Spiritual Maturity TrainingWeekend 1 – Session 6Biblical Interpretation

THINGS TO AVOID

•THE DANGERS OF LEARNING DEEPER BIBLE STUDY METHODS

• Pride• 2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace,

but with humility comes wisdom.

- Proverbs 11:2

• Dangers• Interpreting The Bible

• Being Judgmental• 4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart—

the unplowed field of the wicked—produce sin.

- Proverbs 21:4

• Dangers• Interpreting The Bible

• Being divisive with your “truth”• 19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to

peace and to mutual edification.

- Romans 10:19

• The Gospels• Interpreting The New Testament

• Over-Contextualizing or Hyper-Contextualizing

• A Preacher, teacher, etc., should always use good interpretation techniques but don’t start demanding that they walk through the steps or explain the full context for every single Scripture they read. That is over-contextualizing.

• Hyper Contextualizing is the process of holding so tightly to a narrow context of Scripture that you won’t apply a principle as widely as is appropriate.

• The Gospels• Interpreting The New Testament

• The Hammer• Biblical interpretation is not a new toy like a hammer that

you now need to go beat everyone over the head with• Be humble, patient, loving, and wise not obnoxious and

opinionated

• Dangers• Interpreting The Bible

• A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing• 2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for

God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.

- Romans 10:2

• Dangers• Interpreting The Bible

• Unhealthy Obsession• Biblical study is great but must be kept in perspective• 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them,

because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

- 1 Timothy 4:16

• Dangers• Interpreting The Bible

• Panic Mode• Is everything I ever learned about the Bible wrong?

• Dangers• Interpreting The Bible

• Paralysis• “I’ll never be able to do this, so why bother!”

• Dangers• Interpreting The Bible

• Am I becoming more like Christ as a result of going deeper into God’s word? (2 Corinthians 3:18)

• Am I drawing closer to other believers as a result of going deeper in to God’s word (2 Corinthians 13:14; Hebrews 10:22-25)

• Vital Questions to Constantly Ask• Interpreting The Bible

•METHODS TO AVOID

• Eisegesis• An interpretation of Scripture that reflects the personal

ideas or viewpoint of the reader; reading your own desired meaning into the text.

• With Eisegesis we seek to confirm our presuppositions• With Exegesis (proper interpretation) we seek to conform

our presuppositions to biblical truth

• Methods to Avoid - Eisegesis• Interpreting The Bible

• Esther Eisegesis• Take delight in the LORD,

and he will give you the desires of your heart. – Psalm 37:4

• “I really love this passage. It reminds me that whatever I desire, as long as I really delight in God and give thanks to him, he will give it to me.”

• Methods to Avoid - Eisegesis• Interpreting The Bible

• Harry Horoscope• I just read the Bible to get a little “word of wisdom” that I

can quickly read and help me have a better day without any form of systematic study or growth in the word

• You can read devotionally, but it needs to be balanced with good study and proper methods

• Methods to Avoid – Horoscope Reading• Interpreting The Bible

• Patternism• Reading portions of the Bible, especially descriptive

portions, as though they were intended to provide THE pattern of how the church must be ordered

• Methods to Avoid – Patternism• Interpreting The Bible

• Patrick Pattern• “Luke 22 says that Jesus drank from two cups during his

last supper, therefore we are in error because we only partake in one cup during our communion”

• The New Testament speaks often of meeting in house churches. This means that we must meet in house churches or we are in violation of the Scriptures.”

• Methods to Avoid – Patternism• Interpreting The Bible

• Lawyer Method• Parsing words of Scripture as though they were written

like a “rule of law” Constitution rather than a paradigm of principles to be applied

• Methods to Avoid – Lawyer Method• Interpreting The Bible

• Larry Lawyer• The New Testament speaks of singing but never gives us

permission to play instruments. Even though instruments appear in the Old Testament and in Revelation’s depiction of heaven, the New Testament does not explicitly ordain us to use instruments so it is wrong, disobedient, and even potentially sinful to use instruments.

