Reproach of Men Blog

You know, I don’t make a point of doing verse studies. Occasionally I will, but generally, I do not as it is largely a waste of time. How men think to approach the Scripture, is not at all how the LORD intended for one to learn from His word. Without going into detail, the following passage suffices for instruction:

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. (Isaiah 28:9-13)

However, that is not the worst that men do with the Scripture. Rather, at every opportunity men find a way to warp and twist parts of Scripture into things the LORD never said, and would not ever say. The amazing thing to me is how they justify such utter nonsense. Like, those little numbers that appear throughout the Scripture quite frequently — you know — the verse numbers.

Unfortunately, that is certainly not the way to approach the Scripture: verse by verse, number by number, regardless of sentence structure, thought pattern, principle, or any other known and properly recognized way understand what idea is being presented. Of course, following those properly recognized methods will inevitably lead one to certain conclusions about what the Scripture is stating that will nullify virtually all doctrines out there which masquerade as “Christian” doctrines. What you will be left with is one certain doctrine, and none other. Well, almost. One does have to be intellectually honest as well, and be willing to receive instruction from the LORD God.

Now, while this more properly belongs in Primary school English class, what I wish to present here is something, which unfortunately was not my favorite subject in school — English grammar and sentence structure. In this case, it should be more profitable simply because we will use the King James Bible as our workbook. Besides, by using the Scripture, we might actually be shown something we have not seen heretofore.

Now, do not get me wrong. Though it was NOT my favorite subject in school, nonetheless it was deemed an essential subject, and I attempted to understand it and pass the courses taken. Regardless of how we feel about English grammar, the ability to read and write in an understandable way, without error, is essential to the accurate communication of ideas. How else are we supposed to prove out things, preserve the record of events, our thoughts, ideas, etc.? How else can we instruct someone without having to actually be in front of them? In all, despite the fact that primary and secondary English teachers seem to strive to make English a bore, it is truly a necessary subject, and excelling in it equips one well for communicating, at least in the technical part of it.

However, there are those who seem to think that the rules of grammar can be summarily dismissed if they get in the way of proving a point they believe to be valid. For example, the Calvinists think the following passage “proves” something about their doctrine of “predestination” and “unconditional, sovereign election”:

4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (Ephesians 1:4-5)

Now, you can Google the term “Eph. 1:4-5” or find any number of Calvinist/Reformed writings and the above passage will figure prominently. In short, they depend on it heavily to “prove” their doctrine.

But, we have to ask the question(s):

Why does the thought of verse 5 end with a comma (,)? That’s not how English sentences normally end, is it?

And the answer:

No. In fact, that is not how sentences in English end at all. Rather, sentences in English end with a period (.). Questions (a class (or type) of sentence) end with a question mark (?).

This being the case, we have cause to determine whether the verse citation is actually whole and correct in its context. Or, we could just blindly accept what the Calvinists tell us and unquestioningly trust them. After all, they wouldn’t lie, would they?

In any case, we find that the sentence starts in verse three, not verse four, and ends with verse six, not verse 5:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Now, we need to note the actual punctuation of the sentence, and note what that punctuation means as pertaining to the structure of the sentence, and the context(s) defined therein.

We find that verse three ends with a colon (:); verse four has a comma (,) in the midst, and ends with a colon (:); verse five also has a comma (,) in the midst and at the end(,), and, verse six has a comma (,) and ends with a period (.) ending the sentence.

