Interpretation vs. Interpolation
Imagine the following scenario: A police officer pulls up behind a car that is traveling a bit over the speed limit and turns on his lights and siren. The car in front of him immediately speeds off. After several miles and minutes of high-speed maneuvers, the speeding motorist is finally stopped. When asked why he sped off, He replied, “When you pulled up behind me and put your lights on, I thought you wanted to race and your lights were the signal to go!” We laugh. But his self-serving “interpretation” led to his swift and speedy incarceration! The law is clear. When a police cruiser’s lights and sirens come on, motorists are to pull over. Period. How difficult is that to understand and obey?
God’s laws are not up to man’s individual interpretation.
What about the motorist who sees the speed sign in a school zone that reads “Speed Limit 25 M.P.H. When Children Are Present,” and decides it doesn’t apply to them for whatever reason and speeds through the school zone? What if they tried to tie a huge “not” into the wording of that warning, in exactly the same way which Satan did to God’s word of warning concerning the forbidden fruit (as seen in Gen. 2:17 and 3:4), rendering their interpretation of that sign to therefore read, “Speed Limit NOT 25 M.P.H. When Children Are Present?” What if they told their arresting officer that his literal reading of that sign, and the law regarding it as it was both clearly and concisely written by those in authority, was only his “interpretation?” Would that change the law or their guilt when they came before the judge for sentencing? Of course not!
And the same is true in religious circles as well – and especially! God is neither stupid, illiterate, nor unable to clearly communicate with His creation. In His divinely-inspired (2 Tim. 3:12-4:4), all-authoritative (Matt. 28:18-20), and eternally settled in heaven word (Psa. 119:89), which is the authority by which we shall all be judged on Judgment Day (Jn. 12:48), He said exactly what He meant. And He meant exactly, every perfectly, concisely, and precisely-chosen word of what He said (Psa. 19:7-14; Matt. 4:4).
Those who truly trust and have total faith in Him (like the great heroes of the faith found in Hebrews, chapter eleven), understand, accept, and seek to readily and lovingly obey His every word, exactly as He instructed. They dare not “tamper” with (2 Cor. 4:2 ESV), nor add to or take from, God’s divinely-inspired word (Rev. 22:18-19). They know “first,” foremost, and for all time: past, present, and future, “that no prophecy of Scripture is (present tense) of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came (past tense) by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Ptr. 1:20-21).
Sadly, tragically, many deeply religious people today seek to selfishly twist, pervert, tamper with, “interpret,” and/or take from or add to God’s all-authoritative word, in such a way as to completely nullify and circumvent any semblance of their humble obedience to it. This too, is nothing new (Gen. 3:4; Mk. 7:1-23; 2 Ptr. 2 + 3). For example, Jesus very clearly and simply commanded in Mk. 16:16: “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be condemned.” How can any honest and sincerely God-seeking person actually miss the fact that both belief and baptism must come before salvation in that text? That belief and baptism are ‘both in the same boat’ in that text? That if baptism is not necessary both before and in order to accomplish one’s salvation, then neither is belief! Nonetheless, the denominationalist per-version of that particular instruction is, in effect and practice: “He who believes shall be saved at that point, but then should be baptized as an outward sign of their having recently received forgiveness as soon as they believed.” By saying and doing such, they also seek to launch a huge “NOT” into the text of 1 Ptr. 3:20-21 regarding water baptism, wherein God very clearly, simply, and specifically stated through Peter, that His patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you… But they say, “Baptism does NOT now save one.”
Whenever God’s new covenant (Matt. 26:28; Acts 2:38-41) law of Christ (Gal. 6:2), is literally quoted, word for word, by those who truly and fully trust God’s ability and authority to say exactly what He means and to mean exactly what He said, then those who want to continue to do religion the way they feel best within their own self-deceived hearts (Jer. 17:9-10; 1 Sam. 13:8-15; Matt. 7:21-27; Acts 26:9-11; 2 Thess. 2:9-15) instead of according to God’s word, will inevitably seek to throw up, retreat to, and hide behind, the flimsy, satanic, and transparent and totally unacceptable-to-God smoke-screen, that “That’s just your interpretation,” when in fact, it’s a direct quotation from God Himself! The fact is, it is THEY who are, and will be held guilty on that day, of INTERPOLATION (for definition, please see: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/interpolation)