36) When Scripture Doesn’t Mean What We Think It Means

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A single verse can feel like a hammer blow to any hard question, especially when someone says, “The scriptures settle it.” But what if the real problem isn’t the text, it’s our confidence in what we’ve always assumed it means? I’m Michael B. Rush, and we start with a personal moment: being accused of teaching false doctrine for suggesting the story of Adam and the beginning of mortality may be more complicated than a slogan like “first man” can carry on its own.

From there, we lay down a principle that changes how we read everything from the Bible to the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants: the words of revelation are sacred, but our interpretations aren’t. We dig into D&C 19 and how God reframes “eternal” and “endless” punishment, then move through powerful New Testament examples where disciples mishear Jesus in John 6, and where the apostles misunderstand “other sheep” until the Book of Mormon clarifies it in 3 Nephi.

Then we come back to Adam through Moses 1 and Moses 3, asking what the text actually claims, what its scope is, and what faithful humility looks like when we bump into big questions about earth history, dinosaurs, and even strange archaeological outliers people point to. The goal isn’t to chase fringe theories; it’s to learn how to keep the whole canon in view, stay inside the guardrails of the gospel, and stop confusing tradition with revelation.

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