Paul Potts: Not to Be Confused with the Cambodian Dictator

Alright. A little break from our normal theological and exegetical fare. Paul Potts.

My son was listening to the computer stream of classical music in our area---KDFC in San Francisco---and he came across on that website a clip from a television program in England called, I think, "Britains Got Talent," something like that. So. They were having auditions for this program and there appeared a mobile phone salesman, named Paul Potts, and he said he wanted to sing opera. OK. Right. I'll let you tell me what you think, but I want you to be honest with these reactions when you comment. And please do comment.

1. Did you get the chills?
2. Did hair stand up on your body?
3. Did your eyes mist up if not cry?
4. Were you surprised?

Answer those questions in that order for me. Watch Paul Potts.

Proof-Text Perversions: 1 Corinthians 12:13 (part four)

To understand Scripture, you need to know what the words mean. You learn what they mean first by looking up how they are used in the Bible. If one isn't used anywhere else in the NT, then you can get some help by studying the usage in the LXX or in extrascriptural literature. The meaning of the words should fit into how they are normally used in the Bible. If there is an exceptional understanding, that should be explainable. The correct meaning of those words should fit into the context of the verse. We've covered some context while determining the meaning of the words. Now we'll do more.

The Context of 1 Corinthians 12:13

The Context of Scripture

If this is Spirit baptism here in 1 Corinthians, as understood by either the Protestants or the Charismatics, it should look like Spirit baptism in the rest of Scripture. It doesn't, which is a major reason why it can't be Spirit baptism. We've already pointed out that Spirit baptism is predicted in the gospels (Mt. 3:11; Mk. 1:8; Lk. 3:16). That prediction is that the Jesus will administrate the baptism with the Holy Spirit as the medium and already saved, immersed individuals as the recipients. Spirit baptism was predicted in the Old Testament as well.

Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.

Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions

Acts 2:17, 18 says that this was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost.

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

Jesus talks about the same event in John.

John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.

John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

The Lord Jesus Christ promises His disciples that after He ascends into heaven, He will send the Holy Spirit. He reminds them again of that in Acts 1:4-8. By reading this Acts passage, you can see for sure that those Old Testament passages, the early gospel passages, and the promises by Jesus in John are all speaking about the same event.

4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. 6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. 8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

First, nowhere do we see the Spirit doing the baptizing. Second, in no place do we see Spirit baptism being the same thing as the indwelling of the Spirit. Third, we do not see this experience of Spirit baptism occurring simultaneous with justification, but subsequent not only to justification, but also to water baptism. Fourth, nowhere is this revealed to be an ongoing experience.

We see the outpouring in Isaiah and Joel to be the same as the gospel predictions and Christ's promises. They are fulfilled as an event in Acts---the coming of the Holy Spirit as sent or poured out by Christ. This is what we should assume that Spirit baptism would be in the future. This event is not what we see in 1 Corinthians 12:13.

The Context of the Whole Epistle of 1 Corinthians

To start, 1 Corinthians is an epistle to a church, one in Corinth. It is a problemed church, started by Paul and loved by him, so he helps the membership out by writing them. He isn't writing all believers. He is writing people in one location who are members of one church. That should be kept in mind in everything that we read in 1 Corinthians. You can apply it to your church because it was written to another of Christ's churches.

The church at Corinth is having divisions that we see back in chapter one. The church has differences. The people have had different leaders and they have their favorites. They are of different nationalities, ethnicities, races, genders, traditions, socio-economics, and religious backgrounds. Some have a bad home life, while others seem to be squared away in their families. They possess differing gifts or mixtures of gifts even as parceled out by the Holy Spirit.

A major goal for Paul is bringing these people in this church together. He wants to bring them together with biblical, spiritual truths. He wants to unify them around the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. He strives for a cohesive body of working, serving body parts. If they submit to God through His Spirit, they can have this. If they do, it will look like love, a fruit of the Holy Spirit, supernaturally enabling them to put behind them some differences and to learn to use profitably and selflessly some others.

1 Corinthians 12:13 is a sliver of the work Paul is doing in his epistle to picture and encourage the unity that is already there spiritually between believers. It isn't presenting some novel truth in 1 Corinthians, but one he is dealing with---unity. And baptism has already been established as water---water baptism by Paul, by Apollos, by others. Paul thanked God he had water baptized none of them. They had been baptized unto Moses in the sea. What had been used for disunity, water baptism, was really a picture of unity. Just like the Lord's Table was a picture of unity---one bread---it too had been used for disunity, the fighting described in chapter eleven. These ordinances of Christ, baptism and the Lord's Table, were beautiful pictures of the unity of the church that Paul desired. The church of God at Corinth should unify in accordance with the ordinances that its members have obeyed.

