Bible Interpretation Errors Pt 2

0:01 This morning is the thirty eight year anniversary of well, not a good event. It was thirty eight years ago, almost at this exact time, just down the road Jimnet High School. Thirty eight years ago today. I was in the cafeteria. I got the page overhead that I needed to come to the principal's office, and from there I was told I needed to get to Hendrick's Hospital as soon as possible. And that's when my mom died, thirty eight years ago today. And it's weird because typically I'm not out here on this day, but it's weird to be standing so close to the very place where I was sitting, you know, when I got the announcement, and from that moment. Once I got that announcement, really nothing of my life was ever going to be the say you talk about a period of total, complete and utter chaos, because that was October the twentieth, nineteen eighty six. Okay, November, I don't remember the day in November. If we go this, if we drive this direction of good probably fifteen twenty minutes disdirection in the middle of nowhere, in about a three thousand acre ranch. That's where I took a gun and tried to kill myself and then spent eight weeks in a psychiatric hospital. So from everything that happened on

1:31 October the twentieth, nineteen eighty six, had an absolutely profound impact. Really, I don't even know. I mean, to this day, it still impacts me to some level, but it had a profound impact on every area of my life. Right. So, on one hand, I just wanted to mention it because it's just weird standing here so close to where I was sitting. It's hard to believe it's been that many years, you know, and how my life is never be the same. But so in one way, I just want to mention it because I'm feeling it. But the other way, I'll try to utilize it and somewhat of an illustration. Everything turned into chaos. Everything was from that point it was hard for me to be able to judge anything, Like everything was so confusing. I saw everything through the lens of what had happened, emotions, feelings. You could say that everything became very subjective, chaotic. I probably made horribly bad decisions in light of everything that happened. I mean, I don't think I could be I mean, on one hand, I'm still to be blamed for any bad decisions. On the other hand, it was hard not to make bad decisions and light of everything that was going on, and then it was like, so that was October eighty six, less than one year later, less than one year later, my father had gotten remarried, and then of course then everything went downhill from there. Just it was total chaos, ladies and gentlemen, It was total chaos. And what you want to believe, at least at that point in time,

3:05 I wanted to believe deeply that Christianity would offer something different than all of that chaos and subjectivity. It would give me something objective, something tangible, something I could grab on to. And in some ways Christianity does present that, But in other ways, Christianity is filled with as much subjectivity, chaos, and confusion as what I felt on this day, what thirty eight years ago. It is. It's crazy in some ways, that's what it feels. And it's fitting because this week has been a week where I have felt how just totally chaotic and crazy Christianity can be. So what we started in the first hour, I'm going to continue in the second hour. Here's what we've been talking this week.

3:57 If you listen to the podcast. You know, some things went wacky crazy. I was reviewing sermons and I thought it was just going to be a fun, you know, sermon review. Well, we reviewed a sermon on Second King's chapter six, where you have the floating axe head, and we heard in the sermon that the ax said, really, we don't really focus on the axe head. It pictures all kinds of other things, and making the text then very subjective, right, because there was no textual basis saying that the axaid represents my fellowship with God, and the axaid represents my effectiveness for the work of God, and the axe head represents my passion for God. There's nothing in the text that says that they just inferred it. They just implied it. Then they went to Proverbs chapter thirty.

4:44 Oh well, then another sermon, actually it was another sermon. Then I went to another sermon, Proverbs chapter thirty. And the next thing I find that I'm listening to a sermon on Proverbs chapter thirty and I start hearing discussion about how there's coming a time where people will eat poor people, how people will eat people, and I'm like, how in the world do you get there? And from Proverbs chapter thirty, and then it was just that all these cross references, and then it just turned into craziness. And then it got me discussing just the whole how subjective interpreting the Bible can actually be. So in the first hour, I'm going to go through this quickly. We basically discussed this. We discussed the reality and the history of Bible interpretation, and what we found is this, and I'll just summarize it. This is what we found. If you look at church history and you look at the reality, the Christianity has been filled for two thousand years with endless numbers of endless number of interpretations that contradict one another.

5:51 Everyone thinks they're right and they think everyone else is wrong. And if you don't believe with what they believe, well then you're wrong and you're basically viewed a heritage. The number of interpretations are endless. It is subjective, and it is crazy, and there's lots of reasons for this, and every attempt to try to fight against it has failed miserably. So when it's all said and done, here's the reality. Here's the reality. Bible interpretation is subjective. It's not objective as much as we want to believe that it is. It has become completely subjective. The individual is the authority, not the text, and the interpretation trumps the actual objective meaning of the text. So the end of the the end of the day, that's just the reality. Bible interpretation is subjective. The person, the individual is the authority over the Bible. The Bible is not the authority over the over the person in practical terms. We can argue about it philologically, but in practical terms, and that the interpretation of the individual trumps the text. And when you reach to that level, that is a depressing place to be.

7:10 That is a very depressing place to be. So what we're going to do in this hour is we're going to look at some of the problems with Bible interpretation and how we kind of got here. So this is what we're going to attempt to do. Interpreting the Bible can be complex, and there are a number of issues and common problems that people encounter when approaching Biblical interpretation. So we're going to look at the key challenges and the key problems people have when try to interpret the Bible. Right. Key problems that people have when try to interpret the Bible, and remember, everything really went haywire. Basically, we go back to the Protestant Reformation right October thirty. First, When we go back to October thirty first, what year fifteen seventeen, everything goes wrong, right, Because as much as we want to say that the Reformation was about indulgences, the Reformation was about justification. When it comes down to it, the Reformation was about who has the authority? And Luther said, even though he may not have used these direct words, he ultimately basically said, what, at least in practice the churches of the authority, I am the authority. Now he would not say he was the authority. He would say Scripture is the authority. But his interpretation made him say that the entire church was wrong. And then after him

8:41 that people told that he was wrong, and then other people would tell them that they were wrong. And it's not stopped all the way to this point. And now every individual thinks that they are right and their interpretation is right, and they don't have to go to school, they don't have to have ever read a book on hermeneutics. They just opened them Bible, read it, and whatever they say they say is the correct thing so the Reformation really leads to this. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at some of the challenges, some of the problems that develop out of this absolute mess that has arisen within Christianity. Are you ready? So here we go. All right, here are some of the hermeneutical problems and difficulties.

