Why an Understanding of Hermeneutics is Important for Christian Counselors

Henry Virkler

Oct 25, 2023

is Important for Christian Counselors

Henry Virkler, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Counseling (Now retired)

Palm Beach Atlantic University

Hvirkler@aol.com

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who

does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 NIV

Learning Objectives: This introduction to hermeneutics has six learning objectives. They are that you, by the end of this workshop, will be able to:

1. Define the term “hermeneutics”

2. Explain ten reasons why an understanding of hermeneutics is useful or important for Christians in general and for Christian counselors

3. [Most Christians believe “The meaning of a text is what it means to me.” Be able to] Explain why “The meaning of a text is what it means to me” is not a valid interpretive strategy

4. Understand the process involved in developing an accurate interpretation of a passage, and be able to start to use that process when doing your own Bible study and counseling

5. Identify the most common hermeneutical mistake Christian counselors make in interpreting a Bible verse or passage (and how to correct that mistake), and

6. Look at six passages that Christian counselors or clients frequently misinterpret, be able to explain why those are not valid interpretations or applications of those passages, and be able to identify other passages that convey the same (or a similar) idea that would be hermeneutically valid for believers to use today

I. Definition and Primary Principle of Hermeneutics

A. Definition: Hermeneutics is the science and art of biblical interpretation. It’s goal is to help us be able to properly interpret God’s Word.

B. The Primary Principle Underlying Biblical Hermeneutics

1. The primary principle underlying hermeneutics is this: The meaning of a text is the author’s intended meaning.

2. There are at least six important reasons for defining hermeneutics this way:

a. First: This is the way we recognize a valid interpretation of anyone’s message (God’s or anyone else’s).

b. Second: When someone interprets something we said to mean a certain thing when we intended it to mean something different, we object and say they are misunderstanding what we meant.

c. Three: If the idea that “The meaning of a text is what it means to me” was accepted, then it means that every communication could potentially have as many meanings as it had interpreters.

d. Four: It would mean that no contract would be legally binding (because every party to a contract could say it meant what they wanted it to mean)

e. Five: It would mean that teachers could not grade students on their acquisition of knowledge in a course (since students could claim that the text said what they said it meant, rather than what the teacher said it meant).

f. Six: It also would mean that there would be no way of differentiating orthodox from heretical interpretations of Scripture (since every interpreter could claim that their interpretation was equally valid).

3. When people hear the above statement they sometimes object: Sometimes speakers or writers don’t state their intended meaning clearly. However, even if we are unclear the first time we say something, if someone misinterprets what we said, we respond by saying: “I don’t think I expressed what I meant clearly. What I meant to say was this . . ..”)

4. Thus the primary canon of hermeneutics is this: In order for communication, dialogue, learning, or legal contracts to have meaning, we must accept the principle that the meaning of a text is the author’s intended meaning.

5. And this is why “The meaning of a biblical text is what it means to me” is not a valid interpretive strategy.

6. For those of you who have been following the Supreme Court nominations in the recent past the controversy over how judges and Supreme Court Justices are to interpret the Constitution is essentially a hermeneutical issue. Some people argue that the Constitution is a living document, and that we need to give it new meaning as new historical issues arise. A second group (including Amy Comey Barrett) says that judges should interpret the Constitution based on what the words meant to the original authors. They argue that we should not make it say something it could never have meant to the original authors. If situations have changed, then Congress needs to make new laws or pass amendments to the Constitution to reflect those new situations. If judges say the Constitution means something different than the original framers could have intended the Constitution to mean, they are failing to recognize the different responsibilities of the legislature versus the judiciary. The role of the legislature is to make laws that reflect the issues facing our nation today. The role of judges is to ascertain whether someone has violated the Constitution or the law.

II. 10 Reasons Why An Understanding of Hermeneutics Is Useful or Important for Christians in General and for Christian Counselors

A. First: To know what a text means: more specifically, to prevent us from reading our personal opinions or our preformed theological theories into Scripture.

1. Preunderstandings: (While we’re often not aware of it, we all have a history that has taught us to believe certain things. We often impose those preunderstandings onto the words of a text. One of the points modern theologians who believe in classical hermeneutics have made is that it’s important to become aware of those preunderstandings and make an effort to set them aside so we can understand what the author originally meant when he wrote.)

2. Eisegesis: refers to reading our meaning into (eise) the text.

3. Exegesis: refers to reading the author’s meaning out of (ex) the text.

4. This was the reason I originally wrote a textbook on hermeneutics. One of the students in our first Christian counseling class in Atlanta (49 years ago) asked the question: “Most of us are getting graduate-level training in counseling, but we only have Sunday School-level training in theology. What is to keep us from reading Freud into the Bible rather than reading the Bible for what it is actually saying?” We (the faculty) thought that was an excellent question. Since I was the only faculty member who had taken a course in hermeneutics, I was elected to teach that course.

