Bible Interpretation, Student Workbook, SW05

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B I B L E I N T E R P R E T A T I O N

Why Should We Care?

Many modern people today take for granted that science has once and for all debunked the truth value of the Bible, at least as it applies to history and the possibility of the supernatural. A small but vocal group of sincere Bible students believe it is their duty to prove to those who are skeptical about the nature of the Bible its historical accuracy and truth. They cite the fulfillment of prophecy, accuracy regarding predictions, internal coherence, and its preservation as evidence that our Scriptures must be divinely inspired. Another equally sincere yet less vocal group of Christians are convinced that you simply cannot with evidence persuade those who disbelieve the Scriptures of its historical and spiritual validity. Without the Holy Spirit, they argue, no person will ever be convinced of the claims and promises of God in Christ, let alone be convinced by arguing with skeptics about the believability of the Bible. As you consider these positions, why do you believe we ought to care or not care about the issue of the Bible’s origin, authority, and inspiration by God? Evangelical Christians have written thousands of books on the need to use excellent methods and principles in making sense of the Bible. One may go to any Christian bookstore or seminary library and find scores of texts all providing detailed instruction in the specific steps we should take to discover the “plain and literal sense” of the Bible’s meaning. Despite all of these books, we still have many churches which demonstrate a deep lack of knowledge of the Bible, and, despite access to fine methods on how to do Bible studies, don’t seem to love or read their Bibles any more than others. Some suggest that methods and approaches mean virtually nothing apart from the leadership and infilling of the Holy Spirit. These would downplay method entirely, and emphasize the spiritual dimensions of biblical interpretation, not the intellectual dimensions. As the Spirit is the one who inspired the Bible, he must also be the one to illumine it. What is the relationship of methodology to the work of the Spirit in biblical interpretation? Is it possible to understand the Bible in any substantive and life-changing way apart from the illumination of the Holy Spirit, even if we have good forms of hermeneutics to understand it? Scripture and the Holy Spirit

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