Hermeneutics (Interpreting the Bible) Part 1

a good reminder when we push the scriptures we should always begin with a humble attitude a posture of prayer a posture of humility and reception as we come to God's Word there should be some notes in the back if you don't have them you might want to get them because they give pretty much everything that's on the PowerPoint as well as there's some blanks just a few blanks you can fill in to keep you tracking with me as we go the first session we're going to look at is why is biblical interpretation important and why is biblical interpretation important and when we're talking about interpretation let's just be clear let's let's avoid the hermeneutics word right the H word is too big and kind of confusing and obscure but we can say interpretation and when we say interpretation all we're meaning is to state and spoken or written words the meaning of Scripture so everyone in here is a biblical interpreter you are all biblical interpreters I'm a biblical interpreter because we read the scriptures and we say what it means or we write in a journal what it means or we tell others what it mean that's what it means to interpret the Bible is to read it and convey the meaning and we either do that well or we don't do that well and so we're going to talk about why is biblical interpretation important first off first reason that biblical interpretation is important is the Bible says it's important right the Bible is the revelation of God's Word revelation of his his heart his intent his communication to us and repeatedly in the scriptures we see that the Scriptures tell us it doesn't it's it's not like you know whatever you want everyone kind of interpreted your own way but that there's a right way to interpret Scripture and a wrong way to interpret scripture in second Timothy Paul is writing to his younger associate Timothy who's ministering at Ephesus and I want to look at 2nd Timothy 2:15 all the Scriptures we look at will be will be on the board here behind me on the PowerPoint as well let's look at Paul's instructions to Timothy and by extension his instructions to you as Christians today who interpret the Bible maybe you're just interpreting the Bible in your family teaching your kids the Bible or maybe a Sunday School class or maybe as a as a teacher in a more public setting and so let's take Paul's instruction start he says do your best so first I want us to note that's a call to excellence you think about how many things people take a lot of energy to do their best you know a lot of things I'm thinking what would people here take their energy to do their best at maybe some of you have perfected the perfect apple pie you know you've tested ten different recipes and you've done you you can you can take your pie you know everyone is going to absolutely love it or maybe you've been deer hunting for a while and you know you you know exactly what the best arrow is and you know how to how to know where the deer come at you know you've taken countless hours to study and figure this out you've given your best to that but but let's remember the Scriptures call us to give our best to give our best to understanding his word says to present yourself to God so ultimately when we're interpreting the Bible it's it is something we're faithfully doing before other Christians but ultimately it's something we do before God because it's his word we have to answer to him for how we've faithfully conveyed his word or how we've twisted it as one approved a workman who does not need to be ashamed and that's that's the response if we if we twist God's word we should be ashamed imagine if Pastor Sam said to me this morning he said to me you'll be glad he said we need to have you finished preaching by 10:05 so we can stay on schedule he was very sheepish about it but I said I like clear communication that's good I need to know when to end now what would he think if I turned around to any heard me say the next person they told me I could preach here as long as I want and I'll just go on until I'm done you know they was and he would probably think why did he just say that he just distorted what I and he would be too polite to confront me on it but I should be ashamed of that that I he he says something to me and then I change it and and send it some a different message to someone else we should be ashamed we should we should be ashamed to twist God's Word it says but instead we need to be someone who correctly Paul tells Timothy and by extension s to be correctly handling the word of truth this is the motto that's written over the sim in the building in the front of our seminary it says in Greek or saw tanta to correctly handle you hear the or tha's like the ortho and orthopedics or the ortho and orthodontics to straightly deliver not to twist it if anyone in here has gotten orthodontics for their children we've looked into this and may have to do it it's ridiculously expensive and can you imagine spending thousands of dollars then finally they take off the braces and your children's teeth or crooked what would you do you'd be like I can't believe I paid thousands of dollars and their teeth are crooked right so when we come to the scriptures we don't want to twist and make the Scriptures crooked we want to straightly deliver them to straightly and rightly deliver them that one of the main things I want you to note here is there's a correct way to handle the word of truth and there's an incorrect way to handle the word of truth and Paul he unashamedly says that it's it's difficult our day is a day were people it's very hard to say well that's that's not correct we want it we want to live in a day and there's there's a good thing about peacefulness we want to live in a day where we're nobody's wrong right that's the thing today everyone just do you