Who decides how the bible is interpreted?

Question

Don't say "God", i mean about who goes to hell or not, the bible doesn't say "You must all ACCEPT jesus as your saviour", it says about belief in him, God didn't give us an interpretation, we should all do it for ourselves.

Answer 1

The Bible does indeed say, in fact Jesus Himself who is the Word made flesh who authenticates the Bible says, "I am THE Way, THE Truth, & THE Life. *No one* comes to the Father but through me," John 14:6.

Think on this, if Jesus were not the only way, we would have to work our way to heaven. That would be a way to gaurantee boasting & arrogance, etc. etc.. (In fact that's what we see of people who do believe this way. Look at what Islam does.) That's not what the Christian life is about. It's about Christ crucified *for us*.

How would you like it if someone took a heart-felt & honest letter you wrote to them & twisted the words to mean what *they wanted it to mean* rather than reading it to *understand what you meant for it to say*? For example, you write to your loved one that her face is beautiful & she interprets it, "you think my body is ugly". When you write a letter, you have something specific in mind for the reader of that letter. You don't want it to be read in 50 different ways according to what the reader wants to hear.

We know that we wouldn't want to be treated that way, so why do we treat God's Word as if He would want to be treated that way? If you don't have a brain, at least use your heart.

Proper & systematic exegesis & hermeneutics were designed so that we could take God at His Word & not twist His Word to mean what we, in our sinful, finite & ungrateful state, want to hear. Did we (you) not learn anything from the Reformation? I suggest you learn about the abuses of the Roman Catholic church who used your reasoning to spiritually suppress, if not physically torture defenseless people. The cure? The premise of the Reformation--Grace alone, Faith alone, Scripture alone!

Consider that by wanting to "interpret" God's Word so that you hear what you want to hear, you are being very ungrateful for the gift that has been given to you freely, but at great, great cost to Jesus Christ! You spit on Him when you do so. Why would you want to intentionally do that? Better yet, why would you want to do that & then call yourself a Christian?

Answer 2

Well I'm not in any way trying to invoke any
criticism or offense with this answer.

Theology is interpreted many ways I fully agree, and it can be dangerous to the faith
if taken wrong.
I believe that the best answer is that any verse in scripture is backed up by another
verse somewhere in the bible.
When dealing with theology of certain scriptures that are hard to understand.
Interpreting a belief system is better by taking the entire bible at heart than one or two scriptures.

Answer 3

The Scripture says that we are to "...work out your own salvation with FEAR and TREMBLING (respect for the content of God's Word)." This means obedience of His salvation plan as outlined in Acts 2 and various other places, as well as living a sanctified, pious life thereafter. The Apostle Paul said in part, "Mortify (kill, stop committing) ye the deeds of the flesh...." God deosn't decide who goes to Heaven or Hell; WE do through obedience or disobedience. If we deny Jesus, we deny God in turn, for Jesus was God manifested in the flesh in order for us to have a way out from under the sincurse we are all born under. This is why Paul said what I mentioned above as well as, "we are ALL (Christian and sinner alike) APT (liable) to sin." The Bible says itself that the Word of God is "spiritually given and spiritually discerned (interpreted). It means that we are to use common sense and teaching from God-led ministries and our own personal study to come "to the full conclusion of the matter" as the Scripture says.

Answer 4

It is self-interpreting.The reason for differences in doctrine is simply because some people have tunnel vision on a given passage and create doctrine on it without looking for ample prooftexts throughout Scripture.Then,churchgoers blindly follow those teachings instead of being Bereans.

Answer 5

Properly--let the Bible interpet itself. Context and other scriptures give the proper interpetation, not just taking one scripture and adding your own understanding. That is a short trip to disaster.

Answer 6

If you're a complete fundamentalist, you're in direct conflict with science.

If you interpret things to mean something different from the literal, you are now using your own ideas and opinions.

Objective fails, subjective fails.

Conclusion: don't believe...

Answer 7

bibles are interpreted by religious leaders to suit how they want their sheep, sorry flock, to behave. There are as many Christian sects as their are types of soda, and they are all just as bad for you.