How to Understand Scripture

HOW TO UNDERSTAND SCRIPTURE

 

Our Creator God knew we humans would need a standard by which to govern our lives, so He chose certain men to record His Word in print. This written Word of God we call "The Holy Bible", and it is now available in many languages and various translations. The original word was given to these men over a period of many years, and recorded in basically two languages Hebrew and Greek. Because we are mostly dependent on our English translations, we need certain guidelines to follow, to make sure we are getting the exact meaning of what these original writers intended us to know. They were inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim 3:16), the same Holy Spirit who indwells us followers of Jesus today, so we should be sure to seek His guidance for the correct understanding of what we read from His Word.

 

A fairly simple way of understanding scripture came to me from a little booklet called "Understanding Scripture at Face Value". The authors Robert Van Kampen, and Charles Cooper explain face value as "the normal, natural, customary sense of the text intended by the Author/author at the time it was written. This booklet has helped me to understand how the church has been led to believe certain doctrines that are not really based on God's Word. The 5 principles given in this booklet are as follows.

 

1/ Seek to discover the Author/author's intended meaning. Each and every passage of scripture has only one meaning, although it may have more than one possible application. This meaning was determined by the author at the time of writing, never by the reader!

2/ Recognize the importance of context. Only when we know and understand the context in which a text is written, will we know how the writer intended the passage to be understood.

3/ When ever possible, let scripture interpret scripture. Always interpret difficult passages in the light of clear passages.

4/ Determine the literal reference of figures of speech. A figure of speech is "any deviation either in thought or expression, from the ordinary and simple way of speaking.

5/ Look for near/far implications and applications in prophetic passages. In other words the same scripture may apply to more than one certain time. For example in

(2 Sam 7:5-16) the prophet Nathan's message to King David applied to his son Solomon, as well as to Jesus,  who is referred to as the heir of David's throne forever!

 

If these 5 principles are followed faithfully when studying scripture, be prepared for finding out that many doctrines you have been taught as truth, are really not! In other words, some people have presented their own theories as if they were truth based on God's Word, when if fact they were trying to make the scriptures confirm their theory by putting their own meaning on them. We must never be guilty of doing that! Someone has referred to this as "Experiential Theology", or in other words taking some experience and attempting to find scriptures to support their experience, instead of checking to make sure their experience lines up with scripture! God's Word properly interpreted and understood is "Absolute Truth"!!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer