One of the most important and essential duty of a true born again Christian is learning how to correctly and accurately interpret God's word.  I may be as emphatic as to say it is not only our responsibility, but is our duty to correctly and accurately interpret Lord's Word.  God the Holy Spirit is the author of the Biblical Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testament in it's entirety.  He has inspired men to pen down the very Words that teaches us about our Creator and His Gospel as well as the consummation of time.  As Holy Spirit has inspired men to carefully and painstakingly compose the Biblical Scriptures, He also expects diligence from His children, the Christians to understand and interpret His Book and His Writing accurately. 

When we read a nice book that we like and enjoy, we often think of that author, as to how he or she has put together such great book; be it a theological book, poetry book, or historical, or fictional, or artistic or scientific or whatever type of book it might be.  And as such, we often think of how that author mind worked during the production of that great work. We also would like to even understand what that author meant by what he wrote and composed.  What was the purpose of his work?  What did he or she intent in that paragraph, phrase, or sentence?  This is so we can grasp the full and true intention of that author.

This is no different with the Bible.  As Christians, the ones God has delivered out of death into Light of His Mighty Eternal Lord Christ, by the Mercy of God the Father, through the power of God the Holy Spirit, we must learn to understand as much as possible the author of our Salvation written work; by what our Master meant when He wrote that part of the scripture and what is He trying to convey to us as we read it.  The Tri Fold benefit of this is:

1. We can interpret His writing correctly for our own growth and benefit.

2. It will safeguards our soul, mind, conscious, and yes, even our body from the pitfalls that we may fall into if we don't interpret His Word accurately.

3. We can convey and teach others the correct words and message during our witness, responses and defenses. 

Throughout the years that I have been studying the non-Christian cults, various religious sects and the world of the Occult, I never cease to be amazed that how detrimental correct interpretation of the Scriptures are for Christians.  Non-Christian cults all have erred in their misinterpretation of the Holy Scriptures.  Their incorrect understanding of the Bible has led them to Incorrect Christology and all the way down the line toward their demise and stand in their cultic system.  Sadly to say, they all fell into the pit of false theology, false doctrines and corrupt belief systems. 

It is well said that "Error begets Error and Heresy begets Heresy". 

The incorrect interpretation of the Scriptures has also affected and continues to affect the dear brothers and sisters in Christ.  One incorrect interpretation of the scripture can lead to another to the point that it could easily rob the Christians of their affective witness and even worst it can lead them toward their own various bondages, such as legalism and liberalism.  Even the confusion from non-essential passages can lead them toward false doctrines, which affectively can hamper their ability to be a power witness and a soldier for Christ.  Another words, it leads to quenching the Holy Spirit in their lives. 

False interpretation or wrong interpretation can cause a dear Christian to be vulnerable to the false teachers and false prophets that are constantly looking someone to devour.  As Dr. Walter Martin always used to say, "the next best thing to a damned soul is a neutralized Christian," and yes, that could be a result of incorrect interpretation of the Scriptures or wrong Christian Hermeneutics. 

I always say, we are what we believe.  From our doctrines to our mind and to our actions is a pathway that needs to be dearly and heavily safeguarded. 

Yes, the misinterpretation of the Scriptures has grave consequences for everyone, including us Christians!

 NOTE:  It is important to note that as Christians, we only follow Christian Hermeneutics, and not any other system, cult, religion or philosophy.  Each system has its own set of principles they follow in order to arrive at their various conclusion and explanations of their various texts.  However for us, we ONLY Follow Christian Hermeneutics.

What exactly is Hermeneutics?  It is derived from a Greek word herméneuó (ἑρμηνεύ), which means "to translate, to explain, to interpret the meaning". 

It appears in various passages, such as:

However, the primary passage that theologians draw from in order to make a case for the correct interpretation is in 2 Timothy 2:15.

Even though the word Hermeneutics does not appear here, but the phrase "accurately handling the word of truth" implies it.  We learn from this passage that Lord is expecting His children to be a good steward of His eternal Word, His Scriptures and to handle them with care.  This verse tells us that the reverse is also true, meaning a Christian can fall into a state of shame when he or she is not able to accurately handle or divide or translate Lords Word, The Bible. 

Is that possible?  Yes. 

• As explained in the previous section, we can be ashamed when we are studying for our own spiritual growth and yet, we misinterpret a passage, which could then lead us into false doctrine, false thinking, apathetical state of mind, legalistic and bondage driven life style, etc.

• We also can be ashamed when we misrepresent the Scriptures during our witness.  Without even knowing it, we may end up leading others astray. 

• And when we are in a spiritual warfare; we don't really know how to affectively use our weapon the spiritual sword, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17, 2 Corinthian 10:4).  That could be because, we may not have understood the affectedness of our weapon, or the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives or even our rightful and correct positions as Christ disciples.

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STRUCTURE & NATURE OF HERMENEUTICS

This section can become quite lengthy... so I try to keep it short and to the point for now. 

There are many rules that we need to consider, but for now, I will state the first 3 top and most important rules of Christian Hermeneutics that needs to be followed and considered before anything else:

NO 1.

