What is the common sense golden rule ?

[civic]

“When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.” –Dr. David L. Cooper (1886-1965),founder of The Biblical Research Society

I like this short version as well below:

"If the plain sense makes good sense, seek no other sense, lest it result in nonsense " @sethproton

Please don’t fall for the trap of using human reasoning to twist the meaning of a phrase into something you want it to mean. I have heard the most outlandish doctrines developed out of the interpretation of a particular phraseology of partial verses in a certain translation. Why?! How can that possibly be what God wanted us to learn from his written word?

Trust but verify​

I was raised in a extremely legalistic, extremely dispensational, extremely fundamental, extremely separatist, extremely cult-like church. Every man carried the exact same edition of the Wide Margin Scofield® Study Bible, Authorized King James Bible Version. The preacher usually called out the page number of each passage he quoted. We took copious notes in the margin. Our doctrine was composed of man’s opinion about King James English words and phrases pulled out of context from various passages throughout the Bible. Those margin notes became the only Bible we read. I thank God that I was eventually delivered from that cult, but it took a long time to unlearn the damage. That’s probably why my posts are too long and I still quote too much scripture because I don’t want you or me to fall into that trap again.

Let me suggest a very sound Biblical way to avoid that trap. Establish every matter in the mouth of two or three witnesses. If we trust God to fulfil his word, he will follow his own teaching. Therefore, everything that we need to know and obey will be given in the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses.

• On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness (Deuteronomy 17:6)
• A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. … The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15)
• Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses (Hebrews 10:28)
• But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ (Matthew 18:16)
• Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses (2 Corinthians 13:1)
• Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses (1 Timothy 5:19)

If you are questioning some doctrine, and you can only find it in one verse in one translation, then it’s probably a mistake. If your church is making that particular doctrine a test for fellowship, then leave quickly and quietly, run, don’t walk. There are so many good Bible-believing churches that you don’t have to stay in a dead one.https://www.bibletruths.org/the-golden-rule-of-interpretation/

hope this helps !!!

 

[Rockson]

“When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.” –Dr. David L. Cooper (1886-1965),founder of The Biblical Research Society

I like this short version as well below:

"If the plain sense makes good sense, seek no other sense, lest it result in nonsense "

Yes very good rule of thumb. I think you've seen me say various times if what some people say were taken to a court of law with a jury would what they say be laughed out of court? Courts, judges and juries DEMAND and many times clearly see what is clear, basic and straightforward when it comes to words, or rational thought.

 

[civic]

Yes very good rule of thumb. I think you've seen me say various times if what some people say were taken to a court of law with a jury would what they say be laughed out of court? Courts, judges and juries DEMAND and many times clearly see what is clear, basic and straightforward when it comes to words, or rational thought.

Exactly great example brother

 

[Soyeong]

“When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.” –Dr. David L. Cooper (1886-1965),founder of The Biblical Research Society

I like this short version as well below:

"If the plain sense makes good sense, seek no other sense, lest it result in nonsense " @sethproton

Please don’t fall for the trap of using human reasoning to twist the meaning of a phrase into something you want it to mean. I have heard the most outlandish doctrines developed out of the interpretation of a particular phraseology of partial verses in a certain translation. Why?! How can that possibly be what God wanted us to learn from his written word?

That sounds good, but I don't think that it grasps the fullness of the depths and complexity of Scripture, such as with the Bible using an incredible amount of parallelism. For example, there is a theme of goats and coats, where Jacob was wearing the coat of Esau when he fed a goat to Isaac, who was later asked if he recognized the coat of Joseph that had been dipped in the blood of a goat, Judah was asked whether he recognized his coat after he had offered to give Tamar a goat, and it is all about redeeming the family line.

A chiasm is where the Bible expresses a sequence of thoughts and then expresses the same sequence in the reverse order. This structure allowed the author to give commentary by emphasizing what is at the center of the chiasm and by drawing out the themes of passages that mirror each other. For example, Noah's flood was one big chiasm, which is easiest to see when looking at the numbers used, and at is center is that God remembered Noah. Noah's flood also strongly parallels the creation narrative to bring out the theme that it is a recreation event.

Furthermore, the book of Genesis is one giant chasm that is composed of 81 smaller chasms, which can be divided into halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, eighths, ninths, tenths, or eighteens, and each part of each of those fractions also forms its own chiasm. For example, the disaster of too much water of Noah'd flood mirrors the disaster of too little water of Joseph's famine, which also is parallel to the famine of when Abraham went down to Egypt.

All of the Books of Moses, all of the Gospels, and many other books of the Bible form similar complex chiastic patterns, which can also serve as the author's signature. For example, some manuscripts do not contain the ending of Mark, so when everything in Mark is part of a complex chiastic pattern except the ending, then that is strong evidence that it was added at a later time, which is not to say that it is false. So if someone were to add to or subtract from what was written, then it would be apparent (Deuteronomy 4:2).