B. A second reason a knowledge of hermeneutics can be important for Christian counselors: To be able to correct psychological or spiritual problems that result from incorrect interpretations of God's Word.

1. Most of you are probably aware of the ABC theory of emotions, which explains why we feel the emotions we feel:

A + B ➞ C

Activating Belief or Emotional

Event Interpretation Consequence

2. When any event happens (A), since no event is self-interpreting, we interpret the meaning of that event at (B), and this leads us to feel some emotion (C). Examples:

a. If a person experiences poverty (A) but believes that God has promised all Christians should be prosperous (B), this can lead to anger at God (C).

b. Illustration from a close friend’s life. This friend went to a charismatic evangelist’s rally where the speaker taught that if a person were truly filled with the Spirit, he should have all the gifts of the Spirit, including the gift of healing. Based on that belief my friend went into a hospital and tried to lay hands on and heal everyone there. When it didn’t happen, he became frustrated with God and almost abandoned his faith.

3. When a person has unrealistic spiritual or theological beliefs this can lead to unhealthy emotional and spiritual consequences.

4. By learning hermeneutics we can provide the biblical evidence to dispute with an incorrect biblical interpretation that is causing a person to have spiritual problems

A + D ➔ E

Activating Disputing New emotional

Event Consequence

C. Third: To be able to distinguish better from poorer interpretations of a text. An example of why this is important for Christian counselors: There are 8 different theories of what the unpardonable sin is. How do we know which one is right? (If you have a client who thinks they’ve committed the unpardonable sin and all you can do is tell them there are 8 different theories about what the unpardonable sin is and proceed to tell them all eight theories, they’ll probably be certain they’ve committed at least one of those. However, if, using hermeneutics, you’ve been able to narrow it to one of those theories, then you can ask him or her what they have done that they think is unpardonable, and then, since its very unlikely that they’ve actually committed the unpardonable sin, you can reassure them that what they have committed is not unpardonable. [Incidentally, if you’re interested in that topic, I’ve written an article about counseling people who think they’ve committed the unpardonable sin. It’s available to download free on my substack website. If you work with seriously depressed people or clients with bipolar disorder you will eventually have a client who believes they’ve committed that sin, so it’s worth it to have this article for a reference.]

D. Four: To be able to show why an incorrect interpretation is incorrect. One of my former teachers, if a student shared an opinion with which he disagreed, would say “That’s a bonehead idea if I ever heard one.” Obviously we probably wouldn’t say that to a client if we wanted to have them keep coming back. Hermeneutics can give us the tools to be able to explain clearly (and more diplomatically) why an incorrect interpretation is incorrect.

E. Five: To be able to understand the meaning of texts which, on the surface, seem to contradict one another.

1. Example: Exodus 4 says “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart” versus James 1 which says “God doesn’t tempt any human being with evil.”

2. Another example: Genesis 6 where God, reflecting on how evil human beings had become, says “God became grieved that he had made man” versus James 1 which says that God never changes.

3. In II Samuel 24 it says “the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying ‘Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.’ However, in 1 Chronicles 21 the Bible says ‘Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.’

4. For our own psychological and spiritual health we need to know how to correctly interpret these verses, so that we’re not left with the impression that God contradicts himself, or that there are contradictions in his Word. And if we have that confidence in God’s Word, we can convey that to our clients if they struggle with the same fear.

F. Six: To be able to remove roadblocks to someone coming to faith in Christ caused by misinterpretations of biblical texts. For example, one of my friends from undergraduate school believed the Bible couldn’t possibly be true because the geological evidence says that the earth is several billion years old, while the Bible says the earth and Adam and Eve were created in 4004 B.C. (i.e., just 6,000 years ago).

1. However, we now know that the word “yom” used in Genesis 1 and 2 (translated “day”) can refer to the daylight period of a day (12 hours), or a 24-hour day, or a period of unspecified duration (like when we say “the day of the horse and buggy”). Just as the English word “day” can have several possible meaning, so to can the Hebrew word “yom.” So the story of creation can mean the world was created in six literal days or it can mean it was created in six periods of unspecified duration.

2. You might further ask: Don’t the dates in our Bible say the world was created in 4004 B.C.? Answer: No, that date was added by a human priest, Bishop Ussher, many centuries ago and is not part of the inspired text. Bishop Ussher calculated that date by adding up the years in the Old Testament genealogies. But we now know that ancient geneologies weren’t complete, like our modern genealogies are. They often left out several generations of people, and only named the more important characters. So therefore the Bible doesn’t tell us the exact date that Adam and Eve were created (since a human being added that incorrect date to the biblical text).

