{"id":43854,"date":"2014-11-07T20:18:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-08T02:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=43854"},"modified":"2022-03-01T20:21:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T02:21:15","slug":"proof-texting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/proof-texting\/","title":{"rendered":"Proof-Texting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Doy Moyer<\/p>\n<p>In light of the way Paul sometimes quoted Scripture, even using isolated verses together in order to establish a point (e.g., Romans 3:10-18), can someone actually show from Scripture that what is typically called &#8220;proof-texting&#8221; is always bad?<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t get me wrong. I believe in context. I don&#8217;t believe in randomly pulling passages out of context in order to establish a point that cannot be established in its proper context &#8211; if that is what is always meant by proof-texting, then fine. But I see criticisms of proof-texting as if it is always wrong to use just a passage or two to make a point. Yet if that&#8217;s what proof-texting is about, then Paul was a terrible exegete. Be careful that our criticisms of a method don&#8217;t pull the apostles under the same umbrella. I believe they knew how to do it better than we do.<\/p>\n<p>Is it possible that we have made rules that we cannot actually find in Scripture? To paraphrase a couple of examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;We should never use isolated passages together&#8221; (i.e., &#8220;proof-text&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The only valid or the best way to preach is always exegetical, not topical.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now these may be your preferences, and perhaps you can make arguments that you think are convincing, but these are not in themselves biblical rules. Ironically, it might be that those who are most concerned about man&#8217;s rules trumping God&#8217;s rules are also the ones who make these man-made rules about teaching and preaching. Further, if one wants to argue against all of this, then he will need to establish these rules, not just by using a verse or two, but by establishing a context and giving an exegesis that shows these rules to be what God always intends. I&#8217;d be interested in seeing this.<\/p>\n<p>Be careful? Absolutely. That includes being careful not to allow our modern ways of teaching and preaching to become hard and fast rules that we throw back into the Bible.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Doy Moyer In light of the way Paul sometimes quoted Scripture, even using isolated verses together in order to establish a point (e.g., Romans 3:10-18), can someone actually show from Scripture that what is typically called &#8220;proof-texting&#8221; is always bad? Don&#8217;t get me wrong. I believe in context. I don&#8217;t believe in randomly pulling&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[78,877,36],"class_list":["post-43854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-authority","tag-proof","tag-reasoning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67663,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-need-a-proof-text-dont-we\/","url_meta":{"origin":43854,"position":0},"title":"We Need a Proof-text, Don&#8217;t We?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Some may misuse a text, and if that text is not carefully examined, it becomes a \"proof-text\" that sounds, on the surface, to support the user's point, and that is not good because they have used the Bible to legitimize a point not made or implied\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69411,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-god-of-patterns\/","url_meta":{"origin":43854,"position":1},"title":"A God of Patterns","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 20, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer God is a God of patterns. This means there is order, method, and sequence to His expression and will. To deny patterns is to deny order, to accept that God's will is disorderly and not subject to method, arrangement, and sequence. Is God's will so chaotic? When\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25379,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-spouse-texting-people-of-the-opposite-sex-is-that-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":43854,"position":2},"title":"Is a spouse texting people of the opposite sex, is that adultery?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If you are married and your spouse is texting other people outside the marriage of the opposite sex, is that a form of cheating or adultery? Answer: No. Adultery is having sex with someone when either is married to someone else. People talk with other people all the time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25871,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-talking-sexually-through-texting-before-marriage-considered-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":43854,"position":3},"title":"Is talking sexually through texting before marriage considered wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is talking sexually through texting before marriage considered wrong? Answer: One of the mistakes the Pharisees made was to look at God's laws so narrowly that they decided that only what was precisely mentioned was wrong. They understood that committing adultery was wrong, but they excused thinking about it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48067,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-dare-you-use-the-bible-to-say-out-of-body-experiences-are-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":43854,"position":4},"title":"How dare you use the Bible to say out-of-body experiences are wrong!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I recently read a question\/answer between you and somebody who wrote to you. They told you about\u00a0their OBEs (out-of-body experiences). I read your response and I was appalled, to say the least. First of all, since you don't remember your OBEs (and believe me, you have them) you discount\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41380,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/biblical-depth-and-beauty\/","url_meta":{"origin":43854,"position":5},"title":"Biblical Depth and Beauty","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer via\u00a0Mind Your Faith I have been a Bible student for the greater part of my life. I have been preaching the gospel for nearly 30 years now. I have been teaching courses at a collegiate level for over a dozen of those years. I don't say any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}