Bible Interpretation Basics

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Radio Updates, Travel, and a Gospel Conversation

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, my name is Mike Abendroth. Always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. That's what we're looking for here on this radio station. It used to be on here locally, and we're not on anymore.

Maybe someday we'll be back on. There's been kind of a little uprising. People wanting us to be back on, I'm glad for that. Still no checks. Although I am drinking a Keurig coffee, and it is with a little stevia and some half-and-half.

I don't have some fat-free half-and-half here. It's a Starbucks. I don't have any Pete's Keurig yet, although I got a sample in the mail. And I'm drinking it out of my Harvest House cup. It's fun to be in the Harvest House team for Harvest House authors.

Things that go bump in the church with Byron Yawn and Clint Archer should be out in a few months. I'm excited about that. It's going to be a mega-seller. It's going to be in CVSs and stuff. Scary doctrines for new Christians and maturing Christians, chapters on elder rule, church membership, unconditional election, hell, sin.

Did I say church discipline? I think I did. We're big on church discipline, see. Anyway, glad to be here. You can write me at info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. I read every email that comes in. Sometimes I send out some of the emails for responses, but sometimes I'll just write back and say something like, thanks for listening, appreciate it.

Who knows where this thing ends up going, these radio shows. So today I want to talk a little bit about hermeneutics, hermeneutics. And before I get into hermeneutics, because it's kind of a K-love, positive, encouraging day.

We're not going to be whacking people today. Maybe I have some kind of disorder. Maybe it's a narcissistic personality whacking disorder, NPWD. That sounds like the New England Police Department for the waterworks or something.

Anyway, I flew down to Orlando with my wife last week and we had a great time with Pastor Mark and Karen and the men and women there at Cornerstone Baptist Church. Man, talk about a group of people who have been loved by the Lord and love the Lord in return and love one another.

Uber encouraging. And we flew back late Saturday night from Orlando. And it's always funny when you fly to Orlando because from New England to Orlando, to New Orlando, New Orleans, the way down, everybody's happy.

All the kids are super excited. They get to go to Disney World and Universal and Kennedy Space Center and all these places, the beach. And then on the way back, it's absolute chaos. Everybody's tired.

The kids are fussy. I saw this one kid, he was probably 11. He's trying to hit his mom, bite his mom, tear her necklace off, screaming, yelling. And I thought, of course you're a brat. But I also thought, what a shame to the mother to let a child just be that way.

A child just doesn't turn into that one day. I thought that's the kind of kid that's going to kill his mom one day. Unbelievable. I couldn't do anything, but I wanted to. I wanted to step in for about three days and we would teach that child some major manners.

Anyway, it reminds me of the days flying from Burbank to Las Vegas when I was in sails and about every two weeks I'd have to fly to Vegas. And everybody's all happy on the way to Vegas, let's party, let's do all these fun things.

And then when people fly home from Vegas, they're broke, drunk, or have a hangover, or all three. So we were flying back from Orlando. It's a pretty easy flight. And we arrive. My wife is staying with the little luggage there and I'll go get the car because it's kind of cold.

Compared to Orlando, it's very cold. And so I hop into the lot E tram bus. And there's a guy in there and I thought, this is... I said, hi, how are you? He said, hello. He said, you want me to take you right now?

There's nobody else around. I said, that'd be great. And I heard Caleb, positive, encouraging Caleb. And I said, you listen to Caleb? Yeah. And he... And I start up a conversation. I said, are you Christian?

Yes. Now, he didn't say this, but I wish he would have for the sake of a story. I'm a Christian because I listen to Caleb. But it was kind of like that. Oh, I listen eight hours a day. I listen to Caleb.

I thought to myself, well, then your theology is about a mile wide and an inch deep, but you know what? You can still be a Christian. And maybe there's no other stations down here. And it's probably better than Metallica Megadeth.

So anyway, I said, well, what church do you go to? And it was the Church of God in Christ in San Juan Bautista or something. I don't know. And I said, I'm glad you go to church. And then I thought, well, how do we end up preaching the gospel?

I don't know. If he's a Christian, he'd sure like to hear the gospel again, wouldn't he? But if he's not a Christian, he needs to hear the gospel. So I said, I just got back from Orlando at a Bible conference there, and I had the privilege to tell people, remember when John the Baptist sees Jesus and he says, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Why would Jesus be called a lamb by John the Baptist? Well, because if you think of the Old Testament and the sacrifice of the lamb in place of the people or in place of the nation, wages of sin is death, and there has to be bloodshed or there's no remission of sins, and Jesus is the substitute, and he was raised from the dead, and all those that look to him in faith have eternal life and through repentance.

