why do christians say youre taking it out of context, when all someone is doing is quoting thier bible?

Question

How is quoting the bible taking it out of context? SO what if it is in a negative light, maybe the ones taking it out of context are the literalists????

Answer 1

Because that's the only thing they CAN say when the Bible is obviously WRONG about something. Because, for them, it CAN'T be wrong.

Answer 2

There can be many ways the bible can be taken out of context, just like any thing can be. Typically when the bible is taken out of context someone is taking just part of a scripture to make their point. However, if you look at the whole scripture in context you realize that what the person said was actually using incorrect facts. It is like if you tell someone you hate when they act a certain way and that person then starts telling everyone that you hate them. That is an example of aking something out of context when it is a near direct quote.

Answer 3

Before quoting any scripture, you should read 20 verses before it and 20 verses after it to see what context it is written in. Case in point. If I had a sentence that said "I know you would never kill yourself', but I took part of it out of context, it could say "Kill yourself". Totally different meaning. Many people will take verses out of context because in doing so you can prove just about anything that you want to prove. The Bible admonishes against this, and says to make sure that you "rightly divide" the Word.

Answer 4

I have been told this many times. Of course, as an atheist, anything I take from the bible is considered out of context.

When I say: From Genesis 2:

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And take this as a possible argument for pro-choice people, it is "taking it out of context". It says right here that man was not alive until he took his first breath "of life".

Or, the following from Genesis 4:

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I take that as a great argument to be used condoning the death penelty. Whoever kills another man shall suffer worse.

But, like I said, given my lack of belief in the writings of the bible, I always am said to take it out of context.

Answer 5

Setting up "straw men", I see. When Christians, or anyone else, accuses one of taking something out of context, it simply means your "selected" verbage does not reflect the idea originally intended. If you don't easily understand this fact, you either have a literacy problem, or, you are simply putting forthe an indefensible position for nothing more than the sake of argument about matters you obviously know little or nothing about. Neither is a sign of intelligence.

Answer 6

OK where to begin. Lets see. Lets go with the theif hanging next to Jesus being crucified. Jesus said to the theif, TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE. Most people actually believe that the theif went with Jesus up to heaven as soon as they both died. They take that one verse and make it fit their belief. We know Jesus did not acsend to heaven after he died, because HE said that HE would be dead for three days. Plus on the day HE did resurrect HE told Mary, TOUCH ME NOT, FOR I HAVE NOT YET ACSENDED TO MY FATHER. There are more verses that conclude that the theif did not go to paradise the day he died. But people take that one verse and that is all they want to hear.

So if the theif didn't go to paradise with Jesus that day, does this make Jesus a liar? No it does not. First of all Jesus says Paradise, not Heaven. Jesus spoke of nothing but His Father's Kingdom or of Paradise. The Paradise is here on earth. The Bible clearly tells us this if we read it in whole and not bits and peices. Secondly we know that the early writers did not use vowels or comma's. So, lets use a comma in the verse where Jesus is promising the theif to be in Paradise. Verily, Verily, I say unto you today, You will be with me in Paradise. Does this not make more sense to harmonize with the rest of God's words? Jesus was just telling the theif today, that he would be in Paradise.

God is perfect, but man is not and mistakes were made when the writers wrote the bible. Alot of words were mistranslated. A good concordance is a great study guide.

I believe that most people do take verses out of context, because they don't take the time or effort to see the bible as a whole.

Answer 7

For example: in the ongoing gun control debate in the US, it is common for folks to quote the Second Amendment to the Constitution which states "...the right to keep and bear arms..."

However, rarely is the previous clause which says, "...in a well-regulated militia..." ever mentioned.

To quote one without the other is quoting out of context and is misleading and disingenuous.

Answer 8

Because you cant take one sentence out of a paragraph and say it says something when in fact if you read the entire thing it becomes clear what the sentence means. Same with anything you read, if you take one sentence out of the Lord of the Rings doesn't mean that is what J R R Tolkin is trying to get across in the book.

Answer 9

Let me tell you: a man whose intelligence I actually respect said "A text, minus context, is a pretext." -- Which is to say that out of context anything can mean whatever you decide it should. Citing things out of their proper context facilitates misrepresentation... ergo the widespread disdain, among smart folk, for the sound bite culture of popular media.

Context keeps it real, relevant, undistorted.

Answer 10

Another good one is when someone says that an error in the bible or a contradiction in the bible is due to "mistranslation".

Ok, that proves that the bible is capable of error and is thus not a divine book. If one part can be mistranslated, then the whole thing can be mistranslated.

Also, a lot of people forget about the work that men did to put the bible together. It has been committeed, reviewed, and edited.

Answer 11

Because just cutting and pasting one verse with out the full chapter is taking the bible out of context. To understand one verse one needs to read the before and after chapters.