Misquoting People or Taking Quotes Out of Context
If you are going to quote someone, please keep the quote in the correct context and don’t misquote the original author/speaker. By this I mean don’t add to the quote (putting words in someone’s mouth), don’t remove words from it (misquoting) and don’t spin it to fit your purpose (context). If the quote you are considering doesn’t work for your message in it’s original context, DON’T USE IT!!!! The same goes with scriptures; I can’t count how many times I’ve heard a great sermon that ended up being tainted because the speaker misquoted someone or took a scripture out of context and spun it to suit his need. Of course, this problem is not new. One of the primary reasons there are thousands of denominations in the Christian church is because we humans can’t agree on the proper interpretation of scriptures. So first, when you quote the Bible tell me the scripture you’re quoting. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know every scripture in the Bible by memory, so don’t go through a whole message with statements such as “The Bible says…” or “Jesus said…”; tell me where it is in the Bible. I want to be able to read it for myself. And if you’re going to quote someone outside of scripture, provide me a reference. For example, if you quote a passage in a book, give me the name of the book, the author’s name and the page in the book. Prove to me you’ve actually read the book because it isn’t pretty when you misquote a book thinking no one in your audience has read that book when in fact, there are those who have. And they know what you’ve quoted is not accurate. I may sound harsh, but think about this: if I, as a Christian who was raised in church, don’t know the entire Bible by memory (all 31,103 verses) then how will someone who is truly unchurched respond when you quote scripture (or someone outside scripture) and don’t at least provide a reference or source material so they can check up on what they said? My pastor in Georgia (Brent Stephens) is a perfect example of this. He understands that not everyone is able to spend hours a day studying scripture, so when he quotes scripture, he does just that. He tells you exactly where to find it in the Bible. Same thing when he quotes someone outside the Bible; he gives credit to the originator of the quote and if it was from a book he tells you where and how to find it. He actually takes the time in his sermons to connect the dots so that it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a doctorate in theology or if you’re a high school dropout, you leave actually knowing more than when you came. And he isn’t the only person like this, just the first that comes to my mind (as I’m writing this at 4:00 am). Now, I’m not saying Christians should be skeptical of their pastors, but the world is. Again, drawing from personal experience, I grew up in a church culture where the speaker/pastor/evangelist’s words were gospel truth and it didn’t matter if they gave you scripture references or not. I have friends who, to this day, base their choices in life upon what their pastor says is right or wrong. An example of this is that a couple of years ago the pastor of the church I grew up in gave a message in which he claimed that drinking alcohol is a sin. At first, it was a great message because the pastor was giving scriptural reasons for not drinking (as opposed to saying the drinking is a sin). And of course he used the usual scriptures which condemn drunkenness (Proverbs 20:1, Proverbs 23:20-21, Ephesians 5:17-19, Galatians 5:20-22, Titus 1:6-8, 1 Timothy 3:2-4). Then he made the leap. I put the leap in bold italics because it was the kind of leap I thought I would only hear from Randall in Clerks. He quoted 1 Timothy 5:22-24, which says in the King James translation “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure. Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities. Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.” He then attempted to tie it into Leviticus 10:9 which says “Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations.” One problem: he omitted the middle portion which says you aren’t to drink alcohol IN THE TABERNACLE. His interpretation of these two passages of scripture was that if you are going to drink alcohol, you can drink only alcohol and never drink anything else again (water, juice, soda, etc.), otherwise you will die. If that wasn’t bad enough, he then quoted the story of Jesus turning water into wine (John 2:9-11). Expounding upon the scriptures he said that in the ancient Greek language there are three words for our English word “wine” (which is true). The first word is defined as fermented grape juice, the second is defined as unfermented grape juice and the third can mean either/or. According to this pastor, in the ancient Greek texts of this passage the third is what is used. Fair enough…… but then he made an assumption that in my opinion is not safe to make. He asked, “Do you really believe that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would actually create something that has caused so much heartache and destroyed so many families?”
Just a few days later I overheard two friends arguing over what was said in that sermon. One was asking the other to show him where the Bible says drinking is a sin. The other could only respond with “Pastor says it’s a sin.” He couldn’t show anyone where the Bible says it is and he was to the point of being enraged because someone actually questioned what the pastor had said in a sermon. I know I’m coming across as harsh, but it’s because I do not take lightly the weight that a person is under when they give a message to a group of people, especially considering some of those people will be gullible enough to take what is said as gospel truth and not actually investigate the truth for themselves. I’m tired of Christians who tell me what they believe, not based upon scripture, but based upon their church or their parents. And so is the world.
