Lance, God desires for His children to understand scripture. That is why He gives us the power of His indwelling Holy Spirit.
But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. (Matt 22:29)
Jesus said to them, "Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God? (Mark 12:24)
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. (Luke 24:45)
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.(II Tim 3:16)
...in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. (II Peter 3:46-48)
Someone has probably pointed this out to you, Izzy, but your opening statement is not supported in scripture. The Holy Spirit does a lot of things but it does not interpret scripture for us. Not a single scripture you listed above supports your claim.
Both you and Judy believe this. That is why grammar and logic and hermeneutical rules have no place in your (the both of you) theology. And they don't. It took me lowe these many months to figure that out but this most recent exchange brought that fact to light.
Don't you see that if God through the Spirit interpreted a passage, He would only need to make that presentation to one person and then ask that rest of us give credence to that single individual. Judy thinks her view is from God through the Spirit, but not so with Lance, or Slade, or little old me, or Terry or Jonathan, or the Gman, or DavidH or Jeff (who owes me a responding post, by the way) or whoever happens to disagree with her at the time.
I am working on a response to one of your posts (Izzy) and to Judy. In the meantime, I am reading and listening. One thing Lance said that struck in a personal way, was a criticism of those who assert "the Bible says thus and so." I do this myself when in fact, I believe that it is always wrong to say "the Bible says ...." and it is always right to say "I believe the Bible says ....." Once in a while, I need to be reminded of what I believe.
a brother
John
