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Scripture has been misused, abused, and twisted.
You want to get it straightened out? Seriously, we’re here to help.
Because when you look across the landscape of the world, but particularly the Christian world, people have taken God’s Word completely out of context in so many different places. And it’s like, why do we have the same text and yet we don’t have the same interpretations?
“Well, I don’t think it says the same thing.”
“Well, it says that right there in English.”
“Well, what did it say in the original language?”
“It says that right there in the original language.”
“What did it mean?”
“What was being spoken of?”
And you get to the point where it starts to feel like almost everybody is wrong. And if everybody’s wrong, can there really be somebody who’s right?
Yes. There can.
But it’s the narrowing of the road.
And there’s a question underneath all of this that matters more than people think:
Who is this about?
Are they writing that Scripture for you, or are they writing that Scripture about the King of kings whom we serve?
Because that’s where the twisting usually starts. People turn the Bible into a “magic elixir” to bring themselves significance instead of bringing Jesus significance.
So we’re going to take a minute and break it down. The goal is simple: you leave better able to handle God’s Word than what you came into it.
Unless you’re a Bible scholar already who happens to be reading.
But even if you’ve known this stuff for years, going back through it re-sharpens the knives in the drawer. It really does.
Salvaged by God Deep Dive: The Solution to Twisted Scripture
If you want to stop twisting Scripture, you need a framework that does two things at once:
- It keeps you from misinterpreting Scripture
- It keeps you from blindly believing every person who shows up and says, “This is what that Scripture means”
Because let’s be honest—there is some way out there theology. Stuff that makes you go, how in the world could you possibly get to that?
So if you want to learn how to do this right, you start with what you don’t do.
The Three Big Don’ts
Don’t #1: Don’t treat all verses the same
The Bible isn’t a single kind of book.
There are different types of books:
- Wisdom
- Prophecy
- Apocalyptic
- Historical narrative
- Letters
Each genre has its own rules.
And it’s deeper than “book types.” There are different types of literature inside those books too:
- Poetry
- Instruction
- Storytelling
Plus, there are layers inside language itself:
- Sarcasm
- Hyperbole
- Jokes
- Straight instruction
So if you walk into Scripture like every line has the same function and you treat every verse like it’s written in the same genre and the same tone, you will miss what’s actually happening.
You will over-literalize what was meant to be poetic.
You will make a metaphor into a command.
You will turn a description into an instruction manual.
And you’ll end up building theology on confusion.
Even the “classic examples” show this.
People learn the “Peter is the rock” discussion and then run too far with it. Peter isn’t some big strong rock, inflated into a centerpiece. Jesus is the centerpiece. And if the way you teach the passage makes Peter huge and Jesus small, you’re already drifting.
That’s why the “magic elixir” question matters:
Is this interpretation trying to bring me significance, or is it bringing Jesus significance?
That question exposes the heart behind a lot of twisting.
Don’t #2: Don’t read verses as standalone statements
Don’t do the “one verse and a dream” method.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Therefore, I’m going to swim across the ocean.
Or dunk a basketball.
And if I can’t dunk a basketball, the verse must be wrong because dunking a basketball is part of “all things.”
No.
That’s not how Scripture works.
That’s how slogans work.
Scripture is not written as a stack of standalone quotes. It’s written in thought-units—arguments, paragraphs, stories with context.
So if you detach a verse from its surrounding thought, you can make it say whatever you want it to say.
And that’s not interpretation. That’s ventriloquism.
Don’t #3: Don’t be lazy about it
We live in convenience culture.
Fast food.
Shortcuts.
Information at your fingertips.
But studying the Word of God is not a drive-thru experience.
Studying is hard.
It takes work.
And if you’re not willing to do the work, you’re going to be vulnerable to whoever sounds confident, spiritual, and persuasive.
That’s how people get swept into “every wind of doctrine.”
Gramster Rant: Don’t Draw Camels in Nebraska
Here’s where a lot of people get confused.
They think twisting Scripture only happens in “church world.”
It doesn’t.
This is how humans work. This is how narratives get built. This is how entire belief systems form.