know you're right and I'm right you're okay I'm okay and and there's a way to respectfully lay down and say well let's let's look at that you know you say the Bible says this but can you show me that because when I read it it says this it seems to and and asik together to come to to the meaning of the text in 2nd Peter 3:15 through 16 Peter writes to Christians in Asia Minor and so this is Peter writing to Christians in what's now modern-day Turkey this is what he says he says bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom God gave him so look at this here's Peter he's talking about Paul he says Paul wrote and he wrote with the wisdom that God gave him that's how scripture was written there were human authors there were there were men human authors but they were inspired and led by the Holy Spirit such that every word that Paul wrote as he was a thinking feeling author was exactly the word that God wanted written that's what the dual authorship of scripture means the human author Paul didn't in other words when Paul's writing to to the Galatians he doesn't go into a trance and you know suddenly he's hands are moving but he wake up and say oh I wonder what God wrote to the Galatians let me read this letter in front of me that has my name on it instead he was a thinking he was passionate but as he actually we know he dictated the letter is he was probably dictating the letter and someone else was writing it was the very words that God wanted written to he wrote with the wisdom that God gave him verse 16 Peter says about Paul he writes the same way in all his letters speaking in them of this mat of these matters his letters contains some things that are hard to understand aren't you thankful that Peter said that because there been some places in Paul's letters when I thought that's kind of hard to understand I remember one time I was in a meeting with a lot of doctoral students and professors and one of the old professors dr. pol Hill he's a retired now he's probably 70 at the time we're talking about of text and Paul about the baptism for the dead and he just looked over at me and said I have no idea what that means and I appreciated his humility decades of studying this and he of course he knew the 30 different possible interpretations but we acknowledge that some things in Paul's letters are hard to understand there usually if they're essential if they're essential they're not impossible to understand if they're essential they can be understood but they may be hard it says which ignorant and unstable people distort okay so Peter is saying that when someone teaches the scripture wrongly it's distorting it it's not just another view out their time will you have your view but it and this is such a serious distortion they says it's the result of ignorance and instability these people are unstable spiritually maybe unstable emotionally and they're twisting the scriptures and he goes on to say as they do the other scriptures to their own destruction he's saying these these people in this case the distortion of the Bible is so severe as to undermine the gospel now there's a lot a lot of distortions prior to that and and their faithful Christians who love the Lord will distort the Bible some some times because of laziness or just mistakes on their part errors on their part but but there is a distortion so severe that it results in leading people away from Christ to eternal damnation teaching a false gospel and in this case Peter saying this is what's going on it's so severe that these people are going to go to hell because they haven't believed the true gospel and the people who are false teaching are also going to hell that's what he's talking about to their destruction so why is why is biblical interpretation important the Bible says it's important Paul writes to Timothy right there's a correct way to handle it Peter writes to the churches in Asia Minor there's just there's a way to distort the Bible there's a way to correctly interpret the Bible we also see this in narrative in Matthew 4 verses 1 to 11 we won't read all of all this text but in Matthew 4 1 to 11 should be on the next slide there it just says Matthew 4:1 to 11 are you falling let's see we had 2nd Timothy and then we had is it stuck ok the PowerPoint stuck but you have notes ok so you know what's next Matthew 4:1 to 11 Apple is not supposed to crash what's going on okay so in Matthew 4:1 to 11 this is the story of the temptation of Jesus where the devil tempts Jesus in various ways out in the wilderness and in Matthew 4 5 I just want to read this one temptation to you says the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple if you are the son of God he said throw yourself down for it is written he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone Oh where do those words come from that's from Psalm 91 right some 91 the devil can quote scripture for his own purpose that's from William Shakespeare said that in the Merchant of Venice the devil can cite Scripture for his own purpose this does that make it true absolutely not write this in the narrative of Scripture we see just because someone quotes the Bible in this case the devil trying to get Jesus to jump off the temple it doesn't mean that it's a right use of the Bible if the devil can use the Bible then that should teach us just quoting the Bible doesn't mean that that you're right I once we once just tell the story we once in our church had a lady who decided she was going to show up and bring her tambourine with her and she just decided she would start playing it around and start singing a different song or saying things different from what is on the screen which led to quite a bit of confusion everyone's like turning around and looking it was very disorderly it she was kind of yelling out I think she was she was she would probably tell us that she was speaking in an unknown tongue I'm guessing and and this is you know this is one of those moments where you like if I don't confront this as a pastor in the church nobody else is it's like when a bat was loose in my house I'm like we find out who the man in the house is tonight don't wait who's going to catch and kill the bat it's only me not my wife or daughters so I'm like okay I got to deal with this so I confront the lady loving I say hey we're glad you're here we we only let people on the stage play musical instruments but we're glad you're here and if you want to try out for the worship team you're welcome to you know and she starts throwing scriptures at me about quenching the spirit and all these other things did I just cave in and be like well you're quoting the Bible you must be right yeah that's that's the Bible or is it possible for people to take the Bible and distort it and just use it for their purposes I think she was just mistaken I don't think she was a demonic lady just to be clear I think she was just misled in thinking that that was a good way to worship as opposed to an orderly way so first reason that we that biblical interpretation is important the Bible says there's a right way in a wrong way there's there's even a demonic way to quote and use or misuse the Bible okay second reason second reason that biblical interpretation is important is the sinful culture is trying to reinterpret the Bible in its own image depending on where you live in America there's a there's still a cultural veneer of Christianity it's just a cultural veneer in some places like in Oregon in California the veneer is nearly gone in places like Missouri it's probably a little deeper there's the the coding the Christian coding on top is a little deeper and so it's popular in in in for you know people in the media politicians to use a little god language I remember when all there's recently all the debate about homosexuality and people were wanting to use the language of what God has created us we all know is created us all equal and you're trying to draw upon biblical concepts in words to to legitimize something that's not biblical at all the one of one of the famous verses I think the most popular verses in our broader culture is Matthew 7:1 judge not lest ye be judged people love to throw this at Christians judge not lest ye be judged Jesus said don't judge us don't judge me for what I'm doing you're like well Jesus said a lot of things that that according to your definition would be pretty judgmental because he said these things are right and these things are wrong and what he what he was speaking of there was a judgmental attitude that finds faults and others but fails to see them in your in yourself if you read it within context we read in 1st John 4 4 to 5 John is writing to this little community of Christians he says you Jer children are from God and have overcome them because the one who's in you is greater than the one who's in the world then look at verse five it says they are from the world he's speaking about these people who are distorting the Christian message therefore they speak from the viewpoint of the world and the world listens to them we should be surprised that that the world produces its profits people who affirm it what you're doing is right and couch it in biblical language to just solve their consciences and it shouldn't surprise us that this happens the when we sold our house rather actually this was let me get the order right this was 11 years ago we bought bought our house we bought our first house and the lady that we bought it from was in the process of coming to faith at that time she was being witnessed too by friends in various ways but she was part of a very liberal Presbyterian Church a church there there bible-believing Presbyterian churches but this one was well known for for not believing the scriptures but she didn't know any of that she can and so she was coming to faith and she may have already been a believer at this point and yet she was going to church and hearing a very different message and she couldn't understand what was going on she asked to meet with me and my wife because she knew I taught at the seminary so she came to her home and I can see her sitting across the table from us there in our in our dining room and she goes I have a question for you she said we the bus last you know a week or I don't remember a couple of weeks ago the pastor preached for Matthew 13:24 and following and in Matthew 13:24 and following it's a it's a parable that Jesus tells about a the parable of the wheat and the tares the wheat and the weeds the Manzo's wheat in the field good he says good seed then an enemy comes and sews bad seed and they grow up together there's wheat and weeds mixed together and the the master says wait until the harvest and will separate them will burn the weeds and will gather the wheat into to the barn and she goes in then and that she said and then the pastor went on to teach on the text and he said every one of us has we all have wheat in our lives and we all have weeds in our lives he said we need to figure out where the weeds are and pull them up and throw them away and we need to cultivate the weed and let it grow and then she very innocently she said but when I read my Bible she said I look down here and Jesus says the weeds are people who are plucked up and thrown into hell she's like what is going on like honestly she's like I did not understand why my pastor is preaching something completely different from what Jesus says he meant by this parable this is a parable about end times judgment about the God bringing the righteous into his presence and and throwing the wicked out of his presence and I said explained as gently and as clearly as I could I said well your chirps that