Tried With Fire

The Torrey Gazette is running a series this month on the importance of theology for women. I am honored to be one of the contributors, and my post is up today. You can follow the hashtag #TheologyforWomenMatters on Twitter to stay up to date with this series. Infusing myself into the stories of the Bible was all I ever knew. I grew up in a Christian home. I loved Jesus. I loved the Bible, and I thought I knew the Bible pretty well. But when it came down to it, the point was to find myself in the text. Doesn't everyone do this? After all, this is how we can find out how God is going to take care of us in a given situation by putting ourselves in the sandals of David, Abraham, Joseph, etc.  Read the rest here.

We recently had a short Sunday school class on how to read the Bible. A few principles to consider are: Genre - Is the passage historical narrative, poetry, teaching, or apocalyptic literature? Context - What is the context of the verse in relation to the chapter, the book, and redemptive history? What was the meaning of the author? What would it have meant to the original readers/hearers? Without these guidelines, it is possible to misuse the Bible. Rather than asking what was the intent of the author , the text can become what I want it to mean to me . Authorial intent versus reader response . Instead of the Bible being about God's revelation of himself and his plan of redemption, I can read myself into the text and make the Bible all about me. For example, the story of David and Goliath. This is historical narrative that actually took place. It shows God's faithfulness to preserve his people and the line through which the Messiah would eventually come. The passage d...

I came across this Reformed Forum podcast with Dr. Richard M. Gamble, historian and member of the OPC. Dr. Gamble has just published a book, A Fiery Gospel: The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the Road to Righteous War. This book covers the background of the familiar "hymn," which was eye-opening to me. In a nutshell, a supposedly Christian song was written by a Unitarian who was influenced by German liberalism. The podcast is very interesting and points out how easily we are swayed by Christian-ish lyrics that sound vaguely biblical. Perhaps the vagueness is the reason The Battle Hymn endured and became part of American civil religion. I requested A Fiery Gospel through the public library, which I am hoping to read. In the meantime, I looked up Dr. Gamble's other books. His main area of research is American civil religion, a topic that I find grimly fascinating. I was able to find a copy of this book - In Search of the City on a Hill: The Making and Unmaking of an A...

When my pastor was preaching on Revelation 9, he mentioned that a popular Christian author interpreted the locusts in this passage as modern-day helicopters. Hmmmm. He then went on to say that if this indeed was correct, how would it have been possible for the historical church to accurately interpret this passage prior to the invention of the helicopter? Bingo! Why would the Apostle John write a portion of Scripture to local churches in Asia minor that would be next to impossible for the original recipients to understand correctly let alone the rest of the church prior to the 20th century? It makes no sense at all, but this is what happens when we ignore the historical context and read our current situation into the text. Unlike the song, we are not the world. Then what about this? In Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey has documented that the 1950's concept of womanhood has its roots in the Victorian era . This was a byproduct of the Industrial Revolution when men began to ...

Since Diane and Kim have been posting on Bible study and hermeneutics at Out of the Ordinary, I am going to follow in their train with a repost from 2014. Lately I've been digging into the nuts and bolts of Bible interpretation. This was triggered by a journal article I had read which examined different views among conservative Christians on a particular subject. These differing views stemmed from different interpretations of a  single  New Testament (NT) word which in turn led to different applications. On one side, the meaning was derived with emphasis on the root definition. On the other side, the context was given more weight. As a result, I've been consulting D.A. Carson's  Exegetical Fallacies ,   Invitation To Biblical Interpretation   by Drs. Kostenberger and Patterson, and  this  Tabletalk article. These resources shed quite a bit of light on the pitfalls of interpreting Scripture and the fallacies we inadvertently commit. It's also bee...

Having started on February 1, I am attempting to  read the entire Bible in 90 days . It has been challenging, and I am already a little bit behind. But so far, it's been very good. I am still trying to find the optimal time of day to read, which varies from day to day, but the main goal is  to read . I would not recommend this as the  only  method of Bible reading because it's not possible to do in-depth study at this pace. However, this is a great way to get the Bible's big picture. With less than a month under my belt, here are a few lessons I've learned so far... Read the rest of the post here .

