“Eli, Eli, Hindi Ka Israeli!” (Part 2)

Without apparent regard for the context, it seems that whenever Eli Soriano of Ang Dating Daan (ADD) would see the words “east” and “thanksgiving” (or related words such as “praise” or “worship”) together in a verse, he tends to conclude that it refers to the Philippines and his group, “Members of the Church of God, International.”

We already saw in “Eli, Eli, Hindi Ka Israeli” Part 1 that, in his zeal to prove that theirs is the only true church, Soriano pointed to Isaiah 24:15 (“Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; exalt the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea.” NIV) and then he boldly concluded, “The possibility of this prophecy being fulfilled in the Philippines is 100 percent! Brother Eli and his group are ‘easterners’; and his group is the only congregation in the Philippines that offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the God of Israel — weekly.” (EliSoriano, God-Inspired Prophecies about a Poor Nation and a Nobody Like BrotherEli)

We also saw that geographical or directional markers such as “east,” “west,” “north,” and “south” are just the Bible’s poetic way of saying “from all over the world.”

For example, look at Psalm 107:1-3. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.” (ESV) In Hebrew, the word “south” literally reads “sea.” The footnote of the Contemporary English Version tells us that, “The Hebrew text has ‘sea,’ probably referring to the Mediterranean Sea.” (Emphasis added) This is the reason the Amplified Bible goes like this: “And gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the [Red] Sea in the south.” (Emphasis added) So, the frame of reference the psalmist had in mind was the known world then and there and not the world as we know it here and now.

According to the ESV Study Bible, “the psalm concerns gratitude for Judah’s return from exile… The mention of the four points of the compass (east, west, north, south) suggests the ways in which the people had been scattered”. Just as in Isaiah 24:15, which Soriano clearly misinterpreted, so also Psalm 107:3 talks about the regathering of the Jewish exiles. The New Living Translation rendered the latter verse this way: “For he has gathered the exiles from many lands, from east and west, from north and south.” (Emphasis added)

So, when we read such compass points, think of Israel, not the Philippines.

The Fertile Crescent (The Bible's Known World Then and There). Photo from Truthnet.Org

Such awareness of Bible geography keeps us from misinterpreting the Scriptures.

“Included among the difficulties that vex a twentieth-century student of the Scriptures are those of ‘time and space.’ Modern students of the Bible live in a different millennium and most live on a different continent. The proclamations of Scripture, on the other hand, were occasioned and penned precisely from within their own distinctive settings in time and space.” (Moody Atlas of the Bible Lands, 3. Emphasis added)

It cautions against imposing our own compass point or time and space upon the Bible. There are even times when directional markers are not necessarily compass points.

“For example, since north functions as a compass point in the vocabulary of a modern Westerner, one might be apt to interpret those numerous passages that mention ‘the army of the north’ or ‘the enemy of the north’ to be referring to a compass point geographically north of Israel.  At times, however, the Bible identifies such armies or enemies as Assyrians (e.g. Zeph. 2:13), Babylonians (e.g. Jer. 1:13-15; 6:22; Zech. 2:6-7), or even Persians (e.g. Isaiah 41:25; Jer. 50:3), that is, people who hail from countries that lie northeast or due east, but not north of Israel. This fact must be explained geographically. … From Babylon travelers are required to follow a circuitous course for nearly 900 miles, through parts of Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, before finally arriving at the north of Jerusalem. … Accordingly, the Bible’s use of the expression ‘north’ denotes the direction from which a foe would normally approach, and not the location of its homeland. … Cultivating a geographic awareness is a necessary and valuable component in any serious study of Scripture.” (Ibid, 4, 5. Emphasis added.)

Thus it is important that we interpret the Bible according to its background, not according to ours. Bible background includes vocabulary, culture, history and geography.

In his “How to Study the Bible,” Dr. John MacArthur wrote, “To interpret the Bible means closing the gaps. As you interpret the meaning of Scripture by using the various sources, you will close the language gap, the culture gap, the geography gap, and the history gap.”

We are to close the gaps. Soriano’s way of interpreting the Bible widens the gaps, instead of closing it.