“For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” — 1 Corinthians 14:33 (KJV)
Something you’ll often hear Christians claim in order to try to win certain arguments is that God is not the author of confusion. The problem is, while the verse that seems to make this claim isn’t wrong, it also doesn’t mean what most people assume it does due to being unaware of a number of facts.
The first fact most Christians are unaware of that leads them to completely misinterpret the verse is the meaning of the word “confusion” itself in the verse. This word is what’s known as a False Friend in the KJV (the King James Version of the Bible), which is a term that is sometimes used to refer to English words we still use today, but which can now mean something very different — in ways that the average reader is unlikely to be aware of — from what they could mean when the KJV was first translated (and while certain disingenuous types will try to distract from this fact by pointing out that the term “False Friends” has previously been described by saying, “In linguistics, false friends are words in different languages that look or sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning,” this — almost certainly purposely — misses the point entirely by ignoring the fact that the first two words of the explanation were “in linguistics,” not “in theology,” and also ignores the fact that the meaning of words and phrases can change over time, not to mention that words and terms can have multiple meanings, as is the whole point of the theological definition of False Friends in the first place).
You see, the Greek word that was translated as “confusion” in the KJV is ἀκαταστασία, and this Greek word actually means “chaos” or “disorder,” not “confusion,” as least not in the manner that we use the word “confusion” today. That’s not to say this was a mistranslation in the KJV, however, because the word “confusion” could also mean “chaos” or “disorder” back in 1611 when the KJV was translated, and based on the definition of the Greek word it was translated from, it becomes obvious that this is how the translators intended for it to interpreted, even though the word has become a False Friend today.
The second fact is the context of the verse itself. You see, most people who quote this verse ignore the verses before it, as well as the second half of the verse itself. Here’s the whole passage the verse is a part of:
“How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God. Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” — 1 Corinthians 14:26-33 (KJV)
As you can see when you look at the verse in its proper context, Paul was talking about speaking in tongues and prophesying within church gatherings, and not talking about doctrine. All he was telling his readers was to avoid speaking in tongues or prophesying at the same time as one another, but to speak one at a time, because God is not into disorder (this is also made clear the words “but of peace” in the second half of verse 33).
And the third fact is that the words “the author” aren’t even in the verse in the original Greek, as you can see by the fact that they’re in italics in most King James Bibles that use italics to clarify that detail. This is why the CLV (the Concordant Literal Version) actually renders the verse more literally as, “For God is not for turbulence, but peace, as in all the ecclesias of the saints,” and why the YLT (Young’s Literal Translation) does so as, “for God is not [a God] of tumult, but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints.”
Besides, as nearly everyone in the true body of Christ (not to be confused with members of the Christian religion) is aware, all is of God, meaning God is behind absolutely everything that happens, so there’s no way He couldn’t be the author of confusion as we define the word today (at least from an absolute perspective), even while not being the author of confusion from the perspective of what the word actually meant in that verse in the KJV in 1611.