Scripture Twisting by James W. Sire

From the Back Cover

How often have you encountered some bizarre doctrine only to be stunned to hear a Bible verse quoted to support it?  With new religious cults springing up almost daily and old ones growing rapidly this is more and more common?  How are they seemingly able to twist Scripture to mean something orthodox Christians have never believed it to mean in two thousand years?  


James Sire has isolated twenty different kinds of reading errors which are characteristically made by cultists as they interpret the Bible.  He covers the full range from simple misquotation to complex argumentation which links one slightly eccentric interpretation to another, mixes in a few orthodox readings and ends with a conclusion totally foreign to the biblical world view.  Sire also handles twisted translation, overspecification, virtue by association, ignoring the context and others...


From Appendix One - A Brief Definition of Twenty Reading Errors

1. Inaccurate Quotation:  A biblical text is referred to but is either not quoted in the way the text appears in any standard translation or is wrongly attributed.
2. Twisted Translation:  The biblical text is retranslated, not in accordance with sound Greek scholarship to fit the preconceived teachings of a cult.
3. The Biblical Hook:  A text of Scripture is quoted primarily as a device to grasp the attention of readers or listeners and then followed by teaching which is so nonbiblical that it would appear far more dubious to most people had it not been preceded by a reference to Scripture.
4. Ignoring the Immediate Context:  A text of Scripture is quoted but removed from the surrounding verses which form the immediate framework for its meaning.
5. Collapsing Contexts:  Two or more verses which have little or nothing to do with each other are put together as if one were a commentary on the other(s).
6. Overspecification:  A more detailed or specific conclusion than is legitimate is drawn from a biblical text.
7. Word Play:  A word or phrase from a biblical translation is examined and interpreted as if the revelation had been given in that language.
8. The Figurative Fallacy:  Either (1) mistaking literal language for figurative language or (2) mistaking figurative language for literal language.
9. Speculative Readings of Predictive Prophesy:  A predictive prophesy is too readily explained by the occurrence of specific events, despite the fact that equally committed biblical scholars consider the interpretation highly dubious.
10. Saying But Not Citing:  A writer says that the Bible says such and such but does not cite the specific text (which often indicates that there may be no such text at all).
11. Selective Citing:  To substantiate a given argument, only a limited number of texts is quoted.  The total teaching of Scripture on that subject would lead to a conclusion different from that of the writer.
12. Inadequate Evidence:  A hasty generalization is drawn from too little evidence.
13. Confused Definition:  A biblical term is misunderstood in such a way that an essential biblical doctrine is distorted or rejected.
14. Ignoring Alternative Explanations:  A specific interpretation is given to a biblical text or set of texts which could well be and often have been, interpreted in quite a different fashion but these alternatives are not considered.
15. The Obvious Fallacy:  Words like obviously, undoubtedly, certainly, all reasonable people hold that and so forth are substituted for logical reasons.
16. Virtue By Association:  Either (1) a cult writer associates his or her teaching with those of figures accepted as authoritative by traditional Christians; (2) cult writings are likened to the Bible; or (3) cult literature imitates the form of Bible writing such that it sounds like the Bible.
17. Esoteric Interpretation:  Under the assumption that the Bible contains a hidden, esoteric, meaning which is open only to those who are initiated into its secrets.  The interpreter declares the significance of biblical passages without giving much if any explanation for his or her interpretation.
18. Supplementing Biblical Authority:  New revelation from postbiblcal prophets either replaces or is added to the Bible as authority.
19. Rejecting Biblical Authority:  Either the Bible as a whole or texts from the Bible are examined and rejected because they do not square with other authorities -- such as reason and other revelation -- and do not appear to agree with them.
20. World-View Confusion:  Scriptural statements, stories, commands or symbols which have a particular meaning or set of meanings when taken within the intellectual and broadly cultural framework of the Bible itself are lifted out of that context, placed within the frame of reference of another system and thus given a meaning that markedly differs from their intended meaning.

2 Peter 3:16-17 

There are some things in [Paul's letters] hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.  You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability.

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