Sunday, October 9, 2016

TYPES OF HERMENEUTICAL METHODS


GOOD AND BAD HERMENEUTICS 

Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpreting the Bible (or other book) by using one or more methods to understand the meaning of the text it contains. The term hermeneutics is derived from the Greek word ἑρμηνεύω (hermeneuō) which means "to interpret" or "to translate." In the classical sense, a person who interprets or translates written or spoken words is called a "hermeneus." There is good hermeneutics that reveals the true meaning, and there is also bad hermeneutics that gives only false meanings. The good hermeneutics is called exegesis*, while the bad hermeneutics is called eisegesis**. Proper hermeneutics is extremely important because if one's method of interpreting the Bible is wrong, then their conclusions and beliefs will also be wrong. Contrary to the ideas of the deconstructionists, the vast majority of verses in the Bible have only one meaning, not multiple meanings, plus the vast majority of verses in the Bible are literal not symbolic. Furthermore, we must seek to find the meaning that was originally conveyed by the original writer to the original audience; for example, we must understand what God initially inspired Paul to say to the Roman congregations as Paul wrote the epistle of Romans. If we reject the meaning that was conveyed to the original audience in order to establish other meanings, then we will fail to understand, believe and apply what God wants us to learn through the Bible text. Avoiding mistakes in hermeneutics enables us to have a better understanding of God and "experience" Him - rightly! Whenever we attempt to interpret the Bible and understand its message, we must submit to the Holy Spirit of God and allow Him to teach us the true meaning (John 14:26; 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:9-15; 1 John 2:27).

Two common hermeneutical approaches include:

ALLEGORICAL APPROACH –– The practice of taking a clear statement of scripture and turning into an allegory or fictional story that serves as a "morality tale." For example, virtually all liberal pastors take the stories of the Six Days of Creation, Adam and Eve, the Flood of Noah's Day, the Exodus from Egypt, Jonah and the Big Fish and Jesus' miracles as allegories, parables or morality tales instead of real events that occurred in history. Giving figurative meanings to the majority of Bible passages leads to sharp deviations from the truth. There can be a multitude of figurative meanings for a specific verse, but only one literal meaning, and most figurative interpretations are eisegetical instead of exegetical.

LITERAL-GRAMMATICAL-HISTORICAL APPROACH –– The practice of interpreting a passage of scripture literally and in accordance with historical timelines and the grammar contained in the passage. As mentioned earlier, the vast majority of verses in the Bible are literal not symbolic. Virtually all of the people, places and events mentioned in the Bible are real places, real historical figures and real historical events. Grammar can help a Bible reader to determine the true meaning of any scripture. The literal-grammatical-historical approach is, and should be, the primary method of interpretation used by true honest readers of the Bible.

TYPES OF BAD HERMENEUTICS

A.) – Isolationism: Also called proof-texting, isolationism is the practice of isolating a verse of scripture from its proper context in order to change its meaning and form or support an unbiblical doctrine. For example, the Roman Catholic Church uses Matthew 16:18, 19 as a proof text to show that Peter was the first Pope. Also, the Watchtower Society uses Matthew 24:45-47 as a proof text to prove that God appointed the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses as His sole "channel of communication" for the modern world. We should do our best to read and study the Bible according to contexting instead of proof-texting.

B.) – Spiritualizing: Reading a spiritual idea or concept into a text despite the text not supporting that spiritual idea or concept. An example would be the Watchtower Society's teaching that scriptures commanding Christians to help the poor and needy refer only to Christians preaching the gospel of salvation to the unsaved (spiritually poor). Also, some religious groups, such as Roman Catholicism and the Watchtower Society, would give a spiritual meaning to Proverbs 6:20 by teaching that the Church is the "spiritual mother" of all Christians even as God is their spiritual Father. Therefore such religious groups would require their members to strictly obey both God and the church leaders based on this spiritualization of Proverbs 6:20.

