Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

25 October, 2005   comments: (0) Back To The Bible   Bible Study: "I feel like this verse means . . ." For a number of years, this seemed like every small group bible study that I ever went to: Someone throws a verse out there and says "I feel like this verse is saying . . .", and then proceeds to give you their opinion of what the verse means. Afterwards, others in the group are encouraged to join-in with their opinions. But is this method of bible study helpful, or could it be as one pastor said "a pooling of ignorance"? As I was writing yesterday's blog article about 'A Workman Approved By God', I started to get charged-up about these excellent videos again, and decided to put in "Show 8", which deals with the error of Subjective Interpretation. The show starts off with a scene like this (and Im paraphrasing here): Leader: I feel like Romans 8:28 is saying that if you are a Christian, everything is going to work-out for you in the end. What do you think Diane? Person 2: (perhaps reverting back to her pre-Christian days, says . . .) Well, to me, the verse means like "good karma". Person 3: To me, I feel like this verse is saying that God is my daddy, and that He has only good things in store for me. He would never let anything bad enter into my life. Person 4 & 5: Yeah . . . yeah! . . . I agree with that. Person 6: (previously silent, but now beside himself) . . . THAT'S RIDICULOUS! It doesnt mean that at all. Leader: (Cuts off Person 6, and says:) Hey! We dont do that here. That's not what we are about. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and if you'll just listen to what others are saying, perhaps the Holy Spirit will teach you something through others in the group. Well, the scene is deliberately exaggerated to demonstrate the problem, but I think you get the idea. In reality, what's described above is a lot more like "group therapy" than a bible study. The goal of bible study should be to determine what God means by a given passage. The video responds to the scenario above with this excellent clip from John MacArthur: Avoid superficial interpretation. One of the common problems in interpreting the Bible is this little phrase, "This verse means to me...." so forth and so forth and so forth. Let me tell you something. It doesn't matter what it means to you, the question is what would it mean if you weren't alive? What would it mean if you didn't exist? What does it mean PERIOD is the issue, not what does it mean to you. Sometimes you'll hear people get together and supposedly have a Bible study which is little-more than a pooling of ignorance. People say, "Well, I look at this verse and I feel this verse is saying..." It doesn't matter what you feel. That has nothing to do with it. It's not a matter of how you feel about the verse, it's not a matter of what you think it means to you. Avoid ad-libbing in Bible interpretation. Avoid free wheeling in Bible interpretation. It's haphazard handling of God's Word. [Read More] Unfortunately, in the modern church, the problem of "subjective interpretation" is far too common. And as I wrote about in detail before, the small group methodologies being used in many growth-oriented churches today, make it "politically incorrect" to suggest that someone else's ideas are in error. The emphasis is instead placed on freedom of opinion, and sharing, and being "open" with one-another in a small group setting, even if something that someone says happens to be off-base biblically. To avoid the error of subjective interpretation, you might try picking up some good bible commentaries, but be sure to follow a few guidelines when you do. By the way, "Show 15" in the Workman series deals with the pro's and con's of commentaries, and how to select and use them correctly. For anyone interested in owning a great collection of commentaries for a low price. I highly recommend the bible tools from Ages Software called "Master Christian Library": http://www.agessoftware.com/mcl8.html Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.88   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism