Great Quotes: Dr Robert E Picirilli on Interpreting the Bible

Here is a very helpful reminder from Dr Robert E Picirilli to those of us who spend time studying and meditating on the Scriptures. This comes from the concluding paragraph of chapter seven, "New Testament Evidence for Universal Atonement" in Grace, Faith, Free Will (italics in original):

All of us who handle God's Word do well to remember that we do not honor Him with our interpretive ingenuity but with submission to what He says.  To say, even to show, that a given statement can be interpreted in a certain way does us no credit at all.  The question is always not what the words can mean but what they do mean, here.  In 1 John 2:2 and in 1 Timothy 2:1-6, the most obvious meaning of "world" and "all men" is universalistic.  In these cases, careful exegesis supports the obvious meaning. [1]

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Endnotes:

[1] Robert E Picirilli, Grace, Faith, Free Will, (Nashville: Randall House Publications, 2002), 137.

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