Why does everything about god have to be interpreted?

Question

The bible requires "guidance and understanding from the holy spirit" to interpret it correctly. People speak in tongues, but they must have someone else translate it for us.
Why does it seem that everything about god has to be interpreted for us?
Doesn't this raise any theists suspicions a little bit?

Answer 1

So they have an excuse when a skeptical person reads the bible and says "This is such bull$hit, it doesn't make any sense!" and they can say...." well that's just because you did not let god in your heart to interpret it for you." or some other such nonsense.

Answer 2

There is nothing to interprete.
Because the Word of God is beyond time and space.
Because the Word of God is Eternal,
as God Himself is Eternal.
The problem is about understanding.
Does everyone understand perfectly the Word of God ?
It's nothing else.

" 20this first knowing, that no prophecy of the Writing doth come of private exposition,

21for not by will of man did ever prophecy come,
but by the Holy Spirit borne on holy men of God spake. "
2 Peter 1: 20 - 21 ( YLT )

Amen

Answer 3

No, it does not raise suspicions. Everything has to be interpreted because we are finite being trying to understand the infinite.

Also the way language as a form of comunication works, any use of language will involve interpretation. Just look at this forum and the divide between various belief/non-belief groups. One person writes one thing, and then its interpreted as something seeming completely different.

Answer 4

Because, as it says in Scripture, "Gods ways are not our ways". God is not human, but entirely different. This of course leads to the question "Well, God can do anything right? Why doesn't He just present Himself so that no interpretation is needed?" I believe that God presents Himself as He does deliberately so that we have to make a conscious positive choice to seek Him. God wants us to commit to Him, rather than be passive receivers. We have to actively seek Him, and seek to know Him. We need the Holy Spirit to guide us because we in our limited human understanding and intellect, cannot know Him without His help and guidance. One of the biggest fallacies of this age is the idea that all things are attainable solely through the human intellect and the human will. This is not true. We need God. Asking God's help in determining His will for us, and correctly discerning what He is telling us, is all part of the process. It helps to give us the proper humility, and reminds us of who is really in charge here - Him, not us.

Answer 5

I am not aware of a single person who has ever had a conversation or write something that was written who did not have to "interprete" it. Any time information comes to you are words, you have to listen and then determine the meaning of the words. You may have to pay attention to the situation or context in which it is said. (Tell me exactly what I mean by the word "it" without knowing the situation in which it is spoken). You may have to relate the statement to things said earlier in the conversation. You might have to consider who the speaker is, or what their motive is in making the statement before you will fully understand what they mean.

Why would the Bible be any different?

Answer 6

I did not understand Algebra until someone showed me & I studied it....
You just don't "read" the Bible- you have to study it- many places in the Bible tell stories w/ a moral.. then there are places where Old & New Testament go hand in hand..etc..
I believe there is much more to the word than we have even touched on-- Which is why I believe there are "certain" churches that do NOT want us searching it for ourselves.
They only want you to know so much --- Which is dangerous.

Answer 7

Frankly there are quite a few times in the Gospels when a lot of people would far rather He WAS less clear.

A) I, if I be lifted up, will lift ALL men unto Me. Dumps all over the predestinarian sects.

B) Peter, thy name means "rock" and upon this rock I will set my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Dumps on Martin Luther and all his cohorts and "spritual descendants" who got their start asserting that the gates of hell did indeed prevail against the Church.

C) Peter, I give to you the keys of the Kingdoms of Heaven and Earth. Whatsoever you bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven. And no matter how you try to weasel around it, that clearly states the case for papal infallibility in matters of faith and morals.

D) If you were to lead even the least of mine astray it would be better for you to have a millstone tied round your neck and be cast into the sea. Talk about overt threat to false teachers!

E) Go unto all the world and teach the gospel to all. That's a pretty straight-forward commandment.

F) Love one another as I have loved you. So's that one.

G) This is my body. Note he didn't say this is sorta like my body or this is a memorial of my sacrifice. He flat-footedly said, "THIS IS MY BODY." Ditto for "THIS IS MY BLOOD". Ritual cannabalism. Even some of His early followers couldn't swallow (pun intended) that one and they left off following them. Guess what? He let them go! If He wasn't serious, why didn't He just say, Hey fellas. I'm speaking metaphorically or allegorically. BUT NO, He said what He meant and He meant what He said. Like it or leave it! Clearer than that it's hard to get!

'Nough said.

Answer 8

Actually, Christ chose apostles to go forh and teach & baptise. That's how Christ intended the faith to be spread. He never wrote anything, and never told His apostles to write anything. Its wonderful that they DID write the books of the New Testament, and those books are inspired by God. But, the structure of the Church, and the mode of transmitting the truth, is still as Christ made it, through the apostles (and today, their successors) and His Church.
http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect1chpt2.htm#art3

Answer 9

ht is not must that one needs an interpret or, many understand it as their higher self reveals it to them, and so is the case of speaking in tongues. I believe the true revelations happen automatically to certain people , and it is due to the purity of their hearts, and their trust and faith in their religion and faith. It happens in automatic trance, not in created hypno trance. The created Hypno trance is magical, as your own will operates in it, but in automatic trance the very subtle divine energies work..

Answer 10

Another Great Question.

That's the difference between reading and revelation. There's a difference.

Chapter 21 of Gospel Enigma covers it nicely.