We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. NLT

And we don’t twist God’s Word to suit ourselves. The Message

This is one of the most basic principles of Biblical interpretation: ‘the perspicuity of Scripture.’ Whilst acknowledging that there are mysteries in the Bible, much of its meaning is simple and clear and lies on the surface. Although it may be useful to have knowledge of the original languages, it was written so that the ‘common man’ may understand it. We don’t have to be Hebrew or Greek scholars.

‘The doctrine of the clarity of Scripture (often called the perspicuity of Scripture) is a Protestant Christian position teaching that “…those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them”.’ (From Wikipedia. The quote is from the Westminster Confession).

We are living in an age in which many mainline denominations are twisting parts of Scripture. It seems to me that some people are trying to perform theological gymnastics in order to tell us that the Bible isn’t saying what it clearly and obviously is. If this is a (misguided) attempt to accommodate to the times, to make the church relevant, it clearly isn’t working. While they continue to do these things, their numbers decrease. There are whole movements that appear to be in terminal decline. But they do not seem to be able to join the dots. They are committing spiritual suicide, but continuing to load the gun.