More on Context Next Time

Proof-Text Perversions: 1 Corinthians 12:13 (part three)

Understanding 1 Corinthians 12:13 isn't that difficult, but it's been complicated by the invention of the universal, invisible, mystical church theory. Because of the influence of Catholicism and then the Charismatic movement, people are confused about Spirit baptism. The twisting of this verse has been part cause. For this reason especially, it is important that you know what it means. So let's get going again.

More Words, Phrases, and Clauses of 1 Corinthians 12:13

"Are We All"

Universal church advocates point at the "we" here as their best evidence that 1 Corinthians 12:13 must be talking about Spirit baptism. Bill Combs, professor at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, uses the plural "we" to argue this way:

According to Rom 12:5, Paul was a member of the same body as the Romans: "so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another." Notice Paul includes himself as a member of the same body as the Romans--"so we...." Paul had never been to Rome so he could not have been a member of the local church in Rome.

According to 1 Cor 12:13, Paul was a member of the same body as the Corinthians: "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." Notice Paul includes himself as a member of the same body as the Corinthians--"we were...."

You might read this and say, "Dr. Combs certainly settled it with those points." Well, no. Just because Paul and the members of the church at Corinth were baptized into one body doesn't mean that they were baptized into the same body. Consider 1 Timothy 3:12:

Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

If we apply the same kind of thinking to this verse as Combs applied to Romans 12:5, then Paul was instructing all the deacons in the church at Ephesus to marry the same woman. However, I think it is obvious to everyone that Paul meant that each deacon should have only one wife.

Paul said "we" because he too was baptized into one body, not the same body. If I said, "we all took the bus to the game," that doesn't assume that we all rode the same vehicle. Paul wasn't including himself in the same body as the church at Corinth by saying "we." If he was doing that, he would have said, "We are all baptized into your body." His point was that everyone who is water baptized, including himself, joins himself to one church, unifying himself with that church. Even though they are many members, as having associated by means of water baptism, they are all one body as well.

The term "we" often does not include the speaker in the group to whom he is speaking. In the same epistle, Paul writes in 10:20-22:

20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. 21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. 22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?

Look at v. 22. Was Paul fellowshiping with devils? Was he provoking the Lord to jealousy by doing so? So was he including himself with these Corinthians by saying "we"? I don't think so. Combs says that Paul puts himself in the same body by saying "we." We doesn't necessarily include Paul in the same body.

Consider Acts 2:8:

And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

First, was everyone hearing in the same language? No. Was everyone from the same country? No.

Consider 2 Timothy 2:12:

If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us.

Was it possible Paul was going to deny the Lord? No. Just because he used the pronoun "we," doesn't mean that he was including himself with that group.

If I say "We all bought one shotgun," I don't mean that we bought the same shotgun. If I say, "We all played one game," I don't mean that we played the same game. If I say, "We all caught one fish," I don't mean that we caught the same fish. If I say, "We all invested in one mutual fund," I don't mean that we invested in the same fund.

Because Paul wrote, "We all are baptized into one body," he didn't mean that he was baptized into the same body as the church at Corinth. What he meant was that he was baptized into one body just like those at Corinth were baptized into one body.

"One Body"

Both universal church proponents and local church only advocates would agree that the "one body" here is "the body of Christ." Where in Scripture is "the body of Christ" defined? This is crucial, because there is only one place that we get a definition of "the body of Christ." It is in v. 27 of 1 Corinthians 12. In this very context we have the body of Christ defined for us. 1 Corinthians 12:27 reads:

Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

Paul says that the church at Corinth is the body of Christ. If the body of Christ is all believers, like the universal church people teach, then Paul would have said, "We are the body of Christ." He doesn't. I don't want to call the church at Corinth "the local church" because it is redundant. It is a bow to universal church doctrine. The church at Corinth is the church. The church is local only. It isn't all saved people. It is a body of believers that meets in a particular location, just like the human body is found in one location.

The members of a human body are all right where the body is. That is why Paul couldn't include himself when he was referring to their body. Their body was different than his body. All bodies have something in common---they're all bodies. Since they all have that in common, they could be referred to as the body. I could say, "The body is a marvel." I'm not talking about any body in particular. But if I say, "Your body is a marvel," then you know I'm talking about one in particular.

When Paul writes, "Ye are the body of Christ," he nails down the definition of the body of Christ. It is the local church. He was water baptized into the church at Damascus by Ananias. Those church members at Corinth were baptized into the church at Corinth. We are all baptized into one body. The many become the one through water baptism.

