Does it sometimes seem like different readers draw opposite conclusions from God’s Word? Discover some of the ways that interpretive approaches lead to vastly different outcomes.

GYC 2011: Fill Me

<p>Does it sometimes seem like different readers draw opposite conclusions from God’s Word? Discover some of the ways that interpretive approaches lead to vastly different outcomes.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2011 Seminar: Revelation, Inspiration, and Interpretation - Keys to Understanding Scripture

Chester Clark

God Breathes Books, Part 1

This message was presented at the GYC 2011 conference.

For other resources like this, visit us online at GYCweb.org.

I think I'll go ahead and start with a little bit of an introduction and I'll have a word of prayer then and get started.

Hopefully it won't make anybody feel bad for being late.

Thank you all for being here early and on time.

And I know that we have a lot to cover in a few moments here together.

Some of this material is material that I've really never shared in this format before.

So I'm a little bit curious to see how the time will treat us and how much time we'll have.

Hopefully we won't have to be too rushed.

We also want to spend some time in questions and answers at the end of the module as you know and especially spend some time in prayer.

So we do have a little time left over, we won't mind because we do have a very important work to do in spending some time in prayer together.

I'm glad this conference is arranged in such a way that we can, it's part of the program for us to spend extra time in prayer on a regular basis, all of us.

So let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, today we are thankful that you've given to us your Word.

And as we study that Word today, we just want to pray that your Spirit would guide our hearts and our minds.

We know, Father, that we are mortals, you are immortal.

Our minds are finite and yours is infinite.

Your truth is far beyond our entire comprehension, yet Lord, you ask us to search after you and seek to know you.

And so I just pray that as we study your word, as we study the process in this first period of revelation and inspiration that you'll send your spirit to be among us, that you will guide our thoughts and our minds, help us to have strong foundation for what we believe and how we interpret, how we study the Bible.

The way these seminars, I'll just give you an overview of my seminar, I realize not all of you may choose to stay for all 3 modules, but in this first seminar we're going to be talking about the way revelation and inspiration works.

And this is probably the most fundamental understanding that we bring to our study of the scriptures.

We'll be talking about some of the presuppositions in the second part of this module, time permitting, that we bring to the scriptures.

But of all the presuppositions, the most influential is what we understand inspiration to be, how it works, and how we define it perhaps.

Not that I mind questions, that's why we have time for it at the end.

I hope it doesn't just muddy the waters in your mind.

These are some topics that sometimes we don't think about a lot.

And sometimes actually thinking about them gets questions stirred up.

And we're not sure exactly where we stand on some of these things.

But we want to today try to understand from inspiration itself how inspiration works and how this revelation process comes about.

Because our understanding of revelation becomes a necessary assumption, a presupposition for our interpretation of scripture and its theology.

During the second module, we're going to be talking more about hermeneutical history, the history of biblical interpretation.

As you see major, what we say, trends in Christian history, and you see how people made mistakes as a church basically, Christianity as a whole sort of went 1 way and then another.

You start to sort of see the differences in the different approaches that we could take to scripture.

And then you also start to see, wow, there's still those differences in our world today.

People do still approach scripture in these different ways.

Even within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, you will find a variance as to how we interpret scripture.

That is my area of study and graduate study.

I hope you will enjoy our brief run through 2, 000 years of biblical interpretation.

But the point is to get us to how we can better interpret the Bible.

So when we come to the end of that history in the first half of the second module, hopefully we'll be there.

And then we'll talk about some actual interpretation, some of the common maybe variations in interpretation.

And we're going to actually be this afternoon taking some of the, a couple passages and showing how they can be interpreted in right ways and wrong ways.

And maybe that will make it practical for you after all the history you've endured if you're there.

And tomorrow the third module is more about actual ways of Bible study, devotions, ways to know your Bible, how to study the Bible in such a way that you're most likely, by God's grace and through his Spirit, to come to a knowledge of the truth.

So we begin with 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15, and I hope you've brought your Bibles today.

We are going to be spending time in the Bible.

I do have some texts perhaps on the screen.

Most of them are going to be Spirit of Prophecy statements I put on the screen since we don't all carry those books with us.

