Apologetics & Debate: Hermeneutics, Part 3

All right, we're live. I don't have any of the fancy music because well Randy's not here to run it.

So I don't have his cool music and his five -minute countdown timer for Passing the torch.

No, do I have his cool graphics? So we're had to do this on my channel

Or my string yard so that we have it striving fraternity. So welcome to class.

This is the fifth class in our Apologetics and debate we got three classes left after tonight

Where we will focus more on well things like logic. So Tonight we will wrap up part three of our course, which will be focusing part three of harmoniutics and This is an important thing when

People ask me how I prepare to debate especially I do a show every

Thursday night It's called apologetics live. It's a live stream so anyone can come in which means people come in prepared to debate me on topics that I'm Not prepared for because I didn't know there was a debate that night that's what happens when you have a show that is open to anyone and So what often gets asked of me is how do

I prepare for? debates when I Wasn't prepared for like you.

You can't really be you have to always be prepared type of thing And so what do I do?

When things like this happen, and I've told people for a long time. There's two areas of study to within Christianity at least to study to be able to be prepared for prepared for debates at any time anywhere and What that is is to study harmoniutics and the second area is logic

And that's why we focused our time here. We we started off this course We talked about things like what is apologetics why we should do it.

What's the purpose of it? what's the character we should have when it comes to doing apologetics and Then we have spent the last two weeks and this week.

We'll spend the third on harmoniutics how to interpret the Bible. So part one of harmoniutics was focused solely on the issue of Context and we did that because Context is the number one rule when it comes to interpretation.

You need to know the context you need to be able to read this in its

Basically, what are the verses before it? What are the verses after it? there are so many times that I get asked a question on apologetics live where all

I have to do is back up a few Verses and the context answers the question or challenge being asked of me from a passage of Scripture So just reading it not the verse but reading the verses around it, maybe even the whole chapter

Often helps to understand things. Sometimes we have to go to the historical context the cultural context. There's different areas.

We have to go to to get an understanding now After that last week, we spent the time looking at two very important principles that is the

Ability and remembering to differentiate between descriptive and prescriptive passages now just to give you a

High level of it go back to last week's class to get to dig in deep. But when we look at that the high level of it is this is

We're going to look at a descriptive passage describes what actually happened

And when we do that, we're not necessarily looking to say this is what should be done or what shouldn't be done

It's what did happen. That's what descriptive is trying to do prescriptive is instructions

Commands, those are things we are to obey So we're gonna put a greater emphasis on a prescriptive text one that prescribes something tells us what to do

Over a descriptive text something that tells us what happened Okay, the other thing we looked at last week is that we will we need to remember to Interpret the harder to understand passages by the easier to understand passages

Because what we have is a case where there are passages that are just hard to understand

But there's others that are not they're very easy And so when we come upon those and people try to make it seem like oh look here's a contradiction

But it's not a contradiction because there are no contradictions in Bible. What it is is our lack of understanding

Something of a text and so when we come to something that seems like a contradiction is a hard to understand passage

What we want to be able to do is look at an easier passage and Use that to know how to interpret the the more difficult

So that's where we left off last week this week. I want to start off with the idea of being able to challenge or question our presuppositions now when

I took hermeneutics in seminary this was actually the first principle that they had and It is an important one to have as your first principle because if you are not willing to question your presuppositions or even worse

Recognize that you have presuppositions then you can come to the text and Make some mistakes and those mistakes being is that you might not recognize that you are is a cheating not exegete

Okay, so I used a bunch of big words. Let's define them so we understand them Presupposition what is a presupposition?

A presupposition is something that we have that we bring to the text of Scripture a thought

Someone may come to the text of Scripture Understanding the

Trinity you come reading it the understanding Trinity and you're going to read a passage like Genesis 126 let us make man on our image and say well that is obviously speaking of the

Trinity Because this is God creating and therefore it has to be a Trinity But if you deny the

Trinity if your starting point is the Trinity does not exist You come to that same passage and you have a lot of variety in the responses

Some Jewish commentaries I've read will say that this is like a royal we This is not really

God speaking in a plurality But God speaking in a in a royal sense of we but it's really just God the the one

God the Father one person one being You'll get some who will even within Judy Judaism, I've seen some commentaries that will refer to this is

God speaking with the angels though. The angels have no part in creation But it's

God just speaking with them There's others Jehovah Witnesses that will say that this is

God speaking with Michael the Archangel and Michael the Archangel it does all the creation.