Proof-Text Perversions: 1 Corinthians 12:13 (part two)

We started an article on the exegetical fallacies of 1 Corinthians 12:13 that have resulted in the invention of a universal, invisible, mystical church.

More Words, Phrases, and Clauses of 1 Corinthians 12:13

"By One Spirit"

I saved this one for later for at least two reasons: first, it isn’t that important in determining the teaching of this text, and, second, it is a little more controversial mainly among local only proponents. Scripture can mean only one thing, but sometimes there are two interpretations that might both fit the context and neither change the doctrine of the passage, so both are feasible. I believe that someone can argue contextually and grammatically for two different views here. At the end, I’ll tell you what I prefer. In both cases, the positions are sometimes guided by one’s understanding of the preservation of Scripture. I believe God preserved His Words in the languages in which they were written and that the KJV is an accurate translation of those Words. Others place a higher degree of importance on the exact Words of the English of the King James. I don’t want to get into a KJV discussion right now, but I give that as some background information.

Universal Church People and "By One Spirit"

Before we look at the two possible views of "by one Spirit," we will consider how the universal church people take this. They take views sometimes significantly different. W. Harold Mare in Expositor’s Bible Commentary writes (p. 264):

The church, the invisible church, . . . . has been united by the one Spirit into one spiritual body in baptism.

Bob Deffinbaugh says the same:

Our membership in Christ’s body begins at the time we are saved, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit, who baptizes us into the church by identifying us with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

In a sermon series that is found online, John MacArthur agrees too with Mare and Deffinbaugh:

Paul is saying that the same Spirit has immersed every believer in the same unity with Christ that constitutes His body. The baptism Paul is referring to is a spiritual reality that brings the believer into a vital union with Christ. The word means "to immerse." And as somebody could be immersed in water, so somebody could be immersed in the body of Christ. In other words, you are in a new environment, a new atmosphere, a new union, a new identification, a new oneness with Christ.

A little later in the same sermon, he says:

It is the fact that when you believe God, He places you into the Son by His Spirit. That is the baptizing by the Holy Spirit.

This earlier MacArthur clashes with the later MacArthur commentary, in which he says that it isn’t the Holy Spirit doing the baptizing, but Jesus that is doing the baptizing. This is major, because it is a decision about Who is doing the baptizing, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. In his commentary (p. 312), he says:

Because believers are baptized by Christ, it is therefore best to translate this phrase as "with one Spirit." It is not the Holy Spirit’s baptism but Christ’s baptism with the Holy Spirit that give us new life and places us into the Body when we trust in Christ.

So now MacArthur says that we are baptized by Christ. He didn't announce his change that I have ever heard. You see Christ baptizing in the verse, don’t you? You don’t? Why not? It isn’t in there. First he says that the Spirit baptizes believers in Christ, and now He says Christ baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Does the verse say that Christ is doing the baptizing? No. But MacArthur knows that the prediction in the Gospels and Acts made by John the Baptist and Christ says that Jesus does the baptizing in Spirit baptism. Therefore, even though 1 Corinthians 12:13 doesn’t say that we are baptized by Christ (Christ baptism), he reads that into the text. This is the same thing that Gordon Fee does in his commentary on 1 Corinthians (p. 606, NIC-NT Commentary). The baptism by Christ into the body of Christ is read into the verse to attempt to fit what we see in 1 Corinthians 12:13 with what we read in the Gospels and Acts.

Most universal church advocates say that Spirit baptism or Christ baptism, or whatever it is exactly to them, is the reception of the Holy Spirit and they will often reference Romans 8:9. I believe Romans 8:9 is the best verse in Scripture on the indwelling Holy Spirit. They therefore bring together the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit as the same activity of the Spirit. No verse in Scripture actually teaches this and you won’t find it in Romans 8:9, which simply says that the Spirit of God dwells in believers.

Local Church People and "By One Spirit"

One large segment of local church people teach that the Holy Spirit is one agency of water baptism. They teach that the Holy Spirit is responsible for the unity that occurs from water baptism. Forest Keener explains it this way:

It has been argued by some, who realized the error of the Catholic interpretation, that the Spirit here was "a spirit of unity," and should be translated spirit not Spirit. Such a conclusion is not necessary, and I do not believe it is either accurate or logically justified. The Spirit here is the Spirit of the context. He is the Spirit who, according to verse 3, leads one to confess Christ, in verse 4 bestows diversities of gifts, and in verse 7 manifests Himself for the overall profit of the church. He is the same Spirit who, in verse 8, gives the word of wisdom to one and the word of knowledge to another, and who in verses 9 and 10, gives gifts of faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, divers tongues, and interpretation. He is the same Spirit who, in verse 11, sovereignly divides gifts to men, individually as it pleases Him. It is, by every contextual standard of interpretation the "Spirit" of the context and thus, the Holy Spirit who is mentioned here.