On a more serious but related note: We're currently studying Judges in Sunday school. On a plain reading of Judges 6:1-40, there was no confusion about God's will. God told Gideon in no uncertain terms what He wanted Gideon to do. In fact, Gideon reiterates this by stating "as You have said." But for whatever reason, the Word of the Lord seemed to be insufficient. Therefore, the fleece was an act of unbelief , not an act of inquiry . It wasn't an act of faith but evidence of lack of faith. So why do Christians "put out a fleece" to "find" the will of God? Does anyone know where and how this practice originated? I'm curious because it's based on a complete misreading of the text. And lest you think I am pointing the finger, I've put out my share of "fleeces" too. However, I do have a theory. My hypothesis is a well-meaning Sunday school teacher was very uncomfortable with the moral ambiguity of the judge...

For much of my Christian life, I had the bad habit of inserting myself in the leading role of a Bible story. After all, the Word of God was supposed to apply to my life, right? So during a severe trial, I identified with Hezekiah in Isaiah 36. My antagonists were Rabshakeh and Sennacherib, and my situation was a metaphorical siege. Another time, I put myself in Elizabeth's place and believed that my daughter had been regenerated in the womb like John the Baptist. But what right did I have to step into Hezekiah's or Elizabeth's sandals and think that what God did for them applied exactly to me? Here is what Graeme Goldsworthy has to say: Is it in fact true that if God took care of baby Moses, God will take care of me? Such application simply assumes that what applied to the unique figure of Moses in a unique situation applies to all of us and, presumably all of time. But why should our children be privileged to identify with Moses rather with the other Hebrew children at...

Lately I've been digging into the nuts and bolts of Bible interpretation. This was triggered by a journal article I had read which examined different views among conservative Christians on a particular subject. These differing view stemmed from different interpretations of a single New Testament (NT) word which in turn led to different applications. On one side, the meaning was derived with emphasis on the root definition. On the other side, the context was given more weight. As a result, I've been consulting D.A. Carson's Exegetical Fallacies , Invitation To Biblical Interpretation by Drs. Kostenberger and Patterson, and this Tabletalk article. These resources shed quite a bit of light on the pitfalls of interpreting Scripture and the fallacies we inadvertently commit. It's also been highly mortifying. I've committed many if not all of these word fallacies and made assumptions about biblical words that were just plain wrong. After cringing inside at my mistakes...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go: Is Jesus in the Old Testament? , Iain M. Duguid, P&R Publishing, 2013, pg. 15. Diagram adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture , Edmund Clowney, Crossway, 2003, pg. 32. 

Careful handling of the Bible will enable us to "hear" it a little better. It is all too easy to read the traditional interpretations we have received from others into the text of Scripture. Then we may unwittingly transfer the authority of Scripture to our traditional interpretations and invest them with a false, even an idolatrous, degree of certainty. Because traditions are reshaped as they are passed on, after a while we may drift far from God's Word while still insisting all our theological opinions are "biblical" and therefore true. If when we are in such a state we study the Bible uncritically, more than likely it will simply reinforce our errors. If the Bible is to accomplish its work of continual reformation of our lives and our doctrine - we must do all we can to listen to it afresh and utilize the best resources at our disposal. Exegetical Fallacies , 2nd edition, D.A. Carson, Baker Book House, 1996, pp. 17-18.

In a recent conversation with my daughter, she reminded me of the importance of context when we read God's Word: "Sometimes we think the Bible is just a PowerPoint presentation. The verses get turned into bullet points. We're interested in getting the answer to a question, so we cherry-pick the "bullet point" and forget that the verse is part of a chapter that's part of a whole book that's part of God's revelation." This got me thinking and resulted in this post at Out of the Ordinary . Read more here. ..

It's my turn at Out of the Ordinary today: I don't know about you, but for most of my life, I approached the Bible with wrong questions and wrong assumptions. My favorite method was this - read a passage which fits my current situation "perfectly", aided by the sacred shoe horn of allegorical interpretation, and then assume the outcome of the text is going to be paralleled in my life. But God did not ordain Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem with me in mind. Or the story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel. Or countless other narratives where I squeezed myself into the text like the step-sisters' feet into the glass slipper. I can laugh at myself in hindsight, but I completely misunderstood the point of the text. Rather than God being the central theme, I became the star of the show. I was missing something in my interpretation of the Bible. I was missing the concept of  authorial intent . Read more here .

For 11 weeks, the women in our church have been studying hermeneutics, guidelines for interpreting Scripture. This was almost a mini-seminary course as Pastor Ryan had taught the same material at Gaba Bible Institute in Uganda this summer. It was very challenging but also very helpful.  After we walked through the final exam, Pastor Ryan said he would consider the class a success if the women in the church are ever so slightly less intimidated by the Word and ever so slightly more faithful in our interpretation. I pray and hope in faith that this will be the case.  I came away with a greater conviction that the Word is the sole authoritative way God reveals Himself. If I profess to love and follow Him, how can I do that unless I know who He is? And how will I know who He is unless I learn through the means He has chosen to reveal Himself? I will still read plenty of books, but they can't be primary. There is no substitute for digging in the Bible. Much is way bey...

We want to know what the Bible means for us - legitimately so. But we cannot make it mean anything that pleases us and then give the Holy Spirit "credit" for it. The Holy Spirit cannot be brought into the process to contradict himself, and the Spirit is the one who inspired the original intent. Therefore, the Spirit's help for us will come in our discovering that original intent and in his guiding us as we try faithfully to apply that meaning to our own situations... On this one thing, however, there must surely be agreement: A text cannot mean what it never meant . Or to put it in a positive way, the true meaning of the biblical text for us is what God originally intended it to mean when it was spoken. This is the starting point. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth , Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, Zondervan, 2003, pg. 30.

In our first hermeneutics class, we learned that context is key. Too often verses and even phrases within a verse are yanked out of their natural habitat and made to stand alone. While we may glean some benefit, there's a good chance we're in danger of losing the author's original meaning and unintentionally misusing the verse because we aren't connecting it to the surrounding verses, chapters, book, and ultimately the whole Bible. I ran across one such verse in my daily reading: “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27 Now wouldn't that be perfect for a greeting card? (In the NLT, of course.) The cover would have soothing pastel watercolors or a lovely nature photo. But if you continue reading beyond that one verse, it's not so positive and encouraging. "Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, ...

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Thus saith the familiar proverb. Tonight the ladies in our church will begin a series of "fishing" lessons. Not casting or tying lures but lessons in biblical hermeneutics. The teaching pastor recently taught this course at a seminary in Uganda, and now it's our turn to be the students. We will still need to hear the preaching of the Word. We will still need the fellowship of the local church. We will still read books. But teach a woman how to properly interpret the Bible and you've opened the treasure house of the only authoritative means whereby God speaks to His people. Some might think this is an impractical academic exercise. I would respectively disagree. If we want to be godly women, we need to know who God is.  If we want to obey and please Him, we need to know His commands Where else will learn this but in the Word? Granted there are plenty...

This is the Cliff Notes version of our 3+ hour hermeneutic crash course last Friday. It was a bit like drinking from a fire hose since this was a condensed version of our pastor's seminary class taught by Dr. Robert Plummer at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Having lived through many hermeneutical nightmares, how we divide the word is critical to every believer. These aren't heady academic ideas, but the framework we should be using every time we open our Bibles. As R. C. Sproul says, "It is a tremendous thing that people are beginning to open up the Bible and study it together. But it is also an exceedingly dangerous thing. Pooling of knowledge is edifying to the church; pooling of ignorance is destructive and can manifest the problem of the blind leading the blind." from Knowing Scripture , IV Press, pg. 40. (Much of the material came from Dr. Plummer's book,  40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible,  Kregel 2010. Any errors are due to incomplete no...