Studying the Bible - What are Hermeneutics?

For the majority of my "Christian" life, I have viewed and used the Bible as a collection of stories and nuggets, and as I would read it I would get frustrated with sections that didn't pertain directly to my life. The pastor would say, "Read the Bible every day," but it was so much easier to listen to sermons or read self-help books to get my doses of self help. The Bible was too difficult.

I still am in the infant stages of learning how to read this amazing book, which in reality is a collection of 66 books, 39 being the Old Testament and 27 being the New Testament. Together, these testaments contain 1,189 chapters of both descriptive texts (telling a story of what happened) and prescriptive texts (giving an application to how to live).

The greatest and most helpful lesson I've learned over the past year is that the Bible is not primarily about me. It is primarily about Jesus. The story begins with the Trinitarian God-- God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit (read the beginning of Genesis 1 and John 1). God created man. Man rebeled and ran from God. As a result man deserved punishment and eternal separation from God. But God pursued man. Continuously. And I don't understand this near enough to give it justice, but God had a plan from the beginning- to send Jesus as the sacrificial lamb, taking the penalty of sin to atone for the sins of the world. The gospels tell the central story of the universe, Jesus dying and raising from the dead. Everything in the Bible only makes sense in light of the Gospel, and one of the overarching themes is that God is good, man is rebelious and evil, and apart from God's grace, there is no hope for man.

The Bible is an amazing book. There is no other book that comes any where near it. It is picked apart from every angle, and yet it still stands to this day as the greatest source of Truth in the world. I could go on and on, but as I said, I am merely an infant in my understanding of this great book. Here are some really helpful guidelines for studying the Bible (taken from SymphonyofScripture.com), written by Philip L. Powell in his book Parables of the Kingdom:

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Principles for Bible Study

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth – 2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJV).

Hermeneutics is defined as “the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of Scripture or literary texts.” The application of a correct hermeneutic is essential to proper Bible study and the deducing of right conclusions from scripture. In this regard the rules are few and simple:

1) CONTEXT – always examine truth in context i.e. the textual setting – what precedes and what follows; 2) COMPARISON – Paul speaks of “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” in the context of being taught by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13); 3) NO CONTRADICTION – “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”- Numbers 23:19 (NKJV). “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven” - Psalm 119:89 – (NKJV).

Providing these principles are clearly established you will not go far wrong. In my own study I have accepted God’s Word as being totally inspired (i.e. “God Breathed” cf. 2 Timothy 3:16) with the thought that inspiration shines out brightest and best through our Lord Jesus Christ. Based on these considerations both consciously and unconsciously I always ask the following three questions of any difficult text:

a. What light does the context shine on the text? b. What do other Scriptures say on this matter? c. What did Christ say if anything on the subject?

If you approach scripture in this frame of mind and not primarily with a predisposition to investigate what other men have said or written the Holy Spirit will lead you into ALL truth (cf. John 16:3). That is not to say that we do not consider the thoughts, ideas and teachings of others – especially those great and godly men who lived holy lives. It simply means that we are doing what we should bytrusting God above men.

The idea that God never contradicts Himself and that He is IMMUTABLE –i.e. not subject to change – is fundamental to His WORD and to the interpretation of it. I recently outraged one or two people in a Pentecostal Church when I alluded publicly to a slogan that had been adopted by a well-known Hillsong ladies’ Conference in Sydney - “Hey princess God believes in you and we do too.” No, that is NOT true. It turns the glorious gospel of Christ on its head. God’s Word tells us that God does not believe in us and that we should believe in Him. Self-faith is a false faith.

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes - Psalm 118:8-9.

If that is true of princes it is most certainly true of princesses.

Let God be true, but every man a liar - Romans 3:4.