So God creates Michael the Archangel Michael then creates everything that is created and Then becomes

Jesus. Yes, Michael the Archangel becomes Jesus and so This is how creation would be done in Jehovah Witnesses Do you see there's a lot of creativity with this one passage of Scripture because they cannot accept

The Trinity that their starting point is that the Trinity doesn't is not true

And so if you come to the passage with that then you are going to read your your view of the

Trinity into that passage and Come away with a lot of variety so We have to be able to question our presuppositions

I'm going to talk about that more in a bit because I said it leads to two other big words isogesis and exegesis so isogesis is when we read a meaning into a text and The ice that's the exegesis is when we are going to read the meaning out of the text and so what we we find with that is

When we the proper way to do it is to take the meaning out of the text Okay but we all

Have to realize that because of presuppositions we have that can affect our hermeneutics our interpretation of Scripture This is why when

I was in seminary this is the first thing they started with is because if you are unwilling to Question or even recognize that you have presuppositions

You can make mistakes in your interpretation. It doesn't mean you always do

But it means you're more susceptible to that. So with that We recognize we come to the text with preconceived ideas

We have to know what those preconceived ideas are Not only do we have to know what those preconceived ideas are

But we have to be willing to question whether our preconceived ideas are correct if we don't know what they are it and even worse if we're not willing to Look at the the scripture and and say okay could could

I be wrong? then we're gonna have a problem because if we if we

If we're going to approach the scriptures and assume

That everything we think about the scripture is right. We're not going to Approach it properly

So what that means is when we approach the scriptures we are going to look at this and Well, this is what it means

So an example of this that I would like to give Is a passage that I struggled with for many years

This is Ephesians 2 8 9 not really struggled with but debated had friendly good discussion

Because it says in Ephesians 2 8 9 for by grace. You have been saved through faith and That not of yourselves.

It is a gift of God Not as a result of works that no one may boast

The question is what is the gift? The gift that you're given is it grace?

Or is it faith now, this is a passage that in the

Greek The gift could be argued either way And so but when

I was for many years, I would argue that the gift here being spoken of is the grace

This is grace that has been given and it's a gift and I'd have more my more

Calvinistic friends that would argue that no it is the faith and We would go back and forth well,

I was preaching through the book of Philippians and as I was preaching through Philippians, I came to a passage that Really gave me some difficulty it is

Philippians 129 Now this is another example of we we take the more difficult.

We interpret it by the clear Now I approach this with a presupposition That We had a a

Will that was tainted by sin and yet God could

Would give us an ability to to call out to him and He would then when we called out to him in repentance, he would then reconcile us and so I believe that We would have our belief that would come before our regeneration and I would argue that Ephesians 289 it could it could be used to argue that with the gift

But as I preached through Philippians, I came to Philippians 129 which says for to you

It has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake and Here I had a problem

Why because a this is a clear passage to understand This is something that is well both passages are prescriptive

So as we looked at what we said last week Both are prescriptive But one is a little bit harder to understand because when we look at the

Greek the gift can be applied to either the grace or it could be applied to The faith so which is it?

hard to tell But Philippians 129 it's not hard to tell even that belief that we have is granted to us

He's making the argument that suffering is from God Suffering has been granted to us and he says he's saying just like your belief in God was granted to you so is this suffering and And so this all of a sudden caused me to have to change a theological position and yes

Call some friends who gave me a hard time for a long time and say I was wrong

You were right Forgive me Now if I wasn't willing to question my own pre sub positions my preconceived ideas

Then I would have come to that text Stood before my congregation and preached something that wasn't true.

I Would have preached something that would fit with my theology Rather than looking at what the text of Scripture says and letting that speak now that makes a major difference doesn't it because now all of a sudden what happens if I get up there and Reach from my perceived preconceived ideas.