C.) – Culturalizing: Interpreting a scripture in light of changing culture and mores. For example, liberals make the claim that most moral principles contained in the Bible were meant only for the ancient cultures that existed at the time the Bible was written and were not meant for modern cultures. Liberal pastors, such as Rob Bell and Brian McLaren, think that the Bible should be reinterpreted, and that Christianity should be revised or changed in order to accommodate the shifting cultures and generations.

D.) – Nationalizing: Reading one's own country into a warning and/or promise given specifically to the nation of Israel. Verses such as 2 Chronicles 7:14 and Psalm 33:12 are often taken out of context and applied to one's own nation instead of Israel and the Jews. Although God promises to bless or curse any nation on earth based on its righteousness or sinfulness (Psalm 9:17; Proverbs 14:34; Jeremiah 18:7-10), the majority of warnings and promises in the Bible were meant specifically for Israel and the Jews, who are the only ethnic nation on earth to officially have a covenant relationship with God.

E.) – Redefining: Assigning new meanings to biblical terms to suit one's own theology. For example, Robert Schuller redefines sin to mean low self-esteem instead of rebellious disobedience of God's law (1 John 3:4). Likewise, the Watchtower Society defines Jesus' title "Son of God" to mean that Jesus is the first and only direct creation of Jehovah God instead of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity incarnate in the flesh. Annihilationists redefine hell as the "common grave of mankind," while liberal pastors of the seeker-freindly churches redefine hell as a disconnection from God accompanied by feelings of anxiety and depression and a lack of prosperity in the here-and-now. These views of hell are different from the biblical view of hell being the eternal punishment of the unsaved sinners under God's wrath.

F.) – Generalizing: Assuming that a historical event or promise in scripture is to be considered normative and universally applicable today. For example, many people think that, because most Christians in the book of Acts spoke in tongues when they initially received the Holy Spirit, every Christian on earth must be capable of speaking in tongues as part of salvation. Another example would be prosperity televangelists using the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath to teach that God will multiply a person's small donations to the church into an enormous supply that never runs out. There is much debate over the issue of tithing, but the tithing system was established as an Old Testament practice for Abraham and his descendants the Hebrews; it was not meant for today's Christians. Yet I believe Christians are still free to make sizable donations to their church on their own accord, whether it be less than or more than ten percent. People will argue that the Bible very often generalizes and paints with a broad brush, and such people are correct to some extent. The Bible does generalize on some things, but it does not generalize on everything. The Bible makes a generalization on verses like John 3:16, Romans 3:23 and 1 John 1:7-10. We know that these scriptures universally apply to everyone because God said that everyone has sinned against Him and needs Christ for forgiveness and salvation. According to 2 Timothy 2:15, we must make sure that we are "rightly dividing the word of truth" as we interpret the scriptures so that we may understand which truth(s) applies to who, what, why and when.

G.) – Emotionalism & Experientialism: Interpreting the Bible subjectively based on one's own emotions and experiences. People who use this method will say, "These scriptures must mean this because I feel this particular way whenever I read them," or they would say, "These scriptures must mean this because I have experienced something like this before." Human experiences are limited and our emotions flow from a heart that is deceitful and full of evil (Proverbs 28:26; Ecclesiastes 9:3; Jeremiah 17:9; Mark 7:20-23). Therefore, we must not interpret the Bible by our emotions and experiences; rather, we must interpret our emotions and experiences by the Bible that takes precedence over all.

H.) – Individualizing: Reading oneself into a text and claiming that the elements and characters in the text are about oneself. This practice is also called "narcissistic eisegesis." For example, Luke 1:28 is used by individual women to label themselves as "highly favored" and "blessed among women" despite the fact that the context clearly refers to Mary alone, who was selected by God to be the earthly mother of the Christ. John 11:4 is often individualized by sick people who think they cannot die of their sickness, but Jesus was referring specifically to Lazarus who died and was resurrected. People who individualize scriptures often compare themselves to Bible characters, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samson, David, Solomon, Jesus, one of the OT prophets, one of the NT apostles or any one of the female characters. Should we allegorize specific events and circumstances in the lives of those Bible characters to establish our own moral or philosophical principles for success? No we should not, because God has a unique purpose for each and every person's life, different from that of the Bible characters. God did not call everyone to part the Red Sea like Moses, or slay giant people as David did, or rule over an entire nation like Solomon, or walk on water or raise dead people back to life as Jesus did. Each Christian should interpret the Bible objectively, have faith in God and live out their life according to God's unique calling for their own lives.

I.) – Numerological eisegesis: Taking various numbers in the Bible out of their context and applying irrelevant meanings to those numbers in order to teach unbiblical principles or ideas. For example, Harold Camping misapplied numerology in order to formulate his false prophecies pertaining to 1994 and 2011. It is true that certain numbers, such as seven (7), carry specific meanings in the Bible, but we must avoid applying unbiblical meanings to such numbers.

J.) – Assuming a false premise: The act of quickly jumping to conclusions about the meaning of a certain verse or passage of scripture, thus resulting in a false interpretation. Some would go even further by assuming a false premise on top of a false premise. For example, it is a false premise that Proverbs 6:20 refers to a "spiritual mother," and believing that a specific church or organization is the "spiritual mother" based specifically on Proverbs 6:20 would be assuming a false premise on top of a false premise. This practice must be avoided at all costs.

=========================================
* Exegesis is the practice of drawing the authentic, objective meaning out of the Bible text itself based on a careful, objective analysis of all aspects of the text.

** Eisegesis is the interpretation of a text, such as the Bible's text, by reading one's own ideas or biases into the text, resulting in a subjective, inaccurate and distorted understanding of the text.

=========================================
The information provided in this post was derived from the studies of Justin Peters of Justin Peters Ministries, Chris Rosebrough of Pirate Christian Radio and a former Jehovah's Witness named Brock Weigum who is now a pastor.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

AVOID NARCIGETICAL INTERPRETATION



One of the most common methods of improper Bible interpretation in the modern churches is narcissistic eisegesis, also called narcigesis, which is the practice of reading oneself into certain Bible stories or Bible passages, so as to allegorize the Bible's message to make it about oneself, especially for the purpose of adding motivation, positive thoughts, personal success and a sense of heroism to one's life. Narcigesis allows a person to "deconstruct" scripture in order to make the Bible say whatever they want it to say about themselves. In addition, God becomes like a Mr. Potato Head who can be shaped into whatever pleases the interpreter. Applying principles formulated through narcigesis is based on works instead of God's grace, because a person must apply the principle in order to attain favor and blessing from God. Grace is unmerited favor, while mercy is undeserved forgiveness. Applying principles formulated through narcigesis also makes it appear as if God is indebted to a person because of their works; however, the Bible says God owes people nothing (Romans 11:35). As sinners, we deserve absolutely nothing but the judgment of Hell from God's hand; everything outside of Hell itself we do not deserve. It is God's grace through Jesus Christ alone that saves us from sin and open the door to spiritual growth, fruitfulness and a personal relationship with God. Narcigesis is commonly practiced and taught by ministers of the Word of Faith Movement and the Seeker Friendly Churches, as well as ministers of the New Age Movement and the Emergent Churches.

Are the great and faithful people mentioned in the OT and NT about us today? No they are not, because we are living in a different dispensation of God's grand plan for humanity. Can we learn from their example of faith, perseverance, righteousness and holiness? Yes we can, because, as Hebrews 11:1-40 and 12:1 shows, all of those people provide good testimonies of genuine faith, perseverance and godliness. Jesus provides the ultimate example and testimony (Hebrews 12:2, 3). Should we allegorize specific events and circumstances in the lives of those Bible characters to establish our own moral or philosophical principles for success? No we should not, because God has a unique purpose for each and every person's life, different from that of the Bible characters. God did not call everyone to part the Red Sea like Moses, or slay giant people as David did, or rule over an entire nation like Solomon, or walk on water or raise dead people back to life as Jesus did. Each Christian should interpret the Bible objectively, have faith in God and live out their life according to God's unique calling for their lives. When we allegorize scripture through narcigesis, we develop a distorted view of God, Christ and the Bible's messages; we also miss the whole point of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Narcigetical interpretation functions to inflate a person's self-esteem and fulfill a person's ungodly desires. It almost completely ignores the reality of sin, the need for brokenness and repentance, the absolute sovereignty of God, and the grace of God provided through Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ died to save us from sin and restore our fellowship with God; He did not die for our 401K, felt needs or worldly successes.

====================================
I borrowed the following information about narcigesis from Chris Rosebrough, a Christian apologist at Fighting for the Faith and Pirate Christian Radio. Rosebrough vividly illustrates how pastors like Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, Brian McClaren, Patricia King, Steven Furtick, Robert Schuller, Joyce Meyer and many others teach narcigetical interpretation of scripture:

---------------------------------------------------------------
HOW TO NARCIGETE ANY BIBLE STORY IN 4 EASY STEPS

by Chris Rosebrough

The Primary Assumption of Narcigesis is that Every Bible story is about YOU. And, since YOU struggle with setbacks, problems and challenges that keep YOU from achieving YOUR maximal greatness that means that the Bible is really all about giving YOU a road map that YOU can follow to achieve YOUR dreams and god-given destiny.

Step 1
Read a Bible Story.

Step 2
Identify the hero and the villain(s) in the story.

Step 3
Identify yourself with the hero (who also happens to be on a journey toward greatness and achieving his god-given destiny, just like you).

Identify your current problems, challenges and setbacks with the villain(s) in the story.

Step 4
Identify the key action taken by the hero to defeat the villain. Allegorize that action by calling it a ‘principle’ and then challenge people to ‘apply this principle’ in their lives in order to defeat the problems, challenges and setbacks in their lives so that they can achieve greatness.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone who pays attention to a sermon given by liberal preachers and prosperity televangelists will recognize these four steps of narcigesis. Chris Rosebrough strongly disapproves of this method of scripture interpretation and warns Christians to avoid practicing it. He strongly encourages interpretation of scripture through proper exegesis, which is the practice of drawing the authentic, objective meaning out of the Bible text itself based on a careful, objective analysis of all aspects of the text.

Listen to Chris Rosebrough talk about narcigesis in this 2-hour program:
http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F120712.mp3

A clearer definition of ''narcissistic eisegesis" or "narcigesis"
http://apprising.org/2012/01/12/narcigesis/
=====================================

THE DANGERS OF NARCIGESIS

1.) – Since there is no objective standard to which the interpreter must abide by, the final authority ceases to be the scripture and becomes the interpreter. Because of this method, opinions, emotions and experiences will take precedence over divinely inspired scripture. opinions, emotions and experiences will take precedence, each and every interpreter can apply whatever allegorical meanings they wish. This raises the question: Whose allegorical interpretations are right? This question leads to the establishment of an endless self centered bias which effectively replaces God and His inspired scripture as the true center of authority.
2.) – Most of the Bible can be interpreted literally; therefore, allegorical interpretation is only rarely seen in scripture (example: Galatians 4:21-31; 1 Corinthians 10:1-4). The Bible is its own dictionary and its own interpreter, and, because of this, the Bible usually provides its own explanations for its own symbols, parables and allegories. Parables are usually not allegories. Jesus usually disclosed the actual meaning of His own parables (example: Matthew 13). On other occasions, Jesus spoke plain language without symbols or parables.
3.) – Because narcigetical interpretations are not genuine and fail to convey God's real message, they will not truly benefit anyone who applies the interpretations. Ministers that teach narcigesis are known to prey upon their followers, fleecing them of vast amounts of money as they buy the minister's books and donate to the minister's church. When the narcigetical interpretations fail to confer true benefit to the followers, the minister gets richer and richer while the followers get poorer and poorer. Plus the followers become false converts that miss out on the real salvation that Almighty God provides through the biblical Jesus Christ. Ministers that teach narcigesis are, in a real sense, ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing that make their followers more subject to Hell than themselves (Matthew 7:15; Matthew 23:15).


Monday, November 23, 2015

TYPES OF EISEGESIS THAT LEAD TO FALSE TEACHINGS



Eisegesis is the interpretation of a text, such as the Bible's text, by reading one's own ideas or biases into the text, resulting in a subjective, inaccurate and distorted understanding of the text. This is different from exegesis, which is the act of extracting the objective meaning from the text itself for the purpose of exposition, explanation and critical thinking. Eisegesis is bad interpretation. In essence, false teachers who practice eisegesis have cut and pasted into the Bible whatever ideas that work for them, thus making certain Bible verses mean whatever they want them to mean. The Bible contains 31,000-plus verses that cover a wide variety of subjects and vocabulary words, therefore it is possible for a false teacher to find one or more Bible verses they can twist to support whatever ideas they like. There are many types of eisegesis that result in false doctrine. A few of the most common types of eisegetical interpretation are listed below:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Narcissistic Eisegesis – Reading oneself into certain Bible stories or Bible passages, so as to allegorize the Bible's message to make it about oneself, especially for the purpose of adding motivation, positive thoughts, personal success and a sense of heroism to one's life. One example would include imagining oneself as Moses, Joshua, Samson, Elijah, Jesus and other Bible characters who miraculously accomplished things by faith alone. Faith is both right and important for every believer's walk with God; however, each believer's life and God-given purpose is unique and different from that of the Bible characters. Narcissistic eisegesis leads people to develop a subjective view of the Bible's narrative and overlook the objective meaning that the God of truth wants the reader to learn. Also called "narcigesis," this is perhaps the most common type of eisegesis seen in the churches, especially in the Word of Faith and liberal churches that use seeker friendly methods to appeal to humanism, emotionalism, experience, felt needs, carnality and worldly successes.

Eisegesis of Bible History – Interpreting historical events in the Bible according to one's own distorted or delusional views, thus creating a false Bible history for the Old Testament or New Testament. This could also mean designing a false timeline for the Bible, as well as adding historical events to the Bible's timeline that were never recorded in scripture or may contradict scripture. Examples of historical eisegesis include the Watchtower Society's belief that Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Jerusalem in 607 BC instead of 586 BC, or that the "seven times" mentioned in Daniel 4 represent 2,520 years spanning from 607 BC to 1914 AD. Still other examples would include the Roman Catholic idea that the apostle Peter was the first Pope, and the Mormon belief that Jesus Christ visited the Native American Indians immediately after His resurrection.

Eisegesis of Bible Prophecy – Reading oneself, an organization or various other people or events into the Bible's prophetic passages that are not really mentioned in the text. Many religious cults and false prophets have a habit of inserting themselves or their organization into Bible prophecy to make it seem as if the Bible prophesied about them. They also use Bible's prophecies to make false predictions of events that never come to pass. Some of the Word of Faith preachers and NAR preachers use prophetic eisegesis to establish their claim that the Bible prophesied specifically about them, their ministry and their personal life experiences. Also the Watchtower Society makes the claim that Bible passages about the faithful and wise servant, the Babylonian captivity, as well as the books of Ezekiel and Revelation are actually prophecies about their organization in the last days.

Eisegesis of Bible Didactics – Reading one's own doctrines, teachings, ideals, moral principles and philosophies into the Bible's didactic passages despite the fact that the Bible's text does not mention such things. For example, the Roman Catholic Church uses this eisegetical interpretation to justify the veneration of Mary and the saints, prayers to Mary, the concept of purgatory and various types of unbiblical ceremonialism. False teachers may also use didactic eisegesis to impose onto scripture the idea that Christians must perform special works to become saved or remain saved, or that Christians should eat a specific kind of diet, or that musical instruments are forbidden in church services, or that Christians should hatefully shun excommunicated members and non-Christians.