Reason # 4: Problem Stated: Misapplication.
Sometimes people read a portion of Scripture and they apply it incorrectly. One of the most common places this is done is with descriptive texts. Often a person will read something in the Bible which is only for a descriptive purpose and then turn that into a prescriptive text. In other words, a person will often read one portion of Scripture and then take that portion and apply it to something else that is not applicable to the text or to the circumstance. People do this often with the Law of God which is divided into two main codes or administrations, the Mosaic Law code era and the Law of Christ code era. For example, some will read an OT story that merely describes an event and then from that descriptive event try and apply that as a universal law for all people at all times in all places. Suppose someone reads the OT story of Elisha plowing with twelve yoke of oxen (1 King 19:19) and then applies that today to all who do farm work calling upon all farmers to use 12 oxen as the only holy way to plow the land. That is taking a descriptive text and making it prescriptive to all. Another example would be if someone takes the story of Cain where his lineage brought forth musical instruments and instruments of bronze and iron (Gen. 4:17-22) and since Cain had done evil the person then reasons that whatever came forth from him and his family is evil as well. Such reasoning as that does not see that the text is only descriptive and not prescriptive. Not everything in the Old Covenant was universally prescriptive for all times and all places. Some if it was written for historical purposes. Some of it was prescriptive for a time (Gal. 3:24-26).Some like to also make the story of Adam and Eve prescriptive for the doctrine of monogamy only. Jesus Christ did reference the creation account by saying "he who created them from the beginning made them male and female," and that divorce was not "from the beginning" (Matt. 19:4,8), but that speaks to the issue of heterosexuality and the goal of a permanent union, not about numbers within a union. To force a monogamy only position from the creation account is to take a descriptive text and to make it prescriptive without biblical justification.
Solution? The error of misapplication is rarely an error that is made alone. It is usually an error that is made with other interpretive errors intertwined with it. Thus it is sometimes hard to isolate it alone. A person may misapply something due to more than one reason. Yet there are still ways to dissect this error and to show it as a failure to think correctly about the biblical text. One way to do this is to show how a person does not live consistently by his or her own standards or confession. No one can apply all descriptive texts in a prescriptive way universally. Also, it is important to ask those who do this who gets to decide what is universally binding and what is not universally binding? It seems that most who fall into this trap seem to believe they are the ones who are inspired enough to spot the sections that are inspired for our application today. However, by such an admission it shows the sin of pride of the heart in that person who believes he or she can determine by a mere arbitrary standard what applies and does not apply today. Furthermore, if someone wants to take the creation account as the universally binding law for all people at all places then to be consistent that person has to go back to a life of living in a garden and walking around either naked or with fig leaves as clothing for covering. If the descriptive nature of the text is universally binding then to be consistent one has to take the whole and not just what parts are convenient to one's own personal point that is sought to be established as truth for all.
Sometimes people read a portion of Scripture and they apply it incorrectly. One of the most common places this is done is with descriptive texts. Often a person will read something in the Bible which is only for a descriptive purpose and then turn that into a prescriptive text. In other words, a person will often read one portion of Scripture and then take that portion and apply it to something else that is not applicable to the text or to the circumstance. People do this often with the Law of God which is divided into two main codes or administrations, the Mosaic Law code era and the Law of Christ code era. For example, some will read an OT story that merely describes an event and then from that descriptive event try and apply that as a universal law for all people at all times in all places. Suppose someone reads the OT story of Elisha plowing with twelve yoke of oxen (1 King 19:19) and then applies that today to all who do farm work calling upon all farmers to use 12 oxen as the only holy way to plow the land. That is taking a descriptive text and making it prescriptive to all. Another example would be if someone takes the story of Cain where his lineage brought forth musical instruments and instruments of bronze and iron (Gen. 4:17-22) and since Cain had done evil the person then reasons that whatever came forth from him and his family is evil as well. Such reasoning as that does not see that the text is only descriptive and not prescriptive. Not everything in the Old Covenant was universally prescriptive for all times and all places. Some if it was written for historical purposes. Some of it was prescriptive for a time (Gal. 3:24-26).Some like to also make the story of Adam and Eve prescriptive for the doctrine of monogamy only. Jesus Christ did reference the creation account by saying "he who created them from the beginning made them male and female," and that divorce was not "from the beginning" (Matt. 19:4,8), but that speaks to the issue of heterosexuality and the goal of a permanent union, not about numbers within a union. To force a monogamy only position from the creation account is to take a descriptive text and to make it prescriptive without biblical justification.
Solution? The error of misapplication is rarely an error that is made alone. It is usually an error that is made with other interpretive errors intertwined with it. Thus it is sometimes hard to isolate it alone. A person may misapply something due to more than one reason. Yet there are still ways to dissect this error and to show it as a failure to think correctly about the biblical text. One way to do this is to show how a person does not live consistently by his or her own standards or confession. No one can apply all descriptive texts in a prescriptive way universally. Also, it is important to ask those who do this who gets to decide what is universally binding and what is not universally binding? It seems that most who fall into this trap seem to believe they are the ones who are inspired enough to spot the sections that are inspired for our application today. However, by such an admission it shows the sin of pride of the heart in that person who believes he or she can determine by a mere arbitrary standard what applies and does not apply today. Furthermore, if someone wants to take the creation account as the universally binding law for all people at all places then to be consistent that person has to go back to a life of living in a garden and walking around either naked or with fig leaves as clothing for covering. If the descriptive nature of the text is universally binding then to be consistent one has to take the whole and not just what parts are convenient to one's own personal point that is sought to be established as truth for all.