Authorial Intent | Golden Apples

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Article

Reading Someone Else’s Mail

Many believers unintentionally open someone else’s mail in Scripture—claiming promises or commands never addressed to them. The key is learning the difference between primary application (what it meant to the original audience) and secondary application (what we can learn from it). When we read the Bible’s letters as they were sent, God’s voice grows clearer, not smaller.

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Article

Words are Bridges

Not every word is a truth-claim. Some, like Paul’s “idol meat,” live in the gray—morally neutral until love decides how to use them. What if pronouns are like that? Not worship, not denial—just language as bridge. Sometimes faithfulness looks less like resistance and more like discernment.

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Article

The Invention of “Saving” Faith

For centuries, James 2 has been read as teaching two kinds of faith—“true” vs. “demonic.” This essay shows how that split stems from Augustine’s Latin Bible and the Donatist fight, not James. Restore the dialogue cues, and the passage calls believers to live their shared faith, not classify it.

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Article

The Context Compass

Interpreting Scripture can feel like wandering in the wilderness—every verse pulling a different way. The Context Compass (C12) offers bearings: twelve “directions” of context that orient us to author, history, genre, and theology. Not a rigid map, but a compass—guiding readers toward clarity without losing the text’s voice.

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Article

Who Said That?

The Bible is God’s Word for us—but not every line was written to us. Confusing the author, recipient, speaker, and audience can twist meaning and create contradictions. Learning to track these “four parties of Scripture” clears the noise and lets us hear God’s Word as it was meant.

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The Problems of Allegorical Interpretation

When allegorical interpretation ignores grammar, history, and authorial intent, it breeds chaos—overloading words, merging unrelated contexts, and inventing hidden codes. The result is subjective “truth” that weakens Scripture’s authority. Here’s how these errors work—and what to do instead.

Everything we've ever posted about authorial intent:

Reading Someone Else’s Mail

Words are Bridges

The Invention of “Saving” Faith

The Context Compass

Who Said That?

The Problems of Allegorical Interpretation

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