Scott Rogers

The Old Testament scriptures form the foundation for New Testament teaching and theology. But views within the Christian church vary on how to apply the Old Testament stories. Not everyone agrees on how the historical record of the Israelites’ wanderings and entering and conquering the promised land apply to our lives today. What are the spiritual lessons God wants the present-day believer to understand from these historical accounts?

Certain words are very important to the Christian faith. We need to know their meaning if we are to understand the verses that use them, since language shapes our understanding of theology. But over the years misleading definitions of important Christian words have been popularized by preachers or developed from theologies and church teachings.

Jesus’ parable of the talents tells the story of a rich man who entrusts his servants with large amounts of money to invest while he goes on a journey. This parable teaches us about investing in God’s kingdom and answers the question: Is it really worth sacrificing our time, energy, and resources to know God and to serve him?

Jesus spoke of the kingdom of heaven, God’s rule, in many of his parables. In the parable of the workers in the vineyard he illustrates important principles of God’s kingdom, principles that the religious leaders of his time didn’t fully understand: God’s grace and mercy on the undeserving.

With so many more people reading the Bible today, understanding of Scripture has greatly increased all over the world. But people are fallible, so errors in Bible interpretation have also increased. Here are 11 of the most common interpretation errors people make while studying the Bible today.