"Fine print" in the Bible



Selected from the on-going INTERNET BOOK, "The Doctor's Terrific Tablets"
( http://www.terrific-tabs.com )
by John N. Todd III, M. D. (link)

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The following is the author's response, by letter, to an opinion-piece from a good friend... concerning my friend's rigid dedication to his interpretation of the "fine print" in the Bible.

The question:

Should we who claim to be God's people (link) attempt to decipher and rigidly follow the "fine print" in the Bible... or should we first learn and consider and trust God's admonition and counsel in the Bible's "BIG PRINT"?

Is it the duty of us devoted Bible-students to "read between the lines", and to dream-up personal recondite interpretations of God's Biblical statements.... and then to claim that our notions and concoctions represent the intention of God.... the "truth" from God?

I say that we should consider the "big print" along with the "fine print".... and that we should attempt to grasp the main "BIG-PRINT" Biblical concepts, and the clearly stated spiritual truths.... before we become intangled and lost in personal or rigid "churchy" interpretations of the "fine print" -- by reading "between-the-lines".

There are numerous humanly-designed concepts that have become woven, through the years, into a frozen doctrine of certain "religions". These human confabulations have divided some denominations into more and more fragments.... and have thereby split-apart many "believers".... based on various flimsy, personal interpretations of Biblical "fine print". (See link Doctrinal Rigidity.)

(Why should there be more than 300 so-called "Christian" denominations, in the U.S. -- each claiming to have a lock on "the truth".... and "the one way" to God?)

Consider a few of the humanesque doctrinal inventions that have split and separated churches, and doctrines.... based on major (or minor) differences of Biblical interpretation: "the rapture"; "purgatory"; the great commission (link); free will (link); "gifts" of the Holy Spirit; the gospel (link); The Trinity (link); certain specified "miracles"; "transubstantiation"; "Lent"; "The Epiphany"; and on-and-on.

To re-state some of these same points, my feeling is that we should hope to master the understanding of, and the incorporation of, and the following-of, and the "belief-in".... the unambiguous and dominant Biblical "big-print" truths and concepts.... and that we should not become imbedded in intangibles and inscrutables.... and in occult and metaphorical phrases that frequently have only the effect of "mystery" and/or obfuscation.

The following is my reply to my friend who wrote me, in some detail, about his attempt to decipher that which he considered to be the "fine print" truth in the Bible.... that is, my friend's attempt to "see" and "hear" God's intent, and revelations, and Biblical "messages".... "messages" which most of us ardent Biblical students do not "receive", or perceive.... in our study of God's Bible.

Here is my reply to my friend:


Dear "Cuz",

I really enjoyed your remarks about Uzzah. I was happy to review your reference in NRSV, as follows:

2 Samuel 6: 1 David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. 3 They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart 4 with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. 5 David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the LORD with all their might.... with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. 6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. 7 The anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there because he reached out his hand to the ark; and he died here beside the ark of God. 8 David was angry -- because the LORD had burst forth with an outburst upon Uzzah. So that place is called Perez-uzzah, to this day. 9 David was afraid of the LORD that day; he said, "How can the ark of the LORD come into my care?" 10 So David was unwilling to take the ark of the LORD into his care in the city of David. instead, David took it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.


I must admit, my friend... the significance of this passage was never previously brought to my attention; and its spiritual implication (other than your fascinating expository), has not yet been "revealed" to me. I will contemplate your interpretation -- and try to use your wisdom as a building-block for my thoughts, expressed below.

In regard to your interpretation of how God deals with those who do not "obey" Him, I will refer to something I stated in my "playroom" analogy (see the tablet, Children of God (link): "If, at any time, in the opinion of the human father (and regardless of the pleas and arguments of the 'children') the children 'misbehave', or involve themselves in activities and thoughts that do not please and satisfy the father -- then the firm-but-loving-and-caring father steps in, and makes himself 'SEEN' and 'HEARD' -- in order to instruct, or guard, or protect, or teach, or discipline his children. And, so it is with our Heavenly Father -- and His 'children'."

My thought is that God (the "loving-and-caring Father", compared in the analogy above) does indeed expect His "children" (His accepted human-beings) to "obey" Him. If they (we) do not "respond" appropriately, then God makes himself "seen" and "heard", as in my analogy above. Fortunately, God-the-Father does not ordinarily "strike us dead" (as He apparently did to Uzzah, in the scripture quoted above) -- simply because we humans have not "obeyed" and followed every "jot and tittle" of God's outline of His "requirements".

My main worry about what you expressed in your composition, is the intense legalism that is portrayed in your remarks. There is an implication, from what I understood in your writing, that, "By golly, you'd better toe-the-mark -- and if you don't, then you'll be knocked down, every time.... so that God can show His power. And.... you may even be eternally damned, if you don't 'behave' as God has directed you."

Somehow, Cuz -- for some reason, I have been led to believe that God does not necessarily harshly discipline (punish) us ignorant human grasshoppers every time we make a "spiritual error", or "commit" a misdeed, or fail to "obey" an occult Goddian command.

I'll "copy and paste" a few Biblical references, here, on these points. Note the following sciptures. Read these out loud, so that you may hear the words of God.


1 John 3: 9 (NRSV) Those who have been born of God, DO NOT SIN, because God's seed abides in them. They CANNOT sin -- because they have been BORN OF GOD.
("Born of God", as in John 1: 13 {NIV}.)

2 Corinthians 5: 16-19 (NEB) From first to last, this has been the work of God. He has reconciled us men to Himself, through Christ; and He has enlisted us in the service of reconciliation. What I mean is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer holding men's misdeeds (NIV "sins"; KJV and RSV "trespasses") against them; and that He has entrusted us with the message of reconciliation.

Same (NRSV) 17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is FROM GOD, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is.... in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, NOT COUNTING their trespasses (sins) against them -- and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

1 John 5: 18 (NRSV) We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the One who was born of God PROTECTS them; and the evil-one does not touch them.

Romans 6: 13-14 (NRSV) No longer present your members to SIN as instruments of wickedness; but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.... and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness (see link). For SIN will have NO DOMINION over you, since you are NOT UNDER LAW -- but under GRACE.

Isaiah 43: 25 (NIV) I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your SINS NO MORE.

Same (NRSV) I, I am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake..... and I will NOT remember your sins.



Dear friend, I'll study your "Uzzah" concept about Biblical "fine print", additionally. Thanks for your thoughts. Meanwhile, I hope you will consider the Bible admonitions quoted above.

-- JNT --

P.S. -- Note -- Psalm 32: 1 (NRSV) Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him -- and in whose spirit is no deceit.


10/26/06