9:25 You're ready. Number one, what do you think? Number one? Is the first key challenge, key problem in hermonutics. Now this one is so everyone says this, and okay, well, I'm just gonna lose my mind before we're done with this, but just stay with me. Right here we go. Not what should be that? That's probably the best one. The first one is the failure to consider context. The failure to consider context. Now that sounds so good, ladies and gentlemen, that sounds so good. I think it's actually just meaningless. And here's the reason why everyone says that. Everyone says that if I talk to a charismatic and I say something, you're just failing to interpret it or look at the context.

10:12 If I was to argue with a Presbyterian today over baptism, what they would tell me, you're just not looking at it in its context. And a Baptist would tell a Presbyterian, you're just not looking at it in in his context. A Lutheran would say, you're not looking at it in as everyone says that. So in reality, if everyone is saying that everyone else is failing to look at it in context, and everyone's coming to innumerable different interpretations and everyone disagrees, well, then obviously looking at a context does what absolutely nothing. But in reality that's what everyone says. It's a failure to look at context. So I do believe we need to look at context, but I don't think people actually didn't really understand what that means. All right, So, according to one source, one of the most frequent errors in biable interpretation is taking verses out of their immediate literary, historical, and cultural context. Now right there, though, that changes it a little bit. Right when we talk about context, we're talking about what context? Are you ready? Immediate context? What does that mean? Immediate context means where the verse is fair, what's immediately around it? What's immediately around it? Right? We sometimes would refer to that as what textual context? But all right, but the immediate context, literary context, what does that mean? The genre, the literary genre, the literary genre, right, because that's very important. Okay, all right? Next historical context

11:42 what does that mean? Well, what's going on at the time, what's happening? Who? What where that kind of thing? Right? Next? Cultural context? What does that mean? Well, how did the culture at the time understand that phrase? Say? That's more than just oh, you got to read it in Everyone says, read it in context, and if you think about it, this is what's happened. Everyone says, you have to consider context, and what does that really mean? It's just a way of justifying your belief And if Bobby questions me, I can just disregard Bobby and say, what you just need to look at it in context. It's a meaningless phrase, if we really might. So when someone says, well, we got to look at it in context, what do they need to demonstrate? What were the things I just gave you the immedia, context, literary, historical, and cultural. If they cannot explain all of that, then guess what they've not done.

12:39 They have not looked at it in context. When verses are isolated from their surrounding text, the meaning can be distorted. Let me give you an example. Right, everyone look at Philippians, Chapter four. Oh we know this verse right, Oh, man, we know this versus quoted all the time flipp Is four thirteen. What does it say, I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me. That is quoted by everyone, right, boxers, people in UFC, basketball players, football players, baseball players. And when I was in the military and we'd be doing our morning run, my commander would all like, you can do all things through Christ who strengthen with me. Christ is not strengthening me to run this time? What are you talking about? It has nothing to do with that. Right.

13:36 If Christ is a strengthening me to do all things, then what would be the logical conclusion? If Christs strengtheneth me to do all things, then I could do all things? So then who should be the best baseball player Christians? Right? Who should be the best basketball players? Christians? Who should always in all their fights? Christians? Do Christians do best in school? No? No, that is just inevitably not true. So when I say cristis strengthened to me to do all things, we know immediately. Look, we don't even need to know how to read. We can just say something is wrong with that conclusion. Right, So how do we understand it. Well, it's often applied broadly to personal achievements.

14:21 But the context is Paul speaking about finding contentment and all circumstances, not about accomplishing any task. So it's about being content. That's more of the content. Right, that's more of the context. I should say so, But yet that's done all the time. Now that's an egregious example, right, I mean, any reasonable person should be like, that's ridiculous. But there's millions of those examples that happen every Sunday in churches all across the United States of America, over all kinds of issues. So always interpret scripture within the immediate context surrounding versus book context, the overall theme of the book and biblical context. We have to understand context, so that this is a number one problem and interpreting Bibles the failure to understand context. All right, so let's take this this entire week. Everything went wrong again with the two sermon reviews. One was on Second King six and the other one was on Proverbs thirty. So go to Second King's chapter six. Go to Second King's chapter six.

15:36 I'm gonna try to apply some of this to all the craziness that we witness this week. All right, Second King's chapter six, I'm gonna try Second King's Chapter six. Verse one, and the sons of the prophets said, unto Elisha, behold now the place where we dwell with these two straight for us. That's pretty straightforward, right. They don't have enough room. They don't have enough room, right, So what do they say? In verse two? Let us go, we pray thee under Jordan and take this every man of beam, and let us make a place there where we may dwell. And he answered, go yee, So what do they want to do? They want to go make a place, And what are they gonna need to build a place. They're gonna need wood, right, They're gonna need it beams, they're gonna need lumber, right. So that what happens in verse three. Well, then they ask Elisha, hey be content, I pray thee and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go pretty straightforward stuff, right. How would you interpret verse one and verse two and verse three? How would you interpret all of that pretty straightforward? In literal? Would you not?

16:41 What happens in verse four? So he went with them, and when they came to Jordan. They cut down wood. Now guess what and the sermon all of a sudden, no, no, no, you know what this represents. This rest represents us as Christians living out our Christian life and the cutting down the wa wo is us working. We're doing that work for God. But you know what happens when we start doing our work for God? We get apathetic, we get complacent, we complacent get we lose our zeal and we stop really focusing and we start really stop really paying attention. And guess what happens when we become apathetic and complacent and we and we don't pay attention. What happens in the next verse, verse five, what happens He's cutting down a log and the axent fall into the water. This is what happens in your Christian life when you're out there working for God and all of a sudden, you just not pay You stop paying attention, You stop being village vigilant. Okay, you're not not a vigilante. You stop being vigilant, you start really paying attention, you lose your passion and the next thing you know, your axent falls into the water. Well, that's the way it's breached. This is the way it's pree you lose it. And so some of you today are sitting here in this church and you've lost your axe head, your passion is gone, your zill for God is gone. You've become complacent in

18:13 your Christian life, and you need a revival. And everybody, everybody listen to that sermon, was doing what? Amen? Amen? Amen? What is't you talking about? What is it? What does that have to do with it? Where did you even come to that conclusion? You know what that is, reading the Bible and making it up. That's the hermoneutic found in most churches. There's nothing to do with that. Where does it say? Where would you even go to find where? It means? Oh? You want to know how this was taught to me in one school that I attended. Okay, the taking the axe and chopping down the tree, That is you and I trying to keep the law of God.

