SCRIPTURE ISN’T A MYSTICAL CROSSWORD PUZZLE (PART III)

“Dos & Don’ts of Interpreting Scripture”

By Akin Ojumu

“No Place for Truth: Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?” was published more than 30 years ago. In the book, Dr David F. Well articulates my grievance with and concern about Christianity as practiced in contemporary times. 

With extraordinary eloquence and in such profound terms, he laid bare the sickness that has afflicted the Christian Church. It’s a disease of theological illiteracy, an emancipation of the Church from the theological core of historical Protestantism. The book laments the abandonment of truth by contemporary Church, and the author bemoans the widespread embrace of myth and esoteric speculations by modern-day Christians.

On theology, Dr David F. Well writes:

“Theology is not simply a philosophical reflection about the nature of things, but it is rather the cogent articulation of the knowledge of God. Its substance is not drawn from mere reflection, no matter how brilliant, but from the biblical Word by which it is nurtured and disciplined. And its purpose is not primarily to participate in the conversation of the learned but to nurture the people of God. That is its nature and that is its purpose.”

Scandalized and troubled by the dismissive attitude of modern-day preachers towards theology, Well writes:

“Many of those whose task it is to broker the truth of God to the people of God in the churches have now redefined the pastoral task such that theology has become an embarrassing encumbrance or a matter of which they have little knowledge; and many in the Church have now turned in upon themselves and substituted for the knowledge of God to a search for the knowledge of self.” 

Describing the extent of the spread of the disease of theological illiteracy in the Church, David Wells expresses his shock and disbelief:

“In the intervening years, I have watched with growing disbelief as the evangelical Church has cheerfully plunged into astounding theological illiteracy. Many taking the plunge seem to imagine that they are simply following a path to success, but the effects of this great change in the evangelical soul are evident in every incoming class in the seminaries, in most publications, in the great majority of churches, and in most of their pastors. It is a change so large and so encompassing that those who dissent from what is happening are easily dismissed as individuals who cannot get along, who want to scruple over what is inconsequential, who are not loyal, and who are, in any case, quite irrelevant.”

That there is a growing anti-theology bent in evangelicalism is no longer news. The contemporary Church has taken a crooked anti-doctrine bent. Church folks see doctrine as divisive. As far as they are concerned, those who insist on theology have misplaced their priority by focusing on the letter of the Law and not the spirit of the Law. What comes with this type of mindset is a growing anti-intellectualism.

Wittingly or unwittingly, the rapidly metastatic cancerous cells of anti-intellectuals in the Church have marginalized Christians and made believers in Christ the butt of all sorts of jokes. The world has no respect for anti-intellectualism. They have no regard for whimsical superficial shallow people who call themselves Christians and have absolutely no interest in rigorous mental rational work to understand the Scripture and to be able to defend it effectively. The Church gains no ground in the world by parading indifference toward the truth. 

This has been coming for a long time, by the way. You can go way back to the American Puritan era when colleges in the Ivy League were all founded as seminaries to train pastors and they decided they didn’t want to be faithful to the truth and began to jettison the truth for the sake of broader tolerances.

And the trend has continued even today, especially through the mystical Charismatic/New Apostolic Reformation Movement and the now seeker-friendly emotional kind of intuitive personal interpretations of spirituality. Church folks today form their spiritual lives apart from an understanding of the Word of God in the mind. Experience, rather than sound knowledge of Scripture, is what drives their conduct.

Careful cultivation of the mind is to be high on the list of priorities for Christians. This is not intellectualism, this is not academic pride, this is letting God’s Word fill every nook and cranny of your mind by diligently studying it.

Colossians 3:16

“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

To understand Scripture, you rationally interpret it the way you would interpret a letter or any other book or historical document. The language is to be understood as it would have been understood in the day it was said or written. 

The language of the Bible is a language of real people. It’s not a mystical language, not a secret language, not a hidden language. It is a common language, of real people...not fake people, not allegorical people, not poetically created people, real people.

Just as the language of the Bible is a normal language of real people, so also the history of the Bible the history real events that happened. There are no secret meanings, no allegories, no transcendental insights, no divine voices, no mystical interpretations.

