When I was young, one of our favorite ways to pass time on a trip was to read the first phrase of a billboard, followed immediately by a second billboard to see if we could make a sentence. For example an advertisement for chewing tobacco on a barn might read, “Chew Mailpouch tobacco. Treat yourself to the best. The next sign might read “Hay for sell.” A third sign might read “to loose weight, eat Cornflakes. Combining the first phrases would read, “Chew hay to lose weight.”
Some teachers use the same technique to substantiate obscure teachings. Scriptures are taken out of context to prove a point that was never intended by the author. If a doctrinal teaching cannot be found in an entire passage in the Bible, be wary.
Peter tells us that there were teachers in his time that did the same thing. “Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:1-16).
He also warns us, “Beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
