What Saith It?

Delilah didn’t cut Samson’s hair? I read that story umpteen times, and was certain she did. 

There he is - the big burly behemoth, sound asleep in the lap of the traitorous tramp. I can see the scissors in her hand as his lengthy locks fall to the floor. 

But here’s what the Bible actually says: “And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head” (Judges 16:19). 

Wasn’t Delilah. Wasn’t even scissors. 

Ah, the potent sway of absorbed assumptions, in this case from classic paintings and Hollywood movies. I did not carefully read. I missed what it actually said. The Bible was written to be read. That should go without saying, but it must be said. 

God’s Word has been studied and taught like chicken scratch strewn on the ground. Picking here and there and everywhere, the scriptures have been haphazardly picked apart. 

A pastor turns a sermon text into a launch pad from which he takes flight never to return- lifted from its context, it’s a lonely verse dislodged from its surroundings and bereft of its background. Even in a verse by verse study, words, phrases, and concepts are put under the microscope as if they are isolated and independent. 

You may hear the Greek or Hebrew behind a word (usually woefully mispronounced), uncover what archaeology has unearthed, and discover how many furlongs and farthings, cubits and mites- and yet miss the point of the passage.

Knowing a lot about the Bible is not the same as knowing the Bible. It is possible to be able to identify and name each part of a car engine, but not have a clue how they fit or work together. Not all auto parts salesmen are mechanics. 

It’s similar to someone only memorizing their part in a play with no grasp of the rest of the script. They know their lines but have little idea when to say them or what they have to do with the overall story.  

This is especially true concerning the typical defense of endless torment- texts are removed from their context, phrases isolated from their setting, temporal terms presumed eternal, and plain words forced into theological disguise. A simple reading that would contradict the creed of perpetual torture is arbitrarily ignored. It is creed versus read. It is knowing what is said about the Bible but not what the Bible says. It’s a foundation of chicken scratch.  

The Bible was written to be read. Yes, we are instructed to search and study and meditate and rightly divide. But the first step is to read, and there is no substitute for reading. “Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine” Paul instructed young Timothy (1 Timothy 4:13). The order is not incidental- it’s vital. 

As is the case with John 3:16, too often we know something so well but understand it so little because we were told what it meant before we read what it said- “exhortation and doctrine” (preaching and teaching) came before reading. 

The Lord instructed Habakkuk, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it” (Habakkuk 2:1). The goal is clear communication, to “make it plain.” 

It’s written to be read, and read to be understood: “by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ” (Ephesians 3:3,4). Understanding comes from reading.

A determined defender of endless torment assured me that plain words in scripture are “loaded with theological freight” and demand decoding by ecclesiastical elites. 

 Really? 

Pioneer translator William Tyndale rebuked such a pompous priest, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy who drives the plough to know more of the scriptures than you do.” How would the plowboy surpass the priest? By reading. And not the Hebrew, Greek, or Latin, but his native English.  

The antidote for absorbed dogma and the cure for creedal cliches is to read. I have been amazed and amused at how what we have believed about the Bible will absolutely overwhelm what we read in the Bible. 

It would be enlightening to hear the interpretation of a sincere reader unspoiled by indoctrination. Unfortunately we all have our belief biases and creedal assumptions that shackle us to sectarian shibboleths. To be freed, we must read.  

“Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read” (Isaiah 34:16). “Blessed is he that readeth” (Revelation 1:3). To read was the instruction and example of believers throughout the Bible.  

Moses “took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people” (Exodus 24:7).

Kings were commanded “when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book… and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 17:18, 19).

“At the end of every seven years... thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women, and children... that they may hear, and that they may learn” (Deuteronomy 31:10-12).

Joshua “read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones” (Joshua 8:34, 35).

King Josiah “went up into the house of the Lord… and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant” (2 Kings 23:2). 

“Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding… And he read therein… from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law… So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading” (Nehemiah 8:2,3,8).

It’s noteworthy that they “gave the sense.” Some could object to the premise of this chapter by saying, “See, they had to give the sense for them to understand. It wasn’t solely a plain reading.” I would remind you that they gave the sense, not the non-sense. 

To give the sense would be to define, not obscure. The polemics of endless torment dwells in a fog that simple words have uncertain meaning. Instead of giving the sense, it explains why the common sense that makes sense isn’t the sense.

Reading was the hermeneutic (method of interpretation) of Christ and Paul. It was that simple - scripture was written to be read, and you could understand what was written by reading it. The Bible is a book intended to clearly communicate, not a puzzle designed to baffle. If properly understood, this one elementary truth - that scripture means what it says - would revolutionize Biblical interpretation. 

When Sadducees tried to trip up Jesus with a question about a wife in the afterlife, our Lord precisely pinpointed the crack in their comprehension: “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). He then made a revealing appeal. It was not to the reasoning of a respected rabbi or the scholarship of studious scribes. He asked them, “Have ye not read?” The error was not knowing the scriptures. The remedy was to read.

Pharisees chided him because his hungry disciples plucked corn on the sabbath, which they said is “not lawful.” He asked, Have ye not read what David did? And have ye not read in the law? (Matthew 12:1-5). They were citing the law, and he asked if they had even read it? Think of it! Jesus had complete confidence that a simple reading would provide a sure answer. 

When Pharisees deceitfully questioned divorce legalities, Christ asked them, “Have ye not read?” and took them back to the foundation of marriage at creation (Matthew 19:3, 4). 

He asked priests and scribes displeased by the children’s Hosannas, “Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Matthew 21:16). 

 In another episode it was the same crowd interrogating him concerning the source of his authority. Our Lord responded with a pointed parable, concluding with “And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner” (Mark 11:28; 12:10).

Consider when Christ was tempted of the devil. He answered each of three attempts with “it is written” and quoted scripture without commentary. When the devil also said “it is written” Christ countered with “it is written again.” The answer to scripture misinterpreted was more scripture. On at least twelve more occasions Jesus said, “It is written.”  

It is written. Have ye not read? This is the key to understanding the scripture.

To read what was written was also the appeal of Paul. Not only did he He direct a young preacher to “give attendance to reading,” he gave the same charge to church congregations. To the Colossians: “when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea” (Colossians 4:16). 

And the Thessalonians: “I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren” (1 Thessalonians 5:27).

Consider his response in the synagogue at Antioch: “And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience (Acts 13:15, 16).  

He then gives a powerful narrative overflowing with scripture. “And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again” (13:32, 33). Knowing if they could read it, they could understand it, Paul continually turns to the words of the Word: 

“to whom also he said” (v. 22). 

“the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day” (v. 27). 

“when they had fulfilled all that was written of him” (v. 29). 

“as it is also written in the second psalm” (v. 33). 

“he said on this wise” (v. 34). 

“he saith also in another psalm” (v. 35). 

“that which is spoken of in the prophets” (v. 40).  

Paul was a preacher of the Word, and the words. In his epistles (not counting Hebrews) Paul says it is written no less than thirty-three times, and uses said, saith, or saying forty-one times in referencing Old Testament texts. “And Paul, as his manner was... reasoned with them out of the scriptures” (Acts 17:2). In Romans, the most lawyerly of his letters, he makes his point by simply asking what scripture says: 

“For what saith the scripture?” (4:3) 

“But what saith it?” (10:8) 

“Wot ye not what the scripture saith?” (11:2) 

“But what saith the answer of God unto him?” (11:4)

Why do I believe that endless torment is wholly smoke? Because I’ve read what God has said. By reading the words, pictures, and examples the Divine Author chose to communicate the final fate, I see that unbelievers will burn up, not burn on; that instead of being endlessly tortured, they will be destroyed and consumed; rather than endless life in torment, they will truly and finally die, perish, and come to an end.

These are not my words; neither are they the words of the creeds. They are the words of the Word. How do I know? I read them.