And if you want to see the pattern in a way you can’t unsee, look at the Nebraska Man story.
In 1917, a farmer finds a tooth in Nebraska.
One tooth.
Henry Osborne takes that tooth and determines it’s from the species of an ape.
So what happens next?
They don’t say, “Interesting. Let’s hold conclusions loosely.”
They do what humans do when they want a narrative.
They build a world.
They give it a name: Hesperopithecus—Nebraska Man.
They draw the man.
Then they draw his wife.
Then they draw the environment.
And here’s the detail that should make you stop and stare:
There are camels in the picture. Camels. In Nebraska. From one tooth.
This is where “cave men” enter modern consciousness. This is where the public gets shown a picture and assumes there must be evidence that supports it.
But the “evidence” was one tooth.
And by 1927—just a decade later—it’s recognized as what it actually was:
A pig’s tooth.
So they took a pig’s tooth and created a whole narrative to deceive millions and millions of people and justify millions and millions of years.
And here’s the part that matters:
It didn’t go away.
Even after it was debunked, the story kept hanging around.
It stayed in textbooks.
It stayed in cultural consciousness.
Because when a lie serves a larger storyline, people don’t retire it gracefully.
They either change the narrative or leave the lie in place because it helps.
Now bring it back to Scripture.
This is exactly how people build bad doctrine.
They take one verse.
They treat it like a tooth.
And then they draw the whole caveman family.
They create the name.
They create the system.
They create the environment.
They create the “this is how it works” story.
And they do it while ignoring everything else the Bible says.
That is theological camels in Nebraska.
And once you see that pattern, you can’t unsee it.
Because it shows up everywhere:
- A descriptive line becomes a prescriptive mandate
- A poetic image becomes a literal mechanism
- A hyperbolic phrase becomes a new spiritual category
- A single verse becomes a whole doctrine
Then when you challenge it, it’s not treated like a correction. It’s treated like a threat.
Because now it’s not just interpretation.
It’s identity.
And people will defend their identity more fiercely than they’ll submit to truth.
So here’s the takeaway:
You cannot take one little verse and then draw this whole big picture of how it’s supposed to be.
That’s not biblical study.
That’s how grifts and myths are made.
Salvaged by God Deep Dive: Two Distinctions That Stop Twisting
If you want to handle the Word rightly, you need two categories.
1) Clear passages vs. unclear passages
Some passages are clear at face value:
- “Thou shalt not murder.”
- “Love your wife.”
- “Do unto others…”
You don’t need creativity there.
But other passages are unclear.
For example, Zechariah 5:1:
“Then I turned and lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, a flying roll.”
A flying roll?
What is that?
That’s an unclear passage.
Here’s the rule:
Unclear passages are clarified through clear passages.
You do not get to make an unclear passage into whatever you want it to be.
If your interpretation contradicts other clear passages, your interpretation is wrong.
And that requires humility.
Because a lot of people want to be right more than they want to be in the center of God’s truth.
2) Descriptive passages vs. prescriptive passages
Descriptive passages describe.
They’re describing an event, a person, a vision.
Prescriptive passages prescribe.
They tell you what to do.
If you make descriptions into prescriptions, you will create theology that God never wrote.
Abraham and Isaac is a clear example.
It’s a demonstration of faith and God’s mercy.
It is not an instruction manual for Christians today on how to treat their kids to prove faith.
Scripture interprets Scripture.
And Scripture also says: don’t put the Lord your God to the test.
So you learn to ask:
Is this telling me what to do, or is it describing what happened?
Right On or Way Off?
“Just grab one verse and build a doctrine around it.”
WAY OFF.
That’s exactly how twisting works.
It’s how people detach Scripture from the rest of Scripture, then use it to support a story the Bible never tells.
Salvaged by God Deep Dive: “Tongues of Angels” and Standalone Verse Theology
1 Corinthians 13:1 says:
“If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
That is descriptive.
And it’s hyperbole.
Paul is saying: if I could do the most impressive thing imaginable, but I don’t have love, I’m noise.
He’s not teaching an “angelic language category.”
