Chapter 8: Understanding God’s Word

Page 9

If you want, you can even locate complete study guides on the field of

hermeneutics to guide your thinking about the Bible. These guides can help you sort out the historical influence of the Bible writers. They can help you sort out poetry from history, etc. In many cases, they can enlighten you on how to read actual Scripture.

But beware; at least one author has written a complete encyclopedia of what the Bible really means. I would estimate it at between 30-40 books or more. Think about that. Instead of just trying to read your Bible, you

could read 30-40 times the amount of material that is in the Bible just to understand God’s Word [the Bible]. In fact, that is exactly what Satan would like you to believe. The message is clear from Satan’s crowd that you cannot understand your Holy Bible without a comprehensive educational background in hermeneutics. Why, are you an expert Bible Exegete?

If you believe this and take that educational path, make sure you also take the time to read the Bible instead of just reading what writers are telling you about the Bible. I’ve listened to enough Christians and pastors to know

that the majority of them have never even read the Bible from front to back. I know pastors that tote around a denominational guidebook to answer questions instead of toting around the Holy Bible. Believe me when I tell you that you should always be instructed from the Bible and not from some

denomination guidebook. I.E. A Lutheran, Catholic or other denomination’s ministerial guide or instruction book [often unaccompanied by the Bible].

Some charismatic pastors are especially good at dragging Strong’S

Concordance into their teachings to cite the different meanings of Hebrew or Greek text. The import to the congregation is “that you cannot understand the Bible without first being able to understand Hebrew or Greek.” And, of course, there is that rather important matter of being trained in hermeneutics

and exegesis. If you listen long enough to those types of teachings, you will give up on understanding the Bible for yourself. You will become a lap dog for whatever dogma that emerges from the pulpit of your church. Yet, is this really what God intended? For only a few select people to understand the

Bible? Is the Bible really that tough to read and understand?