Demise: Extraction

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." (Matt 4:5,6 NIV) Satans agenda for the Christian and the church is our demise. One of his strategies is extraction, to take out of context the meaning of God’s Word and twist it to meet his own need. He will use many different methods to accomplish this task.
In the previous scenario taken straight out of Matthew, Satan is tempting Jesus. The first time, Jesus rebuked him with scripture and Satan lost. The second time, Satan tempts Jesus, he quotes scripture but twists it to meet his need. Jesus’ response to Satans extraction. "Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’" (Matt 4:7 NIV). Jesus’ response was back with scripture. Jesus fully understood the scripture and the context, He knew how to apply it.
What is extraction? Extraction, in it’s most basic definition, is taking something out of context, to fit your wants. Not only is it taking out of scriptures something that is not there or misapplying it, it also deals with anything that is written and taken out of context. People that have a certain agenda, (see Satan above) will extract only what they want to make it fit what they want. Some people, after reading something, will jump to a conclusion that doesn’t fit what the writing was about. They will read into something that isn’t even implied, but through guilt or some other means, will see their own sin or faults, and get upset because they’ve been called on the carpet, or as one person said, "Their toes have been stomped on."
Daniel, what does that have to do with extraction? I’m glad you asked. Anytime someone feels guilty about something, and they subsequently get called out, they will lash out in any method necessary. They’ll read something, jump to a conclusion the author had no intention of meaning, and get upset. They’ve extracted something that wasn’t there. But, by their own guilt, they’ve read into something that isn’t there and assumed that was the meaning of the text.
How, then, do you avoid that type of extraction? The first step is to read it closely. Then, reread it again, only slower. I’ll give you an example of someone close to me, reading something into the Bible that wasn’t there. They were reading the passage on the arrival of the wise men. As they read their Bible, they kept saying "three wise men". Upon a closer slower read, they soon realized the word "three" was never mentioned. They kept reading it that way, because that’s what they were taught, but it was never there. That happens more often than we’d like to think.
The second step is to understand the context. Someone once suggested the 20/20 approach to reading scripture, 20 verses prior and 20 verses proceeding. Sometimes that works, sometimes that doesn’t. Another method pointed out to me is the 67 method. Use all 67 books for the context. That’s effective if you fully understand the Bible. The method I like to use, is the writer/speaker method. By that I mean, who wrote it and what did they write about it later, and who said it and what did they say later about it. You have to study the scriptures to fully understand what they mean about a subject.
The third step (which should be the first step) is prayer. Pray for wisdom to fully understand the context. Pray for guidance so that you don’t misapply the scripture. Pray for knowledge to know how to handle the scripture. Pray so that you will know how to counter someone who uses extraction to justify their own actions.
What are the dangers of extraction? If you extract bits and pieces of scripture to fit your own wants, you won’t develop and strong faith. When cornered, you will stumble and fall. It leads to self fulfilling prophecies. Prophecies that you work at fulfilling, not by the hand of God. It leads to misleading lifestyles. I know people that justify their sinful lifestyles, by quoting scripture. Yet, their lifestyle goes against what God intended it to be.
A wise man once told me, "Son, (oops I gave it away) man spends more time putting into the Bible what they want, and not enough time taking out of the Bible what God wants." The biggest danger of extraction is it leads to your demise. Take for example the well known extraction sequence, Luke 10:37 (NIV) "Go and do likewise." What do we need to do likewise? John 13:27 (NIV) "What you are about to do, do quickly," Jesus told him." What do we have to do likewise and quickly? Matt 27:5 (NIV) "So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself." So according to scripture then, we should go and hang ourselves. That’s what we do, when we extract the wrong things from the bible.
Satan will use extraction to cause our demise. Understand the full context of scripture. Don’t extract what you want to fit your wants, or you will help Satan accomplish his goal. Our Demise.
Have a blessed week
Daniel G Vandenburg