At this point we feel it would be wise to give some guiding principles regarding the interpretation of Scripture.

We have seen that all the Bible is God-breathed and is a revelation of His Thoughts and His Truth to men. To reveal

these He has used human language, but the problem for us is how to keep what is human and fallible from the

translation and interpretation we place on this language. If this is not done, then the Word of God cannot speak with

authority as God meant it to do, and it can give us no sure ground for our faith.

`Thus saith the Lord' is the way the Old Testament prophets spoke and this is the way the Bible as the revelation

of God is intended to speak to us. Authority we must have; some place this in the human intellect, but this at the

best is fallible, and therefore can never give us the certain basis that we need. Such criticize the Scriptures,

forgetting that the Word of God is the supreme Critic, alive (quick) and powerful, sharper than any two-edged

sword, a critic (literally) of the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12). It is God's province to judge us, not

ours to judge Him. His Word sits in judgment on us; it is not our province to sit in judgment on His Word. Such

subjectivism, at its root, is nothing more than the parent sin of pride and rebellion: the refusal to subjugate the

human mind and reason to God, thus turning it into an idol, which is in itself the very spirit of antichrist.

The apostle Paul does not hesitate to refer to the Old Testament as the Holy Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:15), and if this

is true of the Old Testament, it must be true of the New Testament also, for the two are indissolubly linked together.

So we find that the apostle Peter includes the epistles of Paul with the other Scriptures (2 Pet. 3:16). Paul himself

asserts that his letter to the church at Corinth was `the commandments of the Lord' (1 Cor. 14:37) and `words which

the Holy Ghost teacheth' (1 Cor. 2:13), and the Thessalonian church is commended because, what they received

through his ministry, they treated as the `Word of God' and not the word of man (1 Thess. 2:13). The Christians at

Ephesus had been taught by Christ (Eph. 4:21). It is extremely unlikely that any of them had come under the Lord's

ministry in Palestine in the days of His earthly life. This can only mean that they had received the teaching given

through Paul as the Word of Christ. As later expressed in 1 Timothy 6:3, it was `wholesome words, even the words

of our Lord Jesus Christ'.

Both the Old and New Testaments are God's writings; they are sacred and must therefore be treated with the

utmost reverence and respect, for otherwise how can we hope to receive understanding and blessing from them?

Our aim then is to handle the Word of God carefully and wisely so that, as far as it is possible, the human element

with its fallibility is excluded in its interpretation. If this is not done, the Bible can be made to mean anything, and

truth cannot possibly be realized. As a preparation, two things are necessary.

(1)  The determination to search the Scriptures. God's Word contains inexhaustible spiritual wealth, but His

jewels are not scattered on the surface; we must be prepared to dig for them. God has little use for lazy Christians

who are prepared to receive everything second hand, without any effort on their part. Just as a person cannot do

proper gardening without tools such as a spade or fork, so the believer cannot properly dig into the Scriptures

without the aid of a good concordance.  This is a real necessity, and we recommend Young's Analytical

Concordance for this purpose.

(2)  There must be prayer for, and dependence upon the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Man's intellect,

unaided by God, cannot understand and assimilate Divine Truth. `The natural man receiveth not the things of the

Spirit of God ... neither can he (get to) know them, because they are spiritually discerned' (1 Cor. 2:14). Human

cleverness or education by itself cannot discover it. While we greatly value Christian scholarship, scholars as such

have no monopoly of the Holy Spirit; in fact scholarship, unless kept subservient to God's revealing power, can be

an effective bar to its realization. Many scholars have become blinded by their own scholarship. The Truth of God

is spiritually discerned, and God is willing to bestow this understanding on all who are humble and childlike enough

to receive and sincerely seek for it. Christ said `I thank Thee, O Father ... because Thou hast hid these things from

the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes' (Matt. 11:25). It is only in the spirit of lowliness and

humility that we can receive enlightenment from God. We must also be ready to unlearn as well as to learn. It is

often difficult to cast wrong ideas from the mind, especially when they have become ingrained through faulty

teaching and upbringing. But this is essential if truth is to enter and take possession of our thinking.