MZTV 1876: Rule of Scriptural Interpretation: Never Base Doctrine on a Figure of Speech

Today we investigate a perfect example of what happens when someone breaks a critical rule of Scriptural interpretation and bases a doctrine on a figure of speech.

Every time—AND I MEAN EVERY TIME—we see God in Scripture conversing with human beings, it's a figure of speech known as "Anthropomorphia," or "Condescension," when God comes across as a man—which He most certainly is not. If we could grasp the great gulf between Almighty God and the human race, we would realize something of the depths to which God must lower Himself to converse with us in our own language.

I have compared this before to humans conversing with ants, but the gulf between God and humanity is certainly greater than the gulf between humans and ants.

One of our viewers, a man named Fred, quoted Genesis 22:12, where God says to Abraham, "NOW I KNOW that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me," and he thinks this proves that God doesn't know everything. He assumes this PROVES that God learned something he didn't already know.

What does Fred do with 1 John 3:20, which says, "God knows all"? After watching today's video, I am certain Fred will come to the realization that "God knows all" is absolute truth, and that "now I know" is the same figure of speech ("Condescension") employed in Genesis 3:9, when God asks, "Adam, where are you?"

Does Fred think God LITERALLY didn't know where Adam was? And yet this is the same situation as Genesis 22:12, where God is conversing with a human.

It's figurative, not absolute. God is not literally ignorant. He's coming across ignorant in order to communicate with/test His creation.

1 John 3:20, on the other hand, is LITERAL, ABSOLUTE truth. In this passage, God is conversing with no one.

It is a mistake of gargantuan proportions to base doctrine on figures of speech.

So yes, here is another teaching on the truth that God is God. The sooner we all realize that God is God, the sooner we will go from merely knowing God to knowing Him AS God (Romans 1:21).

Martin's homepage: https://www.martinzender.com

Buy Martin's books: https://starkehartmann.com/