Do I have God's Word anymore? No, I Have my word or maybe the words that I got from someone else, but I don't have the

Bible and so this is Super important to be willing to question our own preconceived or presuppositions or preconceived ideas or pre pre submit presuppositions because we have them and Let me let you know some ways that people do this very common ways one

I'm gonna kind of pick on the our charismatic friends out there Those who you know are our brothers in Christ, but they believe that the charismatic gifts occurred and a lot of times in fact,

I would say that every time I've Debated it or had discussions on it. It will almost always

Come down to someone will talk about a personal experience. I Had this happen.

So when they come to the passages with about the gifts The gifts must be true because of my personal experience

So what is the ultimate authority then my personal experience now, let me be clear

I know every single charismatic brother that her sister that's listening to me is saying no,

I don't do that. I Understand that you're you would not Say because it would be wrong to say that we put our personal experiences above scripture and I get that However, that is what we're doing

Just like if I was to come to Philippians 129 And argue against what it clearly teaches

I'm putting my preconceived ideas above scripture or my theological system, which is the next one.

I was gonna use Because many people do that they come to the scriptures you get a passage scripture it seems to teach something that goes against whatever theological system you believe in and What happens is we say?

Well, this can't mean that for this reason. So What do we do in those cases well what some do is they change the meaning of the scriptures

By looking at this and saying well can't possibly mean that why well because Whoever theologian has said

That it can't well, that's not the right way to approach it Okay, we cannot approach the scripture

And look at it from our theological system, so let me give a passage that I see this happen often

John 1st John 2 2 it says and he himself is the propitiation for our sins and Not ours only but also for those of the whole world

Now for Calvinist this can become an issue Because what is this saying that that Jesus died as a propitiation propitiation means a payment of wrath for the whole world

Now this is one that would be be used by our minions to say look here

Jesus satisfied was the satisfaction of our sins for the whole world and They make the emphasis on whole world saying this means every single person

Now if you come to this passage with a view Of Calvinism that John Owens had of a limited atonement that says that Christ died only for the elect

You have a dilemma here, don't you? Because if this is saying that Christ died for every person

Then he didn't die for only the elect So what do people do with this well?

Some will say well world doesn't always mean world. Is that true? Absolutely. It's true

But does this mean in this passage that world means every individual or just all people as far as the general reference to all people the world the cosmos well

Not really. Sure. Maybe the context can help us. Well, he prefaces it with whole world.

Does that help us any? Not really and so many will argue see that that's just meaning all the nations that all nations will be safe So there's elect people from all the nations

Now what they've done there is they're reading that into because there's nothing here about the elect nations

But where my issue is is in this not for ours only but Because now what we have to figure out to get the answer to the question is who is the us and who is the not us

Well, he tells us who the us are Context the verse before it verse 1 my little children so the us are believers

Making the not us unbelievers That is a sticking point if you believe in an unlimited

Atonement meaning that Christ died only for the elect now. I agree that logically that is true

But this passage doesn't teach that So what do people do? Many will argue that what this passage is talking about is this is speaking about the

Jew Gentile discussion However Now let's put in our again

Context now our historical context first John is one of the last books written the

New Testament Okay, all of John's writings were late So this is a much later book

Many think it could have been after many of the Apostles died so This would have been something long after the

Jewish Gentile debate is over so there's nothing in the book of first John that makes a connection here anywhere of a

Jewish Gentile distinction so this is where a theological system that we have can be read into a

Passage of Scripture and we start to come up with ways to explain it. So I'm saying that Everybody is susceptible to this

And I know people just go wait a minute So you don't believe in limited Atonement because you don't believe because you're saying that applies to unbelievers

Well, let's get to that in a moment just so we can clarify my position and I have done whole podcasts on this explaining it but the issue here is that that text is

Speaking about believers and unbelievers We know it because he tells us who he's speaking to my little children he does that as a term of endearment to those believers he is writing to and so Right off the bat we realize that if we're going to look at this and Question be willing to question our priests conceived ideas of presuppositions that we bring to the text our theological system

Then we got to go home Maybe I could be wrong here about this That's a very helpful thing to do.

We have to remember that our theological system as good as it may be Is still done written by human beings that it's all the interpretation that we have of Scripture And so every theological system mine included is wrong

Somewhere. I don't know where if I knew where my theology was wrong. Guess what? I would change it as I already explained

I did when I came to Philippians 129 I had to change my the a lot my theology and some are going wait a minute you changed it

It sounds like you made the change to be more Calvinistic. But now you're saying first John sounds less Calvinistic.