Interpreting Scripture – known formally as hermeneutics – is the science and art of understanding, translating, and explaining the original meaning of sacred texts. Rather than reading personal biases into a verse, objective interpretation relies on established guidelines to uncover what the author originally intended to communicate to their historical audience.

Hermeneutics

The overarching study of the principles and rules used to interpret text.

Exegesis

Actively drawing the inherent meaning out of a text based on its context.

Eisegesis

Imposing your own preconceived ideas into the text, which leads to distortion.

Narcigesis

When we twist Bible stories and make them all about ourselves, it’s called NARCIGESIS. This is a word coined from NARCISSISM (i.e., self-absorption and an overinflated sense of self-importance) and EISEGESIS (i.e., to read one's opinion into a Bible passage). 

Narcigesis, i.e., Narcissistic Eisegesis, therefore, is when we read ourselves into a Bible passage and make ourselves the hero of the Bible story.

To build a reliable framework for studying Scripture, scholars generally rely on the grammatical-historical method and several foundational laws of logic. These include:

Historical Context

Every text was written at a specific moment in history to a specific group of people. Investigate the cultural conditions, geographical settings, and local customs of the era to grasp why the passage was written.

Literary Context

A verse never stands alone. You must read it in light of the surrounding paragraphs, the book it belongs to, and the genre of the literature (such as poetry, historical narrative, law, or prophecy).

Grammatical Structure

Words have specific meanings based on the original languages (such as ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek). Pay close attention to standard grammar, verb tenses, and sentence structure.

Scripture Interprets Scripture

The overall message of a sacred text must remain consistent with itself. When you encounter an ambiguous or difficult passage, use clear, straightforward verses from elsewhere in the text to clarify its meaning.

In addition, there are common pitfalls one must avoid when interpreting Scriptures. These include:

Proof-Texting

Pulling a single sentence out of its context to validate a personal opinion or doctrine. 

And the great example that has been used over the decades of people taking passages out of context is that person who pulls out his old analog Bible, you know, the one with pages in it, and he closes his eyes and says, “Lord, I need you to talk to me.” And he flips it open with his eyes closed and puts his finger down and the text that he puts his finger down on is Matthew 27:5 which says, “Judas went and hung himself.” And the guy says okay. Well, Lord, what are you trying to say? And so, he closes the Bible again, closes his eyes, flips it open to a random page, puts his finger down, and now the text is Luke 10:37 which says, “Go thou and do likewise.” 

That’s exactly what proof-texting looks like. Those who do so sound foolish.

Historical Anachronism

Forcing modern scientific, political, or social assumptions onto ancient writers who lived under completely different cultural frameworks.

Over-Allegorizing

Searching for hidden, mystical codes or secret meanings behind basic historical accounts rather than accepting the plain, intended message.

Right theology leads to upright doxology. A right thinking about God produces a right worship of God. It’s impossible to have a false theology and worship God the way He ought to be worshiped. You cannot have a warped thinking about God and expect to worship Him the right way.

1 Timothy 4:16

“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

In the above text, Paul connects conduct with doctrine. Paul is telling Timothy that theology and character are like two peas in a pod; the two are inseparable. Life imitates theology. What you believe is what you are and what you are is what you believe. 

The ship of our lives is piloted by our beliefs and convictions. People live within the framework of their convictions. A sound cognition of Scriptures produces a healthy conviction. A healthy conviction yields a wholesome affection. Without an accurate interpretation and sound understanding of the Bible, i.e., sound theology, faith in God shrivels and love for God grows cold.

This is my prayers for all the lost people out there who are wallowing in the muck of heretic teachings. May God do for you, what He did for me. I pray that God, in His infinite mercies, breaks the chain of ignorance holding you trapped in the prison of the doctrines of demons pouring out of the mouth of your Daddy GOs and other false teachers you follow. Father God in Heaven, I beseech thee to set them free, especially my family and friends. 

Amen!

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Reference & Attribution: This commentary is adapted from Pastor John MacArthur’s teaching titled, “The Authoritative Nature of Truth.” We also used content from David F. Well’s “No Place for Truth: Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?”