So I was just talking like that, and he's like, yeah, that's right. So I gave him a little bag of M &M seeds, trail mix kind of stuff, a bunch of hazelnuts that I couldn't eat, no, just kidding, and said goodbye.

Why Hermeneutics Matters for Every Christian

So what does that have to do with anything? This is a positive Caleb, Caleb, Caleb. What's the Caleb? All right, I want to talk a little bit about hermeneutics, and we here at Bethlehem Bible Church, about every four years at our Institute for Biblical Studies, New England Institute for Biblical Studies, NEIBS, we teach hermeneutics.

I should say I teach it, but there's lots of other classes that are offered here. If you go to bbcchurch .org and go to the Bible Institute, you're going to find tons of classes. I mean, I think the funniest one is people in Africa, they call themselves Bethlehem Bible Church, and you want to see the pastor's education.

He has a, he's a graduate from the New England Institute for Biblical Studies, and I've never met the guy. I don't know who he is. They've stolen our Facebook name, Bethlehem Bible Church. So anyway, it's funny how people do that.

It's some probably hyper-Pentecostal deal. But anyway, so I was reading the Zuck book, Roy Zuck, he has died probably within the last four or five months, six months, he's a Dallas seminary professor, and although he would be non-lordship while he was alive, of course I think he's lordship now, he wrote an excellent book on biblical interpretation, Roy Zuck, Z-U-C-K, Z-U-C-K.

And I'm having the students read that. Now, the Terry book is maybe the best book on hermeneutics, Bernard Ramm, I had to read Ramm, Protestant Interpretation, when I was in seminary. If you're of the charismatic persuasion, you might want to read Fee, Stuart and Fee, Reading the Bible for All Its Worth.

You could read, if you're a layperson, and you wanted to just read something in a discipleship setting, you could read Howard Hendrick's book on living by the book, it's an excellent book. I didn't think it'd be that good, but it is an excellent book.

You could read Verkler about interpretation. There's lots of good books on biblical interpretation. There's some not-so-good books, but you could read Mayhew's How to Study the Bible, you could read R .C. Sproul's book about how to study the Bible, there's lots of them.

But I like Zuck's, it's got a couple minor things that I don't like, but overall, you would like this book. And so I just want to talk generally today about hermeneutics and what we're after when we're studying the Bible.

And since it was on my mind, and I just taught the two-hour class last night, I want to just a little bit, for a little bit, exhort every listener to study hermeneutics. And so I'll ask you the question, when was the last time you read a book on hermeneutics?

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Anyway, you should read a book on hermeneutics. Get one, and once a year, read a book on hermeneutics. If you want to write me for a list of what you should read in order, but let's just put at the top of the list, Roy Zuck and his book on biblical interpretation, and you should read that.

And here's why I think you should read books on hermeneutics, because you have a system of hermeneutics. The science and art of biblical interpretation, you do hermeneutics all the time. And I hope you read your Bible every day.

Just set up a system where you get up in the morning, you go make your French-breast pizza coffee, and you sit down with your Bible and you read it. Start off with the Gospels before you read Proverbs 18 on November 18th.

Read some of the Gospels to remember who Jesus is and watch how amazing He is and amazingly what He has said. Anyway, and then while you're reading, you should be asking yourself the question. I have a system of hermeneutics.

I'm reading the Bible and interpreting this a certain way. Now, when you think of the different culture, the different historicities involved, the different languages, the different settings, the different geography, the different topography, the different figures of speech that are there, you need to have some system of interpretation, or you're not going to be able to figure out the Bible.

Are there things that you can figure out without taking a hermeneutics class? I'm not saying you can't be saved without hermeneutics. I'm just saying if you take a hermeneutics class and read books about hermeneutics, you are going to be better equipped to understand what God has said.

And to use the MacArthur line, the meaning of the Bible is the Bible. The meaning of the Scripture is the Scripture, in other words. If you have a wrong meaning of the Scripture, you have something that's not authorial with the intention of the author, that's not Scripture.

In other words, a wrong interpretation of Scripture isn't Scripture. So if you're reading something and you're reading the Evelyn Woodhead speed reading course because you want to get through the Bible in one year all the time and you just have to keep reading over and over and over but you don't understand what you say or hear, that doesn't do you any good at all.

Psalm 1 and the Need to Read Poetry as Poetry

I could prove to you that you need hermeneutics in lots of different ways. Let me just give you one example. Psalm 1. Don't we love Psalm 1, how the Psalms kicked off in such a wonderful manner with a contrast of the righteous and the wicked?

It's one of those Psalms where it's just awesome how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers but his delight is in the law or Torah of Yahweh.

And in his law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and in whatever he does he prospers.

The wicked are not so but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor the sinners in the seat or the assembly of the righteous for Yahweh knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish.

Now if you have no hermeneutical background, no training, no learning as they used to say in Broadway, you go to this passage and you say how blessed. This is the man that's blessed. You know you see the camera.

It's above the stadium filled with 80 ,000 people and it zooms in on one particular person. Wide angle shot zooming down into one particular person. This one particular person. How blessed is this man?

Why is this man blessed? And this blessed man, he doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers. I'm sure I've taught it this way but if you don't have any idea about Hebrew poetry then here's how you teach it.

Listen my friends, if you'd like to be blessed, you just need to avoid wicked sinful people. Here we have the slippery slide. First you walk in the counsel of the wicked. Then you kind of stand. You stop in their path and then before you know it you're sitting.

Walk stand sit. See the digression? Walking standing sitting. So give sinful scoffers, give wicked people a wide berth. Avoid them. Wicked people need to be avoided. The blessed man, he runs from these people.

He delights himself in the law but he runs from these people and he doesn't cozy up to them and he doesn't become comfortable with them and snuggling up to the world and just relaxing because before you know it you're going to be like Lot.

Now everything I just said in terms of an application, it's true. It's absolutely true. This reminds me of that book, How to Get Right Doctrines from Wrong Verses. I wish I remember the name of it. What is the name of that book?

Van der Heusen or something. I can't remember. Where's Waddington when I need him? Jean. So what about Psalm 1? What about hermeneutics? The reason why you need hermeneutics is because then you'll be exposed to things like, oh, here's Hebrew poetry.

Here's Hebrew narrative. Here's polemic. Here's apocalyptic literature. Does Jesus really have a sword coming out of his mouth in Revelation chapter 19? What's going on? So Psalm 1, when you take a hermeneutics class and you learn about Hebrew language, how do you emphasize something?

Well, you could say holy, holy, holy. Say one thing three times. Remember Isaiah 6? Seraphim, the burning, bright, hot-looking angels, gloriously saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. The whole earth is a launching pad for his glory.

Mike Evendross translation. I remember in Czech Republic it is svate, svate, svate, or something close. Holy, holy, holy. And then in Poland it was svate, svate, svate, or something, you know, it's like super close to that.

Holy, holy, holy. Greek would be hagias, hagias, hagias. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. That's a good way to emphasize something. Well, you could also say Proverbs 6, six things the Lord hates, yes, even seven.

There are seven things that the Lord hates, but the one that he hates the most is the seventh. That's a way to do it with language, Hebrew poetry. And so here it's no different. There's no progression, there's no digression, there's no first you walk, then you stand, then you sit.

You're saying the same thing three different ways. It is poetry. It's a song. The Psalms are songs. Did you know that? Of course you knew that. How blessed is the man that completely avoids these kind of people.

That's the point. It's not first you walk, then you stand, then you sit, although that's true, could happen. That's not what the Psalm is saying. So you need to study hermeneutics. You need to study hermeneutics so that when you come to the text, you don't try to read into the text.

You try to distance yourself from the text. What would this text mean to you? Wrong question. What would this text mean if you were dead? Right question. If you're out of the picture, where you're trying to determine what Paul is saying when he says, preach the word, that's what I'm after.

What did Paul mean when he said, preach the word? Why did he say this? What did he say before? What did he say afterwards? I'm not trying to read into the text. You're going to soon figure out that one of the key ways to read the Bible is authorial intent.

Strive for authorial intent. And if you want me to say simply for hermeneutics, then you should follow rules like this. These are my top three hermeneutical rules. I think they're top three. No particular order, but top three.

Ascending. Descending. Context. Keep reading. Description or prescription. So, what's the context? Why did Paul write 1 Timothy? Oh, it tells me in chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, how to conduct ourselves in the house of God, the church, pillar of truth, etc.

So, now I can figure out men's roles and women's roles. That's context. I can go back to earlier things that are said in the chapter previous, the chapter afterwards, the immediate context, close context, context of the book, context of all the Johannine writings, context of the Bible, context, context, context, location, location, location.

Which spills into the second one that's related, keep reading. Right? Lots of times you need to just keep reading because the answer to your question will be found in the verses to follow, because you'll figure out some of the details.

Lots of times when people say, Pastor, what does this verse mean? I open up my Bible, I look at it, I go to the prior paragraphs, the starting paragraph, start, read through, the whole section, the whole pericope, and then periscope, and then I then can give them an answer.

