1S-INTRO-18: Why Evangelical Christianity Is As Far Removed From The Bible As The East Is From The West

I wanna show you something interesting.

Take a look at the following word:

ADULTERY

Whaddaya think that word means?

If you’re from the west, you probably assume adultery is when a married man or a married woman has sex with another person other than his or her spouse.

However, that ain’t the Biblical meaning of the word homies.

For instance, if a married man has sex with an unmarried woman, that’s NOT adultery.

Because according to the Scripture, adultery is based only on a woman’s marital status.

It’s only when a married woman has sex with a man other than her husband that both parties are guilty of committing adultery.

In other words, from the man’s perspective, he’s only guilty of committing adultery if the woman he’s sleeping with is married.

If she’s single, the man has not committed adultery regardless of whether he’s married or not.

Got it?

Let’s take a look at another example:

DEMOCRACY

Now I’m living in Japan at the moment and this nation is considered to be a democratic country.

But ask any American who has lived in Japan for a fairly long time and he’ll tell you the democracy in Japan is quite different than the democracy in the United States.

He’ll probably say Japan’s system of government is quite socialist.

That’s because Japanese society is based on intense collectivism…

As opposed to the United States which is based on intense individualism.

And if you were to live in Israel for any length of time, you’d find their democracy is a hodgepodge of communism, socialism and theocracy.

Again, the point I’m trying to drive home here is certain political and societal concepts are unique to that culture alone.

That’s why when an American leaves the United States to go live in another so-called democratic country he is flabbergasted by just how different it is compared to back home.

You can probably guess where I’m going with this, right?

So whenever we read our Bibles in English and come across an easily recognizable word or phrase, we shouldn’t right off the bat assume our understanding of the word lines up with how people in the Bible understood it.

Ya feel me homies?

Because a lot…and I mean a helluva lot was lost in translation.

Think about it for a second…

Once the first translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek took place, a ton of traditional and cultural ideas and concepts unique to the Hebrew culture probably didn’t carry over very well.

And things only got worse when it was translated from Greek into English…

Or when it was translated from Greek to Latin and then finally to English…

Imagine all of the rich Hebrew cultural nuances that were lost.

Once we lose the original cultural perspective, the all-important meanings and power of certain words are significantly watered down.

For example, the brand of trinitarian and evangelical Christianity promoted by preachers such as Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell are faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar removed from the true Hebrew flavor of the Bible.

Folks like that get laughed right out of the country when they go to Israel.

And no, it has nothing to do with Godly persecution or anything like that…

It’s because their theology and understanding of the Bible are so ridiculously skewed.

So brace yourself as we begin our deep dive into the text of 1 Samuel.

We’re gonna be gonna be exploring the deeper nuances of a lot of Hebrew words.

And honestly, we don’t have a choice in the matter if we really…and I mean REALLY wanna understand Scripture as it was meant to be understood.

If you’ve come with me this far since the book of Genesis, you’re already way ahead of any gentile pastor, preacher or teacher alive today.

That’s a guarantee.

Another great advantage you have if you’ve been with me from the beginning is you get to see what you discovered in the Torah come to life through the rest of the stories contained in the Bible.

Remember, the Biblical authors wrote the books of Samuel & Kings assuming their readers already possessed a solid understanding of Israel’s beginnings, their early history, and God’s Laws and Commands.

And you know what?

The exact same thing could be said of the New Testament authors as well.

They assumed their readers already possessed a solid understanding of the “Old” Testament.

Gosh, how I HATE that term the “Old” Testament!!!

I cringe every time I say it.

I hate that it’s become the common way to describe the REAL Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures.

Anyway, see ya all next time.