Began in the late 1590's, a group called the Protestant Scholastics took the teachings of the Reformers and systemized them according to the rules of Aristotelian logic. This view set the stage for the idea that you can lift a verse out of Scripture and it is true in its own right - regardless of context.
In the 1800's John Nelson Darby built a theology based on prooftexting. He is the one who gave fundamentalist and evangelical Christians a good deal of their presently accepted "orthodox" teachings - such as the Rapture.
Therefore, you can see that it can be a challenge trying to discern if modern Scriptural teaching is in its proper context. So, when you hear your favorite preacher quote verses, don't take it for granted. Look up the verses for yourself and read them in their context. You may find that you don't always agree with how they are used.
Still, there's more to consider...
Did you know you could do a word study in context of the verse, then do a verse study in context of the chapter, then do a chapter study in context of the book and still take it all out of context?
Happens all the time.
Imagine with me for a moment and see if this doesn't illustrate the point.
You are viewing a baby's face. In fact, you're so close all you can see is the baby's face. You can't tell even if it's a boy or girl.
Is the baby French or German? Is it at home or a hospital? Can't tell…
Let's back up a step. Now you can see you are looking at the baby through a four-panel window. What do you know now?
Well, at least you can see more of the room it's in, and you can judge that it's a colorful room, so the baby is probably at home.
Now you back up even more and you see not only the window but the whole side of the house. Yes, you were right, the baby is at home.
Can you tell if it lives in the city or country? What kind of house is it? Since you only see the house and not the surroundings, there's not enough info to answer.
Back up again and you see the whole house. It's old, very old. But, it's in good repair. The style is familiar and you want to say it's a moorish style. But, you can only see a few feet around the house, nothing of the neighborhood yet. Does this mean the baby is muslim?
Back up still more and you see that the house indeed has some islamic/moorish influences. Now you can see people but they are not wearing robes and turbans as you would expect if this was an Islamic country.
Back up again and you can see the entire community with the street signs in Spanish giving directions to…Madrid.
Now you know the baby is Spanish and lives outside Madrid, Spain.
Can you see how only by continuing to back up and see the bigger picture, are you able to put the whole story into its true context?
The same is true with Scripture, or at least it should be. Instead, most people stop when they look through the window. They end up describing the baby entirely wrong.
That's because if you don't put Scripture in context of a first century Hebrew, you don't have it in context at all. You can read what seems to be the plain meaning of the words and never know that their meaning is different from your 21st century, western, gentile perspective.
Sounds a little over simplified, doesn't it? You're probably thinking, "like, duh, of course you should take Scripture in context."
Yep.
But, that is not what's being done.