you go to has a reputation for certain theology your pastor probably is offended by the idea of Hell the idea that there is a hell and that people go to hell is probably offensive Tim it's probably offensive to the majority of the people in your church even though that the Bible clearly teaches that they don't they don't want to believe that and they don't they reject that as a presupposition that that's that's not the god I want to believe in and so your pastor has taken the teaching of Jesus and he's attached a meaning to it that's different from Jesus meaning that's more palatable to the people in the congregation he's just given it I would say an example a very good example of non faithful interpretation of twisting the meaning of Scripture so second reason right the the sinful culture why do why is it biblical interpretation important why we have to think about it because the Bible in many places exhorts us to rightly interpret it not to twist it not to distort it we don't want to be demonic or devilish in our interpretation secondly we live in a culture that still somehow values the Bible in Jesus in some ways faith whether it's a liberal Church or politicians or someone else today they want to kind of take a little Jesus and and just kind of put it on what they're doing to give it legitimacy so there's this this distortion in broader culture but third this is not just a liberal or cultural problem we as Bible believing Christians as evangelical Christian can do this too there's a book I have on my shelf I haven't read it because I don't have to enter the title tells me everything I need to know right the title says the right doctrine from the raw from the wrong text this is a lot of Christian evangelical Christian teaching and preaching I tell my students there's this sort of circle of acceptable evangelical doctrine we know people need to be saved we know Jesus is Lord we know we need to witness we know you know there's certain things within this circle and as long as a Christian teacher or preacher or Sunday School material kind of bounces around in the circle okay we'll just let them do that right but the it's not a question of of is is what's being taught true but is it what this text is teaching right is is it flowing out of the text the authority is in God's Word in his text not what we're thinking about or not what the text just makes us think about but in the text itself the reality is Bible believing Christians and Christian resources distort the scripture sometimes now at this point I have to warn you I'm not I'm beginning to sound like somebody wants to form a militia and move out to Iowa everyone's wrong except us and I'm not saying that okay I'm saying that that we before God are responsible we can't just say well the Sunday School literature taught it that way and that's I just delivered what it said you know I'm just a Sunday school teacher yes you're a Sunday school teacher who's called to be faithful to the scripture and so if you reading a Sunday School lesson you think hmm I don't think that's what it teaches that's a great activity to keep the kids busy but that's not what the Bible teaches then it's a question of faithfulness will you will you follow the Scriptures or will you and that's I want to watch this TV show that's going to be an extra 20 minutes at least preparing my own own thing related to this it's a hard decision of doing that I think that there's a number of reasons that Christians resources distort the Bible one of them is one of them can just laziness one can just be laziness I've seen this in my own life I remember I was asked to preach in southern seminaries Chapel one time a number of years ago and I thought to myself what what have this may be my only chance to preach in Chapel what do what do what do i think our seminary needs to hear I think people need to hear about humble service people need to hear about serving one another humbly and how our status is pastors and it's professors administrators is to serve that that was Jesus washing his disciples feet that's a good text so then I started to prepare the lesson start to prepare the sermon started to read the text think about the text and I began to see this text is is really the primary meaning of this text is love it's like well hold on I was going to talk about service what am I going to do and we're going to I'm going to hold on to the text and go where the text takes me but but I had a plan already I even had some illustrations here you know am I gonna go go with my illustrations my plan or am I going to go with the Bible what's my real authority and you know think about the text begins Jesus had loved his own who were in the world John 13:1 he now loved them to the end that's a powerful message about Jesus love now service is a secondary theme it's no doubt that Jesus tells them as he has washed his feet they should wash one another's feet but the primary theme that runs throughout that text is Jesus love and praise the Lord at least that time I submitted to the leading of the Spirit and the words of Scripture but I think laziness we get busiest Christians and we're lazy sometimes and and we you know we we do the quick thing another reason is the culture that we live in the dominant approach to literature right now is something called reader response if you study literature at a university it's it's just filled in our culture this kind of relativism and pluralism and so you're taught at a oftentimes if you study literature at a university what's celebrated is not the author's meaning but your response to it you have a feminist reading of the text or you deconstruct the text and you you you know so the the meaning is no longer and in the author's intent but in in your what you want to respond what you get out of it doesn't matter if it it was intended by