The Wilder Place

Yesterday, I talked about how important truth is and how it's not "my" truth. In that post I also quoted scripture that says we can't know/understand and we can't do good in and of ourselves.

I'd like to clarify something... both of those statements in Romans are talking about us BEFORE we accepted Christ as our Savior. If you've never done that then those Scriptures are talking about you. But, if you have been saved then they are talking about your "old self", the one that was crucified with Christ. Now you're redeemed and John 16:13 applies, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak..." So, if you're born again the Holy Spirit, which lives in you will illumine Scripture for you. But, before that (that is before you accepted Christ) you could not on your own understand. In fact, 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." This basically explains that God understands the unsaved folks will think Scripture is nuts and they do don't they?

It's also very important that we all understand we are not to argue over the details. As long as we have saving faith, the rest will get sorted out later.

Secondly, I'd like to explain a couple of other facts about me....

I have no preference that God says A or God says B... I want to simply know what exactly God says. When I attend a Church, I'm not looking for one where the Pastor preaches about things the way I "believe" them to be... rather I look for a Church where the Pastor tells me what the Bible says... I'm not looking for anyone to interpret Scripture for me... I want to know what God says... because I take Him at His word. (I talk about the Scriptures that support this in several of my other posts, predominately under "Truth" on your right.)

I can accept that God isn't into tricking me, nor keeping things obscure from me, and that He laid what He wants from me out clearly. He expects me to study His word so that I can obey 2 Timothy 2:15, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." and 1 Peter 3:15, " ... sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence".

I'd like to share with you the fundamental approach about interpreting Scripture. Now, I'm not going to bore you to death by repeating verbatim hermenuetic text books. But, lets look at this with logical clear thought.

As with many things there really are very clear steps to correctly interpreting Scripture:

1. Work from the assumption that the Bible is authoritative - anything else (i.e., tradition, feelings, or even our own reasoning capabilities) places man on top not God.
2. The Bible interprets itself; Scripture best explains Scripture - if a passage is obscure or vague use clearer passages. Don't leave things out, and don't ever add things in. Why would you or anyone - and I've already stated where I stand here - want less than the truth or a different truth. What good would alternate truth be? What value would a false view have? Simply let the Bible speak for itself.
3. Saving faith and the Holy Spirit are necessary for us to understand and properly interpret the Scriptures. If you haven't already, but want to, confess to God that you haven't met His standard of Holiness, that you've sinned and accept what Christ did on the cross to pay the debt for you. Romans 10:9 is very clear, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Then ask God to give you understanding.
4. Interpret personal experience in the light of Scripture and not Scripture in the light of personal experience.
5. 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 say, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."
6. Accept all Scripture at face value, exept when either (a) an inanimate object is used to describe a living being, or (b) Scripture explicitly tells us the passage is allegorical.
7. Interpret the words in their usual meaning.

Some other points to consider...

Scripture must be internally consistent... there can be no contradictions within Scripture. If there are then it all is waste. What good is truth if it's not always truth... that would be an oxymoron, wouldn't it? This doesn't mean that we have to understand all the points of Scripture (example coming right up)... the point is that they are either things I don't completely understand or they are inconsistencies... if they are the later I want nothing to do with it... The example of this is God being 1 in 3 persons... I don't understand this concept, but I can accept it as true any way... fact is this side of the veil I don't need to understand it... do I?

The truths of Scripture must be livable... again, what good would it be if we couldn't do what God wants us to do?