The Bible is meant to be a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. In the hands of a predator, it becomes a chain around your neck.
Weaponized Scripture is one of the most insidious forms of manipulation because it hijacks the very thing that should give you freedom and uses it to keep you imprisoned. When someone uses God's Word to justify their abuse, they are not just hurting you. They are damaging your relationship with God.
Common Scriptures Predators Twist
"Wives, submit to your husbands" (Ephesians 5:22) is ripped from context. The full passage commands husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, which means sacrificial, selfless love. Submission in Scripture is a response to love, not a mandate for servitude to abuse.
"Forgive seventy times seven" (Matthew 18:22) is about releasing bitterness from your heart, not about remaining in a dangerous situation. Jesus also flipped tables in the temple. Forgiveness and boundaries are not mutually exclusive.
"God hates divorce" (Malachi 2:16) is used to trap people in abusive marriages. The same passage talks about covering your garment with violence. God hates the violence that causes divorce far more than He hates the legal process that ends it.
"Touch not mine anointed" (1 Chronicles 16:22) is used by church leaders to make themselves unaccountable. This verse is about Israel as a nation, not a shield for pastoral abuse.
Reclaiming Your Faith
The predator did not create the Bible. They distorted it. Your faith does not belong to them. It belongs to you and God. Separating what Scripture actually says from what the predator told you it says may be the most important work you do in recovery.
Read the Bible without the predator's commentary. Study the context of the verses they used. Talk to a trusted, non-compromised pastor or spiritual leader. You will find that God is not on the predator's side. He never was.
The full theology of spiritual manipulation and recovery is in The Dark Room and Breaking Free from Jezebel. Dr. Hines is a Christian coach who understands how faith and abuse intersect.