Evaluating Biblical Arguments - Part 10

HERMENEUTICS #10 -- What NOT to do:

#1 = NEVER make your point at the price of the proper interpretation.

Second --- NEVER rely on a superficial or shallow "examination" of a text.

Do NOT try to get by without real study. Accurate Bible study is hard work. It cannot be done by flipping through quickly and looking for messages wherever our eyes happen to settle . Nor is understanding the Bible a matter of personal opinion apart from actual EVIDENCE .

Accurate interpretation requires diligence. As I have already said, sometimes the correct meaning of a text will be discovered by studying the cultural background -- sometimes from the grammar, and sometimes from comparisons with other scriptures. We cannot expect to get by with the haphazard ad-libbing that passes for Bible teaching in much of the church today.

1 TIM. 5:17 says that "double honor" is to be given to those who labor in the word and in doctrine. God has given teachers as a gift to the church because correctly instructing people in the Scriptures requires people who are committed to persistent, conscientious labor in studying and learning. I am sure all of you know some who are actually proud of their lack of learning, and who are contemptuous of those who strive to better their knowledge and abilities in language, theology, and doctrine. They try to appear super-spiritual and superior to those who have worked long and hard in this area.

I have heard some claim that they can know the Bible just fine completely apart from any outside help. They don't need to read any of "man's wisdom"; they don't need any study aids, or any language helps. They are spiritual enough to "get it" without all that help. And if you question their "take" on a passage, based on solid linguistic, or historical, or contextual grounds, they will denigrate you as "all puffed up with knowledge," or some such insult.

To some folks this all sounds quite spiritual. But is it really the way of wisdom? Think back through the history of the church. The overwhelming majority of the mighty teachers and leaders in the church have been educated persons. And the overwhelming majority of the cults and aberrant groups have been characterized by their lack of scholarship and learning. This is not meant to denigrate those who are NOT educated; but it IS meant to rebuke the attitude that godly, learned people who have dedicated their lives to the study of the scripture are somehow less spiritual than those who just fly by the seat of their pants!

Do we really have the right to bypass all the godly learning of the church? Although the claim that one is able to bypass serious study and go right to the word sounds very spiritual to some, to me it is nothing more than egotism and stupidity. It is claiming a special ability that those of us who have dedicated our lives to learning just don't have.

I confess that I am not specially gifted to be able to figure out everything in the Bible without help -- without the untiring, godly, scholarship of great men and women of the past and of today. And I thank God for those who have become expert in history, or in linguistics, or in Greek, or in grammar -- and who have used those abilities to help us further our understanding of the Scripture.

This claim is also an indication that the one making it has confused INSPIRATION with ILLUMINATION. The Spirit's illuminating ministry is NOT designed to reveal NEW truth concerning matters unknown -- rather, it is designed to help us understand what is already revealed in the written word of God.

This second "don't" of hermeneutics is designed to guard against the free-for-all that results from accepting any and every opinion without even the burden of evidence. It protects us from our own, and others', biases, based on shallow study and shallow thinking. It is the difference between the whimsical and sometimes ridiculous interpretations of those who are merely reacting emotionally and subjectively to a passage, and the solid, grounded reasoning of those who have used the tools that godly men have learned and passed on to the rest of us to help us discover the intended meaning of the text.

We should be greatly disturbed by this shallow, superficial approach to Bible study and teaching. Too many preachers and teachers are standing before Christians and presuming to teach them the word of God with little or no preparation at all. Many of them seem to be inventing their doctrine as they go along!

Let me give you an example of this fallacy. I once heard of a man who claimed that he could preach a message from any verse in the Bible without having to study it, or even look at it. He was asked to preach from the following text: "These eight did Milcah bear."

The man proceeded to preach a three-point sermonette based on what he heard. His three points were:

1) It takes courage to milk a bear. 2) It takes cooperation to milk a bear. 3) It takes caution to milk a bear.

He then tried to apply these "points" in some sort of spiritual way. Now -- would you consider this to be a spiritual and godly way to preach? I would hope that everyone in here would reject such a notion. But, alas, there are many who do seem to believe in this kind of "preaching".

If you will look up the verse that this sentence is found in -- GENESIS 22:23 -- you will discover that Milcah was the sister-in-law ofAbraham, and that this passage is simply saying that she had eight children! So -- not only was this man making a fool out of himself in his arrogance, but more importantly, he was twisting the word of God in his attempt to look super-spiritual, and he was robbing those who were listening to him of the right to hear the truth from the word of God.

#1 = NEVER make your point at the price of the proper interpretation.

