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Christian Clarity
Article
The Christian 'Hermeneutic'
Psa 12:2-4 They speak falsehood every one with his neighbour:
In short, there isn't a Christian hermeneutic as in truth there is no such thing as a hermeneutic. The term itself is a lie and pretense in the speech of sin within the lie of free will. Further, it is a seduction that in this supposed 'free will' men need to find patterns in the Holy Scriptures with which to be informed as what 'model of behavior' they should do in self-will: expressly to tell them 'how' to please God without being born again in Jesus Christ. It is a direct effort by Sin/Belial/Satan/anti-Christ to translate the living Word of God into its own powerless speech under the rubric of the absolute heresy of 'higher criticism'.
This is pretty hot topic today and all kinds of schemes and methods have been presented almost on a monthly basis to try and tell everyone how to read. We all learned that in grammar school. Nevertheless, we are constantly assailed with assurances that we really need 'a method of interpretation' so that we don't take biblical sentences 'out of context'. It is ploy to make it seem that there is something in God's Word not evident on the page in front of us such we could never really have any certanty at all concerning God as Truth and Word. In other words, we're told that we know how to read, but , well, we don't know how to read. Further, the word itself is built on the lie that God's Word can create nothing and is nothing more than 'holy information'.
Do not be deceived by these word/'hermeneutic' games.
2 Timothy 2:16,17 But profane, vain babblings shun, for they will advance to greater impiety, and their word will spread as a gangrene; of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
To read the bible and pray for understanding is not, in fact, a hermeneutic. The lie behind the common use of the word 'hermeneutic' is to make it seem that everyone has one, it's simply a matter of which one is right for you. Simple faith is attacked as 'a method' in a direct effort to justify sin in disguise of self-willed twisting of the simplicity of God's word in the hope of gaining genuine sympathy and to make it seem that the non-creating speech of sin as the native language of fallen men is the equivalent and indeed, superior of the Word of God, to make it seem God is not His Word and to make it seem there is only one speech in total reality. If you genuinely sympathize with anyone you are in agreement as to the truth of their circumstance. This is a tactic of warfare meant to undermine your own faith in the guise of helping someone who has less faith than you. Supposedly you must 'use' a hermeneutic in order to arrive at a proper explanation of God's Word such that a non-regenerate person can understadn God without being born again. Yet God directly says natural/non-regenerate persons can know nothing of the things of God:
1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him; and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned;
It is then clear that the ploy/lie of 'hermeneutics' is nothing more than Satan attempting to to deceive that he can in non-creating speech grasp the Truth of God as if he were equal with God. These are a few of the main questions those through whom Satan is always insisting we need a 'sound' method of interpretation (they simply imply that all reading is a 'method' by the very statements.) ask to justify his assertions. The answers are obvious but are stated them for clarity.
1.
Q: Are there any sound methods of interpretation?
Answer:
John 6:63 It is the Spirit which quickens, the flesh profits nothing: the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.
Matthew 11:15 He that has ears to hear, let him hear.
2.
Q: Are the methods of interpretation different for different subjects? In other words, should there be one method for the bible, one for interpretation of history, a separate one for fictional literature or poetry, etc...
Answer:
Isaiah 29:10-14 For Jehovah hath poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets and your chiefs, the seers, hath he covered. And the whole vision is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which they give to one that can read, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed. And they give the book to him that cannot read, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot read. And the Lord saith, Forasmuch as this people draw near with their mouth, and honour me with their lips, but their heart is removed far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught of men; therefore, behold, I will proceed to do marvellously with this people, to do marvellously, even with wonder, and the wisdom of their wise [men] shall perish, and the understanding of their intelligent ones shall be hid.
3.
Q: Is it possible to construct or uncover an absolute, authoritative interpretation, one so comprehensive it makes any further attempt to interpret unnecessary?
Answer:
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Reading is already well-known. If the bible--the real 'text' in question-- is read and re-read and re-read, in fact, re-read all of ones life and each time something deeper is understood these false teachers should note, when God gives them the grace to do so, that the 'text' has not changed, but the maturity and understanding of the reader has grown by the power of the Word of God which they are at present, absolutely denying. The Word of God is in fact, very much alive as much as any animated, growing thing and in fact the real, literal new birth in Jesus Christ and growth in Him takes place in us. If we were to live for eternity and re-read the bible everyday, we would learn something new from it each time and what we learned would be completely consistent with what had we formerly learned from it. Plain reading and prayer will not have changed in the least.
The lie that there should exist a method of interpretation that delivers all the spiritual food contained in the scriptures in one reading or that it is possible to read in such a way as to once-for-all make it impossible to make mistakes in understanding is a fallacy as long as sin speaks and exists. God did not give the elect His word so that all their fallen emotions should be satisfied as if they had not been born again or as if it were not necessary to be born again in Christ to hear the Word of God.
