Examine the Scriptures to find truth in what you're told. The Greek word for "examine" is "anakrino", it means to investigate. Don't think man's teaching is correct. Jesus is the only one you can learn from, He speaks to us from the bible. Scripture alone is the final judge of all teaching. The Bible is self revelation from God in Christ. If we are going to know God, we must learn from Him from the Scriptures. We must have a plan to read the bible. Then you will make progress. If you don't have a plan, then you will never read the bible. Everybody wants a shortcut to Bible knowledge. True knowledge comes from reading scripture over and over. By doing that you will find patterns, one, being everything points to Christ, two, everything points to the Destruction of Jerusalem.
Many Christians disagree about every doctrine the Bible teaches. Some end up as Calvinists. Some become Charismatics and other non Charismatic. Most are interested in Eschatology (the end times). There are a lot of different interpretation. Some are Dispensationalists. Some of whom are Pre-trib, Mid-trib, or Post trib. There are Pre-millinialists, Post millinialists and Amilinialists. There are Partial Preterists, Preterist and Futurists. And they all read the same bible but see things differently. This shows us that understanding the Bible is not a simple as it sounds.
Hermeneutics
We must have some understanding of Hermeneutics,
If we are going to understand the Bible. Hermeneutics is the science or method
of interpreting the Bible. The purpose of Hermeneutics is to establish
guidelines and rules for interpreting the Bible.
If you start by using religion and their doctrine as your starting point, you
have a 98 percent chance of starting incorrectly. Literature is subject to
misinterpretation. In this study I will show developed rules that safeguard us
from such misunderstanding.
What God said is recorded in Scripture. The need of Hermeneutics is to investigate and figure out what he really meant. We have to figure out, if we take the verse literally or not. Much of the bible is written in the first century language, not our language of today. We cannot use a 21st century dictionary to figure out the meaning in the first century. We must use the bible to tell us what it means. That's called Scripture interprets Scripture. Let look at:
Matthew 5:39-42 (NASB)
But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your
right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take
your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go
with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who
wants to borrow from you.
Now we must decide, do we take this literally or not. If you take this literally then you will be taken advantage of. And that's not what Jesus meant here. But if you insist on taking it literally then Give me the keys to your new car. Jesus said, "Give to Him who asks you." Do you see the Hermeneutics here?
The primary rule of Hermeneutics is called "The Analogy of Faith" Scripture interprets Scripture. Scripture cannot be interpreted in a way other than what is clearly taught elsewhere in Scripture. This helps us not to read into Scripture, something that is not there. If one Scripture seems to contradict another, then we must turn to what is easily understood. At this point we must keep studying until we find the solution to the so called contradiction or difficult understanding. Scripture has the answer for the difficult understanding. God is not the author of confusion. Many times the subject is repeated elsewhere in the bible. Another words, it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.
One of the most important things to understand is, without the Old Testament, you will never understand the New Testament. For example Our understanding of heaven and earth do not mean heaven and earth. We must first know it's meaning in the Old Testament to comprehend it's meaning in the New Testament. Where it says "heaven and earth pass away", does not mean the actual heaven and the actual earth will pass away.
Another rule for Hermeneutics is audience relevance. Who was it spoken to? When words were spoken or whatever a passage meant it was intended for the original audience. Many people think the bible is timeless. And think the same applies to you and I as it did with Jesus disciples. Not true, this will keep you from understanding the Bible. Most Christians view the Bible this way. That's why 98 percent of all churches start off with a false understanding. They think it just arrived for you. We have to understand the original audience from the Scriptures. Who is this person talking or writing directly to? Keep in mind the Bible is a collection of personal letters and history books written by real people, to real people, in real time, and with real time contexts.
Another important point in Hermeneutics is we must look at all of the time statements through the same lens of audience relevance. The books of the Bible are not letters written to Christians throughout eternity where all the time statements are free to be extracted and applied to whatever generation we wish. Each book was directed to a specific audience. Scripture shows us who that audience was and you were not there. The bible is written for us not to us. When John wrote Revelation, he was writing to seven historical churches that existed at that time. He was not writing to Christians in the 21st century. When we read the New Testament, we are literally reading somebody else's mail.
If I repeat myself it's only to show how important it really is. It may shock some people but the truth is, there is not one book in the Bible that was written to anyone living today. Every book in the bible is a personal letter, a history book, or writing by a prophet to certain people at a certain time and for a certain reason. The bible was written for us to understand truth and apply it in our lives. Again it was not written to us. We are reading other people's mail. When people say "Here's what this Scripture means to me" the only truth at that point is It doesn't matter what it means to you. It only matters what it meant to the original audience. That is where we find Bible truth. Then we can apply it to ourselves.
Much of the Bible uses metaphors, parables, apocalyptic language and anthropomorphism. Jesus said, "I am the vine." Is that literal? No, it is a metaphor. When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, stick with that meaning. Therefore take every word at it's primary, ordinary, usual, literal (Biblical not 21st century) meaning unless the facts of the context indicate clearly otherwise. The Red sea really parted, Jesus really walked on water.
Apocalyptic words only make sense when kept within the context. (figures of speech) To take them literally, you will read in to them as the end of the physical universe, which is to misunderstand the Bibles meaning.
If we literalize the apocalyptic language we must believe that these things haven't happened yet and therefore believe that Jesus was mistaken about when they would happen. If you approach the New Testament's apocalyptic language without recognizing it for what it is, and do not know how to deal with its tone, images, and symbols, you are sure to go astray.
Historical analysis - We must recognize the setting, situation the date of the writing, who wrote it and the destination. These are all important for a clear understanding of the text. There are to many egotistical people out there that teach that whatever the Bible says, it says to us and our generation! And people listening to them assume they are right and left with the false belief that is stuck in their minds.
Original Relevance - what did the original
readers understand the text to mean. The Bible was written to real people in
real places facing real circumstances. Once you figure out the meaning then you
can apply it to yourself.
Whenever we force the Bible to say something that it doesn't, we are in danger.
We stop seeking knowledge of that subject. This is why people are stuck in their
ways and never can change. People rather believe what they do because its easier
to believe what everyone else believes. I can tell you right now, my studies
tell me there is no church out there that belongs to a religion that is correct
in their belief system.
The will of God is determined from the Bible only in terms of what it says in
it's first grammatical sense, or what can be derived from it in terms of
spiritual principles. God does not double talk, when He speaks in Scripture. He
does not have a historical, common sense meaning, plus some special message to
us in a given situation.
Friend, It takes time to understand the bible. A lot of time! There are many Christians who say they want to understand it but many are using the wrong approach. I was one of them. Using this method, Jesus will teach you. not religion or the traditions of men.
At one point I participated in church once a week, listened or read the bible a couple times a week but I didn't understand it like other members of the church. I didn't see what they saw or how they interpret certain scripture. I was so arrogant and got frustrated and even angry because I couldn't understand what they did. I cried out to God for His truth. I was getting frustrated and had so many questions scripture could not answer. I needed biblical understanding. When I went directly to Jesus, I came to learn it would be a time commitment. All of my time went to God. My drive became my job. I learned the biggest problem in the church is ignorance. There are twenty year Christians that know next to nothing about the bible. Their approach to studying the bible was out of context. I saw Their meaning but did not believe it. Since that time, all of my time is given to God to learn and teach others the real truth.
Conclusion
You have access to the same Bible that theologians and pastors do. No one has any special insight from God, that you do not have. In today's church, you would be amazed at how little pastors and theologians really know. Some read it and teach it as it were a newspaper but if you follow what is describe here, you will be on the right path.
The Bible is not so much about about the physical and literal so much as
it is with the spiritual and covenantal. The creation and prophetic portions of
scripture are primarily covenantal, not literal. Compare Scripture with
Scripture. This helps us to determine if language is literal or symbolic.
Remember Audience Relevance.
What is the subject being discussed in the text? Keep every verse in context.
When was the book written? To whom was it written? Why was it written? Under
what circumstances?
There are no chapter divisions in the original manuscripts. Therefore the
subject does not necessarily change just because the chapter changes.
And Last
Most Bible translators are biased and interpret the Bible according to their own views. Many paraphrase instead of translating. From experience, I have found that The King James Version has not been corrected with the true Hebrew and Greek meanings. I personally do not like the King James Version. However, I do read and use the New King James Version. The NKJV puts the Hebrew and Greek meanings in the foot notes. In my studies I use several different translations.
1. New King James Version NKJV 2. New American Standard Bible (NASB) 3. New International Version (NIV) 4. Easy-to-Read Version (ERV) 5. English Standard Version (ESV) 6. The Message (MSG) 7. And one I recently discovered Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
The more versions you can read and compare the better. By doing this you will see how the words were translated.
The Bible is God's word. We must interpret it correctly, accurately. Yes it is hard work but it's worth it. Anyone can read the bible but the Christian that study's effortlessly overcomes laziness and gives time for learning about our God. If the average Christian knew as much about the bible as their cell phone, they would know how to use it.