But the texts I'll be asking us to turn to, and there'll be quite a few, time permitting, that we'll want to look into.

Second Timothy chapter 3, and verses 15 through 17, is Paul's cardinal passage, you might say, on the nature of inspiration.

It says, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

And then, of course, what would we understand those scriptures to be talking about?

And Paul writes, you've known the Holy Scriptures.

He's referring to the Old Testament, right?

Because that would have been the scriptures available at the time.

All scripture, he says, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished, unto all good works." Now, you notice here this word, theopneustos, which is basically God breathe.

That's the word translated, which is given by inspiration.

Now the word inspiration as a noun is not actually found in the Bible.

So when we talk about inspiration as in a noun form, That's not something that we find in the scriptures.

But when we talk about inspiration, we can see this is where it comes from.

And you know the word inspire, expire, from medical terminology you can see that this is related to the Greek, which simply means God breathed, right?

In a verb form, it's found right here in this passage.

And definitely this verse tells us that God is involved in the origin of scripture.

God is definitely involved in the origin of scripture.

We don't know just from this verse exactly how he did this, but it says that he did.

It's given by inspiration of God, and of course it's profitable for those things.

Peter also gives us a major text speaking about the inspiration of the Bible.

And we can turn there to 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 20 and 21.

Peter says this, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were what?

So here we see that man did not originate scripture.

Man did not originate the thoughts or even the idea of speaking them or putting them into words.

This process which we are going to speak about as revelation and inspiration is originated by God.

And notice that here, Here we have a little more detail as to how this process works.

It tells us that the actual speaking, the actual communication, was inspired by God, moved by the Holy Spirit.

So there's something that has to do not just with the inspiring of the individual, but with the communication of the message as well.

This is going to be very important as we look at the different models of revelation and inspiration during this hour.

It's going to be important that we take these type of clues from scripture because there are a variety of different views out there when it comes to revelation and inspiration.

Now the Greek word there literally says being moved by the Holy Spirit or that's pretty much what the King James translated it to, right?

Now this passage is best understood in the light of verse 20, just before it.

Knowing this first, every prophecy of Scripture does not come into being from one's own interpretation.

And we'll be talking more about one's own interpretation as we move on.

God Breathes Books, Part 2

Father in heaven, thank you for this time we can spend in your word.

We pray that as we continue to study Revelation and inspiration, which will guide our hearts and our minds, We will have an understanding of how we can better interpret your word.

So we spoke of Balaam and we spoke of how God intervened in his case, right?

And it's 1 of several examples we can find in the Word of God how God, when a prophet would have given a message that would not have been God's will or God's word, that he intervened in 1 way or another.

1 of the other ways that God intervened in the life of Ellen White and the ministry of Ellen White, we're talking about inspiration here, how God actually was involved in the very communication of the ideas, not just the education of her mind, but the communication of her ideas.

We see in Spiritual Gifts Volume 2, page 292, 293, she says, after I come out of vision, I do not at once remember all that I have seen.

And the matter is not so clear before me until I write.

Then the scene rises before me as was presented in vision, and I can write with freedom.

Sometimes the things which I have seen are hid from me after I come out of vision, and I cannot call them to mind until I am brought before a company where that vision applies.

Then the things which I have seen come to my mind, " she says, with force.

I am just as dependent upon the spirit of the Lord in relating or writing a vision as in having the vision.

So God was very much involved in the communication as well, even if, In fact, she was using her own words.

When she didn't find those words, she would have them brought to her.

It is impossible for me to call up things which have been shown me unless the Lord brings them before me at the time that he is pleased to have me relate or write them.

Again, Spiritual Gifts, Volume 2, pages 292 to 293.

She speaks also of how the Holy Spirit helped her to find a fit word, an appropriate word, for what she was trying to say.

This from Manuscript Releases, Volume 2, pages 156 to 157.

While I am writing out important matter, he is beside me, helping me.

And when I am puzzled for a fit word with which to express my thought, He brings it clearly and distinctly to my mind.

It's not that all of her words were dictated.

That certainly doesn't come through here, does it?

She's trying to express, she even says her thought, right?

I believe it's inspired thought because through revelation God has been educating her mind, teaching her the truths, the wisdom that he wants her to convey.