Then there is the position explained by A. W. Pink:

Pneuma is always written in the Greek with a small "s," and it is a question of exposition and interpretation, not of translation in any wise, whether a small "s" or a capital "S" is to be used in each instance where the word for spirit is used. In many instances it is translated with a small "s"—spirit, (Matthew 5:3, etc). In others, where the Holy Spirit of God is referred to a capital is rightly employed. Furthermore, the Greek word pneuma is used not only to denote sometimes the Holy Spirit of God, and at others the spirit of man (as contra-distinguished from his soul and body), but is also employed psychologically; we read of ‘the spirit (pneuma) of meekness’ (1 Cor. 4:21), and of ‘the spirit (pneuma) of cowardice,’ (2 Tim. 1:7,) etc. Again in Philippians 1:27, we read ‘stand fast is one spirit.’ Note that in Philippians 1:27 even the translators of the A. V. have used only a small "s" for ‘spirit—as they most certainly ought to have done in 1 Corinthians 12:13. One other point concerning the Greek: the preposition translated ‘by’ in 1 Corinthians 12:13 is ‘en,’ which is translated in the N. T. ‘among’ 114 times, ‘by’ 142, ‘with’ 139, ‘in’ 1863
times. Comment is needless. ‘In one spirit were we all baptized’ should be the rendering of 1 Corinthians 12:13. The ‘baptism’ here is not Holy Spirit baptism at all, but water baptism. Note: Whenever we read of ‘baptism’ in the N. T without anything in the verse or context which expressly describes it, (as in Gal. 3:27; Eph. 4:5, etc.), it is always water baptism which is in view.

B. H. Carroll and Thomas Strouse agree with this view. They believe that "by one Spirit" should be understood as "in one spirit." Why? This exact Greek phrase is translated that way in Philippians 1:27 and means a "spirit of unity," which is the idea is being communicated in this context. As Pink says above, "in" is the vastly predominant translation of the Greek preposition en. The noun pneuma can be translated "spirit" or "Spirit" depending only upon the context. Since I believe in original language preservation, I can understand "by one Spirit" as "in one spirit," and that is what I believe. Strouse, who uses only the King James Version and believes in the perfect preservation of Scripture, writes concerning this phrase:

Paul employed the expression "by one Spirit" (en heni pneumati) in Phil. 1:27 as "in one spirit," referring to "the spirit of unity." Since pneumati is anarthrous in I Cor. 12:13, Paul differentiated pneumati ("spirit") from the seven previous articular references to "the Spirit" (to pneumati) as deity.

Water baptism identifies a believer with one body of Christ. The baptism brings the believer, whether bond or free, Greek or Jew, into identification with one church.

Proof-Text Perversions: 1 Corinthians 12:13 (part one)

"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been made to drink into one Spirit."

By this time I know that universal, invisible church advocates will deny it, but 1 Corinthians 12:13 is the proof-text for their position. I’m starting with 1 Corinthians 12:13 because I believe that the perversion of its meaning has resulted in more damage to the cause of Christ than any of the others we’re going to examine in this series. The idea to do this batch of posts hatched in my mind with the thought of the distortion of 1 Corinthians 12:13. I also believe that the way this verse gets twisted is a case-study in interpretational fallacies. Studying how men wrest it from its proper and intended meaning is a model for how people do this everywhere else in the Bible. Men insert a universal, invisible church into this verse in order to get one out—it isn’t in there without reading it in (a practice called eisegesis). In 1 Corinthians 12:13 is an assembly of believers, the way "church" is used all 117 times in the New Testament, over 110 of which specifically referring to a particular church. I will explain how that a local church alone is in 1 Corinthians 12 and how that some kind of universal, invisible, mystical entity is not. In fact, the latter isn’t anywhere in the Bible.

Why do I think the perversion of this one verse is the worst? God designed the church to preserve doctrine (1 Tim. 3:15). The wrong view of church equals deterioration of all of the other doctrines. The universal church doctrine has done the greatest damage to all the other teachings of Scripture. Messing up the right belief about the church also does the most to impede Christian growth. It takes away more from the actual work of God on earth than any other twisting of what God said. Because of the importance of the false doctrine of the universal church, Satan does a lot to keep it alive. His battle against Christ’s church will manifest itself in hatred and vitriol against the truth found in this one verse. With that in mind, I suggest that personal attacks and ridicule will not add to one’s understanding of 1 Corinthians 12:13. We will flesh out the right interpretation by understanding the words, their meaning, usage, grammar, and syntax.

