some of some of us sing that song this is the day that the Lord is made I won't try to sing it for you because I don't want word to get around among thousands of people who watch this video how badly Craig keener sinks but in any case psalm 118 verse 24 this is the day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it let's start a few verses back in verse 22 of psalm 118 the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief Cornerstone this is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in their eyes this is the day that the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it so he's probably not saying this is the day the Lord has made every other Tuesday or every every Wednesday the Lord has made or every day the Lord has made we should rejoice in it I mean the Bible does say rejoice in the Lord always but that's not probably the point of this text the point of this text is more phenomenal than that it's referring to the special day that the stone was rejected by the builders and God made at the chief Cornerstone and of course we know the application of that principle in the new testament that this is a celebration of the victory that god has brought about for us in christ i don't know if you ever sing about the lily of the valley or the Rose of Sharon well that's appropriate as long as we don't read that back into the biblical text because yeah Jesus Jesus is is beautiful the fairest among ten thousand yes but what do those lines actually mean in the Song of Solomon well in Song of Solomon 1:2 when he talks about the the Rose of Sharon the lily of the valleys look look in the sorry 2-1 in in the very next verse like a lily among thorns so is my darling among the maidens he's not talking about Jesus he's not even talking about Solomon's Solomon himself he's talking about Solomon's bride and this this fits the romance genre again we love Jesus we can be romantic with Jesus so sometimes we can use the language that way but that's not what this originally means it's ancient Romance language I mean today we might light candles might go out for dinner or something like that but romance was handled in a different way in ancient literature Spring has come the voice of the Turtledove is heard in the land fertility apples raisins and so on that was that was romantic language back then his banner over me his love he brought me to his banqueting table mmm and so you don't know who's watching this I probably shouldn't even go into those details you look like one of Pharos horses well normally today I mean I wouldn't probably say that to my wife as an expression of her beauty it might even get me in trouble if I tried to say that to my wife my wife is very beautiful but let me not be distracted but but but you look like one of the Pharaohs horses in Song of Solomon I mean it may simply be saying Pharaoh's horses were beautiful and you're beautiful but some some scholars have also suggested that it was a military strategy that when the Hittites were attacking the Egyptians would loose a mayor that would distract all the hittite stallions from their war based thing that they were doing now if that's the case what he's saying is my love you are so beautiful that you just utterly distract me from everything else in any case you get the idea Joel chapter 2 and verse 9 there's a song about this they rush on the city they run in the wall they climb into the houses the end of the windows through the thief rush on the city run in the wall the army that carries out God's Word is who is this invading army is it well actually in context it's talking about an invading army of a locust plague and it's talking about judgment so this is a text about judgment Joel chapter 3 and verse 10 we often sing that song but let the weak say I am strong hopefully despite my being off-key you can understand what the song is what's a great song and it's true theologically his power is perfected in weakness we have that menu Testament as well however the particular wording comes from a translation of Joel chapter 3 and verse 10 let the weak say I am strong let the weak say I'm someone mighty well the context of that is that God is gathering the nations to judgment and he says okay you want to you want to fight against Israel you want to fight against my people okay proclaim this among the nations prepare a war beat your plowshares into swords let the weak say I am strong I'm gonna wipe you out my encouragement to you is that if God is using you to write songs please the verses up in context before you write the songs I'm going to give some examples in the next lesson from the New Testament of some bad proof texts

Channel: Seedbed

Views: 12,277

Rating: 4.9428573 out of 5

Keywords: Seedbed, Christianity, Asbury Theological Seminary, Craig S. Keener, Craig Keener, Bible, Biblical Interpretation, The Bible (Religious Text)

Id: O2ELLDgF7mA

Length: 8min 12sec (492 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 24 2015