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.

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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:

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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.
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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/
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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).

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:

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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.