|
EIGHT POINTS TO UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE
(CORRECT
EXEGESIS)
1.
The Holy Spirit
The Bible is a spiritual book. It is only the Holy Spirit
who can teach us spiritual things. Jesus promised at John 14:26, 15:26, and
16:13 that He was going to send us the Holy Spirit and that He would teach us
all things.
Paul said, "The natural
man (flesh, human thinking) cannot understand the things of the Spirit, for they
are foolishness to him." (1 Cor. 2:14)
To understand the Bible,
the Word of God, we must have the Holy Spirit teach us. How do we receive the
Holy Spirit? Jesus told us that our heavenly Father would give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask Him. (Luke 11:13)
2.
Avoid previous mind-sets, beliefs, or world-views
If we read the Bible from
a preconceived notion or doctrine, we will fail to understand the Word. From
childhood we were raised and taught human reasoning. Human reasoning is opposed
to God.
To establish what they believe to be truth, the Watchtower Society uses the
concept, "If it isn't reasonable. it probably isn't true." The problem with this
is, "reasonable to whom?" What is reasonable to humans is not reasonable to God.
" `For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways.' says the
Lord." (Isa. 55:8)
3.
Understand the context and the historical facts of the situation
The cults take scriptures
completely out of their proper context and apply them in bizarre manners. To
understand any particular verse or chapter, analyze its context. Acknowledge who
it was written to, when it was written, the subject under discussion, and the
circumstances of the account.
For example, the entire Old Testament was written as a historical account, but
was written to and for the nation of Israel.
While the principles are
for our benefit today, the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are
also historical accounts of what Jesus told the Israelites prior to the
transition to the New Covenant. The thrust of these accounts is to show that no
one (except Jesus) could live up to the Law Covenant and therefore everyone,
Jews included, needed a Savior.
The accounts of Matthew 24
and 25 which the Watchtower Society and other such groups use, really are
directed to the nation of Israel during the Great Tribulation.
Even though the Acts of
the Apostles records events of the early church, it is an historical account and
we need to use caution if we are using the book of Acts to establish
foundational doctrines.
Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and his letters were written to most of
us, the Gentles who are of the body of Christ. It is important to notice, for
example, that Paul never spoke of or warned about the Great Tribulation, but
rather, that the bride of the Son would be spared from God's wrath.
The book of Revelation after chapter 3 is future and is yet to be fulfilled. The
Great Tribulation, which begins in chapter 6 through 18, is on the fleshly
nation of Israel to bring her to repentance.
4.
Understand the meaning of words. especially in their grammatical & historical
application
In many cases it is
essential to use a concordance or lexicon for a word study to help discern the
intent and meaning of the writer in the context of his subject and
circumstances.
5. Avoid eisegesis and esoteric
applications
Eisegesis is reading
things into texts which are not there. Esoteric cultic groups use extensive
eisegesis.
For just one example,
Malachi 3:1 says, "Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way
before me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple, even
the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming says the
Lord of hosts."
The Watchtower applies this to mean that Jesus came to the earth around 1919 and
reviewed all the religions, chose the Watchtower and rejected all other
religions. You will have a difficult time finding any such concept in that verse
or the context, or for that matter, in the entire Bible.
6. Avoid
dogmatism
To the Watchtower and
other such groups, there is no gray area and everything must be either "black"
or "white." But, there are many peripheral doctrinal issues which are not clear
in the Word, and various understandings are acceptable within the body of
Christ.
7. Accept
the Word as literals a spiritual application is evident,
When aberrant religious
groups cannot explain a particular text, they will say, "Well, that is what it
says, here is what it means," and then they "spiritualize" it so they can
"explain it away." Only when there are valid reasons apparent in the text,
should we look for a spiritual application.
For example, in Revelation
14:4 speaking of the 144,000 chosen out of Israel, it says, "These are the ones
who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins." Could this mean that
they will be only men and all virgins in a fleshly sense? This does not likely
apply in a fleshly sense and therefore probably means that spiritually they are
virgins, similar to the bride of Christ who is spoken of as a "chaste virgin."
We also need to understand
figurative language such as allegories, which make use of something literal to
symbolize a principle or truth. For example, Jesus' use of worms that don't die
and fire which never goes out to describe absence from God, are not literal, for
in the literal, they cannot exist together.
In most cases the Word of
God is literal and means exactly what it says. We want to let God speak for
Himself and His written Word speak for itself.
8. Read
God's Word from God's perspective
When we read God's Word,
we will either view it from the standpoint of legalism or grace. If we attempt
to read the Bible from the standpoint of law, we will never understand God's
Word. We did that in the Watchtower. The law covenant was given to make sin
manifest, to prove that men could not live up to God's standard of holiness, and
that we all needed a savior.
If we bring in one drop of
legalism into the Christian life, we destroy the grace of God. God's grace is
pure grace and He does not adulterate it with our flesh works. If we could
actually place one drop of "YOU GOTTA," into God's grace, it would then mean
that the grace of God was NOT unearned, undeserved, and unmerited! Pure grace is
the only kind of grace there is, but men constantly attempt to mix flesh works
with God's grace.
At John 3:6, Jesus
said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit." Flesh is flesh and spirit is spirit and no matter how
religion tries, they cannot mix the two.
Article by Dan Hall Reproduced with permission from the
January 2003 Revealer
Books by Dan Hall are available from Reveal Ministries
through our
Bookstore
Printer Friendly
Version
|
