Learning Spiritual Truth The other evening, I was waiting on my order at a Whataburger and picked up a copy of one of the small local newspapers. There was a religion section with questions from readers and answers from a local pastor. The question was: Why are there so many different interpretations of the Bible? The pastor attributed the differences in interpretations to biases and prejudices instilled from childhood and recommended a three-step system for properly interpreting the Bible. The answer was a variation of a theme that’s prevalent in churches and seminaries. There are many systems for interpreting the Bible and you’ll sometimes hear these systems referred to as “biblical hermeneutics.” I believe biblical hermeneutics is man’s attempt to apply the same types methodologies used in other studies (history, science, etc.) to the Bible and they just don’t work. In fact, biblical hermeneutics is probably one of the primary reasons why there are so many different interpretations of the Bible. Have you tried any of these systems? I have. I bought the concordances, Greek Bibles, historical texts and many other books so I could properly decipher the Bible. All I succeeded in doing was obtaining dust-gathering books and a lot of Biblical facts none of which helped me in my day-to-day Christian life. Why? Because you can’t learn spiritual truth with a study technique! All the learning skills you were taught in school don’t work with the Bible. “Say it isn’t so!” you might be responding. If you’ve spent years studying the Bible with these “systems,” and you’re honest, you know what I’m saying is true. Has any of that study resulted in spiritual growth and maturity? Think about it; if all you needed to understand the spiritual truths of the scriptures were certain academic methods, you wouldn’t even have to be saved to understand the Bible! But don’t be discouraged. The fact that using biblical hermeneutics is useless with the Bible gives hope to all Christians. It doesn’t matter if you never finished elementary school or have several Doctorate degrees; any Christian can learn spiritual truth. Let’s take a look at a scripture passage and see how. 1 Corninthians 2 (Blue text is my commentary) v1. When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. Why did Paul say this? Eloquence and superior wisdom seems to be a requirement in American churches today. The biggest churches have some of the best “speakers” around full of rich stories and charisma. If anyone could have been eloquent and wise, Paul certainly could have but no, that was not how he wanted to tell the Corinthians about Jesus. Let’s see why. | ||||||
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"The fact that using biblical hermeneutics is useless with the Bible gives hope to all Christians." | ||||||
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