FIRST THINGS FIRST
Studying the Bible is not coming to it and looking for verses to support your beliefs. It is coming to it with an open mind, allowing it to say what it says, and then to conform your beliefs to it. One might want to read Ezekiel 14:4 and examine himself to see what idols are in his own heart when he comes to God’s Word.
I have stated previously that reading only those books that support your position is not studying the Bible. It is the epitome of being spoon-fed. The reason you stick with books that only support your view is because you enjoy your ears being tickled. You do not want to have to think, and you want even less to have to admit that you were wrong in the beliefs that you held. This is known as pride, which does not impress the Lord.
I was raised under the beliefs of Dispensationalism. I attended a Dispensational Bible Institute. When I discovered that the Rapture was nowhere to be taught in Scripture, I fought hard to hold onto those beliefs. In fact, I tried to take the easy route out by telling myself, “Whether there is or is not a Rapture, I know where I am going when I die or Jesus returns.” However, because I desired God’s truth over and above the way in which I was raised and what I had been taught, I submitted to the Spirit’s leading and to the truth as revealed in God’s Holy Word. The more I studied the Bible simply for what it had to say, the more I noticed the flaws and holes within the Dispensational system of theology. I had no choice but to submit to what was revealed in Scripture if I wanted to be obedient to my Lord and be taught His truths.
Obviously, the first step you need to do in order to have effective Bible study is to pray. Before you open up your Bible, you should pray. Before you read it, before you study it; pray. Never, never, never open the Scriptures without the Holy Spirit. Pray for His guidance and His leading. Do not ask the Lord to show you what you already perceive to be true. Ask Him to reveal His truth to you, and make sure that you are doing so with a willing heart to accept that truth no matter what it may cost you. If you ask Him to show you His truths, but are unwilling to humble yourself and submit to them, regardless of whether or not you like what you are shown, then you are merely asking out of insincerity, which is sin. You ask Him to show you His truths but have no intention of humbling yourself and submitting to them in obedience. What you really want for God to do is to verify your pre-conceived pre-suppositions, regardless of whether they contain an ounce of truth or not. So the truth is that you do not really desire the truth. Such an attitude in a professing Christian is tragic.
PREREQUISITES OF INTERPRETATION
You need to be regenerated. If you are not saved, seek Jesus diligently in prayer and ask Him to save you. If you are saved, then avoid sin and allow Him complete control over your life. The unregenerate person is spiritually blind (2 Cor. 4:4) and spiritually dead (Eph. 2:2). He cannot discern things of a spiritual nature (1 Cor. 2:9-16). The Holy Spirit is the Author of truth (John 16:13) and will guide the believer into the truth of God’s Word, providing the believer is willing to subject Himself to that truth in humility. As you are guided into the truth, you need to react to the Word in obedience. Disobedience to God’s revelation quenches the Spirit’s leading, which makes the believer susceptible to error in both interpretation and practical application (James 1:22; 4:17).
The Bible is holy (2 Tim. 3:15), therefore you need a genuine reverence, respect, and hunger for and interest in the Bible. Having such will protect you from laziness and carelessness. You need to be willing to study and do research, gaining knowledge of biblical culture, history, and theology so that you can approach God’s Word with sound judgment and understanding (2 Tim. 2:15; Acts 17:11). If all God’s people had the same principles of hermeneutics and did thorough, accurate study, all the doctrinal conclusions would be the same. Unfortunately, there is much pre-conceived subjective opinions based on personal feelings that dominate the scene. Interpretation based on personal feelings and opinions is the evidence of a disobedient person unwilling to submit to the authority of God and the truth of His Word.
Recognize that even when approached with the greatest care, humility and prayerfulness, no human interpretation is infallible. Watch out for pride! Be teachable by being willing to receive teaching from those God has gifted in the Church to teach others (Acts 2:42). Be careful whom you trust. It is so very important that you test everything against the Bible, no matter how great a man of God he may be. Scripture is the final authority of truth.
ERRORS TO AVOID
As you study Scripture, there are several common interpretational errors that you must avoid.
Studying the Bible is not coming to it and looking for verses to support your beliefs. It is coming to it with an open mind, allowing it to say what it says, and then to conform your beliefs to it. One might want to read Ezekiel 14:4 and examine himself to see what idols are in his own heart when he comes to God’s Word.
Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols.If you approach God’s Word with idols or pre-conceived ideas in your heart, God is going to allow you to see whatever you desire to see simply because you want to see it. You are unwilling to see anything else that He desires to show you. In a sense, you are quenching the Holy Spirit. You are so proud and stubborn that you choose to elevate how you were raised and what you were taught (or worse yet, your subjective opinions and personal feelings) above the Word of God. In so doing, you have become unwilling to listen to rational biblical teaching.
I have stated previously that reading only those books that support your position is not studying the Bible. It is the epitome of being spoon-fed. The reason you stick with books that only support your view is because you enjoy your ears being tickled. You do not want to have to think, and you want even less to have to admit that you were wrong in the beliefs that you held. This is known as pride, which does not impress the Lord.
I was raised under the beliefs of Dispensationalism. I attended a Dispensational Bible Institute. When I discovered that the Rapture was nowhere to be taught in Scripture, I fought hard to hold onto those beliefs. In fact, I tried to take the easy route out by telling myself, “Whether there is or is not a Rapture, I know where I am going when I die or Jesus returns.” However, because I desired God’s truth over and above the way in which I was raised and what I had been taught, I submitted to the Spirit’s leading and to the truth as revealed in God’s Holy Word. The more I studied the Bible simply for what it had to say, the more I noticed the flaws and holes within the Dispensational system of theology. I had no choice but to submit to what was revealed in Scripture if I wanted to be obedient to my Lord and be taught His truths.
