All:

 

Some thirty years ago I suddenly realized that our English Bible translations do not always do a thorough job in translating the Greek and Hebrew to English in a clear understandable way for us  and thus, created or added to the confusion and cause more questions that go unanswered for us to say, "I got it now." 

 

I am not a strict literalist and I will explain in this series.  I thought the readers might enjoy a little clarity to understanding their Bible.  The issue that divides so many people, churches, denominations, and society resolves to a single issue of what is commonly known in theological schools as "Hermeneutics"

 

The larger issue is knowing what the "keys" are and "how to use them".  The most important Bible prophecy text is Daniel 9:24-27, and yet is so confused by those trying to interpret the Bible for others and themselves.  In this series you will get a seminary or good Bible college level course on "Hermeneutics".  All without the exams and tests.  Might I add at no dollar cost.

 

The Bible is made up of five basic kinds of genre or writings:

    1.  Narrative

    2.  Epistles

    3.  Wisdom Literature

    4.  Poetry

    5.  Prophecy

 

Understanding the meaning is not as simple as so many seem to believe or postulate.  The Apostle Paul in dealing with the issue of tongues (languages) in 1 Corinthians state "God is not the author of confusion". (1 Cor. 14:33).

 

According to Proverbs 25:2, "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings to search out a matter." 

 

Most of humanity's problems arise out of communications problems.  This I believe every Dove could agree upon.  That said, it requires serious diligence, and fidelity to the Word of God.

to glean its whole truth.

 

The understanding of Scripture is far more complex than most folks are aware of or are ready to admit; and I suggest that doctoral division and differences often are the result of poor training in foundational hermeneutics.  The Lord Christ Jesus gave to the disciples specific "keys" of interpretation, which they used in interpreting the Old Testament.  Discovering "Apostolic Hermeneutics" in a day when men will not hear sound teaching demands a lot of patience. 

 

Hermeneutics is both a science and an art.

 

God has spoken to His people the Israelites.  Whenever man communicates, the exercising of interpretation, whether it is art, music, law, history, poetry, or literature; it calls for the ability of an enlightened informed interpreter.

 

Consider the ways that God has spoken through His Word:

 

    Dreams    (Numbers 12:6; Joel 2:28; Matthew 1:20)

 

    Visions     (Numbers 12:6; Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17; Acts 9:10,12).

 

    Angel of the Lord    (Genesis 18; Exodus 3; Judges 6 & 13)

 

    Similitudes    (Deuteronomy 4:12,15,16; Daniel 10:16; Hosea 12:10; Romans 5:14; Hebrews 7:15)

 

    Figures    (Romans 5:14; Hebrews 9:9,24; 11:19; 1 Peter 3:21)

 

    Type        (Romans 5:14; 1 Corinthians 10:6,10)

 

    Shadow   (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5; 10:1)

 

    Example  (1 Corinthians 10:6; Hebrews 4:11; 8:5; 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7)

 

    Pattern    (Exodus 25:9; 1 Chronicles 20:11,12,19; 1 Timothy 1:16; Hebrews 8:5)

 

    Sign        (Exodus 3:12; Isaiah 7:11,14; Matthew 12:39; John 20:30)

 

    The Holy Spirit    (John 12:33; 18:32; 21:19; Acts 11:28; Revelation 1:1)

 

    Allegory    (Galatians 4:24)

 

    Mystery    (Ephesians 1:9; 3:9; 5:32; 1 Timothy 3:16; Revelation 1:20)

 

    Dark Sayings    (Numbers 12:8; Psalm 49:4; 78:2; Proverbs 1:6; Daniel 8:23)

 

    Riddle       (Judges 14:12; Ezekiel 17:2)

 

    Proverb    (Proverb 1:6; Luke 4:23; 2 Peter 2:22)

 

    Parable    (Matthew 13:3,10,13,34,35; Mark 3:23; Luke 8:10)

 

    Audible Voice of God    (Genesis 3:8; Numbers 7:89; Deuteronomy 5:22-28; Psalm 103:20)

 

    Prophecy    (Proverb 1:6; Luke 4:23; 2 Peter 2:22)

 

    Writings      (Exodus 31:18; 33:16; 1 Chronicles 28:19; 2 Chronicles 35:4; Daniel 5:5)

 

These are merely some of the examples and there are many more that we don't obviously notice when studying the Word of God.  There are over 200 linguistic and grammatical tools employed by God in the 1189 chapters of the Bible.  Most people are totally unaware of the depth of the Scriptures.  Very few notice the nuances of the text, the idioms and idiomatic expressions.  God has encoded within the text constructs and truths that evade the average church going individual, and in many case, even the pastor they trust with their spiritual guidance.

 

Most pastors today are not trained sufficiently to be good interpreters of the Word.  This is the reason for the growing apostasy and heresy in the church, i.e., the prosperity gospel; name it and claim it; the word of faith movement; health, welfare, and prosperity; the emergent church movement, even the seeker friendly church; and others.  They originated in a misuse or violation of Biblically sound hermeneutics.  This is why you have the mega ministries of Benny Hinn, Joel Ostein, Paula White, Joyce Meyers, and a host too many to name of mammon leaches.

 

The heart of interpretation the Bible is well established in the Old Testament surprisingly.  There are between the Old Testament and New Testament, about 14 different words that speak to the discipline of hermeneutics. 

 

There are qualifications of an interpreter of the Word of God that one must have.  Otherwise, hermeneutics becomes a source of confusion, rather than order.  False cults have developed systems of hermeneutics by which the Word of God is misinterpreted, and heresy is forced out of truth, and darkness is presented as light.

 

The Scriptures speaks about three categories:

    1. Legal interpretation

    2. False interpretation

    3. True interpretation

 

Examples of:

 

    1. Legal     (Acts 13:27; John 18:28; John 5:39,40)

    2. False     (2 Corinthians 4:2; Ephesians 4:14; 2 Peter 3:16)

    3. True      (Luke 24:27; Job 33:23; 2 Timothy 2:15)

 

Remember, these are references to what we refer as the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament; the Scriptures of which the early church was reading.

 

Predicated on whether the interest is there I will follow up with what defines the qualifications of an interpreter.  There are many and they are all Biblical.  I don't want to do more unless the interest exists.  I have served too many churches whose idea of Bible study was a mile wide and an inch deep.

 

Today, hermeneutics falls into five basic categories of methods of interpretation, each having its own set of rules and principles.  These are the:

 

    1.   Allegorical method

    2.   Mystical method

    3.   Devotional method

    4.   Rational method

    5.   Literal method

 

In this post we will examine the first category: the Allegorical method.

 

    The Allegorical method, originated through the union of Greek philosophy and religion.  With the rise of philosophy, the Greeks began to realize that they could not interpret their religious writings literally and still hold to their philosophy.  The Apostle Paul issued a warning about listening to the vain philosophies of men.  If both were taken literally they would be contradictory.  Because of their new found loyalties to the philosophies they had to conclude, in order to reconcile the two, that their religious writings meant something other than what they literally said.  The method they created to do this was called allegorism.  I used to teach once a year at a Bible college, a course on "Philosophy from a Christian Perspective".  I will share a little tidbit of knowledge about philosophy.  Most of the known philosophers were recruited into the secret societies of the Illuminati, Freemasonry, Jacobins, or the Perfectobilists.

 

The allegorical method presumes that beneath the plain and obvious sense of Scripture lies its true meaning.  It believes that what the words of Scripture literally say are only external "chaff" which hides the true spiritual "what" of the Word.  In allegoricalization, a passage with obvious literal meaning is interpreted using a point-by-point comparison, which brings out a hidden spiritual meaning not evident in the plain language of the text.  This method has been applied  to the whole of Scripture by allegorists both ancient and modern day.  As an example, Pope Gregory, the so-called great interpreter of the book of Job said, "The patriarch's three friends denotes the heretics; his seven sons are the twelve apostles; his seven thousand sheep are God's faithful people and his three thousand hump-back camels are the depraved Gentiles."

 

Centuries have proven the allegorical method to be quite inadequate in the interpretation of Scripture.  The error of this method begins at its foundational assumption: that what God said in plain language is not really what He meant.

 

It is a dangerous method in that there are no Scriptural boundaries to guide its implementation.  Without any doubt, this is the reason for the great variety of contradictory theological positions among allegorists.  Through the allegorical method Scripture is interpreted apart from its grammatical-historical meaning.  What the author was trying to plainly communicate is almost totally ignored and what the interpreter desires to say is forced upon it.   An excellent example is Revelation 20 where we find the expression "a thousand years".  The allegorist rejects the idea of it means what it says.  They argue their bloomers off saying it means simply a long time, an infinite period, but it certainly does not mean 1,000 years.  Elsewhere, they will agree that it means 1,000 days, like in the passage where the Tribulation is 1,260 days.

 

My response to this kind of babble is the highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know about.

 

The Greek word "Chilioi" is that of a number for 1,000 and it represents a literal 1,000.  In classical Greek it was used from the time of Homer and means "a thousand".  Herodotus used it of "a thousand" horses. As his demonstration of love for God,  Solomon offered "a thousand burnt offerings" to the Lord, found in 1 Kings 3:4.  In the New Testament Peter used "Chilioi" to describe the timeless dimension of God "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."  -(2 Peter 3:8).  It is used six times in Revelation 20, and it is used three more times elsewhere in Revelation.  It means there will be a millennium age and it will be a thousand years long, 1,000, What do you suppose that people do not understand?!

 

Allegoricalism obscures both the literal and figurative elements in Scripture.  By exalting the interpreter's intentions and ignoring the author's intended meaning, the allegorical method fails to reach the basic goal of interpretation and must be discarded. 

 

Extreme Typology borders on allegoricalization.  However, it must be recognized that these two are not always synonymous.  The interpreter must also be careful not to confuse the practice of allegorization with figures of speech called allegory. 

 

As I stated previously, this method is widely used by preachers and pastors in churches that trace their heritage back to the Reformation.  Luther waged a war on behalf of the issue of "Justification by faith", yet he brought with him a lot of baggage to Rome's daughter churches.  Chiefly among the baggage Luther passed on to the reformation churches that followed, the idea of "Replacement" Theology where the church replaced Israel in God's Master Plan.  He brought with him the entire method of allegoricalization of Scripture.  This included Bible prophecy. 

 

I have made it clear that Steven "Mark" Wohlberg of the SDA cult violates the interpretation over and over to the point an individual is totally confused about dozens of topics.  He is like trying to pick up mercury.

 

All of the denominations that broke from Rome in 1541 and following, retained the allegorical method of interpretation.  It comes as no real surprise when you have studied church history as to why there are so many divisions and it all results from a faulty hermeneutics.  The ecumenical movement has further conflicted the Protestant churches which really don't protest anything anymore.  It has only been a decade since the Lutheran churches stopped calling the pope the antichrist.  If my memory serves me correct, it was 1996 or 1997 when the official Lutheran position stopped calling the pope the antichrist.

 

I've been debating JW's and SDA's for years.  The day John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, I was washing my new car and debating two JW's.  If you figure that it comes to fifty years and I'm not allegoricalizing a bit.  That's fifty years or 50!

 

In hermeneutics we used the journalistic method of inquiry:  who, what, when, where, and why?  YOu can't be fooled by the counterfeits when you utilize a standard of analysis.  In my formal seminary education I was required to outline the particular book of the Bible being used in class.  For example my course on the Gospel of Mark, the class had to outline the English text, using appropriate Greek grammatical tools and be able to defend specific points with the Greek nuances.

 

When I was in elementary school, 7th & 8th grade English, I never thought or even imagined that I would have to use those skills ever again.  I was so wrong.  You couldn't get church folks to come to this type of Bible study today even if you paid them to come.

 

If you stay with me, I will cover the other four methods of interpretation, known as Hermeneutics.  I just need to know there is an interest in your learning Hermeneutics.  You will never be deceived by the "Replacement" Theology crowd ever again.

 

There will be a "Millennium" and it will be a thousand years, 1,0000 years.  Don't be deceived those who reject the true meaning of the Greek word "Chilioi".   

 

Pastor Bob