the author or not and so that that influences us whether we want it to or not and so people kind of think well I come to the text and this pops in my mind and so especially if that's in that circle it's bouncing around in that circle of acceptable ideas the problem comes of course is as our theology becomes less defined and our doctrine becomes fuzzier what happens with the next generation when this circle that's guarded guarded the bouncing around of ideas is gone word of the how far out do the ideas go and where do they bounce when they're no longer grounded in the explicit meaning of Scripture instead we shouldn't we be like the Berean Jews if you look in acts 17 it describes Paul going to Berea it says as soon as it was night the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea and on arriving there they went to the Jewish synagogue now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica so what what made the Berean Christians especially noble it says for they received the message with great eagerness and examine the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true they this is an inspired apostle but Paul who saw Jesus on the road to Damascus and yet they said we they're searching the scriptures and saying is what he's saying in the Bible you should never believe something just because I say it or my book says it or your pastor says it I know they would agree with this too they say don't believe me because I'm telling you something believe it because it's in the scripture because it's in the scripture and that's our Authority not a human Authority I want to give you a few examples of how well-meaning Christians can distort the Bible and in that way really empty it of its power first off an example from a Baptist state paper this is a real eggs there's a sense like something I made up I didn't make this up it has a little thing it memorized this scripture so this week the scripture you to memory Rises judges 21:25 every man did that which was right in his own eyes and then it has a little devotional application pray this prayer Lord helped me to realize other people have ideas and feelings also now some of you have studied the book of Judges recently and maybe you realize that the book of Judges is about what every how everything is wrong in Israel it's about constant rebellion and God's judgment and and then this cycle of failed leadership and so when it says every man did that which was right in his own eyes it's a it's a statement of evaluation about what's wrong in Israel they don't have a reliable god ordained leader and they're just following their own wicked ways every way they go right it's not it's not written there to encourage you to care about others people's feelings that's completely unrelated to the to the text now is it a good idea to care about other people's feelings oh absolutely it's a good idea is that what that text is teaching no that text is not teaching that and so well in that case that's like me turning to someone else and saying oh you know he just told me that I could teach teach as long as I want it takes the Bible and it says it means something different that's not respecting God's Word that's not respecting what he's taught us years ago before my wife and I started having children we listen to some audio messages about parenting so I'm gonna give you an example from a parenting seminar you know it's that with all the things people say are true like you you know listen to all these tapes and books at read books and then you have a lot of children and then you realize you don't you don't know anything so but one of the things one of the tape one of the audio messages we were listening to the guy was contrast you those of you who have small children oh there's this big debate recently between these extremes of parenting one extremist attachment parenting where people like where are their kids all the time like like you know and and they like even sleep in the same bed my wife even had a student who she slept in her parents bed till she was like 14 or 15 and then the other extreme is like as soon as they're born you get them in the crib you don't hold them too much and of course there's a continuum here but like these are the two extremes and so this guy was more on this this side of the equation and he was saying you know it's not not good to do this attachment parenting it's not good to have the kids in the bed and so on and then he was looking at Luke to four to seven the story of David and Mary going to Bethlehem and Jesus being born and he says look here in Luke to seven says she gave birth to her firstborn a son she wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger so he said yes we know we should put our children in a not a manger but in a crib like Jesus was Mary put Jesus in a crib and a manger we need to put our kids and cribs as well and you have to ask at this point again we if we say now if our purpose is to understand the inspired authors intent and we could call heaven Luke you know I mass speak to Luke the writer of the gospel Luke in your gospel you provided this interesting detail that Jesus was wrapped in cloths and placed in a manger did you put that in there to teach us to to put our kids in manger - I mean in we call it cribs now some sort of containing device as opposed to sleeping in a bed with us and I think if he could he can't we can't call heaven though but if we look at his text we say what is Luke what kind of evidence does he guide us to to see he noticed all throughout Jesus birth he tries to emphasize the humble origins of Jesus human existence here that he the humble origins of his coming to earth were were even you know it's announced - these dirty Shepherds in the field and and Jesus is the king of the universe when he's born he's not born in the palace is born in a stable and he's even placed in a cows feeding trough and you look all throughout Luke one of the major themes in Luke is Jesus care for the outcast for the samaritan for the leper for for women and so that's that's a in the Gospels Jesus coming to the lowly to bring salvation to the needy and there's absolutely no indication that this detail is to be copied in any ways if it's a as if it's a guideline for how to put your show how to put your children to bed I've always wanted to point out to this gentleman that in Luke 11 5 through 7 Jesus tells a parable about someone who goes to his friend and asked for three loaves of bread and the gentleman inside responds do not bother me the doors now shut and my children are with me in bed so they're read letters in the Bible the children in bed so Jesus must affirm attachment parenting right here's the family bed they're all in bed with him well the reality is that Jesus is just telling a parable a made-up story using details from everyday first century life that the people would have been familiar with and if you see the size of homes in the first century they probably all were all sleeping in the saint-like piled up like meerkats together you know it's it's they didn't have huge homes with you know multiple bedrooms for different people they were all keeping warm together in a tiny little room so that that description again is not normal it's not like wow we need to we need to sell our home we need to all sleep as a family in one room that that's not what's intended by that that's not the goal inspired goal of the the goal of the inspired author another example I could give to many of these but I'll give a few another example is in acts 1 12 through 26 the example from a sermon a sermon that was preached at our Chapel on campus by a very famous pastor long enough ago that no one here can figure out who it is so we'll use it and and this guy he this is the story of where the early apostles are replacing Judas with Matthias and they they pray about it they seek a man who's filled with the Holy Spirit and who's been with them this time they searched the scriptures and finally they cast lots between these two men in the falls to Matthias and his sermon was basically don't do what the Apostles did it was like you need to be led by the spirit not like these guys and he said you know here we have if these men have waited forgot for God's man gods man was the Apostle Paul but instead these men followed human devices and didn't-didn't weren't led by the Spirit but you know and that's hey is that in the circle should we be led by the spirit absolutely should we not follow human man plans absolutely that's in the circle if we all agree to that is that what the text is saying know if you read Acts chapter one there's absolutely no indication of any disapproval of what's going on at all it seems in fact that the one explicit command Jesus had given them wait in Jerusalem until my father gives you what what what he promised you wait until you have the promise of the Holy Spirit that's what they did they wouldn't they waited they prayed they sought the scriptures they looked at the man's character the only thing it's a little odd for us there's never any statement of disapproval this is a good thing they're doing exemplary thing here in others we should title this how to deal with crisis in the church how to keep mission on the forefront when there's crisis or failure or something like that the only thing it's a little bit odd admittedly is the casting of lots it's a little strange to us right and and we we acknowledge that that was the method in the Old Testament oftentimes of determining something when there was an uncertainty but but notice something very interesting in Luke's he doesn't state this explicitly but as soon what the next thing that happens after this is the Spirit comes the Holy Spirit comes and fills the believers and after that there is no mention of casting Lots but there's a mention of the spirits guidance it says the spirit says a set apart for me Paula Barnabas so the spirit would not allow them to go in there so there's that there's an immediacy of God's guidance that comes with a spirit that makes that former method obsolete but that but but the spirit had not yet come at that moment and this was sort of setting up to have the the 12 the the exact number 12 representing the 12 tribes of Israel prepared for the renewed People of God so just just a point we just want to be careful let me just say personally one thing that really helps me is to just seek it some of you in here like well I'm afraid to interpret anything in front of that guy now he's going to pick it apart that's not that's not my goal but what one thing that that helps us is the body of Christ right we don't we don't we're not we're not coming out like if you're preparing a Sunday school us and you're like is that in the text or not am i pushing that too hard am i squeezing and squashing that to make it that's when you call Christian brother or Christian sister and say I'm reading this text and tell me the honest truth is this in there is it not the the lead pastor at our church for the first few years of his ministry he had the practice of every Saturday night he would email out his sermon to probably 10 15 of us and then he'd say he just get raw feedback before he would preach it the next day there's a there's another instance similar to this I went to go here one of our seminary students preaching at a church and to be honest it was not a very good sermon and I thought that was disappointing but that I came back six months later and heard him again and it was very very good what was the difference every Sunday night he had a small group of men who gave him raw feedback oh don't you imagine it was so painful at first ouch he may be crawled home