Obviously, the first step you need to do in order to have effective Bible study is to pray. Before you open up your Bible, you should pray. Before you read it, before you study it; pray. Never, never, never open the Scriptures without the Holy Spirit. Pray for His guidance and His leading. Do not ask the Lord to show you what you already perceive to be true. Ask Him to reveal His truth to you, and make sure that you are doing so with a willing heart to accept that truth no matter what it may cost you. If you ask Him to show you His truths, but are unwilling to humble yourself and submit to them, regardless of whether or not you like what you are shown, then you are merely asking out of insincerity, which is sin. You ask Him to show you His truths but have no intention of humbling yourself and submitting to them in obedience. What you really want for God to do is to verify your pre-conceived pre-suppositions, regardless of whether they contain an ounce of truth or not. So the truth is that you do not really desire the truth. Such an attitude in a professing Christian is tragic.
PREREQUISITES OF INTERPRETATION
You need to be regenerated. If you are not saved, seek Jesus diligently in prayer and ask Him to save you. If you are saved, then avoid sin and allow Him complete control over your life. The unregenerate person is spiritually blind (2 Cor. 4:4) and spiritually dead (Eph. 2:2). He cannot discern things of a spiritual nature (1 Cor. 2:9-16). The Holy Spirit is the Author of truth (John 16:13) and will guide the believer into the truth of God’s Word, providing the believer is willing to subject Himself to that truth in humility. As you are guided into the truth, you need to react to the Word in obedience. Disobedience to God’s revelation quenches the Spirit’s leading, which makes the believer susceptible to error in both interpretation and practical application (James 1:22; 4:17).
The Bible is holy (2 Tim. 3:15), therefore you need a genuine reverence, respect, and hunger for and interest in the Bible. Having such will protect you from laziness and carelessness. You need to be willing to study and do research, gaining knowledge of biblical culture, history, and theology so that you can approach God’s Word with sound judgment and understanding (2 Tim. 2:15; Acts 17:11). If all God’s people had the same principles of hermeneutics and did thorough, accurate study, all the doctrinal conclusions would be the same. Unfortunately, there is much pre-conceived subjective opinions based on personal feelings that dominate the scene. Interpretation based on personal feelings and opinions is the evidence of a disobedient person unwilling to submit to the authority of God and the truth of His Word.
Recognize that even when approached with the greatest care, humility and prayerfulness, no human interpretation is infallible. Watch out for pride! Be teachable by being willing to receive teaching from those God has gifted in the Church to teach others (Acts 2:42). Be careful whom you trust. It is so very important that you test everything against the Bible, no matter how great a man of God he may be. Scripture is the final authority of truth.
ERRORS TO AVOID
As you study Scripture, there are several common interpretational errors that you must avoid.
- Do not make the Bible say what you want it to say. I have mentioned this frequently throughout this and the following two blog entries. You cannot come to the Bible looking for what you want to find in it. Otherwise you are trying to conform the Bible to you. It is you who are to be conformed to the Bible. Let the Bible say what God intended it to say. The first rule of hermeneutics is: If the plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense.
- Do not think the Bible is all about you or that it was written to you. There is much that can be applied to you, but you cannot apply something that was meant specifically for an individual of the Bible. There are four gaps that need to be overcome so that you can understand the Bible correctly, the way it was meant to be understood. These are the language gap, the cultural gap, the geographical gap, and the historical gap. They are precisely what their names suggest.
- Do not try and interpret Scripture through the lens of your customs and culture. For example, just because you benefit from electricity today, do not be ignorant and assume that this is the way it has always been or that this is the way it is for everybody in the world. It is untrue. London, Ontario first turned on its power only 100 years ago. Imagine, 100 years ago they did not have what you have, enjoy, and take for granted today. You cannot interpret the Bible based on your perceptions of life. That is why point 2 is so critical; studying the various gaps that lead to proper interpretation. A further example: Throughout history, and in the majority of the world today, people operated based upon familial units. The self-centered individualistic Western mindset did not exist until the Renaissance. So Westerners cannot read and interpret certain aspects of the Bible based on their individualism. They must understand those aspects in terms of familial units. When the head of the household converted, the entire household followed instinctively, whether they personally agreed or not. Abraham is a perfect example, as is Adam in being our head and representative.
- Avoid superficial interpretation. Some examples of this are when individuals will say things like, “I feel…” or “To me, this passage means…” Other examples, such as “collapsing context,” are when individuals will take the same term or word and try to unify them into a singular doctrine or teaching. We addressed one example in chapter 4, where Dispensationalists claim the two “little horn’s” are one and the same, when the context clearly reveals that this is not the case. Another example can be found in the section Context later in this chapter.
- If you study the New Testament carefully, you will find that Jesus and the Apostles re-interpreted many Old Testament passages, even spiritualizing them. Dispensationalists will tell you that this should never be done, but the evidence clearly demonstrates that Jesus and the Apostles did precisely this. We should follow their example. However, we are not to make up our own spiritualizing of the text. Simply read the text as it was written and allow the Bible to interpret itself. If the New Testament quotes an Old Testament passage, carefully note how it interprets it. If it spiritualizes it, then that is how you must understand that passage.
To be continued...