How does the Scripture believer know which Scripture interpretation to believe?

Question

since each one is his or her own pope? One teaches one thing and another teaches just the opposite. That is the main reason why there are tens of thousands of Scripture believer sects* in the world today, all teaching something different, and all saying "the Holy Spirit told me". Who has the authority for the Scripture believer to say, "This is the one true meaning of Scripture"? The answer is that there is no authority. It is every Scripture believer for himself in Biblical interpretation which is forbidden by Scripture itself for any Scripture believer to do so, Acts 8:26-38, 2Peter 1:20, 2Peter 3:16.
*The World Christianity Encyclopedia, a Protestant publication. It lists 36,400 as of the middle of 2003.

Answer 1

I want to try to address one particular comment here regarding believers who say the Bible hasn't changed and Gnostics defining the truth about Christianity.

There are numerous ways to validate the Bible we hold in our hands. For example, the documents commonly called "The Dead Sea Scrolls" included many examples of Biblical books shown to be essentially identical from before the birth of Jesus to today. Regarding the New Testament, many external quotations from the various books can be found from nearly the time of their writing. Further, scraps and partial copies of these books, dating to within 10 years of the original author's writing, can be found. From among the tens of thousands of such documentary evidence, there is not so much as one example showing a change to scripture. The book we hold in our hands faithfully represents the words of the various authors and no one has been able to provide evidence to the contrary.

As to the Gnostics, so called "Christians," the fact of this misrepresentation is obvious even in the way it was presented. "Christian" means "follower or imitater of Christ." If they don't believe He ever existed, how could you call them "Christians"? What did they believe?

Gnostics, whose heyday was primarily from 150 to 250 years after the death of Christ, believed that salvation came through "secret revelation." Therefore, the man who had the most and the most bizzarre revelation was the man most esteemed among their group. Needless to say, they had many. Some of their common beliefs included a series of "gods" each creating the next, each ignorant of any prior to them. The God of the Bible, the one who claimed Jesus as His Son, was seen as a wicked, prideful being totally unaware of His own failures. Considering just these things, can someone legitimately call them "followers of Christ Jesus"? Of course not. So what are we to choose from?

On the one hand we have the eyewitness testimony of men who heard directly from God and demonstrated it by such things as absolute and perfect prophecy. We also have the eyewitness testimony of those men who walked along side God in the flesh, reported much of what they saw and heard, none of it contradicted by any writings at the time though anyone alive at that time would have been aware of their words and the truth or falsehoods they contained.

On the other hand, we have men who came along 150 years later, knew nothing first hand, found themselves privy to "secret revelations" (from where one might ask!) contradicting the eyewitness accounts and gaining status within their own group for each such vision.

Who then should we believe? If you were in court, perhaps with your finances, freedom or even life on the line, what would you want the jury's make-up to be? Men and women who listened carefully to the consistent eyewitness accounts without contradictory evidence, or men and women who ignore all of that in favor of the testimony of others who weren't there, who saw and heard nothing relevant, but were somehow imbued with "secret information from the cosmos"?

"Willfully ignorant or lying"? I would say that applies to those who, determined to deny God, never seek out what the Bible says for themselves and instead rely on heresay to form their opinions. Anyone doing a heartfelt and honest search for the truth will have no trouble finding it.

Answer 2

That's just it. People do not put in the time sometimes needed to get the right interpretation. They have not been taught the basic principles of hermeneutics so they are not accurate.
It's an alarming thing and it's happening more often, people think whatever it means to them that's it...even if it means something else.
What kills me, is when you prepare a lesson for days on end, get into the historical, cultural, etc. even into the original Greek to draw out the precise meaning, and after you present it, someone turns right around and says "Well that's just your interpretation. I think it says..."
It is not just a haphazard guess. There are proper rules that guide interpreting.

Answer 3

You have to read the WHOLE Bible that's as close to the original text (and oldest text) as possible. This kind of study requires a lot of time and effort. It also requires the willingness to learn and be challenged. Be willing to accept that you'll never finish learning the Scripture, but will constantly learn something new from it.

Answer 4

Its a scene which Jesus told the christians before,he said that many will use His name Mat 24:24.But be aware you should investigate each spirit which preacher teaches 1 Jn 4:1.And if anyone wants to know who are saying the truth you should carefully and meticulously observe what they are saying Jn 7:17.Dont believe in interprtation of a preacher but find a preacher who will read the bible for the anwer to your question,coz who will explain the word of God?of course He himself coz we dont any rights to explain it Isa 55:8-10

Answer 5

Your distorted understanding is due to your lack of a Holy Spirit within you to guide your understanding. That is what is meant by "private interpretation" rather then the revelations which are possible by the Holy Spirit within us. "Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be open unto you."
A close minded critical approach with no Holy Spirit guidance cannot understand what is meant in the scriptures.

Answer 6

15 Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. 16 Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior.

AND

19 But God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,”
and “All who belong to the Lord must turn away from evil.”

Answer 7

Mathew,Mark, Luke and John confirm each other so if you concentrate on the gospels you have what is needed.

Accept Jesus, be baptized in his name and then follow his condensed 2 commandments Love thy God and Love thy neighbor. Do not condone or justify sin This is all that is needed the rest of the bible is a guide

Answer 8

They pick which Scriptures sound good to their itching ears. Actually the Bible says whose interpretation is to be trusted, it says that the Church is the "bulwark and ground of the truth." Church meaning the original and only Church created by Christ, the Catholic Church.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

Answer 9

Christians claiming the bible hasn't changed are either willfully ignorant or purposely lying.

The 1st century Christians or Gnostics didn't even believe in a literal Jesus, that was a doctrine created by the Romans.

Answer 10

The reason there is so many beliefs in this world is because many do not study the word of God to know what God says. Many go on what their preacher says, or priest, and never study to show thy self approved.