And then the third thing is description or prescription. So, does the Bible describe something or does it prescribe something? That gets into genres now, where narratives usually describe something. Right?

Remember, Philip was preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8, and God snatched him up and dropped him off ten miles over at Azotthos. He hit the ground, he kept preaching. Now, is that prescription?

Is that to be prescribed? Right? Is that for something you to do? You're to pray for the Holy Spirit who doesn't change, and who is still the third person of the Trinity, powerful, working in the church.

You're to pray that He snatches you up when you're done preaching in Worcester and drops you off in Fitchburg, and you just keep on preaching. Well, no, because it's described, it's not prescribed. So, a lot of the narratives, if you think New Testament for a moment, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, we're not to get our doctrine, excuse me, we're not to get our duty from these books.

There's all kinds of doctrine we can get from those books, certainly. Acts 5, Holy Spirit is God. Matthew 18, church discipline. I'm not trying to say we can't get doctrine, I just misspoke. But what are we supposed to do?

Disciples go door-to-door with twos, we got to go with two? Well, if you want to go with two, it's a good idea, because you got somebody else to back you up, somebody else to encourage you, someone else to train.

I mean, there's lots of things that you can do. There are principles underneath some of the descriptions that are good for application. But what about prescriptions? What about pray without ceasing? Well, that's a prescription, because when you look in the New Testament, Romans through Jude are epistles written to churches, and there are descriptions in those as well.

But there are also exhortations, and there are imperatives, there are commands for you to do. And so when it comes to hermeneutics, you need to get yourself a hermeneutics book, and then you'll grapple with things like, hmm, God is a God of sense, God is a God who has revealed Himself in nature to be very sensible, very logical, very rational, very, oh yeah, okay, I understand this.

If blood's a little thicker, it can't go through the heart. If it's a little thinner, you cut and you bleed. Look at how perfectly and precise God has set up His creation, that is, nature. And so God has wanted to communicate to us something more than He's wise, He's powerful, and He has invisible attributes, that is nature.

He specifically wants to talk to us through the Word, and so it must be sensible. God is a God of sense, and therefore what He's trying to tell us in Scripture will make sense. Now, it doesn't mean things are all as easy as we'd like them to be.

Some things are difficult, that Paul writes, Peter says in 2 Peter 3, I'm guessing 18, 16, 17, 18. But we can understand it, because God is writing a book to people that He knows are fallen and finite, and He wants us to understand.

Yes, He wants us to study to show ourselves approved. That's written for elders, but of course it's good for everyone, because we want to be workmen who rightly divide the truth. But we can't understand.

Now, we can't get behind a person to understand them. We only have their writings, but we can't understand their writings. They're written in such a way that they're meant to make sense. And so we know that these writers themselves weren't inspired, that is to say, everything they wrote wasn't inspired, everything they did wasn't inspired.

But when God had them write Scripture, they were inspired when they wrote those letters. 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, written by Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit. But the other two letters he wrote to Corinth weren't inspired.

Paul wasn't inspired when he said, you whitewash wall. Now, it's in inspired Scripture as, you know, it's recorded there, but that was a mistake that Paul made, and so there he wasn't inspired, because you can't have inspiration and mistake go together.

When you study hermeneutics, you're going to quickly find out the right view of the Bible is Jesus's view of the Old Testament. Have you never read Matthew 19? Have you never read Matthew 21? Have you never read Matthew 22?

Haven't you ever read these things as they are in Scripture? What an interesting way that Jesus talks. You should have read this, and he says that a lot of times to the religious leaders. You should have read this.

Haven't you ever read this? Jesus's view of the Old Testament should be our view of the entire Bible. Jesus could have come along and corrected Jonah's story, and Nineveh, and they were allegorical and everything else, but he didn't.

Hermeneutics Rules: Context, Keep Reading, and Description or Prescription

So, my name is Mike Apendroth. This is No Compromise Radio, and what we do here is we try to talk about biblical issues and try to spur you on for action. Credenda, agenda. Creed, conduct. Doctrine, duty.

So, what we're after today is, would you go buy yourself a hermeneutics book? If you want to buy R .C. Sproul, fine. Mayhew, fine. Bruckler, fine. But I recommend that you go buy Roy Zook, and you say, well, I'm not dispensational.

You'll still like it, and you'll still get a lot out of it anyway. Mike Apendroth, No Compromise Radio. Info at No Compromise Radio. NoCo90 .com if you'd like to go there for some YouTubes. Give me some ideas for the YouTube NoCo90s, because I'm running out.

Ideas. Ideas. Mike Apendroth. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Apendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WV &E, its staff or management.