said wife put put salve on my wounds just just just let me shake here for a moment under these cold covers of the bed right maybe that's an exaggeration but the the point is we need each other to grow we need we need someone to say man I think you're pushing that too far we need we need to invite that too we need to say help me in to help me grow as an interpreter help me improve the last example I'm going to give this of a distortion of Scripture by Christian resources is children's literature my goodness if you have children you know this happens the children's Bibles and Sunday School literature I mean we had it we had a series we had at our church and this was before we had a children's pastor and so I've kind of felt ownership it kept the kids busy busy busy busy but it was not what the Bible taught I was like we cannot use this yes it keeps him busy busy busy but it does not teach what the Bible teaches it's not faithful in interpreting an example of this kind of interpretation is the story of Joseph and his brothers Joseph and his many colored coat so this is you'll see the Bible that's quoted here at the very end so it tells the story about Joseph and his many colored coat and now it's getting into some application here do you have a favorite sweater or jacket or shirt that you'd like to wear we know from this Bible verse Genesis 37 3 that Joseph had a favorite article of clothing to wear it was his robe Joseph loved his robe because his father made it for him whenever he wore the robe he could imagine that it was his father giving him a hug what colors do you see in Joseph's beautiful robe here's we get a picture here and look at Joseph with that increased self-esteem he has he knows how much his daddy loves him isn't it good for kids to know people love him and to increase their self esteem let's go with that for this lesson okay so then the application to the kids a boy's grandma wanted to make something special for him she wanted it to remind him of how much she loved him she decided to knit him a sweater and when she gave the sweater to her grandson she said imagine that this warm sweater is me giving you a hug every time you wear it the boy loved the sweater it was his favorite thing to wear now would it be nice if we all get to go around and talk about some some something someone gave us and how it made us feel and then we'll feel really special when we go out and we get to tell mom and dad I got to tell about how grandma gave me a sweater in Sunday school right is that what the text is about why does the author of Genesis Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit record the story and why does he record this d2 about Joseph's coat what is what is that is he saying yeah let me let me include this little side story here about Joseph's coat because I bet people when they read this they'll want to think about how someone special gave them something and they can sit and kind of warmly reflect on that and how loved they are or is it rather is that not detailed not primarily to show how dysfunctional this family was and how this family had wicked favoritism where the father favored Joseph over his brothers that resulted in this family enmity ultimately that were they even tricked their father in thinking he was killed and sold him as a slave that seems to me quite clearly the purpose of that detail now that's a strong that's a strong message for a children's story and this would have to be dealt be dealt with gently but do you think children even young children have been aware of favoritism have they ever seen favoritism how have they ever known what it's like to see someone else treated nicely and they and they've been treated poorly to see to see a lack of fairness and would it be an encouraging message to them to know that in spite of other people treating you really wrongly in the end God can bring wonderful things out of that that God's God's loving control is not absent even when people are doing wicked things from you God doesn't approve of their wicked things but he's able to work amazing good things and redemption and hope and salvation for the for all these for Israel even through and in spite of that seems to me much more likely to be a life-changing message and faithful to the text one that must be dealt with gently no doubt if you start tie my favorite just me like yeah well in my family you're like hold on this kid's gonna go out and is gonna say call out mom and dad you you are the man you know you are the one who has so there's a gentle and a wise way to deal with that obviously but one that's faithful to the text I hope so wise biblical interpretation important the Bible clearly teaches it is Paul commands were to correctly handle the word of truth Peter says we can distort the Bible we the devil even quotes the Bible the culture second the culture that surrounds us is trying to co-opt Jesus in the Bible we're not we're not going to go along with that where am I going to play that game thirdly even the circles were in Christian resources Christian teachers ourselves can weaken through laziness or carelessness distort the Scriptures we can't just say oh look this is published published by zonder and it must be good oh this is written by you know fill in the blank of whoever your trusted pad trusted teachers this must be good but we we have to be Berean Christians who sort sort Berean Christians who sort through the scripture search the Scriptures and seek to be faithful fourth reason that we the biblical interpretation is important is the Bible is is God's Word and we want that powerful saving word delivered in all of its purity it's recognizing that it's this is the very word of God there is power in the Word of God when we deliver faithfully the Word of God we can expect the spirit to apply it to people's lives to convict them of sin and to change them if it's just our idea that's bouncing around up here I disconnected from the text we cannot expect to see that level of power in Isaiah 55 this is what God says he says for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth making it bring forth and sprout giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth it shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it God's Word is powerful or in Jeremiah 23 28 and 29 Jeremiah 20 23 29 God says is not my word like fire and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces so just out of honor to God whose very word it is and out of a desire to see it's powerful effect we don't want to distort it in any way we want to be a con do it we want to just deliver it faithfully to those who are there to hear it this is the first session on wise biblical interpretation important we went through four reasons on that the set we're going to we're going to take a few questions if there are any take a 10-minute break then we'll come back and do the second session what is my goal when I'm reading the Bible so I kind of set it up I'm like why should we even care about this well why should we talk about this we see it's a serious serious matter matter of faithfulness and then we're going to say well we'll give me some give me some idea about what I'm really trying to do then is i how do i how do I make sure that I'm not distorting it we're going to talk about that in the second session is pastor Sam here has a microphone so for the benefit of others don't be embarrassed but so we can hear your question will will let you use that so Old Testament and New Testament there are some selected words have a range of meanings yeah and if you select one meaning for that passage it seems like it has a different meaning if you select a different translation that word how do we reconcile those differences yeah good good good question so the question is words have a range of meaning that's true in English that's true in Hebrew that's true in Greek that's true in any language so for example in English if I say the word cell without any context so you don't know if I'm talking about a kind of phone cell phone a small room in which someone is imprisoned a small the smallest unit of a living organism I mean you know what else could this be I mean there's all kinds of things it could be so but what makes clear what makes it clear in this case just one additional word cell phone right and so when we when we read through the the scriptures in Hebrew and in Greek there's context the the context of the the passage guides the translator in seeking to convey the proper proper meaning of that range of meaning sometimes they make a mistake so for example in the book of Philemon in Philemon verse six in the New International Version 1984 it says I pray you would be active ensuring your faith so you have a knowledge of every good thing we have in Christ and when I was in college and I was doing evangelism training I use that verses like we need to be active in sharing our faith we need to ship because any Christian evangelical Christian who you're sharing your faith thinks evangelism but the translators made a mistake bear because more and more with the English idiom because the word in greek is Koinonia means partnership if you read the book of Philemon it's all about an isthmus and Philemon and their partnership and their forgiveness it's all intra community focus it's not out we're focused and so that's a case where they translated it with an English idiom they kind of kind of introduced a potential misunderstanding on the English speaker so in their in the recent revision they've changed it to I pray you may be active in the partnership of the faith or something like that and so that's a good reminder to us well it's good to read to have multiple Bible translations so like if you I like to read you know I think I suggest people read two or three and if there's a difference look down in the footnotes read about it think about why that is but we had wit just I don't want to cast doubt on we have great translations of the Bible in English we have fantastic multiple great translations and we should be grateful for them great great question now something I can guess I was getting her to ask what was your favorite translation haha well I like the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament those are my favorite but for English I do think there's a range of translations that are beneficial for different things so for example I think for a formal wedding I do like the King James Version I like the way it sounds it's very formal bits it's it is it is a style of English that's four hundred years old let's be honest it's not the way we speak now and so forgiving if my neighbor is a non-christian who has no background I'm not going to give him a King James ba because he won't be able to follow along very well I'll probably give him a New Living Translation something's written a very understandable modern-day English and you know so I mean I've used the preach today from the ESV my church back in Louisville has the NIV 1984 in the Pew I mean I've there's there is there is a bad Bible translation let me tell you what about a bad Bible translation is you gossip wondering I say it's the one done by the Jehovah's Witnesses it's called the birth a new world Bible translation because it distorts the underlying meaning by a cult a cultish dedication to heresy that's about the other Bible translations you we may quibble with them here and there but it's not not like they're done by cults or something so good question

Channel: MaconFBC

Views: 49,884

Keywords: Bible, Bible interpretation, Hermeneutics (Idea)

Id: a1vJ4TqHhok

Length: 50min 5sec (3005 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 11 2013