• Methods to Avoid – Lawyer Method• Interpreting The Bible

• Paradigm Heresies• These are false doctrines that are built on a foundational

paradigm that becomes the lens through which all other interpretation, beliefs, and practices are viewed. People are typically drawn into these paradigm heresies by presenting them with a difficult passage that they have never been able to explain (a Trojan horse) and then offering them a surprising and novel answer to that problem. Once they buy into that answer, the door is open to slip them the entire foundation heresy which then becomes their paradigm.

• Methods to Avoid – Paradigm Heresies• Interpreting The Bible

• Pablo Paradigm• 17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and

fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. – Mark 10:17-18

• “Clearly Jesus is saying here that he is not God. Haven’t you ever wondered about this verse? Now that you can see that Jesus is not almighty God and everyone else has it wrong, let me show you this Watch Tower publication which will explain everything for you.”

• Methods to Avoid – Paradigm Heresies• Interpreting The Bible

• Pablo Paradigm• Mark 10:17-18 is the Trojan horse here. Transitioning the

person to an acceptance of the Watch Tower publication is the paradigm heresy. Once someone ahs accepted the Watch Tower as the source of authority, showing them truth is virtually impossible apart from separating them from that foundational belief.

• Methods to Avoid – Paradigm Heresies• Interpreting The Bible

• Pablo Paradigm• 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s

glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. 28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” – Matthew 16:27-28

• “If Jesus was talking about his resurrection here, then how could some of the disciples still be alive? Jesus clearly wasn’t talking about a physical resurrection that is still in the future, he was talking about the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.”

• Methods to Avoid – Paradigm Heresies• Interpreting The Bible

• Pablo Paradigm• Matthew 16:27-28 is used as the Trojan Horse here. The

paradigm heresy that will follow is that all teaching on the resurrection is mistaken and that the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD was the only return of Jesus and the only resurrection that will ever take place.

• The reality is that Jesus was referring to the judgment coming on the Temple in 70 AD (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21) but there are many other passages which speak of the physical resurrection of believers

• Methods to Avoid – Paradigm Heresies• Interpreting The Bible

• Read the entire book or section all the way through

• Read in multiple translations if possible• Go through initial steps of biblical interpretation

• Pick up the text on their side of the River• Navigate around the rocks• Finish the journey in our boat “the Principle”• Avoid the Context Waterfall• Apply “the Principle” onto our side of the River• Apply “the Principle” in my life

• Now consult outside sources• Consider what the sources add to your own observations and

thoughts

• A Method of Study•Studying the Bible

Grasping God’s WordDuvall and Hays

For Further Study

• Concordance• The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible

(or a concordance that is keyed to your primary translation)

• www.blueletterbible.org• Bible Dictionary

• Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary• Dictionary of Biblical imagery (Ryken, Leland, Wilhoit,

etc.)• New Bible Dictionary (Marshall, Millard, Packer, Wiseman)

• Free Commentaries and Resources• www.foxvalleychurch.net

• Basic Resources•Building a Resource Library

• Bible Handbook• Holman Bible Handbook (Dockery)

• Old Testament Introduction• An Introduction to the Old Testament (Longman)

• New Testament Introduction• An Introduction to the New Testament (Carson, Morris,

Moo)• Bible Encyclopedia

• International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Bromiley)• Old Testament History

• A History of Israel: From the Bronze Age Through the Jewish Wars (Kaiser)

• Additional Resources•Building a Resource Library

• New Testament History• Backgrounds of Early Christianity Ferguson)• The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament (Jeffers)

• Ancient Life and Culture• Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus (Jeremias)• Manners and Customs in the Bible (Matthews)

• Bible Atlas• Holman Bible Atlas (Brisco)

• Bible Background Commentaries• Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary, 4

vols.

• Additional Resources•Building a Resource Library

Questions & Answers

• Biblical Interpretation•Spiritual Maturity Training