Page 97 - Doctrine and History of the Preservation of the Bible Student Textbook

3. We must interpret the Bible historically. Every passage of the Bible
was written within a historical context. Time was created by God during
the first days of creation, when he spun the earth. Since then, man has
existed within the realm of time. Since God used men to write His Word,
they lived within a certain time in history, and their writings bore witness
of what was happening around them. Almost half of the Bible is a history
book. It tracks the history of mankind from day one to the establishment
of Israel. It reveals the coming of the Messiah at the right time. And the
book concludes with what will happen as time comes to a conclusion. So as we look at Scripture, we
need to take into account when the passage was written and what was happening historically at that
time.

A Word of Caution: Quite often, the actions of various individuals within the history of the Bible are
used to build a case for various doctrinal beliefs. For example, we can look back at a historical event in
the Bible that occurred in Genesis 14. Abram had just saved his nephew, Lot, from the kings of the
North. After the battle, a unique person walked up to him named Melchizedek, King of Salem, and
blessed Abram. Abram’s response was that he gave Melchizedek a tenth of the spoils of the war. That
was a historical event.

The person reading this passage of Scripture could take this historical event and from it, make this
statement: Every believer should give 10% of his income to Church as the basis of New Testament giving.
His basis is that since Abram gave a tenth of the booty of the war, believers today are obligated to give
10% of their income to the church. This is a total misinterpretation of this text!

Here is the problem with that line of historical interpretation: In Genesis 17, Abraham journeyed to
Gerar. Knowing that Sarah was extremely beautiful, he asked her to tell others that she was his sister,
rather than his wife, because he was afraid the people in the land would kill him to take Sarah from him.
Abimelech, the king of Gerar took Sarah from him to become his wife, and then found out that Abraham
had lied to him. He rebuked him for his dishonesty and sent the two away. Both Abraham and Sarah
lied.

From this historical event, using the same philosophy as the previous interpreter, we could create this
doctrinal belief for today: There are some situations we find ourselves in that warrants lying and in
these cases, it is not wrong to lie. This is nothing more than situational ethics and is not Biblically
correct. Again, we have made an error by creating a doctrine based on a historical event.

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This practice is common among believers today. Quite often we will hear that the 1 century church did
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sometime this particular way, so we should do that in our church. The 1 century church selected seven
deacons, so our church should have only seven deacons. To have more or less is unbiblical! They say, “If
it was good enough for Paul, it must be good enough for us.”

Think about it. In Acts 1:26, the apostles drew lots (rolled the dice) to find out the Lord’s will on who
would replace Judas (either Joseph or Matthias). Should we roll the dice when trying to find God’s will
today? Heads we go this way and tails we go that way? No, we cannot find God will by flipping a coin or
rolling dice.

Therefore, when we say interpret the Bible historically, we mean that we have to take into account
what was happening historically when the passage was written, but we do not build doctrine on what

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