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In Matthew 22:23 — 33, we read of a group of Jewish religious leaders, the Sadducees, whose theology informed their understanding of Scripture rather than allowing Scripture to shed real light on their faulty theology. John D. Barry comments, “This Jewish group apparently based its doctrine on the Pentateuch [the first five books of the Bible] alone”¹John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Mt 22:23

So, when appealing to what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 25:5-10, they attempted to trip Jesus up, formulating a hypothetical case of a woman that had married seven brothers, one at a time, from the eldest to the youngest as each one died. The Sadducees, though a prominent religious sect of Judaism, were skeptics who didn’t believe in the bodily resurrection, along with denial of the immortality of the soul, afterlife, and therefore, no rewards or penalties after death. They sought to discredit Jesus, Who, of course, taught the resurrection, so they used this question to make belief in the resurrection seem ridiculous. So, they asked Jesus, “At the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?” Jesus turned their ploy back on them in Matthew 22:28 when He replied from the Pentateuch, Exodus 3:6, to do so:

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. (Matthew 22:29-32 KJV)

“Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” Ignorance of the scriptures doesn’t seem to prevent people from appealing to them out of context, resulting in misusing them, which is very widespread today in many groups. Some do so intentionally (cults, for example), and others unknowingly. Many miss, as did the Sadducees, the importance of the main character and theme in the story, God and His power. Like the Sadducees, people often reject the true teachings in the Bible because of their natural bias against the supernatural. In their thinking, God cannot do things that they deem impossible or that conflict with a belief they want to hold. For example, progressive Christian deconstructor “Kissing Fish Book”²Roger Wolsey. author of Kissing Fish: Christianity For People Who Don’t Like Christianity this week posted:

Fundamentalist Christians believe in supernatural theism and progressive Christians often embrace panentheism (acknowledging that God is fully immanent within our creation as well as being fully transcendent from it).

Fundamentalist Christians tend to subscribe to the substitutionary or penal theory of the atonement while progressive Christians tend to embrace the moral example theory of the atonement.

Similar to the Sadducees of old, progressive Christians pick through the Scriptures and redefine, reinterpret, or outright reject what doesn’t fit their “normalcy bias.” To this, Jesus would say, as he did the progressive Christians’ forebears, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”

In 1923, J. Gresham Machen’s book Christianity and Liberalism was published. Liberals of Machen’s day were very much like the progressives of today. His criticism wasn’t that the Liberals of his era did not claim to be Christian or that they had overtly abandoned the Scriptures. They claimed to be Christian and used the skeptical methodology of the Sadducees to deny what seemed impossible in their human eyes or to explain away whatever was not to their liking. They held a cynical view of Scripture and created a “theology” that placed their unbelief and their feelings squarely on top of Scripture, vehemently denying what their biased minds could not and, therefore, did not believe. Machen describes the premise of his book:

Modern liberalism may be criticized (1) on the ground that it is un-Christian and (2) on the ground that it is unscientific. We shall concern ourselves here chiefly with the former line of criticism; we shall be interested in showing that despite the liberal use of traditional phraseology, modern liberalism not only is a different religion from Christianity but belongs in a totally different class of religions.³Machen, J. Gresham. Christianity & Liberalism (Kindle Locations 91-93). Kindle Edition

Many of the things Machen said in 1923 can be applied with equal validity to Progressives today. Like the Liberals in Machen’s day, Progressives do use “traditional phraseology” and may quote Scripture, but context is missing, and new definitions are applied. Their understanding is guided by personal feeling and desire, not by the contextual intent of the word of God. In “Who’s More Political: Progressive or Conservative Christians?”⁴George Yancey, “Who’s More Political: Progressive or Conservative Christians?”; April 29, 2021 George Yancy points out:

For progressive Christians, Jesus is primarily the model of inclusion and tolerance. For example, one progressive Christian drew a cartoon of Jesus saying, “The difference between me and you is you use Scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what Scripture means.” Progressive Christians focus on the actions and teachings of Jesus that reinforce their values of tolerance and inclusion, which they see as examples of love.

