Answering Ho Kum Fei

Question by Ho Kum Fei in my Facebook:
"This reminds me of a question that I wanted to ask you for a long time. Long long long ago, there is only one church, the Roman Catholic church in Rome. The state church of England, the Church of England renounced papal authority when Henry VIII failed to secure an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in the 1530s. Thereafter many other also started their protestant churches and apparently interpret the bible slightly differently. Who has the correct interpretation of the Bible?"

Answer:
TEXT
In the interpretation of any text, there are two ways, exegesis and eisegesis.
1. Exegesis - let the text speak to you;
2. Eisegesis - make the text speak for you.
This is the fundamental reason why the same holy book(s) of any religion can produce many sects.

To get the correct interpretation of the Bible is not an easy thing to do because:
1. The Bible is a library of 66 books written by more than 40 authors that spanned 1500 years;
2. Everyone has pre-suppositions that they are extremely unwilling to let go.

However, the following should help:
1. Text - let the text speak to you (exegesis);
2. Context - interpret the text within the context;
3. Use the Bible to interpret the Bible - interpret unclear text in the light of clearer text;
4. The Bible never contradict itself - so there should be no contradictory conclusion.

ORGANISATION
An organization may be founded based on certain beliefs, but then the beliefs may be reinterpreted (eisegesis) over time. An example is the Communist Party of China, which now reinterpret that capitalism as socialism.

VERY SIMPLE CHURCH HISTORY
Long, long, long ago, there was only one church, a church under persecution, first by the Jews, then by the Romans. Those who believed were called Christians (Acts 11:26) and the church had no label.  It was simply known as an assembly (ἐκκλησία). But even for a church under persecution, there were many people who had pre-suppositions that they were extremely unwilling to let go and they taught their doctrines which contradict the Bible. That is why the Bible has warnings about false teachings.

Then a Roman Emperor, Constantine, became a Christian. Suddenly, to be a Christian was no longer a risk, but an opportunity. While political recognition had helped many religions, in the case of Christianity, it became a corrupting influence. The bishop of Rome, by being the bishop at the capital, started to crave for political power. To legitimize his power, ideas that the church ought to have an earthly head (not found in the Bible) had to be reinterpreted (eisegesis) into the Bible.

The Roman Catholic Bible was written in Latin, called the Latin Vulgate, and could not be understood by the common people. The Bible had to be interpreted by the priests. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic church forbid the common people from reading the Bible and also prohibit the translation of the Bible into native languages.

Council of Toulouse (1229): "We prohibit also that the laity should be permitted to have the books of the Old and the New Testament; unless anyone from the motives of devotion should wish to have the Psalter or the Breviary for divine offices or the hours of the blessed Virgin; but we most strictly forbid their having any translation of these books."

Council of Tarragona (1234): "No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments in the Romance language, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days after promulgation of this decree, so that they may be burned..."

Council of Trent (1564) added the Bible into its list of prohibited books, and forbade any person to read the Bible without a license from a Roman Catholic bishop or inquisitor.

The Reformation started by Martin Luther set of a chain of events which led to the Bible being translated into the language of the natives. Suddenly, the Bible was in the hands of the people and they were able to let the text speak to them. Not everyone support the Reformation because they love the Bible and its truth. When King Henry VIII of England failed to secure an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, he got the Parliament endorsed himself as the Head of the Church of England, giving himself the authority to annul his own marriage. Nevertheless, the Reformation in England was real and the Bible was translated into English. King Henry, like the Popes, tried to restrict the translation and circulation of the Bible in order to control the religion. But he gave up in 1539.

This is really a very simplified church history, omitting the split between the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church. Basically both bishops (Rome & Constantinople) want to be the boss of the Christian world and so they excommunicated each other.

WHO HAS CORRECT INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE
Although the Bible is now available to most of Europe, the Reformation did not produce one denomination. Instead there are many denominations, leading to questions like, "Who has the correct interpretation of the Bible?"

Why denominations happen:
1. Text - Different interpretation, application or emphasis of certain minor Bible doctrines or peripheral issues which Christians can agree to disagree;
2. Practice - Applications of a denomination's or a church's practice deemed not according the Biblical principles causing break off;
3. Culture and language;
4. Church politics (usually masquerade as doctrinal or practice issues).

However, anyone who truly interpret the Bible correctly will agree on these fundamentals:
1. The inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture;
2. The deity of Jesus Christ;
3. The virgin birth of Christ;
4. The substitutionary, atoning work of Christ on the cross;
5. The physical resurrection and the personal bodily return of Christ to the earth.