God's Not Dead pt 5

If you are still with me, I want to thank you for staying with me. I know that it's not easy.  I wish also to remind you, that, I make no claim on being right all the time, but merely am presenting in what I hope is a clear, complete and logical manner, and hopefully biblical as well, perspective(s) on things, that are Spiritually important. For the clear understanding that all things in life have a Spiritual foundation, emphasis, and drive behind them is essential knowledge.

reviewing just a bit, Theology. Now, there are many who do not claim to be "theologians" but that is somewhat misleading, because everyone is a theologian whether they are aware of it or not. For theology is the foundation of whatever we believe and however we act because of that.

Now, there are a myriad of "rules" and "techniuqes" for Scripture interpretation, but not all are perfect, however, I believe that there are many which can be useful when applied correctly.

The first and most important thing to remember is  Scripture is Breathed out and inspired by God, and is accordingly the ultimate authority when it speaks in regards to all things, including interpretation. Now, with scripture there is often many layers of communication or meaning. First we must understand that scripture is not isolated from itself, nor does it contradict itself.(More on that in a moment.)

When I say it's not isolated that means that we must always look for and at the context of it and not just at isolated verse(s) or chapter or book. what might be reffered to as context. This also means we ask the who, what, when, where, why, and how. Seeking to understand the communicator, and audience, [of which because we are reading a living book we are also part of that audience.] What they are communicating and understanding, How they thought and proccesed. The scripture is also history, which means we must also look at the culture during the time at which the piece we are examining was happening. That, is context.

Another part which is important is linguistics. Many books have been translated from their original language so it is important to have a grasp and understanding of the original language, and definition of the words being used. With scripture that means Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. Where it has a way of being confusing it that many times the same or similar word is used to communicate a slightly different concept. So what I do is look at the word and it's definitions in context of what's around it, and that will usually help to correctly determine which definition is the right one.
Granted, it's not a perfect method, but I believe it's a reliable one.

Scripture intrepretation is a skill set that takes time, and some guidance from others who are farther along than us. But, that guidance should not lead to the "guide" having all the controll or say so. It should be more like sharing study notes with people around you.
The problem is Bias-ness.

Everybody has A bias/bent a prefered way of looking at things. Even me. my job as a believer is to not get caught up in my own view, but to Study, and share and look at all the different views and come to my own conclusions based on scripture on what parts of different views I feel are worthwhile to incorporate and refine what I already have.



Stick with me, the ride's about to get even more interesting, next topic(s) coming up are specific to Scripture(s) I've read and what They say, and what that means for us. Then looking specifcally at culture and things within Christianity (parts/sects)that(I firmly believe) are counter scriptural.