The result of imposing their personal feelings upon scripture is their embrace of a different Jesus and a different gospel. (2 Corinthians 11:4) They love the Jesus Who said to the woman accused of adultery in John 8, “Neither do I condemn you,” but their thinking excludes His next words to her, “go, and from now on sin no more.” (ESV) Jesus says and does many compassionate things, and so should we, but Jesus also says things that are a bit harder to hear. Or maybe a LOT harder to hear. Jesus did not hold to a view that God had dropped His prohibitions on sexual immorality and never cheers those on who take pride in and celebrate sexual immorality. Jesus IS God, and as God, He both hates immorality and LOVES and wants to forgive and redeem those who have committed immoral acts.

Cult groups also err, “not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, much like the Sadducees of Jesus’ day, are skeptical of anything that their own minds cannot accept as possible. Therefore, their god, Jehovah, isn’t omnipresent, everywhere at once. He lives in a place.⁵It is not Scriptural to speak of Jehovah as being omnipresent in the sense that the heathen do, as if he were an all-pervading spirit. He has a throne in heaven on the right hand of which Jesus sat after his ascension, but he can reach any part of his universe and extend his power there and his eyes run to and fro through the whole earth to show his strength in behalf of the perfect-hearted ones. (2 Chron. 16:9) If he were omnipresent the Scriptures would not speak of his coming and visiting the earth; he would be already here. The Watchtower, Questions from the Readers, Is it Scriptural to speak of Jehovah as being omnipresent?—A reader in New Zealand.10/1/1951, p. 607 and, according to the Watchtower, Jehovah is not omniscient, all-knowing. He learns as things happen and reacts to them.⁶In writing about Adam and Eve and the serpent, The Watchtower states, “In the face of absolutely no Scriptural evidence that Jehovah foreknew this trio’s transgressions, on what basis can it be argued that he did? No sound basis. He would not have to foreknow the rebellion of these three in order to cope with it.” The Watchtower, Predestination and Jehovah’s Foreknowledge, 6/1/1953 p 341 In that sense, Jehovah is not really all that Godlike. The “Jehovah” of JWs has severe limitations. They take Jesus yet another big step down from there, insisting Jesus is not even a somewhat limited god like the Father Jehovah, but is a created being – a little “g” god. He is in fact, Michael the Archangel, the spirit brother of Lucifer.⁷It is recorded in the book of Job (38:4-7) that when God laid the foundations of the earth as a habitation for man, “the morning stars sang together” for joy. The Holy Scriptures show that the term “morning stars” refers to two mighty creatures of heaven, namely, Michael (the Logos) and Lucifer. These two mighty creatures were brothers; both sons of God. Lucifer proved to be the disloyal son of God, while the Logos is the “Faithful and True.”; The Fruit of Selfishness, The Watchtower, 3/1/1932. P 76 That’s a bit strange, since the Mormons believe that as well. Perhaps they attended the same cult school, but we digress. The JWs have demoted Jesus to the status of a mere creature because if Jesus were actually God, as the Scriptures firmly establish, there would be, according to their human logic, two separate Gods, Jesus, and His Father. That just cannot be, according to their own faulty reasoning. They vehemently reject the Trinity, which teaches that within the nature of the ONE true God, there are three persons. Their finite minds cannot understand it, so they reject it. Makes one wonder whether a creator God can exist at all in their minds, Trinity or no Trinity. After all, how would any alleged God create everything out of nothing? Impossible! It can’t be done, can it? Yet, they do not deny that! Illogical! They hate the concept of the Trinity so much they have created their very own Bible translation, which has been “fixed” in various places to reflect their anti-supernatural biases.

So, when, for example, they turn to John 1:1, they avoid the historical-grammatical context and have simply added an “a” into the text so that it reads:

In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.⁸New World Translation, 1984 edition, online at JW.org

The little “g” god language is used for the person of Jesus to support their idea that Jesus is not God at all. Why? Because, as we have stated, in their human minds, it would be an impossibility. By abandoning the context, they took the opportunity to add something, the “a,” that better supports their theology of unbelief. Thus, they interfere with the reader’s ability to understand what the Apostle John was actually doing in the book of John. He was writing to expose the heresies of Docetism, which denied Jesus’s humanity and claimed that He was a phantasm, an illusion. John begins by pointing back to Genesis 1, demonstrating that the Son, “the Word,” existed before creation and is the One that created everything. Then John goes on to strengthen his case by writing explicitly that if Jesus did not create a thing, it was not created! Even the New World Translation makes it clear in John 1:3 that Jesus created EVERYTHING. If Jesus were not God but some lesser being, “a god,” He would have had to create Himself, but how could He have done that if He was not yet in existence? Dr Spock would be beside himself, perhaps literally, with their faulty logic!

The Bible itself can refute their skeptical attitude. JWs supposedly hold a Bible-based belief system. So, they do believe that God parted the Red Sea and appeared in a burning bush, for two examples. But IF they are correct in believing Jesus and the Father being ONE GOD is impossible, we can, in all fairness, ask them, HOW did God make water stand up and dry the sea floor so His people could cross safely and quickly? Is that “logical?” Is it even POSSIBLE? And HOW did God appear to Moses in a burning bush? WHY was the burning bush not consumed by the flame? Our human mind cannot explain these miracles, but that does not mean we should not believe in them — and deny what God says in the Bible is TRUE. The miracles in Scripture must be taken on faith because God said it was so and has shown Himself to be reliable in all that He speaks. The Nature of God is hard for human minds to grasp, but since God simply and unapologetically says there is one true God and that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are that One true God, we must simply accept it.  God is far above our understanding in SO MANY WAYS and not beholden to explain Himself to us. He is AWESOME.

Interestingly, the JWs do not just demote the position of the Son. Even their big God, Jehovah, is not omniscient – all-knowing, for example. He does not know the future because, in their mind, if he did, he would be responsible for all the sins of mankind! He did not KNOW, for example, that Adam and Eve would sin – he had to learn about it! They also do not believe that Jehovah is omnipresent – everywhere present – angels must report to him what is happening on earth! Some god! But, of course, that is the point! Their Jehovah is NOT the God of the Bible. Their Jehovah is NO GOD AT ALL.

We would like to report that Evangelical Christians are always perfect in their handling of the word of God, but that is not always the case. Sometimes, Scriptures are completely removed from their context. An idea loosely based on the Bible is, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Some will go so far as to quote Jeremiah 29:11 completely out of context:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Here is the context: Israel was in captivity at the time, and they were listening to false prophets (imagine that) who were lying to them about their imminent peace and restoration as a nation. (If this sounds like today’s NAR prophets, that is because it is!) Jeremiah, in context, told the Israelites to settle in and to understand they would be there in Babylon for seventy years until their prophesied judgment was completed. He told them to build houses, get married, have families, plant gardens, and be good citizens in their exile. Yet he assures them that the nation will see brighter days. He wanted them to know God had plans for the Nation—after the 70 years were completed! (Jeremiah 29:1-10) At the END of the seventy years:

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29:12-14)

The people Jeremiah was directly addressing would likely be long dead when this prophecy was fulfilled, but their children and the nation would have a bright future. It is not any kind of promise that any individual person will, without a doubt, have a shiny, bright future on this side of heaven. It is true that those who call upon the name of Jesus will enjoy a blessed and wonderful eternity, but it does not preclude suffering or disappointments people might endure along the way, although God promises to be with us in all our trials. Even if ripping Scripture out of context might make us feel good, we are not to do that, but to understand what God is saying and to WHOM He is saying it. We are not equating pulling a happy-sounding, out-of-context quote with denying the Trinity or the resurrection! Yet, it is all too common practice and may lead some people to experience disappointment or disillusion with their faith.

To truly understand Scripture, it must be read in its proper context. Since we are all human, no one will understand or explain everything correctly in Scripture. Our aim is to greatly improve our understanding of Scripture and comprehend what God is communicating in context as well as possible so we can correctly communicate the saving gospel to people who desperately need to hear it.Ω

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