Now, most of us readily understand that a period ends a sentence, and a comma separates phrases or clauses in the sentence. But the colon and semi-colon are not so commonly understood. However, as we can plainly see, the colon figures prominently in the structure of this sentence in Ephesians, Chapter 1. Hence, we need to have the colon defined somewhat. The following citations explain the function of the colon in grammar and sentence structure:

Using Colons to Create Compound Sentences

We all know that we can use a semicolon to join two sentences to create a compound sentence when the two sentences are closely related. But when the first sentence of the pair creates an expectation in the reader that the second sentence fulfills, then the correct punctuation to use to connect them is a colon. In other words the second sentence illustrates, explains or exemplifies the idea expressed in the first sentence.¹

Colon: a colon introduces a formal list, long quotation, equation, or definition.²

dependent clause-clause that is subordinate to, or dependent on, the independent clause³

What this all means is that the passage of Ephesians, Chapter 1, verses 3 through 6 is quite the complex sentence that cannot have sections lifted out and arbitrarily used to support doctrine. Instead, what must be done is break down the sentence and analyze it, without regard to verse numbers. This does bring us to the point of addressing verse numberings, and why they exist. After all, the verse numbers likely have a greater influence on how people read the Bible than any other single factor.

To shed some light on verse numbers and where they come from, it is essential to note that William Tyndale’s 1534 New Testament, and his partially completed Old Testament do not have verse numbers. According to one source I have,⁴ the Geneva Bible, published in 1577, was the first English Bible to have verse numbers. What this means is that verse numbers are not necessary to understand the Scripture, (Yes, some think they are indispensable for understanding the Bible.),and they are very much like “letters in red” in the Bible — very misleading at times. The problem here is that the “helps” placed in the Bible to help us find things, cease being helps to a high percentage of folks and become equal with Scripture itself for determining doctrine. So it is with the verse numbers. They are there to “help” us reference particular places in Scripture, much like the line numbers in a legal document. That is all they are for. We should never allow the verse beginnings and endings to override the rules of language structure and grammar, as that will — sooner rather than later — lead to errors in doctrine.

With that stated, we should now know that the citation of Ephesians 1:4-5 in support of doctrine is entirely in error. Even if the doctrine supported by those verses was indeed legitimate, it would still be wrong to pull the verses out of the context of the sentence, and use them alone to support the doctrine. The only possible exception to this that it has been firmly established the context of the sentence that they do state a certain thing, and that has been shown prior to citing the verses only, with appropriate citation to indicate quotation of partial sentence.

Why be so nitpicky? Precisely because of this:

4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (Ephesians 1:4-5)

If we indent to show dependency, we find very quickly that verse 4 is dependent upon verse three, and verse 5 is dependent upon verse 4 — as we see here:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Now it becomes very apparent that verses 4 and 5 are only applicable within the context of “in Christ” as established in verse 3. Now, the term “in Christ” means specifically “one who is born-again in Christ” and has no application to anyone not born-again. We find confirmation of this in I Corinthians, Chapter 15:

For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (I Corinthians 15:21-22)

What I Corinthians 15:21-22 confirms for us in this context, is that the term “in Christ” means expressly to have been “born-again” or saved. Hence, in the passage in Ephesians, Chapter 1, verses 4, 5, and 6 are all framed within the context of addressing someone who is already born-again, or saved. It is not addressing anyone who is not saved, as the term “in Christ” is expressly used immediately prior to the colon in verse three.

Thus, verse 3 sets the context of “in Christ” which verses 4 and 5 are only viable within that context, and not viable outside the specific context of “in Christ.” Hence, everything in verses 4, 5 and 6 do not apply to any predestination to salvation, but apply to what will happen after salvation. Moreover, verses 5 resides even further within the bounds of salvation in that it explains that after we are saved, we are predestined to adoption, which is beyond simple salvation. Verse 6 continues the thought and states that the adoption is “To the praise of the glory of his grace . . .” and that we are “accepted in the beloved.”

To be continued . . .

1. http://www.uhv.edu/ac/grammar/colons.asp↩
2. http://writing.umn.edu/tww/disciplines/biological_sciences/research/errors.pdf, page 13↩
3. http://www.sti.nasa.gov/sp7084/glos.html↩
4. Landmarks of English Bible Manuscript Evidence, Pastor Robert J. Sargent, Bible Baptist Church Publications, 1989↩

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 18:27 and is filed under Apologetics, Doctrine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.