18:56 We try to keep the law of God, and the more we try to keep the law of God, ultimately happens the axe head comes off because we cannot keep the law, and then we fall into the water. And the water represents the judgment of God because God used water in the arc right and he used the water to destroy the Egyptian army. Oh, I got even cross references, right, So then I submerge into God's judgment in God's rat But then the stick is put in the water. Is that what happens? And it makes it float. That's the cross of Jesus Christ, who died for me, who then resurrected me, and now I'm used by God. That's that's how I was taught in one of the schools I attended. Does that preach good? Yeah? Could would you sit there going wow? I never saw that this represented that? And that you know why you never saw that because it's not there? It sounds good Now any immediate context, would there be anything here to go? When we get to this, we start making this represent this and this represent this. Well, guess what. To be fair, people do this with these miracles and second kings all the time time, do they not?

20:01 This represents this, This represents this, This represents that. But the context does not give that away, does it. There's nothing in the context that would be like hmm. Now, I can agree it seems like a strange story. I can agree. All the other miracles up to this point seem to be something of great seemed to be bigger, seemed to be more significant. This seems like pretty insignificant. The what makes it significant in this case? Well, now this is the cultural context. An axe head would be made of iron, most likely, and that was of great value at the time. Now look at the text. What is it about this axhead? Oh, it was borrowed. Now, yeah, if you borrowed someone's iron axe head and it just dropped to the bottom of the Jordan and you can't get it back, that's pretty significant. Now it seems insignificant and light of all these other miracles. But what does it demonstrate? It could our argue it demonstrates God's care even for the insignificant thing. Now, so there may be an application from that, but even there you gotta be careful.

21:09 So okay, but that's the way you handle it. The context. Now go to Proverbs chapter thirty So we have a cultural context, we have historical context, right, and it immediately destroys a lot of what preachers do. This is the verse where everything went crazy this week. Proverbs thirty fourteen. There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men. So in the sermon, okay, and I'm gonna have to get somewhat graphic. I apologize to the kids, but I just have to get graphic here because this is how it happened in a sermon. That sermon. They read that verse and then guess what they said? There is coming a time where poor people are gonna be taken, their heads are gonna be removed, their blood is gonna be drinking, and people are gonna eat their flesh. And I was sitting there behind the microphone almost ready to just door dash me some alcohol, okay, because I'm like, what is happening right here? What is going on? Now? Just look at the context. Look at the immediate context. Do you see any key clues? And verse fourteen itself, what would be some key clues in verse fourteen that maybe this is not about literally eating people? Teeth? Are his swords?

22:43 What else? Jaws? That's not? Now? What's the key phrase there? Sarah? You should know this? What's the key phrase there? As which indicates that it's using a literary device known as a metaphor. Correct, okay, right, orse simile, thank you? I was I was hoping someone would use the word simile, right, or in a similes if that's the clue. Not if you don't need to go to the perverse before it, go to the verse before, just right before it. What does it say the verse before? It? Is that a verse condemning a generation's eyes? No, the eyes represent why pride? Right, that's it's about pride. It's using what literary device? He would it be metaphorical language? Okay, it's so immediately you were like, whoa, well, wait, not only that, what's the context?

23:49 What's the literary context? It's a proverb, which is a form of poetry, and poetry tends to use metaphorical language and simile, right, So just a little bit of context, and you would immediately go, wait a minute, I think maybe we're getting a little carried away here, right, I think maybe I don't know if we should be running around. And so then they go to the Book of Psalms, which is poetry, or then they go to the Minor Prophets, which is prophetic. Guess what in all of those literary genres, what is commonly used metaphor and similes and those types of things. So you would just looking at the context should have stopped it, but now it did not. Only did it not stop it, everybody in the church was like, amen, Amen, they're gonna take the poor and they're gonna eat them.

24:39 And I'm like, what is happening? And this would be a conservative church that would argue, we believe in the historical, grammatical method of interpretation, while this just goes utterly completely chaotic. Just a little bit of context should do what should fix it, But it's never fixed. This never stops in Christianity, right, So what's the first major issue in hermeneutics. It seems to be a problem people fail to consider context. But when we say context, what kind of context are we referring to? Immediate, literary, historical, and cultural? And you take some of that information, I'm not is that gonna fix every problem? No, because listen, no matter how many problems we fix, let me state this and dogmatically, Bible interpretation is subjective. I don't care how much you do. It will always be subjective. It will always be. But we should be able to eliminate craziness. But no, and guess what.

25:44 The churches where the craziness tend to always be the more successful churches. How about number two. The first problem is a failure to consider context. Number two is reading personal or modern ideas into the text. Is when we read personal or modern ideas into the text. There's two phrases, exegesis and is Jesus? What is isa Jesus? Exit Jesus. And this is not technical, so people are online, don't get all ticked off at me. I'm not giving technical definitions.

26:24 Exit Jesus is. The idea of pulling from the text isid Jesus is where we put into the text. We are not to put anything in the text anything, nothing. Pastors love to do this when they tell when they have these stories in the Old Testament, they'll start saying, well, they said this, or they said this or and they almost start acting it out and they just create their own story and it sounds good. Everyone's laughing because the pastor is being of a good communicator. It's basically the shows and TV show And you know how I despise that with every ounce of my being. Why because it creates complete, made up dialogue. It's not in the Bible.

27:10 And once you create, when you when you start reading things into the text, what's the problem with that? You begin to destroy the text itself, so we cannot read anything into this. This occurs when an interpreter projects their own ideas, their own biases, their own culture, their own values onto the Biblical text, rather than letting the text speak for itself. This leads to misinterpretation as the text is forced to align with a personal preference or contemporary viewpoints. We can't read what we wanted to the text. And we do that all the time. When Jesus says turn the other cheek, resist not evil, love your enemy, we're like, ah, I mean, come on, what about this. We can't tell Jesus what he means. Do we like that view of turning the other cheek, resisting not evil, loving your enemy?

28:03 You're kind of like, that seems ridiculous. And anytime I ever preach on that section of the Summer Amount, almost inevitably someone walks up and goes, well, what about this? And well, I don't think that's what it means. Well, of course you don't think that's what it means because you don't like it. Okay, of course I don't like it, but you can't read your preference into it. But this is very important. Here's a good example, many read their modern political ideologies into scripture, such as to try to force the Bible to support a specific political system, either to support capitalism or to support socialism, or to resport support a republican idea or a democratic idea. Guess what you're trying to read that into an ancient text that doesn't give a care about the United States of America, about capitalism, socialism, or Republicans or Democrats, because it doesn't care about any of that, because it doesn't speak to any of that. Correct, And guess what people did the exact same thing when we read in Romans thirteen. We all know this passage, right, Romans thirteen. Romans thirteen, verse one.

29:33 We know what happened. We saw this happen in real time. All everyone in this church is old enough to remember what happened. Romans thirteen one. Let every soul be subject under the higher powers. For there is no power but of God, the powers that be our ordain of God. Whoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damn nation. That sounds pretty clear, does it not, Well? Guess what that was clear to everyone? And until when until COVID, and then all of a sudden we needed new interpretations. And so then it was well, this is it. You do this when the government is good. You do this when the government is godly, and you do this when the government gives you good rules. Now the historical context is Paul's writing when who's in charge? Niro the guy was a lunatic. They were like, well, he didn't mean that.

30:31 And so then there was all these new interpretations. Why was there new interpretations because we were ticked off because there were rules about what churches should or shouldn't do. Now, whether we agreed with the rules or disagreed with the rules, what were we called to do? To do everything in our power to do? What to submit? And so I kept saying over and over there are countless ways you could work around it. In some cities and some d they just restricted the number of people that could be at any one service. So what did I tell churches to do? Have ten services? Problem solved? In fact, what did I tell all churches to do during the pandemic?

31:14 If they allow you to have in person service and they just reduce the number, just have services when Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Increase the number of services. Just reduce the number of people who can attend. Problem solved. Oh but we can't do that because no one's gonna tell us what to do. Well, that has nothing to do with the Bible, does it. The Bible would say, hey, wait, let's work around it. Would are we necessarily in agreement with it? Whether it didn't matter if we're an agreement with this, the text say, whether you agree or disagree, this has to submit. So you submit, whether you like it or not. And then what we tell our kids, I make the rules. You do what I tell you. Oh, but parents love to tell the kids that. The parents just don't like to be told that. There were ways to work around it, right, there were countless ways to work around it. But what were churches afraid of losing money? Okay, that's what I said.

32:18 And I remember I always said that. There was that charismatic pastor in Louisiana who was on CNN to this day, I respect, I hate that man's theology with every ounce of his being, but I love the way he handled the interview. Hey we're going to be having services? Well? Why? And he said he pointed over towards the bibs and look at all that, Look at the buildings. That costs money to keep operating. If I close down, we go out of business. Now, he didn't make it out. He just straight up said, I have to do it for money. At least I admire that, right, I mean, I look, he was like, I'm going to break the rules, but I have to break the rules. And I can understand when it comes to financial issues. It was very difficult, right, how do you make could work? But I also knew that.

33:02 Guess what, I got so tired of churches whanting about it. They could have been broadcasting twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. So what did I do during the pandemic. I increased them hours of broadcasting dramatically, right that just during the time of just during the time of the pandemic, I think I produced close to like three thousand hours of content. All I did was just strive here to an empty building, turn on a microphone, and can talk about whatever. Every church could have been doing that, but no, we couldn't do that. We had to fight instead of doing what Instead of worrying about fighting, we could have been doing what ministring. I don't know people were dying. Maybe we should have been more worried about people dying than our own little kingdoms. But see, that's where we start reading what our preferences into the text.

33:54 You cannot do that? Does that make sense? So what should we do instead of reading it into the text. We should practice exegesis, which means drawing the meaning out of the text based on what original context, not on what we read into the text. So those are two common problems in hermoneutics. Failure to consider context and number two reading things into the text. And you know why we want to read into the text because we don't like what the text says. Look, I want to change the text all the time. Do you want do you want to change it? I want to change it. Right, wouldn't it be great if we could just make it say what we wanted to say? Right, it would be great.

34:38 But well we do this Number three? Here we go over allegorizing historical narratives. This is where we over spiritualize, over turn into a historical narrative, basically into an allegory. All right, now, this happens all the time. Let me give you an example. All right, go to Matthew chapter eight. Oh, well they know that, but I'll just use some other examples. Just let me use it. Yeah, clearly the second kings all of a sudden, an ax head's not an axt and it becomes this. They're over allegorizing a historical text.

35:20 But look at Matthew chapter eight. Everybody knows Matthew chapter eight, verses twenty three through twenty seven. Everybody look at it. Matthew chapter eight, twenty three through twenty seven. What do you see when you get to Matthew eight twenty three through twenty seven, tell me what you find? All right? Jesus is going to quiet the storm. Where is Jesus in this text? He's on the boat? Is he is this the text where he's asleep? Yeah, he's asleep, right, and they wake him up because they're all going to die, and he does what he quiets the storm. Now, inevitably, if you go to a church, guess what's gonna happen when they preach this text. The ocean is our life, and we're selling across the ocean. The boat represents us, right, and the storms represent what the trials and troubles and difficulties in our lives, and sometimes we will forget that Jesus is in the boat with us because we see the storm. We see the storm more than we see Jesus. Oh, this preach is good, right, And if we'll just put our eyes on Jesus, Jesus will do what he'll say, Peace to all our problems and all our difficulties. And

36:51 we can have a sail across the ocean on smooth seas if we will just put our eyes on Jesus and not on the storm. Same thing when they talk about Peter see, Oh, and guess what they're doing with all of those texts. That's just completely alglorizing it. That's all that's They do the same thing with David and Goliath. What does Goliath represent our our temptation or fear or challenges? And then David, he grabbed those those small rocks, right, and each rock represents what it can represent scripture, it can represent prayer. And then we take what God has given us and we can bring down the giants in our life that has literally nothing to do with it has nothing to do with anything. And then and then Joshua and the walls of Jericho. The walls of Jericho represent all the things that stand in our way and living out our Christian life. But if we'll just follow God's instructions, it'll bring the wall down. Every story just turns into what this big allegorized mess, and it's ridiculous.

37:53 And this happens in churches everywhere. This is the common way these things are preached. We cannot We have to stand against that and not allow that to happen. All right, So this happens when historical events in the Bible are interpreted as purely symbolic or allegorical, even when there is no indication that the text should be understood this way. This approach can lead to speculative or subjective interpretations that deviate from the plain meaning of the text. For example, some interpreters may treat the story of David and Goliath as an entirely allegorical, with every element the stones Goliath representing something in the Christian life, rather than seeing it as a historical account with philological and moral lessons. We have to distinguish between historical narrative, which is primarily descriptive of real events, and allegory, which is intentionally symbolic. In interpret narratives in a way that honors their historical setting, unless the text explicitly calls for an allegorical reading, unless there's something in the text that's like, hmm, this is weird, then we try to figure out why, but we still maintain what the historical aspect of it. Pastors just run, they go crazy, this represents this this, And I was taught to preach that way. That was a common way for me to preach, right, And there was at least

39:26 a little bit of it early on here in the church. Probably I moved away from it relatively quick, but because the more I learned about Hermoneutics, the more I'm like, what am I doing? But I mean, considering one of the schools I went to, I definitely was taught. You know, Harold Camping taught me there. Well, it's the same method taught in the Roman Catholic Catechism that there's multiple layers or multiple levels of meaning to scripture. Right, you have the historical meaning, you have this moral meaning, and you have the spiritual meaning. Well, the spiritual meaning. You can take any text and say, okay, well there's the historical, there's the moral, but now here's the spiritual meaning. And so this can represent this and this can represent this. Well, guess that sounds so good. But guess who gets to determine what represents what? The preacher or the person in the view. Well, that just turns Bible interpretations what completely subjective that we cannot do that to the text. So what is problem? Number one? Failure to consider context. When we talk about context, we're talking about a lot of different things, are we not we talked about all of the different context historical literary okay, uh, we read things into the text that's is of Jesus. That's a major problem.

40:42 Number three over allegorizing historical narratives. And I will say the over allegorizing historical narratives is literally what preaching is. And why why do we have to do that so much in our preaching? Because people when it comes to preaching, what do people want? I say it all the time. They want a sermon. They don't want to actually study the text. There is a difference between a sermon and studying the text. A sermon has to follow basic like I'm doing a presentation, right, I need a good intro, I need a good body, I need a good conclusion.

41:22 I got to have a hook. I got to make sure I can pull the people in. I got to make it interesting, I got to make it applicable. And so what does that lead to? It leads to fantas basically fantasy day. You know, it's fairy tale time where I'm going to tell a story. I'm just gonna go to the Bible. I'm like, well, this is this and this, and everybody's like, ooh, I never saw that. Of course you never saw it because it's never been there, right, it's never been there. Preaching is not supposed to be storytelling. Preaching is supposed to be equipping and doing what getting us to confront the text, having us come face to face with the text and all of its complexity and all of its difficulty. Is that fun? No? Is that always interesting? No? But I mean I would hope it's interesting.

42:12 I mean, it's the preacher's job to make it interesting. But it's not always. Sometimes it's just not all right? What's number four? So what's number one? Again? Failure to consider context number two, reading into the text number three, over allegorizing number four, ignoring the genre. Different books of the Bible belong to different genres, such as what are some of the major genres in the Bible poetry, prophecy, historical narrative. We can say epistle with a letter, each of which requires a different approach to interpretation. Ignoring the genre can lead to misunderstanding whether a text is meant to be taken literally or figuratively. Psalms use what kind of language poetry, So interpreting phrases like the mountain skipped like rams probably would be a good idea to do.

43:04 What not read that literally? Because the mountains were not skipping like rams? Can we that probably makes sense? Okay? Right? Right? Always consider the genre of the book and passages you're interpreting, recognizing that poetic books often use figurative language, while historical narratives should generally be taken more literally. So in our example of this crazy week of everything that happened, the Proverbs text is in Proverbs, which is poetry. The Psalm fourteen is in Psalms, which is poetry. The Mica three is in a prophetic section. All of those are very wide typically are going to be seen as using metaphor figurative language, spiritual language. It makes sense. What was so bizarre to me is the pastor went on and on and on about the proverbs being literal, people eating flesh, you know, people are going to be eating and all this stuff. He went crazy then made all kinds of lies about Satanism and just it was just like an insanity.

44:03 But then guess what he did when he got to John six fifty three, where Jesus said, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part of me. All of a sudden he said that was figurative. If we were going to use a hermoneutical argument, which one would be more likely the one we should take literally? The one in John. Why, it's a it's a historical biography, it's a historical narrative, right, And so just think about John in the beginning, was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. Do we believe that to be literal? The word became flesh and drought among us? Do we believe that to be literal? And we start going through John, we would be like literal, literal, literal.

44:49 So then all of a sudden we get to John six. What happens now if we go to John six, go ahead and look there. John six fifty three is where the famous verse happens, Right where Jesus says you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood. Everybody knows that, right, that's in verse fifty three, correct, All right? Now, remember the rules that we've been given so far in this What do we have to do? We have to consider context. What can we not do? Read into it? Right, and we got to consider we don't want to over alglorize, and we do not and we want to consider genre, right, all right, So y'all just start skimming John six and tell me what clues you would have and how we should handle verse fifty three. Just skim it and see if what clues you would have to go Maybe wait a minute, wait a minute, there's something here that could possibly tell me I need to handle this a little differently.

45:47 What would you find in John six that may give you a clue? Remember we found the clue in Proverbs thirty verse fourteen, within the very verse and the verse right before it. This may take a little bit more work. Oh well, verse ooh thirty five. We're not far from fifty three. We're not far from fifty three. In fact, it's part of the same discussion, right, I think it's part of the same narrative, right, and what does Jesus say, I am the bread now? The minute he says he's bred, immediately, what is any good Bible student? Or just forget being no, I take that bag. Bible students are the worst people to talk to, right, people who actually read books. Any person who reads books would immediately go, I think this is figurative. How would we know it's figurative? Jesus wasn't a loaf of bread, So immediately, now I'm on to something, right now, I'm on to something. And he's going to try to draw a contrast in the text. What does he draw a contrast between the actual bread that the israel ate in the wilderness, the manna. Now they ain't that bread. It was awesome, it was great. But what happened after they all ate that bread? They die? Jesus wants him to understand that by party taking of him, you'll never hunger, you'll never thirst, and you will have eternal life, meaning that then this bread is somehow different than that bread. That bread was physical. Jesus is obviously

47:18 pointing to a different kind of bread. And so now how do we consume this bread by faith? Right? If you look at the text, So then how can we eat understand the eating and the drinking. We have to understand it. That is a very graphic way of saying we must believe in Christ. So then we can see where we could possibly then take it that way. It requires a little bit of work, does it not. Now would Catholics agree with us on that? Absolutely not? But you see where we can't ignore now in this case, the genre here doesn't help us, right, The genre here would actually argue for what a more literal interest. That's where you have to be careful, because even if you're in a certain genre, what do you also have to look for the little language and the clues leading up to it. I think here the text gives us the clue, does it not? When sin as Jesus says I am bred, we know he's not bred. We know something has happened here.

48:17 He's now utilizing a literary device. He's using what he's trying to contrast himself with physical bread, and he's trying to draw a correlation. Right. I think we should be able to figure that out. Now. Guess what, though we have philological incentive to read it that way. Let's be fair. If I'm a Catholic, I would have a philological incentive to read it a literal. So you see where that where a Bible interpretation can become very subjective. Right, So we have to understand this, right, We always have to consider the genre of the book and the passage we are interpreting, recognizing the poetic books use figurative language, while historic narratives should generally be taking more literally. All right, So what's number one? A failure to consider context? Number two?

49:10 And that context involves more than one thing, does it not? Okay? I want, ever want to remember all the things that involves, right, immediate, literary, historical, and cultural right. Number two, don't read into it. That's is of Jesus. Don't do that. Number three over allegorizing a narrative. Don't do that number four ignoring the genre. How about number five neglecting historical and cultural context. We cannot neglect historical and cultural context. The Bible was written in ancient Near Eastern and Greco Roman contexts, which are very different from modern Western cultures. Failing to take the historical and cultural context into account can lead to misunderstanding of customs, laws, and social practices described in scripture. The practice a foot washing in John thirteen. In ancient Jewish culture, this was a customary act of hospitality, but modern readers may miss the significance if they do not understand the cultural context. We have to study the historical background and cultural setting of the text using any resource that we can possibly find. Right, We have to do that. We have to know the context. Right? Does that? Is that going to fix every problem? No? But it's a why does it? Why does it sometimes not fix the problem because sometimes people don't agree on what the historical context or the cultural context, which is maddening. Right, But we

50:42 should at least attempt to. Here's what we should be able to do. We should be able to always ask ourself what is the historical and cultural context? And then try to determine how how many different perspectives there are on the context, because if there's three or four different contexts are perspective that at least limits our options? Does it not? That limits our options? So that should make things at least somewhat better for us? All right, everybody got that? Okay, So what's number one? Failure to consider context? Right? Number two? Don't read into it. Number three, don't over allegorize it, don't turn it into a story. Just let the story be the story. Don't make it say something it doesn't right. Number four ignoring the genre. You got to be able to know if it's poetry, if it's history.

51:36 Got to know the literary type. Number five, do not neglect the historical and cultural context. Do not neglect the historical and cultural context. Number six an over emphasis on application without proper interpretation, and over emphasis on applying the text without interpreting the text. Application, application, application. What is most preaching application preaching is This is why I hate the sermon, the concept of a sermon, because sermons almost emphasize application, application, application, application, application, because just to interpret it.

52:24 How do the people sitting in the pew feel about the interpretive part? Give me something practical. Well, when you want something practical, then the pastor has to emphasize what application over interpretation. And once you begin to emphasize application over interpretation, inevitably what's going to happen. You're going to ultimately destroy the actual meaning of the text. It almost always happens, all right. Some interpreters move too quickly to an application without first doing the hard work of proper exegesus interpreting the original meaning of the text. This can lead to applying the text and ways it was never intended to be applied. This problem often results in misapplication or misuse of scripture. And what's the most famous example of all time for this, Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. What does Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven say, I know the plans I have for you, I know these plans to bless you, to prosper you. What is the problem with applying that to us? It applies to people coming out of Babylonian captivity, not people graduating from high school, okay, has nothing at all to do with that. In fact, when I had to go to the which child it of yours? It was Lydia. When I had to go to Lydia's graduation for this nonsense and they read that,

53:56 I just wanted to raise my hand and say, no one in the school should be able to graduate knowing, because that means you can't read. Because if you could read, what conclusion would you come to? This has nothing to do with these high school graduates. It has zero to do with them, none, zero. And if you can't read that, you shouldn't be graduating from high school. You shouldn't be graduating from kindergarten. Okay, you should be going back learning basic reading comprehension skills. And wait, the person according that wasn't at the val Victorian I think it was during the Valvictorian speech. Right, that's even worse. All right, removed, they should not be male Victorian. They should be going back to remedial reading. And that's not trying to be mean.

54:44 I mean, that's just the fact. Jeremiah twenty nine is not about people in Ablene, Texas graduating from a public school or private school or whatever school it was. Right, Can everyone agree with that? Everyone knows that. Okay. This is typically applied to some kind of a promise for Christians without recognizing that it was initially addressed to the exiled Israelites in a specific historical context. The promise in Jeremiah is about God's plan to restore the people of Israel after their exile. Where after their exile where Babylon? Right?

55:25 Not from high school? All right, this is not where a kid can go. I'm being set free. Look, this was now, this is how messed up? This is all right? The American history, man, American history is messed up. Okay, so America there was and I can't tell you how widespread this is, but this is a historical fact. Many of the slave owners wanted their slaves to know about the Bible for what reason? Because there's passages in the Bible about slaves doing what, serving their master and obeying right.

56:07 So they wanted them to know the Bible because it served them well, just like a man may want their wife to study the Bible because it will tell her to submit. Right. Okay, so you can say there's always what personal and involvement, But what happened when many of the slaves started learning the Bible stories? What story did they kind of find themselves drawn to? What stories? Do you think the slaves may have been really drawn to exodus? Right, because this was about what being set free from bondage. So many of the spirituals that they would sing sometimes while working in the field would be referencing what being set free from slavery. And the slave owners were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

56:58 You don't need to be reading them part of the Bible. Okay, we don't need no exodus going on here. I need someone to work my fields, and well, I don't have to pay. That's kind of messed up, is it not? Okay, let's let's not kind of mess up. Let's say what it was that is horrible? That's horrible? Is it not? This absolutely horrible? So guess what, So we we when we overemphasize application, we will just simply apply it to what, well, whatever context that may work for us. Correct. If you are a slave, which content which one? Which part do you want to apply? You want to apply exodus to whom you okay? Right? And if you're a slave owner, you want to apply the submission part to whom them Okay, right, And that's the way it works. If you're a parent, you want to apply the whole idea of obeying your parents to whom your kids okay, And the kids want to apply the text about not provoke your children to reth to apply that to home their parents. Okay. Everyone loves application when we are applying it to whose benefit us?

58:09 But over when we we when we focus on application, that's what immediately happens, right, That's immediately happens. So how do we stop the overemphasizing application? How do we how do we stop the overemphasizing of application? You know what. Yet I can tell you we need to get rid of sermons. The whole sermons structure is guilty of this. We need people not preaching sermons, but actually trying to teach the text. And that's got and what's been the criticism in this church from day one? It's too much like a seminary. It feels like a university classroom. Doesn't feel like change, You feel like change. Okay, what do they want? They want three points and they want to be up by noon. They don't want to be challenged.

58:57 They don't want to that's always been the criticism. Well in some ways. Look, I understand the criticism. You walk into this place. It does not feel like what any other place, right, I mean, come on, let's be honest. We do things completely different. Nobody. How many churches are having a lesson on hermeneutics today? None? Okay, Right, So we got to destroy the sermon. And I guess is that ever going to happen? No, because if it was to happen, it would be a full blown revolt and everybody would leave the church and go find a pastor who'll give them the sermon. Even though people say they want in depth teaching They don't really want in depth teaching. They want a sermon. They want it to feel like what they think church is supposed to feel like, because they have an idea of what church is, and you will follow their idea or they will go somewhere else.

59:47 I mean, I've watched it the entire time, and I understand that. Look, I look, I don't, I don't. I don't blame anyone. I mean to want this is completely radical compared to what most people want. Now. My thing is, though, when you go to the other place, you're going to overemphasize application over interpretation, and well then then the Bible just becomes subjective and meaningless, and you're going to over allegorize it in all these other things. So the first solution is we got to destroy the sermon. That's never going to happen. What's the second solution. We have to emphasize observation over everything else. Observation trumps everything else. Bible study is what observation observation Observation that means simply doing what observing what the text says. You don't try to figure out what it means. You just try to figure out what it says. Can you observe it. Can you understand what's going on? The who, the what, the where, the when the hell? Not even trying to figure out what it means? Bible study. All the Bible study methods I've taught over and over and over are all about observation, observation, observation, observation, observation, observation.

1:01:08 What do I've taught y'all about the reason we do out Why do you do outlines? Why do I tell you to do outlines? Because what is the number one observational tool you have in your toolkit? Outlines? Because outlines are supposed to be observational, they're not supposed to be interpretive. Because what are you doing with an outline? You're taking what's on the page and you're doing what You're bringing it to paper, and it's making you read through it over and over and over, going Okay, this will be number one, Okay, then this will be ABC, or however you're going to break your outline down. I don't even care if it's done properly. I don't care if it passes at a school. It's just you need it on paper because it's making you go through the text over and over, not to interpret it simply to observe it.

1:01:51 And that's why your outlines should never have any phrases that are interpretive. They should only have phrases that are observational. And the more you do that, then guess what if someone comes and says something about the text, What can you say? Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa wooh, that's not there. How do you know, Well, I've read it fifteen times that I've outlined it, so you can take your nonsense and get out of my face. Now, guess what if you do that, you'll ruin most sermons because most sermons are saying things that are not there. They're not actually there. So we got to get rid of the sermon. We have to focus on observation. Then we focus on interpretation. This is where we engage in exe Jesus to determine the original meaning, and we use the tools such as Bible commentaries, dictionaries and understanding the historical culture and literary context.

1:02:40 So we have to get rid of sermons because sermons almost immediately obliterate the text. That whole thing destroys it. Then we get to what observation observation observation, Then we get to interpretation. Interpretation always comes after observation, and I started taking people off in the true because what would I say, Hey, before you argue with me, you've got to demonstrate that you've done what you've actually done an observational study on the text. Would people come to me with their observational study? No, would they still tell me I'm wrong? Yes? Well, then there's no point. Then when do you get to application after that? And how when it comes to application, guess what? The application must align with the original context and meaning. The application must align with the original context and meaning. It has to be somewhat in accordance with it. So, for example, what would be an application to Jesus coming the storm? What would be a reasonable application to that story? What would be a reasonable application to Jesus coming the storm? Someone give me a reasonable application? Well, the main application of that story is that Jesus was more than just a man.

1:04:07 He was God because he had power over creation. It's a story about proving the deity of Christ. Right, That's what is more about. Because I can't necessarily trust that take from the story that I can trust Christ to calm the storms in my life, because it's not about the storms in my life, and Jesus may never even bother to calm any storm in my life. He doesn't even come physical storms, right, So you got to be very careful in doing that. What's the story from David and Goliath? What would be an application from that? What would be an application from David and Goliath? Well, it's a story that demonstrates God's faithfulness right to David. I mean, he makes serious promises to David. He uses David right, so he maintained his promises. There, what else is it?

1:05:04 It demonstrates God's faithfulness to whom Israel. Oh wait, remember whenever we get to the Old Testament, many of those stories, the reason things are happening is because of the covenant made with Israel. So God does his things for Israel. I can't say that God's gonna knock out giants in my life because it doesn't, and then I would have to then make giants something else. So there, it was more about God utilizing David right, which he promised him that he was going to utilize and do these things with him and through him. That would be more the application. I know, that's not very exciting. That's hard to preach, right, because I've got to somehow make it about us and what God's gonna do for me. But I can't take from that that God's gonna do that for me. Right, Is God's gonna make me an expert in using a slingshot?

1:05:49 Like that's no, has nothing to do with that. Does that make sense? So the application has to remain somewhat consistent. And that's that's the hard part from a preacher. Let me make it very clear. That's hard for me because I can sit there and if I'm going through the interpret the observation and the interpretation, and I get ready to go to the application, you can tell by that point you've probably already lost fifty percent of the people. So you got to get the people back, right, So what's a good way to get them back? Hit them with a good application that will be very speak directly to them, and then everyone will say what when they leave good sermon? Pastor? It was a good sermon because I made everything up. So yeah, you like this stuff when I make it up. But if I just kind of say, well, I don't know how we really apply this, that's people gonna be like, no, I got you got to give me something better. Than that, right, right? So what was number one? I'm just gonna review and we'll stop here. A failure to consider context. Number two, don't read into the text. Number three, don't overalgorize the historical narrative.

1:07:04 Number four, don't ignore the genre. Okay, Number five, don't neglect historical and cultural context. Number six, don't overemphasize application without proper interpretation. And number is that. That's it. We want to get to number seven, and we don't kin how old are you? That's a twelve year old repeating all of those hermeneutical principles, the one who was doing it for those listening alone, as a twelve year old repeating that, meaning that adults can learn these principles, and so can a twelve year old because those principles would be applied and basically just basic reading comprehension, those principles would apply to some level correct. Learning to read the Bible is all of just about learning to read. Now here's the side, and well, we didn't get through all of the things I wanted to get through, But here's what I wanted to demonstrate. Here's what we want to demonstrate.

1:08:01 Here's the reality Church history shows us. What that Bible interpretation has been subjective and it will always be subjective to some level. Church history has proven, especially within the Protestant world, that who is the ultimate authority, the individual, not the text, and that the interpretation trumps the text. People don't like that. I'm like, okay, well you don't like that, then we've got to try to fight against it. So how do we fight against it? I try to give you principles to try to fight against it. Do you think those principles are ever going to work? No? Why are they never going to work? People won't use them, Churches won't teach them, and churches won't use them themselves.

1:08:43 Pastors won't use them because we've created a system where a good portion of preaching is more about, I hate to say it, entertainment than it is actually digging into the text. People want to be entertained. People get mad at their kids. All my kids is to be entertained. Well, when you go to church, you want the same thing. You want it to be interesting. You want to be exciting, you want to be quick, you want it to be funny, you want to be moved, you want to feel something. Because if you just break a text down guess where you sometimes lead with I don't know how to apply that. I don't really know what to do with it. Now. I should be able to take the story of David and Goliath and make it fun and make it exciting and make it dramatic, right, I should be able to Any good preacher worth his pay should be able to do something great with that text. The only problem is everything they're doing with that text is probably taking you further and further away from the actual text. So many of those miracles we want to make all we want to make everything about us, and so much of it we've talked about it. Many of those miracles and those things had everything to do with God making promises to Israel and then fulfilling those very promises. I can't run in and say, well, since God did that, he's gonna do this for me. Because any of us who've lived life long enough, what do we realize God doesn't step in and do all of that stuff? Does he? If he did, wouldn't it be an amazing If God was just feeding people like he fed Israel, there would be over what five thousand about five thousand people die a

1:10:15 day from starvation. There wouldn't be any of that. Wouldn't that be great? That'd be awesome, wouldn't it right, wouldn't it be great? If God was doing all of these wonderful miracles, it would be wonderful because then our lives would be radically different. But he didn't even do all those miracles for people in the Bible, which sometimes is disturbing. Right, other people messed up and He just forgave them. Someone reached out and touched the ark and he killed them. And anisis a fire lied once and died, Abraham lied multiple times, David lied. Don't even forget all the things Solomon did. Sometimes it doesn't even make sense from a historically the bib Bible itself. Right, So, but we can't then go and then somehow try to tell people when they leave church this morning, Hey, you just remember Jesus is in your boat. He's gonna calm all of your storms.

1:11:11 He just remember those walls of oppression that's keeping you from God's purpose in your life. You just march around it and the walls will come down. All the way people preach all of this stuff. It sounds so good. The people in the pew feel better, But it's just an illusionary fairy tale, because the reality is it doesn't work that way, does it. Do we deny the historical reality of what we read in the Bible? No, we believe those stories actually occurred, but we cannot extrapolate from that that God's going to do ABC and D for us, because if he was doing that for us, well, it would be all over the news, wouldn't it. But it doesn't work that way. So then we have to try to spiritualize it. We have to take the literal miracle and then spiritualize the literal miracle into a spirit We just it's so illogical and broken, and I wish there was a way to fix this, but I know this.

1:12:03 If we don't get it fixed, we're just going to continue. I mean, obviously it's never going to be fixed, but you're still going to have people take a Bible, go to Proverbs thirty and then tell me that that's a prophetic passage about what's going to happen in the future when people eat poor people. How do you get that from Proverbs thirty? I will never know that's insane or that an actset actually represents my fellowship with God. That I guess I borrowed. I don't know who I borrowed it from. I guess I borrowed my fellowship. That doesn't even fit with the text itself, right, So that's going to continue to happen, and the more sermons you listen to, the more you will hear it, and the more it should bother us. There's no way to get back. And it's just it's kind of sad that thirty eight years ago, at this very moment, I probably was pretty close to already at the hospital or getting ready to walk into the room. My whole life was going to turn into chaos.

1:12:56 And it's kind of sad that Bible interpretation is about as chaotic as that, and it should be much more stable and sure. But we have taken this Bible, which is the Word of God, and we have literally just destroyed any objective meaning, and we've made it about us, and we now are in charge. And until we acknowledge that, there's no hope we are the authority of the text. Isn't the authority the interpretation trumps the text. That's the reality of Christianity. And I don't know how do we fix it other than acknowledging it and to acknowledge it, we'll get you in trouble. And if I was to acknowledge this in most churches, where would I be on Monday?

1:13:41 Probably unemployed or everybody would be calling me telling me they're going to leave the church because they're ticked off. But you can be ticked off at me. I've got two thousand years of church history to back up my claim. Bible interpretation is as subjective as subjective can be, and there's no end to how many interpretations there are out there. There is no end to it, So we all should be a little bit more humble. We still have to try to fight for what we believe the Bible teaches right. We still have to, but we also have to always be humble and ready to admit that what we could be very wrong. And we're constantly growing and changing and challenging. And that's why I've always been changing in things that I may believe, because I'm always trying to figure it out.

1:14:26 So I wish I could lead it on a much more positive note. Just know that there are real principles out there. There are real principles of hermonuitics out there. They're there. How to convince Christianity to care about them. I don't know, I don't know. And even just remember, and even if we get all of ourselves to be on the right page of interpreting it, it doesn't make us better, just make it. Does that make us more spiritual? Does that make us more godly? No? It just makes us more hopefully aware of what the Bible actually teaches. That's the best we can hope for. Don't think it's going to make us better. Good interpretation does not make you better. Good interpretation just makes you more knowledgeable. Now, we would hope knowledge would always lead to better a lot, but it doesn't always lead to that. It doesn't. Sometimes it actually leads to the opposite. Knowledge could actually lead to pride, so it can actually backfire. But we are supposed to know it, so all we can do is try to know it better. All right, let's pray the Lord got we come before you this afternoon. Lord. It's a it's a sad state of affairs when it comes to how to interpret your word. Everyone in this room, we've all made mistakes in doing it. We've all done it incorrectly. We've probably taught other people incorrectly. Forgive us all for our failure. We will not worry about anyone else's failure. And help us find a way to understand your word so that we can find stability, find objective truth and not subjective chaos. Thank you for all that

1:16:01 you've done, forgiving us your word, and hopefully we will become better stewards of it. And we asked us in Jesus name, and God's people said