The Words, Phrases, and Clauses of 1 Corinthians 12:13

"Are Baptized"

What kind of baptism is this? We have only two kinds of baptism in Scripture—water and Spirit. In no place in the Bible are water or Spirit baptism ever synonymous with or simultaneous with salvation. If 1 Corinthians 12:13 is talking about justification or salvation, then this is an all new doctrine being introduced here. If a new teaching did originate here, one would expect the verse to read like that. It doesn't.

If this is Spirit baptism in 1 Corinthians 12:13, then it should fit the pattern for Spirit baptism that we see prophesied in the gospels. We see Spirit baptism predicted in Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, John 1:33, and Acts 1:5. All five of these are the same, so you’ll get the same message in the others as you will in Matthew 3:11b: "He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Ghost." In each case, Jesus is the Administrator, the Holy Spirit is the Medium, and already saved and water baptized individuals (the timing subsequent to salvation) are the recipients. Spirit baptism was fulfilled in the book of Acts when already saved and immersed people were immersed with the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ was the Administrator of that baptism, the Spirit the Medium, and converted, baptized individuals the ones being baptized. If 1 Corinthians 12:13 were actually talking about Spirit baptism as taught by Christ and John the Baptist, then it should fit that model. It doesn’t. If 1 Corinthians 12:13 were teaching Spirit baptism, then we see the Spirit the Administrator, Jesus as the Medium, and the timing is not subsequent to salvation but simultaneous. In other words, since we don’t see the pattern of Spirit baptism already established previously to when this was written, we reject the idea of Spirit baptism for 1 Corinthians 12:13.

Another important hermeneutical point is how "baptize" has been used in 1 Corinthians itself. When you look through the epistle, you will see that in 1 Corinthians 1, we have water baptism. In 1 Corinthians 10, we have something akin to a physical and water baptism as the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea. And then we have 1 Corinthians 12. Those people reading this epistle in that day would not have been thinking of something spiritual, but of physical, water baptism. There should be some reason established in 1 Corinthians to think of this as Spirit baptism if that’s what it is. We have only water baptism up to this point, so that is what we should read here too.

"For"

"For" connects v. 13 to v. 12. V. 12, speaking of the human body, says "the body is one." "One" speaks of numeric one as the "oneness" of unity. Even though there are many body parts ("members"), those body parts are still "one body." The human body is being used here as a metaphor for the church. Is there only one human body on earth? No. So when v. 12 says "the body," it isn’t speaking of a universal, invisible entity.

In not just Greek grammar, but in all grammar, the singular noun is used two ways: particular or generic. There is not mystical or invisible, some kind of platonic usage, of the singular noun. We are required to make a choice: particular or generic. "The body" in v. 12 is not a particular body, but a generic one. Just because he is not speaking of a particular body does not mean that we don’t apply this teaching to ourselves. The truth of the generic is found in the particular. We understand the body parts analogy because we have a body with body parts.

V. 12 also says, "that one body," referring to the generic human body. "One body" doesn’t mean that there is one numeric human body on earth. You know there are billions. It doesn’t mean that there is a mystical, universal, invisible human body. It does mean that each human body has this in common—all the body parts, being many, are still one, that is, they work together in unity within the body. The point here is unity.

When Paul starts v. 13 with "for," he is connecting this point of oneness in the human body with the oneness in the body of Christ. He is showing how that the members of a church are unified through water baptism. Just because v. 13 says "one body" doesn’t mean that there is one church any more than there is one human body just because v. 12 says "one body."

"Into One Body"

Each body part is water baptized into one church ("body"). "Into" is the Greek preposition eis, which shows identification. The Greek preposition eis doesn’t show position, but identification. When someone is justified, he becomes "in (en) Christ." That is a spiritual position that a saved person has in Jesus Christ. The "in Christ" relationship is the salvation relationship. "Into" doesn’t show position, but identification. In light of the context, a believer identifies with the church by means of water baptism.

1 Corinthians 10:2 says, "And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." When the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea, they were baptized unto (eis) Moses. Were the children of Israel placed inside Moses? Of course not. They identified with Moses as leader. In this same way, a child of God is baptized into one body. He identifies with the body of Christ, the church.
To Be Continued

Prooftext Perversions

Hello Reader. Thanks for dropping by. Soon I'm going to start another ongoing series of posts with the above title. Certain false religions and others take Biblical texts and wrest them from their contextual understanding. This series will mainly explain what they do mean.