Posted by Steven Benjamin on April 11, 2009, 6:24 pm, in reply to "Re: TRACT No. 3 (18)"
Still seeing from their foreign points of view, Black further argues that by the term, "the holy," Paul means the "Holiest of all," while Brown contends that if Paul loosely uses the term "holy" for the "Holiest of all," then how can one possibly know that when he says the "Holiest of all," he does not mean the "holy"?
Then on the strength of Moses' statement "Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark" (Lev. 16:2), Black furthermore holds that Paul, in the words, "But by His own blood He entered. . . into the holy place" (Heb. 9:12), refers to "the Holiest of all" Heb. 9:3. But Peter insists that to construe Paul's use of the term "holy place" to mean the "Holiest of all," is both unreasonable and unfair, for no writer in clear mind, speaking of both apartments, will indiscriminately interchange the terms, and yet expect his readers accurately to comprehend the idea he is putting forth. Black, however, retorts that Moses uses the term "holy place" (Lev. 16:2) when speaking of the second apartment.
In reply to this, Peter protests that Moses does so because whereas he calls the second apartment "the holy place within the vail," he calls the first apartment "the tabernacle of the congregation" (Lev. 16:16), while Paul chooses to term the first apartment "the holy place," and the second apartment, "the Holiest of all. "
Again: Peter insists that if, in Paul's writings, where both apartments are discussed, one is justified in interpreting "the holy" to mean "Holiest of all," then another, by the same token of logic, is equally justified in interpreting the "Holiest of all" to mean the "holy. "
Though Peter's clear-cut logic completely dissipates the force of Black's contention, yet, because of the wide differences of opinion among a group of Christian believers, the final result of the discussion is that what the harmony among Peter, John, and James did toward converting the infidel to Christianity, Black's, Brown's, and Green's disagreeing with one another, also Black's disagreeing with Peter, counteracted. This discord confirmed the infidel in his infidelity, leaving him fully persuaded that Christianity is but a stupendous bubble; whereupon Satan, in diabolic glee, gives to Black, Brown, and Green, "his seat, and great authority. " And Christendom, already rife with doctrinal confusion, continues to bristle with schismatic strife, nurturing infidels in their hostility to Christianity, instead of converting them to it!
If Christ pronounces a woe upon those who refuse to give a glass of cold water to the least of His followers, what will be the condemnation and end of such as Black, Brown, and Green, who, by their spirit of self-aggrandizement scatter from Christ while professing to gather with Him!
Never is it right to interpret any scripture isolated from its context, for to do so is automatically to do violence to its meaning.
For instance, the scripture, "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day" (2 Pet. 3:8) taken by itself, has suffered various interpretations, only adding to the confusion and doubts already permeating the Christian world. But only one interpretation will it admit when taken with its context: "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. " 2 Pet. 3:3, 4.
From this contextual setting, we see that in the verse in point the apostle is endeavoring by figurative language to show that the scoffers whom he saw would arise in our day, though attempting to overthrow the faith of those believing in Moses' account of the flood and awaiting the Lord's returning, are unwittingly but scoffing at their own blindness. For they cannot see that that which seems to them, by the gauge of their short-lived days, an ever-present delay in the Lord's second coming, is to the Eternal One but a fleeting moment of waiting, and that their finite wisdom is consequently but foolishness. And, contrariwise, what they regard as time too short and worthless for practical use, the Lord regards as very long and very precious in our short lives.
Clearly, therefore, when this scripture is interpreted according to its context, human measurements of time are seen not to be God's measurements, just as human thoughts are not His thoughts (Isa. 55:7, 8).
The light of this example makes clear that just as a safety valve is necessary to keep a boiler from exploding with excess pressure, so only a faithful regard to the context of a scripture can keep its interpreter from exploding with theories and ideas foreign to the Scriptures.
When those who love the truth study any doctrinal subject, they never, in trying to harmonize their private opinions with a scripture in point, leave the scripture so interpreted as to contradict either other portions of the Bible or the position of constituted authority, but rather they forsake their opinions.
Having taken a wrong view on the subject of the judgment, some have though unknowingly, tried in reality to change its correct time and true nature, rather than to maintain them. This unwitting endeavor has in turn led them to take wrong views on many other Bible truths. The fact, though, that this great hub-doctrine still remains intact and solid, is unimpeachable evidence that likewise do all its spoke-doctrines .
Those who have undertaken to interpret the Scriptures independently of Inspiration, a private exercise which is contrary to the injunction given in 2 Peter 1:20, 21, and those who have accepted such views, will, unless they now forsake their errors for the truth, one day find themselves the victims of the disastrous circumstances with which they have bound themselves, and will be terribly confounded as they hear the horrifying pronouncement: "I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied"; "depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. " Jer. 23:21; Matt. 7:23.
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