But people force it into prescriptive territory and build a whole spiritual identity around it.
And the easiest test is this:
If it’s something we’re supposed to do, it will be reinforced and reinforced and reinforced throughout the Scriptures.
“Tongues of angels” isn’t.
That’s why you don’t build a whole story out of one verse.
And it’s why Jesus calls the signs-and-wonders obsession wicked and adulterous.
Selfishness over His will.
Your will. Your experience. Your proof.
And the blunt question still stands:
Why is the Jesus of the Bible not enough for you? Why do you have to have something more?
Salvaged by God Deep Dive: Ephesians 4 and the “Fivefold Ministry” Misread
Ephesians 4:11–14 gets abused the same way.
People take verse 11, treat it as prescriptive, and build what they call “fivefold ministry.”
But verse 11 is descriptive.
It’s describing what Christ has done in giving gifts to the church.
And when you read through to verse 14, the purpose becomes obvious:
“So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro… carried about by every wind of doctrine…”
The manufactured prophet-apostle culture produces the exact instability the passage warns against.
It doesn’t produce unity.
It doesn’t produce maturity.
It produces waves and winds.
And you can tighten your understanding by comparing translations.
The KJV adds a small word that clarifies a lot:
“He gave some apostles…”
Some.
Not everyone.
Not an ongoing office you’re commanded to reinstall.
It’s describing what God has done, not commanding you to recreate the apostolic era.
Salvaged by God Deep Dive: Don’t Be Lazy—Study Like a Workman
There’s passive soaking, and there’s intentional study.
The Bible calls you to study.
2 Timothy 2:15:
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
A workman.
Not lazy.
It’s work.
And cultural context matters too.
“I pulled up to the pump and filled up.”
A thousand years ago, someone could dissect those words and still miss the meaning unless they understood the culture.
Same with Scripture.
Who it was spoken to matters.
When it was spoken matters.
Why it was spoken matters.
Five Not-Lazy Ways to Approach Scripture
1) Get the context
Who, what, why, when, where.
2) Read around the text
Whole chapter. Before and after. Sometimes the whole book.
3) Look it up
Let Scripture interpret Scripture. Find where else the word/theme appears. Compare credible translations.
4) Use credible outside resources
Strong’s concordance, faithful commentaries, grounded teachers.
5) Don’t go beyond the text nor beyond the original hearers
If it’s not written, it’s not there.
If the original hearers couldn’t have understood your interpretation, you’re off.
Salvaged by God Deep Dive: The “Seed” Scam Tested Properly
2 Corinthians 9:6 is a favorite weapon of false teachers:
“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly…”
They turn it into: “Give to my ministry, unlock God’s financial blessing.”
But that promise is nowhere in the Bible.
Now test it.
Step 1: Is it descriptive or prescriptive?
Descriptive.
Step 2: Who is Paul talking to?
Christians in Corinth.
Step 3: Why is he writing?
The Christians in Jerusalem are under persecution and have nothing. Corinth is preparing a gift to send.
Step 4: Would the original hearers have understood this as portfolio expansion?
No.
They were trying to survive. They were trying not to be martyred.
Step 5: What is Paul actually encouraging?
Cheerful, willing giving that strengthens the body and advances the kingdom.
Not transactional giving.
Not paying for services.
God loves a cheerful giver.
And the “harvest” language sits inside a broader biblical pattern: gospel seed, soul harvest, eternal treasure.
False teachers prey on the greedy and desperate.
But Scripture does not call you to “use God to get the world.”
It calls you to give up this world for the next.
“I must decrease. He must increase.”
Final Thoughts
This is a fire hose.
But the goal is simple: handle the Word of God authentically, walk the narrow path, and stop getting twisted up.
- Determine the literature
- Determine descriptive vs prescriptive
- Get the context
- Read around the text
- Compare translations
- Let Scripture interpret Scripture
- Ask how the original hearers would have understood it
- Don’t go beyond the text
- Then apply it
It’s a lot of work.
But it’s the Word of God.
He’s worth it.
Brick by brick.
Day by day.
You eat today.
Feed on God’s Word today too.