But it's her thought she's trying to convey and as she's trying to seek the best word to use, God would sometimes put those words in her mind.

She might be able to communicate that the best way.

Another way that God intervenes when it comes to inspiration is correcting when significant mistakes are made.

And we can turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 17.

1 Chronicles 17, I believe it is, verses 1 through 4.

Find the story here of the prophet Nathan.

The Bible says, now it came to pass as David sat in his house that David said to Nathan the prophet, lo I dwell in a house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord remains under curtains.

Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart, for God is with thee.

And it came to pass the same night that the word of God came to Nathan, saying, go and tell David my servant, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not build me in house to dwell in.

He gave King David the permission, the blessing, ostensibly the blessing of the Lord, to go and to build a house for him, right?

When he got home, God came to him during the night and said, you said the wrong thing.

If I say the wrong thing, God doesn't always correct me.

That's why you need to search the scriptures for yourself to see whether I'm telling you the truth.

We don't read non-inspired writings the same way we read inspired writings.

Non-inspired writings could have things, they may be overall very good works, but there may be just little things here and there that aren't quite the mind of God and we have to read non-inspired writings with a critical mind.

Because there may be thoughts that we have to reject.

We take what's good and we reject what's bad.

But when it comes to a prophet, if there was something that would be significant, if there was something that would be a miscommunication of God's will, God's way, God's character, the prophet would be corrected should they use their own human judgment and give counsel or a word that is not in harmony with what God would have them to understand.

So God here corrects Nathan, and it's 1 of those examples we can point to.

1 of the most interesting stories when it comes to Ellen White's experience in Revelation Inspiration took place the morning of October 19, 1902.

How many of you have meetings at 06:00 in the morning?

There were 7 individuals there who were gathered in her home, including the president of the General Conference and local church pastor there in Napa area and the president of the California Conference and the pastor of the San Francisco church, and a number of other people.

I think the publishing director for the general conference was there, 7 altogether.

I think Willie White was present as well.

And the subject matter they were concerning themselves with that day was the publishing house, what we call the Southern Pub.

I don't know how many of you have seen old Adventist books published by the Southern Publishing Association.

The Southern Publishing Association was started back in the late 1800s to particularly focus on the work in the South.

And Edson, Ellen White's son, after he was reconverted as an adult, came back into the church.

He started listening to what his mother was saying about work that needed to be done in the south.

He's the 1 that built the boat, the Morning Star, and he built it up in Michigan and floated it out to Lake Michigan and then through the Chicago Canal and on to the Mississippi River and on down to the Tennessee and Cumberland and he started going up and down the rivers in the south.

That was the best way of transportation in those days and much better than the roads.

So Edson was very involved in this and he was currently serving as the, I think his position was the president of the Southern Publishing Association.

He was the leader of the publishing house.

Now, this publishing house had required some capital, some donations.

And in fact, God's people had been fairly generous of late and had given quite a bit of money.

And the impression had been given through communication that it was doing well financially, and it was growing, and it was, you know.

Well, the reality was that it wasn't doing well financially.

It was going further and further into debt every day.

There just wasn't the financial base around to be able to buy the books and for the call porters to work and whatever.

And You understand it was a little bit of a touchy subject because Ellen White's son was the president.

And so the general conference president is broaching this issue with the other gentleman involved.

He basically says, shouldn't the, how long do we have to wait until the church steps in and sets matters right?

He says, you know, it just makes much more sense for us to have 1 publishing house.

We can handle all the printing in 1 location.

We don't have to have this money losing proposition going on.

And so as they're describing the situation, Ellen White gives this response.

God's cause must not be left to reproach, no matter who is made sore by arranging matters on a right basis.

Now, they had a stenographer there to record word for word the whole meeting.

So as AG Daniels, the general commerce president, got onto the train to go back to the east, Michigan, he had in his pocket the transcript of their conversation.

Because this was not going to be an easy thing, but it had to be done.

You know, they had to shut down the Southern Publishing House and they had to stop the staunch of blood that was draining the life force out of the church in the South.

That night Ellen White had a dream or a vision.

In the first part of the vision she saw an operating room.