So I Believe that we have to look at this from either from God's view and man's view

Okay From from God's view. He knew exactly Who was gonna?

Who he he will have in with him in heaven who he regenerates He knows that with an absolute knowledge.

He doesn't let need to look at what we do to understand that But does that mean that the propitiation was only for them

Well, I think first John 2 2 says that the propitiation was for everyone every person

So, how do I reconcile that? Well from a human perspective? An offer of salvation could be made and I you always use this as an example

Maybe a bad one, but it's the best I have I go into a restaurant and offer to pay everyone's bill

Some people will say hey, thanks for dinner. Love the free dinner and they leave

But I I know because I've done this where we've evangelized in a restaurant

Friends of mine and I and we share the gospel and people go so You know,

I don't like what you're saying They get upset and my myself or a friend will buy their dinner

Well, I remember one time we were in a restaurant that knew the owners there were believers Because I knew the owners

I knew we could get away with this But me and a friend of mine mark went to every single table and we evangelized every single table before we sat down Every table we did it separately every table got the gospel gospel tract one guy was really you know he's polite about it, but totally disagreed with us and Mark paid for his meal and the guy was absolutely upset that his meal was paid

He walked up to the cashier asked the price of his bill and paid it again and he came over to the table to tell us that he paid the bill and We should we might as well just ask for our money back and mark said no if you did it

Then they just got a really big tip but your meal was paid for already and What this this guy was like, well,

I'm not gonna have anyone pay for me I'm gonna do it my way Which I got some well, that's the very reason you're gonna spend eternity in a lake of fire

Because you will not let anybody Show you grace Not even the

God of the universe You got to do it your way You got to pay it just like this dinner bill.

You can't accept the grace from another person You got to pay it your way and I think that you the reality is that did

God was God's death sufficient This is the Puritan language, but you know time of John Owens John Owens really was the one that solidified this idea that a limited atonement

Means that Christ died only for the elect and I think that is a good logical conclusion

I just don't think it's a good biblical conclusion Because That passage in first John 2 2 doesn't teach that so the

Puritans used to say that Christ's death was sufficient for all but efficient for few so It's it's enough to pay for the sin of every human being that ever lived

But it wasn't applied to everyone who ever lived and so when people are When people repent when people are regenerated then it is applied

Now so people will say well that makes no sense because logically If you're saying

Christ died and was it was satisfied the sins of another person. Well that passage says yes

Well, then how could that be? I don't know. I'm not God in the mind of God. It makes sense

You see so a lot of times these preconceived ideas that we have when we come to scripture are

To wrap things up so that we can understand things that our minds cannot understand We have to allow for mystery in the scriptures and some of our

Presuppositions we have are trying to answer the mystery that we can't know and so I think that Christ died for all people and yet It's clearly limited

The atonement is clearly limited because there's people in hell today. So That is the way of that Explain that but this is what a good example of good examples of how people bring their

Personal experience why I speak in tongues. I had a prophecy. I had some experience therefore gifts continue today or Here's the theological system.

This must be true whether denying the Trinity or You know, whatever it might be We have to be willing to Question the preconceived ideas or presuppositions that we come to scripture with and if we do not do that It becomes a major problem because we will not be able to recognize

When we're in error with scripture will not be able to recognize when our theological systems have a problem with it

We can't because it becomes that theological system becomes the ultimate authority

It is what interprets scripture, this is one of the arguments I make against Colts all the time

The Colts will sit there and argue That you need the the watchtower

Society to be I'll tell you what God's Word is or the Mormons will say you need their their living prophet and then twelve apostles or whatever their group is that they say you must have

To interpret scripture if you need something to interpret scripture

The Catholic Church says the church the magisterium you need them and tradition to interpret scripture

Well, then they automatically become superior to scripture

The reason being is if I need something a church an organization to interpret the scripture

Then I by myself alone with the scripture can't understand it. I need this group That groups becomes the ultimate authority

Because that group is the authority to tell you what scripture means And I'm saying that to say that I want you to understand how strongly we have to take this to question our preconceived ideas because if we come to scripture and we are saying our

Experience or theological system is how we're going to interpret scripture. We may not recognize we're doing that That's why we have to know what our preconceived ideas are but if we come to it then we're subjecting scripture to our theological system to our personal experience to whatever it is

We say that we come to it with those preconceived ideas become superior to scripture

That's why this is Something we have to really challenge ourselves with why it's the very first thing

They taught me in seminary before they started talking about context I thought start with context because it is the most important Rule that we're going to use when interpreting.

