Facts About Christianity: Proof Texting

One day, a beggar came to a house of rich person. He wanted to ask the owner of the house to give him food or money. Then the rich person said, “ Holy Bible told me that people should work if they want to eat.” “But, Holy Bible told me to ask so that what I need will be given to me.” the beggar argued. “But Holy Bible told me that sluggards have to accept the consequence of their laziness...” he replied. “Now I understand why Jesus said that it is hard for rich people to get in the kingdom of the father.” said the beggar before he went away. Had the beggar and the rich person read different kind of Holy Bible? It is definitely the same kind. But this is one of the facts about Christianity.

Proof texting is one of the facts about Christianity. When a Christian use part of biblical text for his/her interest without considering the real context of the related text, they are proof texting. Even several facts about Christianity show that this kind of case still happens in a few churches.

Before the time for church collection, the liturgist of the service may read verse of Malachi 3:10. If we examine this verse, it is an allusive words from God to Israel because they did not obey His rule to make peace, love each other, and did justice to their fellows. This verse subsequently builds incorrect understanding that God will bless us more if we collect more. This understanding also make new bad facts of Christianity.

Another case, when teenagers are told not to consume any kind of drugs, they might be given verse from Corinthians which says that our body is temple of God. It sounds like it is connected, but it is actually not. That verse talked about salacity. We can see that if we read the whole chapter. But gratefully, for this case, biblical verse is not used for getting somebody’s interest.

Holy Bible is rich and complicated. So many stories are written there. It makes several verses can be contradicted to anothers. If we do not know the context of those verses, we might fall into acts of proof texting. We use our Holy Bible to fool other people. So, it is one of bad facts about Christianity. To minimalize the case of proof texting, theologians today use critic-historical method in biblical studies.