Are We Reading the Same Book?, Part 1

For other resources like this, visit us online at gycweb.org.

Father in heaven, today we are grateful that you've given to us your word.

Thank you that we can study it in peace, unmolested.

We pray that we would be faithful stewards of the gift you've given to us.

And as we consider the presuppositions that lead us to different conclusions in the Word of God, I pray that you would enlighten our minds and give us understanding.

Now we talked the last hour about the way that revelation inspiration works.

So in that last hour we looked at how God reveals himself to prophets.

This revelation, the Holy Spirit inspires them with an, not just with an experience or an encounter with God but with knowledge with an understanding of the will of God and that Holy Spirit continues to inspire them or to lead them as they speak or write what they know for God's people.

This understanding of inspiration gives us certain presuppositions.

We looked at other competing models, For example, the idea that God dictated every word.

So every word is inerrant and infallible in the Word of God.

We don't believe that except with the Adventists.

And that verbal inspiration would give us a totally different presupposition as we come to approach scripture.

And 1 of the things that it does for us, and we'll talk about it more as we go through this seminar, this module.

1 of the things it does is that the inerrant verbal inspiration model leads people to try to see hidden clues in words that the author never meant or understood.

And it's remarkable to me how many people can read a passage and find an allegorical or a mystical meaning of the passage which the writer never had in mind.

Now there may be some devotional merit to seeing these allegories or to seeing these comparisons, but that's not an interpretation, a valid interpretation of the passage.

And so that is 1 of the ways which I think verbal inspiration gets us sidetracked sometimes.

When we have a solid foundation for Bible study and understanding of how the Bible is given and how it's inspired, it leads us to the correct presuppositions that we approach the scriptures with.

So, As we talk about presuppositions, Dr.

Frank Hosel, who some of you may know of Michael Hosel, archaeologist who teaches at Southern, this is his father who was the dean of the seminary and a very well respected godly Adventist leader.

He says it this way, since the method of interpretation is inseparable from its presuppositions, the respective presuppositions invariably influence the outcome.

To some extent at least, the conclusion may be implicit within the methodology.

That is to say, there's not a lot of point of us arguing about interpretations if we don't agree on the methodology with which we approach scripture.

I've learned this through the years trying to speak with people, particularly in the area of prophetic interpretation.

There are many people who want to have an argument or discussion with you, convince you of some text, some interpretation, some passage, or some prophecy.

And they're well-meaning, I'm not here to criticize them, but I found that it was virtually useless for me to discuss this point on which we disagreed with them when we didn't agree on the principles with which we interpret the prophecies.

It's much better, much more productive, if anything's going to be productive, for us to back up a bit, and to talk about the principles, and maybe we can make some progress then when we go to talk about the specifics.

So this last sentence, to some extent at least the conclusion may be implicit within the methodology.

Really we could say that the conclusion is implicit in many cases even within the understanding of revelation inspiration that we talked about in the previous module.

Depending on your understanding of how the Bible was given and how it was inspired, it may already be a foregone conclusion the way you're going to read it, the way you're going to interpret it.

So, just to define a few terms again this hour, presuppositions of the bias or background beliefs that we bring to the study of the scriptures that influence our interpretation either consciously or subconsciously.

And further, we'll go ahead and define here, this time, the term hermeneutics.

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Series

GYC 2011 Seminar: Revelation, Inspiration, and Interpretation - Keys to Understanding Scripture

Are We Reading the Same Book?, Part 1

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

The Power of God's Word

3. A Brief History of Biblical Interpretation

1h

Boldness and the Bible

56m

Indulgences For Sale

42m

GYC 2011 Seminar: Revival & Reformation

Revival & Reformation: God’s Perspective, Part 1

47m

Stealing Lucifer’s Playground

Stealing Lucifer’s Playground - Part 4

1h 14m

A Light Was Kindled

A Light Was Kindled - Part 1

1h 6m

Plenary

Faithful Greatness

45m

A Light Was Kindled

A Light Was Kindled - Part 3

1h 5m

How to Interpret Scripture

How to Interpret Scripture: Do Historical Matters Really Matter? Reconciling the Bible with Science

1h 10m

Ancient Wisdom, Present Power, Part 1

28m

Sound Doctrine