The surface argument for searching for such a method is that there exist such things as liars, fools, mistakes, true retardation, scheming and confusion and a fool-proof method must be found to counter-act the effects of these possibilities. But they conveniently forget the same group ( of which all natural men are a part) is constructing the so-called method. In other words, they are trying to protect themselves from themselves. But in order to accomplish this, they use their own imperfect mind and the 'method' is nothing more than a mental device produced out of fear--of themselves and the sin in them. Thus sin denies continually that it exists and those over whom it rules are lifted up in pride over vanity.
The search for a 'hermeneutic' is then sin. In order to produce it, sin through you would have to use your own mind but your own mind is the source of the imperfect understanding from which you seek to escape by the use of the hermeneutic. To participate in a group who seeks to do this is no improvement because all men suffer from the same imperfection: having been overcome by sin.
But in this on-going 'battle for the Bible' we have to remember that these same persons who so desperately strive after a method of interpretation say that they are born-again Christians. According to the Bible --the text they like to have the appearance of seeking so desperately to understand--belief, faith, understanding, truth and even utterance and writing itself is a direct gift of God. Everything is a gift of God. How is it that they have not received the same gift as all Christians? If they had received it, then very obviously they would not still be searching for a way to overcome doubt. Only God can speak His Word which births their brother or sister and His Speech is no 'Method' butr Himself.
If a method could be found to understand the bible other than reading it and praying for understanding what need have they for God? They straight-forwardly attempt to free themselves from the necessity of complete dependence on God through the Holy Spirit and think to pillage the truths and treasures of Christ--without Christ, under the guise of seeking a deeper understanding than God very plainly gives on the pages of the Holy Scriptures.
Thieves only break in for one purpose--to steal. Then once having understood the smallest thing they at once become proud, thinking to have figured something out on their own.(!) But these thieves are so backward they freely admit they have known nothing of value from what they have read and msut first 'figure out' what is valuabe in order to steal it.(!) In the end, if they ever truly think they have found such a method--and they inevitably must at some point say they have or they begin to look foolish, they will be so completely apostate as to deny the Lord Jesus Christ Himself--the Word of God, by building a false word, the anti-word of God--the anti-Christ. They will say, "We have a method that does not require a God even to exist in order for us to understand these deep things--therefore He never existed but was merely a stone in the stone soup of the search, a mental device we imagined for ourselves to unravel the truths men knew ages ago."
It is against this very group that the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul says:
"..learn in us not to think beyond what is written." And "What do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" I Corinthians 4:6,7
2 Timothy 2:16,17 But profane, vain babblings shun, for they will advance to greater impiety, and their word will spread as a gangrene;
The Christian, literal reading of the Bible in the Holy Spirit is logically sound, consistent with itself and is the only reasonable and humble way to approach God's word: read and pray for active, instant by instant guidance in Him.
Psalm 56:3-5 In the day that I am afraid, I will confide in thee. In God will I praise his word, in God I put my confidence: I will not fear; what can flesh do unto me? All the day long they wrest my words; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
There is no prior understanding of God possible before being in God as new creation. Period. Read your own Bible and pray the prayers God prays through you to Himself. To be a Christian one is publicly spoken through by God and proclaims the existence of God, Jesus Christ as God, the reconciliation of Christ's death and resurrection, the new birth in Christ and the in-dwelling power of the Holy Spirit. A Christian publicly depends on the power of the God for which he or she is a witness to help them understand the Bible and to gain understanding and maturity in Christ. A Christian has a real fear of God.
One posing as a Christian but yet declares the Bible or parts of it is obscure and hard to understand and teaches others the same has no fear of God. One who is a Christian but teaches a method must be found to understand the Bible 'because' of the influence of the pagan hermeneutic has forgotten such a method does not, indeed, cannot exist. Jesus publicly stated, "If anyone makes one of these little ones to stumble it were better for him that a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea." Yet they persist in the search and in leading young Christians astray. It is impossible for them to have any real fear of God. Who would dare to lay a hand on the sheep of God or attempt to make merchandise of them in this manner unless they were completely lacking a fear of God?
This seems to be a broad topic with more terms being coined daily in the speech of sin only because those who hate God and especially the name of Jesus Christ have made it so. The trap and seduction is to give ear to the speech of sin itself and to believe that you must listen to it in order to be truly intelligent and 'find out for yourself' (as if you had free will). The simple living truth is:
Read your own Bible and pray for understanding. Read especially the Pslams. Keep reading, keep praying. Read what is in front of you as it is written on the page. There is no method which will protect you from ever misunderstanding the bible except prayer and complete dependence on God as truly being a new creation in Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by thy name, O Jehovah, God of hosts.
and
Jeremiah 33:2,3 Thus saith Jehovah the doer of it, Jehovah that formeth it to establish it, Jehovah is his name: Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and I will shew thee great and hidden things, which thou knowest not.
In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen