BULLSEYE!
ACCURATE
BIBLE KNOWLEDGE!
QUESTION:
“WHAT IS A WAY TO UNDERSTAND THE MEANING
OF A DIFFICULT WORD IN THE BIBLE?”
ANSWER:
“THE BIBLE HAS ITS OWN IN-BUILT DICTIONARY”.
Just
study to show yourself approved unto God.
EXPLANATION:
And
sometimes the popular meaning of a Bible word
is not the correct meaning at all. I give you the following example:
THE
WORD “PROPITIATION”
I
mean, hands up “Who knows what the word
“propitiation” means, and who has ever heard of this word before, and
who in
this day and age would ever use this word?” No-one!
BUT
IT IS A BIBLE WORD.
It
is a word that God has chosen and therefore has
an exact meaning. Instead of trying to dumb it down with another word,
let’s
see what we can find in the context.
This
word is mentioned three times in the
Bible and the common understanding is that Christ’s sacrifice was the
price
that had to be paid to satisfy and angry God against sin. It is
the
payment that God demands, and is accepted by God, that appeases
and placates his anger. He is completely satisfied
with the
payment he receives. It’s like an angry hungry dog till it gets
fed.
However
while Christ’s sacrifice did satisfy and
angry God against sin, can we get that particular meaning from
the three
following verses? NO.
Whom God
hath set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the
remission of
sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; Romans 3:25
And he is
the propitiation for our sins: and
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2
Herein is
love, not that we loved God, but that he
loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John
4:10
But before
we study the Bible and show ourselves
approved unto God, let’s see if we can work something out by the simple
parts
of speech of the word.
The word
can be broken up into four parts
pro – piti
-
at – ion
1. The
prefix “pro-” means to come before
or in front of
2. The
suffix “-ion” on the end of a word means
an act of
3. The root
of the word “piti” looks
like? Correct! Pity!
4. Last we
have “-at-”
So string
these altogether and we get “An act
of pity that comes before and being given at
people”.
WHAT ARE
PITIFUL PEOPLE?
In the
Bible in the Old Testament they were called
a pitiful people and pitiful people need what? Correct! Pity!
The hands
of the pitiful women have sodden
their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the
daughter of
my people. Lamentations 4:10
This was
prophecy of the women with babies when
Jerusalem was under siege form Rome around 70 AD. Wanting food, they
boiled
their own babies.
Furthermore,
this describes both Jew and Gentile
alike, in that we are all pitiful.
“… Jews
and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none
that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone
out of
the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that
doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they
have
used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is
full of
cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood:”
(Romans
3:9-12,13-15)
WHO SHOWS
PITY?
So God is
the one that shows pity, has tender and
loving compassion, and that is what he did with the cross. He took pity
on the
world by sending his Son into the world to save us as pitiful people. A
further
description of being pitiful is to show tender mercy,
as the
following scripture says
Behold, we
count them happy which endure. Ye have
heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that
the Lord
is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. James 5:11
CHRISTIANS
ARE TO BE PITIFUL
Furthermore,
as Christians, we are also instructed
to have compassion on one another, be loving and courteous.
Finally,
be ye all of one mind, having
compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful,
be courteous:
1 Peter 3:8.
So you can
see Dear Reader, in studying the word
and reading around similar words in the Bible, we can come up with a
pretty
good idea as to what a word means.
PITY THAT
COME BEFORE
In
addition, the cross, as an act of pity that comes
before, is got from the following verse with the word “sent”
Herein is
love, not that we loved God, but that he
loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
our sins. 1 John 4:10
THE REAL
MEANING OF PROPITIATION?
A loving,
compassionate, tender, merciful God, having
pity, and sending himself in the form of his Son, onto a cross, to die
for a
pitiful people.
CAN YOU
FIND AN ANGRY GOD IN THIS CONTEXT?
NO.
And how
about that? No Greek needed!!!!
“ISN'T THE BIBLE
FULL OF ERRORS?
Harley Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
****
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“CONTACT US”
Australian
Bible
Ministries, PO
Box 5058 Mt. Gravatt East 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com