The Importance of Careful Bible Study

The Phrasing can Mislead if not Studied Carefully

Sometimes a verse can appear to say one thing when in fact it says something entirely different:
"But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." (1 Timothy 3:15)
The grammar of this verse is constructed so that it could be understood to say either that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth or that God is the pillar and ground of the truth. Even the original Greek is worded in such a way that grammatically we could read the sentence either way and both are accurate. The Roman Catholic church, and consequently many Protestant denominations, have decided that this verse is teaching that the church is the pillar and ground of truth.

If the church is the pillar and ground of truth, then how can one church teach that Christ died for every human being while another teaches that He died only for the elect? How can one church teach that the Sabbath is Sunday while another teaches that it is Saturday? Take your pick of topics. There is almost no topic where all churches are in agreement as to what the Bible teaches. How can two churches teach conflicting doctrines and both be the pillar and ground of truth? The obvious answer is, they can’t. The church is not the pillar and ground of truth.

When read correctly, this verse should be understood as saying, “behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God who is the pillar and ground of the truth.” It is not the church that is the pillar and ground of truth, it is God:
"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 3:11)

God could have written First Timothy 3:15 so that it could easily be understood whether it is the church or God who is the pillar and ground of truth. The fact that He wrote it so that we would have to compare it to the rest of the Bible in order to determine truth is an example of one way God tests Bible students.

Always Examine the Context

It is important to always examine a verse in its context. Take the following verse for example:
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:" (John 1:12)
This verse is commonly offered as support for the free-will doctrine which states that we have to "accept Jesus" in order to become saved. However, that conclusion doesn't harmonize with the rest of the Bible which teaches that we can't do anything to get ourselves saved. Only God can save His elect. Our salvation is not based upon anything we did or desired (see Study on Salvation). The above verse is really only the first half of the sentence. The second half is found in the verse that follows it and when we read the complete sentence we can more clearly see the true nature of salvation being taught as it indicates that our salvation is based on the will of God, not on our own will:
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (1 John 1:12-13)

There are two ways we can receive something: passively or actively. If someone is giving away balloons and I walk over to that vendor and grab a balloon, then I have actively received it. If I stay where I am and he brings the balloon to me, then I have passively received it. When we read this verse in light of the rest of the Bible we know that we receive salvation passively. We do not become saved as a result of any action on our part.

Apparent Contradictions in the Original Manuscripts

There are those who point out apparent contradictions in the Bible in order to prove that it cannot be trusted for 100% accuracy. The sad thing is that many, if not most, of these people are professing Christians. It is true that our English translations may contain translation errors because the translators were not perfect, but the original manuscripts do not contain errors or contradictions. Take the following two verses for example:
"And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand." (Numbers 25:9)
"Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand." (1 Corinthians 10:8)
The numbers in these verses were accurately translated so many would argue that even in the original manuscripts the Bible contains contradictions and therefore has errors. However, a clear explanation is that 23,000 died of the plague in one day and an additional 1,000 died the next or previous day. I believe this is another test for the Bible student that God has placed in the Bible. Are we going to trust that God's Word is inerrant? If not, God has accomodated our doubts by providing apparent contradictions.

Apparent Contradictions in Translations

Sometimes a contradiction doesn't exist in the original manuscripts but it shows up in our English translations. How many stalls did Solomon have for his horses? 4,000 or 40,000?:
"And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem." (2 Chronicles 9:25)
"And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen." (1 Kings 4:26)
This is possibly the most commonly mentioned supposed contradiction in the entire Bible. If we check the Hebrew text we discover that the numbers 4,000 and 40,000 were accurately translated so how do we reconcile this? As it turns out, the word "stalls" in these verses is not the same Hebrew word. However, they are extremely similar to each other:

The word on the left is the Hebrew word translated "stalls" in 2 Chronicles 9:25 and the word on the right is the one translated "stalls" in 1 Kings 4:26. They are very similar, but not the same. The difference here is as subtle as the English difference between "stable" and "stall." They both are used in relation to the housing of horses, but a stall can be a portion of a stable. In other words, a stable can have many stalls and I believe that is how we are to understand the difference in these verses. The Hebrew word on the left is similar to our Englih word "stable" and therefore Solomon's stables each had 10 stalls; or perhaps he had 4,000 stables, each with varying number of stalls that added up to 40,000 stalls in total.