Okay, but as far as importance of All the rules

I would say this is the most important This is the one that really we need to do first in when we come to a passage of scripture.

We need to look at what? Preconceived ideas we're bringing to that text okay, and so Fatima is saying in chat.

Oh sad pride can be devastating and I'm glad she mentioned it because that shows you what it really comes down to it's pride and so this is

This is what we have to recognize about this is that if we're going to Look at this with pride

Then we have to reckon or look at the scripture pridefully we have to realize that pride is

Woefully deceptive it always tells us we're right and So if we're not willing to question our preconceived ideas those presuppositions we come to the scripture with then we're going to Have a problem because that ends up leading or could end up leading to being prideful

About our view of scripture and then it's not scripture that is informing us. It's ourselves that are informing us

Okay, and so that's why I'm emphasizing it and really want to take the time for us

To look at that now. I want to let the last one that we're going to talk about is the idea of scripture interpreting scripture

I If I Only have eight weeks.

I'm limited what we can talk about I wanted to come up with five of the most important that I think are most important.

Why do I bring up this one? I bring this one up because this is one that is most often abused

What people mean by interpreting scripture with scripture is not always what it should mean

So, let me first explain what it should mean and then show you how it's abused

When we interpret scripture with scripture what that should mean is that I come to a passage of scripture like I did with Philippians 129 or more importantly or more

Detailed we looked at John 1st John 2 2 What did we do? Well, I'm comparing these with other passages of scripture, right?

I'm comparing Ephesians 2 8 9 with Philippians 1 29

Now that is doing a comparison, but what am I gonna do in each of those? I'm gonna exegete or pull the meaning out of the text of each passage independently to first see if there is a connection between those two and if there is a

Connection then I'm applying scripture with scripture What a lot of people do is

So that's the right way you exegete all the passages that you're connecting together Make sure that they're right in the same context and if they're in the same context, then you can tie them together

But just because a word is used multiple times doesn't mean it's in the same context So we have words in the scripture and they can have different meanings based on context

And so what a lot of people do is a mistake is they will take something they would look for a word and they do a search for everywhere that word is in the

Bible and Then they say well this must mean something because it means it everywhere else and That is not the way to interpret right,

I already said we interpret each one of those passages individually by themselves and and then see now if a if a something means

That has the same word usage in every other passage

Does it mean that it must be the same way in the passage? I'm looking at maybe not now there are times where there are things within language within certain words that are

Restrictive and so word does have a specific meaning and you can't give it a wider meaning

Some words can have multiple meanings and so we can look maybe there's nowhere else where that word is used that way in the

Bible But it was used that way in Greek or Hebrew literature. So we know it does have broader meanings

There's a word pistos it can mean faithful or it can mean believing and So when we come in Titus chapter 1, there's people who who take

Titus 1 where it talks about the qualifications of a pastor and It says in verse 6 having children who believe not accused of dissipation or rebellion and What some will do is say that this means that children the pastor's children must be believers

Because it's translated often as believe but that word could mean faithful Which actually ties in better with the context

So, what do we do what people often do is say we'll see this word when it's used of human beings always means believer and When it's it when it's not of people it can mean faithful well,

I did a search and realized that actually there's times where it's used of of non -human beings is used as in a parable and Therefore it's not actually talking about a real believer or not.

So Yeah, there's times where it speaks of a humans and and the context could mean faithful or believer

So what people do is that are they argue for the case that? Pastors children must be saved.

They're bringing an idea in they're looking at the way this word is used They're saying this this has got to be restricted in this way to only refer to believers because we restrict it everywhere else and Yet that's a way that someone there that's a restriction that they're putting on to the word that the language doesn't put on and So they can come to a wrong conclusion when doing that And so what they do though is that what are they how they doing it?

They're looking at every other passage of Scripture because they're looking for the same word and saying well it has to be the same everywhere

That's not the right way to do it Let me give another example and and so we talked about on the first week that we dealt with hermeneutics when we talked about a context the first thing

I said is how people the wrong way to interpret and we talked about idea of isolation and proof texting isolation is we take a verse out of its context and We talked about proof texting where you you string passages along That are together that May or may not have the right context so what people will often do is grab some verses that look like they're speaking of the same thing because they have the same maybe

English word or maybe the same Greek word and They just string them all together and say we'll see this is what it means and so They then are saying that they are interpreting

Scripture with Scripture But as I said if you're you can't isolate the text

You can't do the proof texting in the wrong way. You have to exegete every one of those passages

Individually, and so that's how you properly do Use Scripture with Scripture an example that I use had a friend of mine who you always used to say

This is dealing with Revelation chapter 20 Revelation 20 verse 2 to 7 those six verses uses the word thousand years six times and so this is where we get the idea of a 1 ,000 year millennial kingdom and So what many will say or some will say is that that's figurative?

I had a friend who used to say that everywhere in the Bible where the word thousand is used it is used figuratively

Therefore this is used figuratively And I challenged my friend and I showed him many passages where thousand was literal

He recognized that and so he changed it and he said everywhere where a thousand years is used it's figurative and therefore

This must be figurative Okay, well how many times is the word thousand years used

I'm glad you asked It is only used four times Outside of the passage that we're looking at of Revelation 20

Okay using Psalm 90 verse 4 where it says for a thousand years in your sight it are like yesterday when it passed by For as a watch is in the night and so, okay, is that figurative it could be

I'll say could be get back to this Ecclesiastes 6 6 even if the other man lives a thousand years twice and Does not enjoy good things

Do not all go to one place Was he gonna live a literal thousand years

No, so is this figurative Could be I'll get back to that The other passage is in the

New Testament and it uses thousand year twice So it's for there's four uses of thousand years outside of Revelation chapter 20 and it is 2nd

Peter 3 8 which says Do not let this one fact escape your notice beloved that With the

Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day Is that a literal thousand years?

It could be now I see now It's not a literal thousand years that a day is like that.

The Lord is a Day in the Lord is like a literal thousand years right because God is outside of time and so it's what is what's the what is the context of first Peter that he's saying that God's long -suffering and so he's using it by comparing a literal day to a literal thousand years so The same could be said for Psalm 19 as some 90 verse 4 and Ecclesiastes 6 6

In each of those is the contrast of an illustration So is it being used as an illustration?

Yes But it's being used as an illustration with the expectation of an actual thousand years being compared

To an actual day or a short period of time So That's the idea that it's it is a thought a literal thousand years being compared.

So when we go scripture with scripture this way People will say we'll see these are figurative.

Therefore Revelation has to be figurative I would disagree with that and even if the others are you only have three passages

That's not a lot to go on to say that thousand years can never be literal Clearly in Greek literature

It can be literal. So this is a mistake that people will make when they say they're interpreting scripture with scripture

They're just saying well a thousand years is figurative here So it's got to be figurative there and yet when we look at Revelation 20

Not only is the is thousand years emphasized by repeating it in six verses in a row

But the other thing that you see in it is chronological language. This happens then that happens this then this then this and So that is something we see with connected to language.

That would be literal So I would believe in a literal thousand year period because that's what that text says so I Emphasized the wrong way to do it.

And the reason I wanted to emphasize is because so many people do it incorrectly The right way to do it is to look at every passage that you're going to join together

That you're gonna look at one passage scripture with another you're going to interpret do all the work of interpretation of them

Separately and then after you do that separate interpretation You're going to look to see whether they are still within the same context and if they are then compare them together

That is how we should compare scripture with scripture. Is that a lot of hard work?

Yes, it is But interpreting God's Word is hard work and it is the most important work that we could do with our lives

It's far more important than memorizing the stats of your favorite sports team just saying don't tell me you can't spend time

Understanding God's Word if you have all those stats memorized That that are useless in the grand scheme of things won't last for eternity.

In fact Most people won't even remember who who lost the last

Super Bowl. Maybe you know, I mean, it's people it's a short -term thing Now there's some people really like that trivia and like those stats and so they spent a lot of time really knowing it

Then you could spend the time getting something that is of eternal value and that is studying the scriptures

Okay. So as a recap as we look at hermeneutics, we talked about the importance of context historical context cultural context

Also the biblical context and the literary context what's before what's after we talked about differentiating the differences of descriptive and prescriptive passages of scripture we talked about the importance of taking the difficult passages and interpreting by the easier passages

Today we looked at the fact that we have to be willing to question our own presuppositions

To let the scriptures tell us what the meaning is rather than us.

Tell the scripture what the meaning is so that affects our pride it affects our Systematic theology our personal experiences all those things and then lastly we are going to interpret scripture scripture

There's no contradictions in the Bible. And therefore when we see something that's in a seems like a contradiction we have to look at these passages and we got to compare them one with another to see if there's actually a

Contradiction or if maybe we're just reading one of those two or three or four passages incorrectly that happens

Okay So this it is hard work to do hermeneutics, but it is profitable work.

It is so that you know what the Lord says What how he wants you to what you he wants you to know of himself and how to live

Important things and these will last for all eternity Okay, so next class we're going to spend three weeks looking at logic

Gonna try to identify Looking at what identifies valid and invalid arguments

We may take a look at some formal versus informal logic and then we're gonna look at some logical fallacies

Most people when they think of logic think of the logical fallacies We're gonna spend much of the time in understanding how logic works

What it is what makes things valid or not so that you can identify it without knowing having memorized all the different fallacies

That will be important to you. Why is this important again to do debate? Okay, we're going to do debate

Debate is going to at least Christian debate if we're gonna do apologetics, which part of that uses the skills of debate

Then we need to know how to rightly interpret God's Word and we need to be able to recognize when someone is in logical error

Because that's we're gonna know God is logical and so he's not gonna be he's never gonna make an argument.

That's illogical All right, so I will announce now that this week

I will be putting out the the midterm Midterm will be focused on the three previous classes that we looked at maybe it might have some on character and and purpose of Apologetics, but it's going to look specifically at or emphasize the the hermeneutics and so that will be an exam

Not a quiz So for those of you who missed taking the quiz, as I said, the quiz will be 15 % of your grade the two

Exams the midterm in the final which okay. The midterm is a little bit past the midterm since this is week five out of eight, but the midterm and final will be 25 % of your grade and Then the debate will be 35 %

All right, and so we will be setting up those debates and so That would be something that I hope that you'll engage in even if it's like some people may want to do a debate live

Hey great, and and then we can get audience to take a look at that You know help with with looking at things we can learn from all of us can learn and so what we'll do is

We will have some of those debates some people may just want to have me and the two people debating fine

The goal is not to win the debate. The goal is to learn to improve and So you don't have to worry.

It's more about how we debate Rather than whether you convince someone that you're right

Okay, that's what we're looking for in that. So don't let that scare you It will be good for you

So this is this wrap up this class in Passing the torch if you're not familiar with passing the torch if you're new you just came in passing the torch

It's on you could find it just search for passing a torch on in Facebook, but it is a ministry where we are getting

Older, unfortunately, that makes it that's me the older apologists to train up some younger apologists

So that you younger guys do not make the mistakes that us older guys have made and that's why we're doing these classes and Doing the training in such a way to give this training and give instruction and discipleship and Yes, even get credit for it.

So Next week. I will see you again To start our subject in logic.

I hope you've enjoyed this and if you have enjoyed it, maybe you should share it around This is

I know I've created this on YouTube in striving for eternity It is a playlist so you can just look for the playlist on apologetics and debate

Start at the very first lesson and work your way through it and you could share that playlist advantage of sharing the playlist is

Well next week's class will end up on that playlist next week. So you'll have the all eight classes when we're done

I hope this is helpful. See you next time And I realized I left up there my the logo for apologetics live which

I probably should have taken down since this was passing the torch, but If you do want to join apologetics live

Thursday nights 8 to 10 Eastern Time You can join us ask any question and that is a place where I know there's been

Some of the questions that are popping up in here that don't necessarily have to do with the class

And those are should be are better being asked on apologetics live Because that's what we use that for So if you have some of the questions that you've been asked in here and you're like, hey, you didn't get to it

The reason is I'm looking for questions that were directly to what we are teaching Not something that's how would

I interpret passages that don't have anything to do with what we're discussing?

All right, so With that I will see you next week. I hope that this class was helpful for you.