Understanding God’s Word rightly is no trick of the devil—and I’m a firm believer in the inerrancy of scripture, and all the fundamentals of Christianity. Jesus is Lord, and I’ll gladly praise Him forever for that!
Knowing the basic common-sense fact that proverbs are, by their nature...proverbial, that is truisms, or maxims, is not exactly an advanced “literary manipulation.” It is taking God’s Word as it was written, not as how your proud heart would like it to be.
If your children are terrific, thank God for it, not yourself.
Don’t believe me about the word proverb? Lets see what Noah Webster said back in 1828:
PROV’ERB, n. [L. proverbium; pro and verbum, a word.]
1. A short sentence often repeated, expressing a well known truth or common fact, ascertained by experience or observation; a maxim of wisdom.
The proverb is true, that light gains make heavy purses, for light gains come often, great gains now and then.
2. A by-word; a name often repeated; and hence frequently, a reproach or object of contempt. Jer.24.
3. In Scripture, it sometimes signifies a moral sentence or maxim that is enigmatical; a dark saying of the wise that requires interpretation. Prov.1.
4. Proverbs, a canonical book of the Old Testament, containing a great variety of wise maxims, rich in practical truths and excellent rules for the conduct of all classes of men.
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Are all the proverbs in the book of Proverbs true? ABSOLUTELY. They are however true in the way they were written, by the writer, and the Holy Spirit, AS PROVERBS.
Does that mean thinking people understand other bible passages, which were written not as proverbs, but as literal history, not as literally true? Absolutely not—narrative passages are absolutely true, in a literal sense, as that is how, in Hebrew, and in English, language functions.
All I’m doing is applying common sense...if we tried to make every proverb into an absolute promise...(a way God never intended) we’ll distort scripture, and drive ourselves and others, nuts.
Common sense is often useful in understanding Scripture.
It is not, per se,
definitive, encompassing, foundational
GOD’S SENSE, HOLY SPIRIT’S SENSE, is.
ANYtime “common sense” trashes the tinies power of God’s Word to manifest literally
trash common sense.