The first and most important Rule for Christian Hermeneutics is this: 

We interpret the Old Testament in light of the New Testament and NEVER The Reverse.  As Christians, we start with our understanding in the New Testament.  Once we have grasped a clear, concise and correct understanding of the New Testament (whatever subject it might be), then we can go back to the Old Testament to learn what that passage meant as it was scribed in the pages of the Old Testament.  But Not until then.

Why?  For the simple reason that New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, and Not the Reverse !!  We are in the New Testament and Post Cross, and NOT in the Old Testament Pre Cross!

NO 2.

Second major Rule is that we interpret the Scriptures Literally unless the passage's context (shorter and wider) tells us otherwise.  Meaning the only time we interpret a passage in a Figurative sense and not in a literal sense is when the context allows us to do so.

NO 3.

When reading a passage, we must ALWAYS consider its immediate Grammar and its shorter and wider context. 

TYPES OF HERMENEUTICS

Christian Hermeneutics has basically 4 major types:

1. Literal

2. Moral

3. Allegorical

4. Anagogical

Literal - Literal Interpretation asserts that a Biblical text is to be interpreted according to the "plain meaning" as is coveyed by its grammatical construction and historical context.

Moral - Moral Interpretation tries to establish an exegetical principles by which ethical lessons may be drawn from the various sections of the Bible.  It basically searches for moral lessons from the various writings.

Allegorical - Allegorical Interpretation explains the narratives as having a second level of reference beyond those persons, things, and events explicitly mentioned in the text.  An example could be the typological, according to which the figures, main events, and principle institutions of the Old Testament are seen as "types" or foreshadowing of persons, events, and objects in the New Testament. 

Anagogical - Anagogical Interpretation is more often viewed as the mystical interpretation.  It tries to explains the passages or events as to how they relate to or refer to the future events and what future holds.  Theologians that are specialized in eschatology, often use this type of interpretation to formulate their view.

PRINCIPLES OF HERMENEUTICS

There are roughly over 30 Hermeneutical principles, including their subdivision, such as Application Principle, Moral Principle, Historical-Grammatical Principle, etc.  We will not cover these in this section as they are quite lengthy...

TECHNIQUES OF HERMENEUTICS

Following are several hermeneutical techniques that a Christian must learn to utilize during the interpretation of the Biblical texts. 

I like the concise order and explanation that is listed by the following author in his book:

Henry A Virkler, in Hermeneutics: Principles and Process of Biblical Interpretations (1981)

Lexical-syntactical analysis: This step looks at the words used and the way the words are used. Different order of the sentence, the punctuation, the tense of the verse are all aspects that are looked at in the lexical syntactical method. Here, lexicons and grammar aids can help in extracting meaning from the text.

Historical/cultural analysis: The history and culture surrounding the authors is important to understand to aid in interpretation. For instance, understanding the Jewish sects of the Palestine and the government that ruled Palestine in New Testament times increases understanding of Scripture. And, understanding the connotations of positions such as the High Priest and that of the tax collector helps us know what others thought of the people holding these positions.

Contextual analysis: A verse out of context can often be taken to mean something completely different from the intention. This method focuses on the importance of looking at the context of a verse in its chapter, book and even biblical context.

Theological analysis: It is often said that a single verse usually doesn't make a theology. This is because Scripture often touches on issues in several books. For instance, gifts of the Spirit are spoken about in Romans, Ephesians and 1 Corinthians. To take a verse from Corinthians without taking into account other passages that deal with the same topic can cause a poor interpretation.

Special literary analysis: There are several special literary aspects to look at, but the overarching theme is that each genre of Scripture has a different set of rules that applies to it. Of the genres found in Scripture, there are: narratives, histories, prophecies, apocalyptic writings, poetry, psalms and letters. In these, there are differing levels of allegory, figurative language, metaphors, similes and literal language. For instance, the apocalyptic writings and poetry have more figurative and allegorical language than does the narrative or historical writing. These must be addressed, and the genre recognized to gain a full understanding of the intended meaning.

And in the book, God Centered Biblical Interrelation (1999), The author Vern Poythress, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, lists out 3 contextual techniques for understanding the scriptures

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LESSONS FROM CULTS

I am going to keep this very important section extremely short for now, as this can become quite lengthy....

Observing, analyzing and viewing the cultic structures, as to how they interpret and explain various texts of the Bible can be a great and valuable lessons for us.  When viewing the cultic system of interpretation of the Bible, it's very easy to detect how they violate every single rule of hermeneutics. 

Among many books in this category, I highly recommend the following book: 

Scripture Twisting, 20 Ways the Cults Misread the Bible, by James W. Sire of InerVarsity Press (1980). 

Dr. Walter Martin utilized this book as one of the tools for his Christian Hermeneutic lesson series.  I also highly recommend them as well. 

Here, Dr. Sire presents various strange doctrines that cults have adopted by cleverly twisting the true meaning of the Biblical passages, in many different ways!

Some of the ways that Cults misread the scriptures are:

• Inaccurate Quotations

• Twisted Translation

• Ignoring the Immediate Context

• Collapsing Contexts

• Over specification

• Word Play

• Figurative Fallacies

• Speculative Readings of Predictive Prophecy

Learning from cults, can help us to avoid pitfalls... pitfalls that can have deadly Tri-Fold (spiritual, mental and physical) consequences.!

Stay Tuned... will be adding more detail to this section soon...!

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