#2 = NEVER rely on superficial or shallow study.

Evaluating Biblical Arguments - Part 11

HERMENEUTICS #11 -- What NOT to do:

#1 = NEVER make your point at the price of the proper interpretation.

#2 = NEVER try to get by on superficial study.

Third --- Avoid the tendency to "spiritualize" or "allegorize" a passage. Never do this -- UNLESS the text itself calls for it.

This is the flip-side of the first principle of sound hermeneutics -- interpret LITERALLY. Many people use the Scripture as we would a book of fables -- not really focussing on the real facts and plain statements, but using it as a "morality tale" or an "allegory" to teach whatever points they have already determined to put across. Instead of seeking the meaning of the biblical material, they make it an allegory or a parable to support their pre-determined position -- whether it actually has anything tosay about that or not.

There is, of course, a place for allegories, parables, and illustrations -- but the careful student of the Bible does not FORCE the text into that pattern; rather, he lets the text determine how it is to be taken -- literally or figuratively. And he does not create allegories by twisting the literal meaning to make it fit. Finally -- he does not force an alternative meaning on a text to the detriment of the real meaning .

Let me give you an example of a passage that clearly dictates an illustrative approach. In GALATIANS, Paul argues forcefully and repeatedly that the Christian is not subject to the law of Moses, and that those who are trying to get these Galatian Christians to submit to that law are "spying on their freedom," "bewitching" them, causing them to "fall from grace," "hindering" their obedience to the truth, and causing them to be in "slavery" after having been given their liberty by Christ. In chapter four, Paul uses an "allegory" or "illustration" from a well-known OT situation -- the attempt by Abraham and Sarah to help God out by producing a son by means of Hagar, Sarah's servant.

Beginning in GAL. 4:21: "Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons -- the one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman . His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way ; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of promise. These things may be taken figuratively , for the women represent two covenants.

"The one covenant is from Mount Sinai and it bears children who are to be slaves : This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and she corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem , because she is in slavery with her children .

"But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother . For it is written: Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.

"Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise . At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit . It is the same now .

"But what does the Scripture say? 'Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.' Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slavewoman, but of the free woman."

Now -- that was a long example -- but it is a good example of the correct use of allegory and symbolism. Paul used a literal OT event to explain a NT truth. But that NT truth is a literal truth, explained in literal language. The symbols represent something real that God has revealed in many other passages, as well -- not some fancied idea formed in the mind of a preacher.

#1 = NEVER make your point at the price of the proper interpretation.

#2 = NEVER rely on superficial or shallow study.

#3 = NEVER allegorize or spiritualize unless the text itself calls for it.

Evaluating Biblical Arguments - Part 12

HERMENEUTICS #12 -- Resources for further study:

If anyone is interested in investigating this further, here are some good resources for studying hermeneutics and learning how to interpret the Bible accurately:

*How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth* -- by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. Zondervan, 1982.

*Living by the Book* -- by Howard Hendricks and William Hendricks. Moody Press, 1991.

*Guide to Understanding Your Bible* -- by Josh McDowell. Here's Life Pub., 1982.

*Expository Hermeneutics: An Introduction* -- by Elliot Johnson . Zondervan, 1990.

*Understanding and Applying the Bible* -- by J. Robertson McQuilken. Moody Press, 1992.

*Handbook for Bible Study* -- by Grant Osborne and Stephen Woodward. Baker Book House, 1979.

*Basic Bible Interpretation* -- by Roy Zuck. Victor Books, 1991.

*Joy of Discovery in Bible Study* -- by Oletta Wald. Augsburg Publishing House, 1975.

*Protestant Biblical Interpretation* -- by Bernard Ramm. Baker Book House, 1970.

One final comment. In response to someone's questions about interpretation, I suggested two things: first -- call Talbot Seminary, from which Gary Ezzo was graduated, and ask about what it teaches; second -- call Grace Community Church, where Ezzo served on staff for ten years, and ask about its approach. The senior pastor at Grace -- back when Ezzo was there, and still today -- is John MacArthur. Many of the comments I wrote in the previous posts are adaptations of the written statements of Dr. MacArthur himself.

Nothing I have said in all these posts is considered unusual, or out of the ordinary in the least. These are the standard tools of interpretation that are taught at the very seminary where Gary Ezzo received his degree, and that are advocated by his own former senior pastor. And Gary Ezzo's blatant violations of these principles are among the problems that led Grace Church to: first, attempt to bring correction to Ezzo; second, because Ezzo refused correction, publicly disassociate itself with him and disavow his teachings.