The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Hermeneutics

Ugly Hermeneutics

First, listen to this 9-minute clip.
 
Those who take God’s Word seriously spend many hours in study. Coming out of diligent study are lessons, sermons, articles, and books that are deep, weighty, sober, doctrinally coherent, and theologically consistent.

Sadly, today’s evangelicals aren’t known for being profound, sober-minded, or consistent; instead they’ve developed a reputation for being superficial, trivial, doctrinally erratic, and theologically naïve. Want proof? Walk into your local Christian bookstore, sample the preaching online, survey the blogs—the shoe fits.

So if the way back is to fear God, honor His Word, and work hard to understand and teach it accurately, what kinds of things are standing in the way?

Good Hermeneutics

First, listen to this 11-minute clip.

At the heart of our hermeneutics is this basic assumption—when God revealed truth, He intended to communicate to us. He used the normal conventions of human language common to the people and time when His revelation came.

That’s why we employ the grammatical-historical method of interpretation (the rules of grammar and the facts of history) to discern the meaning of Scripture. As John has often said, “The meaning of the Scripture is the Scripture.” That’s what we’re after because we know the God who has spoken.

So, here’s the question:Why do so few evangelicals today practice good hermeneutics?How do we get ourselves and our fellow evangelicals back on track?

HT: John MacArthur