1.1 Verses that Rule
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Verses that Rule. As a believer in Jesus, you have likely read and studied your Bible over many years. Or, if you are a Bible student and relatively new to the Bible, still you have some impression of what Christianity is and of what God says in His word.
But have you ever thought about HOW you think about the Bible? Have you ever thought about how a small handful of strong and rigid definitions you hold in your mind rule over your reading of the Bible? How every verse, and the words of each verse, must pass through a gauntlet of “meaning” before they can even enter your mind?
Creating a List. What is the purpose of creating a list of “the most important verses of the Bible?” Isn’t that being a bit pretentious? If everyone who loves the Bible created their own list, would they not all be different?
But that is the point. If you, out from your present knowledge of God, of salvation, and of the Bible, were to create your own list of the “ten most important verses,” which ones would you choose? And how would you go about choosing them? And how would you know if you are picking the actual definitions already in your mind that rule over how you receive every word in the Bible?
An Honest Evaluation. What if there are critical things you hold in your mind, definitions that you simply assume “everyone knows” or “must be true,” that are not actually in any verse in the Bible? Would you be honest enough to include that not-verse in your list of “the ten most important verses?” You see, I am not interested in some “curious list.” I am determined to get right at how we think about everything God says in the Bible, that is, the deepest ruling definitions we hold through which we force every verse in the Bible to pass. I know how most Christians think as they read the Bible by my years of experience with God’s people.
An honest list of actual ruling verses would likely shock you.
What Do the Words Mean? Let me give an example. Many people would include John 3:16 in their list of the most important verses. I do not, for the simple fact that everyone “understands” John 3:16 only as it passes through far more powerful definitions, hidden definitions that few recognize, but that almost all use.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. What is “believing in Him?” And what is “everlasting life?” The one verse in the Bible that gives us God’s definition of “everlasting life” will probably not be in most people’s lists. I would assert that in its place you will find a powerful definition that God does not actually say, ruling over John 3:16.
How Do We Know? Now, my only desire is honesty, to enable us to question, “How do I actually think about what God says in the Bible?” You see, the things we “know,” we know only inside ourselves. Knowledge is always personal; that is, every word or idea coming into our minds from other people or from the Bible, finds its meaning only inside what we already know as individual persons.
Paul outlines the dilemma of how any thought might pass from God’s mind through the Bible to our human minds. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:11).
Knowledge Is Personal. Paul is suggesting that each person, including God, knows things only inside themselves, inside their own spirit. All knowledge, then, is interior and personal. The meaning of every word or verse read is altered by the thinking and prejudice, the fears and emotions, all the life experiences of each person who reads that word. Yet every one of us has received out from our Christian experience, a definition of “what God means,” a “theology” of what is most important. Most have not considered those basic ruling definitions, where they come from, or if God actually says those things. Yet those definitions bend every verse in one direction or another.
Actual Ruling Verses. You see, I’m not actually interested in anyone’s list that they imagine to be their “most important verses,” for that list is very likely not real. It is the ruling verses actually operating below the conscious level of the mind, ideas planted deep in the heart, ideas that dictate how every other verse is to be treated, that concerns us here.
I went through the exercise of finding another verse for each one of my own “ten most important,” another verse which, taken out of its context, seems to say the opposite of the ten verses I have placed in my own list. I must confess that this list of “opposing” verses standing by themselves is depressing, not “good news” at all.
Some Rule – All Others Follow. Yet I know and would assert to you that this list of “opposing” ten do actually rule the thinking of most Christians, and very likely dominate your thinking as well. You see, we must accept this fact of reality. Some verses rule Christian thinking – and all the other verses follow. Who chose the actual ruling verses, the verses that strike down every good and wondrous thing God says with an axe – “BUT God says this —!”? And why should we accept those choices. Why can’t we deliberately replace the presently ruling “not-good-news” verses with the bigger things God says in the gospel?
Defining a “Verse.” I must define what I mean by “verse.” I mean a complete thought. Sometimes we are speaking of only one numbered verse, but at other times we are including more than one, or even part of one and part of another verse. Sometimes a complete thought is drawn from two different verses in different books of the Bible. Yet always, we are looking at one large and complete thought.
Let me show you the first two, the two most powerful ruling verses in the Bible that dictate to almost every Christian how they should understand every other verse in the Bible, the rule over everything else God might say. I will give you the Bible words first, and then what most actually think out from these words.
The Most Powerful Ruler. 1. Acts 3:20b-21 & 2 Corinthians 5:6 & 8. And that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the time. – So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. – We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
What It Means to Most: Jesus came before; He will come again someday; but right now He is in heaven, a “place far away” from this physical earth. So long as we live in these present earthly bodies, we are far away from the Lord and He is far away from us. For that reason, we look forward to losing these earthly bodies (death) so that we can finally be with the Lord. Thus we understand that “heaven” is our eternal home.
Defining “Life” and “God.” This definition rules over every verse in the Bible, including over God Himself. Thus “eternal life” is defined, not as God defines it, but as “living forever in heaven” with no physical connection. But that definition then also re-defines knowing God – we will know God automatically “in heaven.” And thus every verse that we choose not to believe here and now, we place “in heaven.” We will know what it means “in heaven.” And it defines God as well, giving Him a “heavenly form,” making Him visible “in heaven” even though He cannot be so. Thus “heaven” and “God” are merged together into one seamless entity, causing so many verses to be simply ignored. But most of all it places Jesus far away from us right now.
A Second Powerful Ruler. 2. Revelation 20:13b & 14b-15 & 10b. And they were judged, each one according to his works. – This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. – And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
What It Means to Most: Every human who does not receive salvation (defined differently by different Christian groups) will spend eternity screaming in unending torment in the fires of hell. This condition is the real definition of “death.” This concept then defines God in the Christian mind more strongly even than merging “God” and “heaven.” It has altered the translation of the Bible and draws many “servant” or supporting verses into domination over every “Christian” idea.
Absent from the Lord. You see, it makes no difference to most if God says the opposite of these things elsewhere. These verses rule; all opposing verses are simply considered “heretical.” And thus “Absent from the Lord” will always strike down and obliterate “Christ in you.” God can speak of the Lord Jesus Christ now inside of us in all of His glory in a hundred different ways, and every one of those statements is struck down, axed out of the Bible, by this one ruling verse “Absent from the Lord.”
It rules, and it rules without question. Other verses are forced to bend and to find their meaning only out from this one line that too many of God’s precious people take to be absolute.
What If? It is my hope that you would be willing to walk with me, just a ways at least, through the remaining pages of this short text. What if we were to find ten powerful statements of God out from the core and center of Paul’s gospel and of John’s confirmation of Paul’s gospel? What if we were to place those huge “verses” as the rule over our minds and hearts, and over every other verse in the Bible? What if we were to take “absent from the Lord” (a line taken grossly out of context) and require it to bend under a far more central word – Christ lives in your hearts through faith?
Would you be at least willing to look at these other ten with me? I would welcome your company.