Scripture Does Not Change

Is the meaning of scripture unchanging or does it need to be interpreted in the light of our current culture?

I recently attended a United Methodist Church (UMC). This lead to discussions with UMC church members about women pastors, homosexuality and other topics. I was told that reading the Bible for what it said was not correct. We need to read the Bible in the context of our culture. It was explained to me the Bible was written for a first century culture, but we live in a 21st century culture that is very different and the Bible needs to accommodate those differences.

So, does the Bible mean what it says or do we need to "adjust" what it says to reflect the "realities" of our culture?

In Romans 15:4 Paul writes: "For everything [all scripture] that was written in the past was written to teach us..."

The Old Testament was written over a 1,000 year period, from about 1,500 BC until about 500 BC. During that period the cultural context changed many times, but the word of God did not change. Paul is saying scripture was given by God to teach us. All of scripture was given to teach us, no matter how long ago it was written or what cultural context it was written in.

Read John 1:1 -- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."

Who is the Word? Jesus Christ. Why is Jesus Christ called the Word? Because the Bible is a description of the character of God. Does God change? No, He does not. So the description of His character, the Bible, does not change.

1 Peter 1:23 says "For you have been born again; not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God."

God's word is imperishable. Something that is imperishable means that it does not change. It goes on forever.

The word "living" does not mean changing. It means we have a God who is alive, not a god who is made of wood or stone and is dead.

1 Peter verse chapter 1, in verses 24 and 25 goes on to say: "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever."

God is not only saying that His word endures forever, but things that come from mankind wither and die. Things that come from mankind are not living and enduring. So if men's wisdom (culture) is used to change what scripture says, we are using something that withers and dies, instead of living and enduring forever.

This exact same thing is stated in the Old Testament. Isaiah 40:8 says: "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of God stands forever."

The Catholic church changes scripture by saying that traditions have authority to add to or change the meaning of scripture. The United Methodist Church is claiming that culture has the authority to add to and change the meaning of scripture. To claim culture can change scripture is making the same claim the Catholic church is making.

In addition, it is very arrogant and exclusive to claim culture changes scripture. In doing so we are claiming that the Bible should be changed based on American culture. We are claiming that it is American culture that is the most "advanced", right, good culture and it is the supreme culture. Who are we to tell the Chinese their culture is wrong? Who are we to tell the Sudanese their culture is wrong? If you claim the Bible must be interpreted by culture, you are claiming the evolutionary belief that the American culture has evolved to become the supreme over all other cultures. How arrogant!!

Who is supreme? God and only God.

Where does culture come from? It is created by man. Something created by man can never be in authority over God.

In understanding the Bible we can NEVER put ourselves in a higher position than God. The way to understand the Bible is to use the word of God (scripture) to interpret what the word of God means. We use scripture to interpret scripture. There is no higher authority. To do anything else is to make ourselves into gods, placing ourselves above and in authority over the one true God.

By the way I am not saying we do not need to understand the original context of the Bible. It helps us understand the meaning of the original Greek words, for example. The original context also helps us understand the principles that are being taught by Scripture. But the cultural context never can be used to change the meaning of scripture.