3. By knowing details like this we can sometime remove assumptions that cause people to believe the Bible can’t possibly be true.

4. For information about ancient genealogies see the article written by William Henry Green, a Bible scholar who in 1890 published an article entitled “Primeval Chronology.” You can easily find this article on the Internet, which was published in a very respected theological journal, by putting the name of the article into Google or Bing or Microsoft Edge.

G. Seven: To add authority, credibility, and edification to our counseling, writing, or teaching. (How many of you have been reading something and an author says that the Bible teaches something that you know is not true?) When writers or speakers do this, what happens to their credibility? It goes down. So by knowing good hermeneutics we can sometimes prevent ourselves from saying or writing something that would damage our credibility with Christian clients.

H. Eight: We need to know hermeneutics so that we can serve as models of good biblical interpretation to those who look up to us. (I remember one Christian psychologist who talked about how he used the different translations of the Bible. He said he would make up his lesson, and then he’d find the translation that said what he wanted it to say. I trust that you would never do something like that. We should make our decisions about which translation to use based on which Bible version interprets the Hebrew or Greek text most accurately.)

I. Nine: To help us not make incorrect theological statements which, if our clients repeat them to their pastors or priests, would cause us to lose credibility with people who can be important referral sources. (Whenever a pastor refers someone to us, they are in a sense putting their credibility on the line. If clients come back to them and say that we said “thus and so” which the pastor knows is not a correct interpretation of the Bible, the pastor might overlook it the first time it happens, but if they have two or three parishioners who come back reporting on things we said that are not biblically sound, those pastors may quit referring to us.)

J. Ten: Because God commands Christian leaders (and counselors are leaders by virtue of the work we do) to “correctly handle the word of truth” In 2 Timothy 2:15 God commands us “Do your best to correctly handle the word of truth.”

K. So how do we go about correctly handling the word of truth?

III. The Basic Steps in Correctly Interpreting and Applying a Biblical Text

A. You may be interested to know that you have been doing hermeneutics already. Whenever you listen to someone or read an article or book, by trying to understand what they are saying, you’re unconsciously applying the principles of hermeneutics, even though you may not call the process by that name.

B. However, when there is distance between ourselves and the original author, either historical gaps, cultural gaps, or linguistic gaps, there are more potential roadblocks to understanding accurately what he or she meant. When something blocks our spontaneous understanding of a communication, then we consciously must make more effort to understand what the author meant.

C. Hermeneutics is essentially a verbal, conscious codification of those processes we use every day at an unconscious level to understand other people’s communications to us. Hermeneutics doesn’t just apply to the study of Scripture—we use those principles to help us understand every written or verbal communication we receive. We are also using hermeneutics whenever we try to understand what a client is saying to us.

1. Hermeneutics is also at the foundation of the controversy between modernism and post-modernism: modern science attempts to understand meaning by understanding the author’s intended meaning, although it doesn’t recognize its using traditional hermeneutics to do so.

2. Post-modernism asserts that each reader can de-construct what the author wrote, and then re-construct it based on what the text means to the reader.

3. Reader-response theory: this is a post-modern theory that asserts that meaning isn’t based on what the author intended to mean, but meaning is developed in the interaction between the text and the reader. In Section 1 we talked about six reasons why we shouldn’t take the position that the meaning of a text is what it means to me.

4. So instead of a postmodern theory of hermeneutics what we’ll be doing in this seminar will be a brief study of six steps usually used in classical hermeneutics

D. First step: Historical-cultural and contextual analysis:

1. This asks the question–What information about the history and culture of the time can help me understand the meaning of the actions and statements in this passage? Similarly, what information from the context (what was said just before and after this passage) will help me understand what God was intending to mean here? How many of you have had the experience where someone took a single sentence (or half of a sentence) from something you had said or written, without the full context, and used that sentence to support an idea that you didn’t support?

2. How do you feel when someone does that? (We usually feel frustrated.)

3. This is the biggest way that Christian counselors and Christians in general misinterpret Scripture. (We take a verse that says something we’d like it to say and quote it as if it applies to every aspect of the Christian life.)

4. Example: In 1966 a Communist speaker came to my undergraduate campus and did this. He said, “Even Jesus said: ‘Go and sin.’” (Obviously most of you remember that Jesus’ full statement was “Go and sin no more” the exact opposite of what this speaker was saying.) When we look at some verses later in this seminar you’ll see how we as Christian counselors sometimes do the same thing–we take a verse in isolation and quote it as if it’s a general principle that can be applied to every situation in a Christian’s life.)

E. Second step: Lexical-syntactical analysis: This asks the question–What information about the meaning of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words that God used (the technical term for that is lexicology) and the grammatical forms of the words He used (syntax) can help me better understand His intended meaning?

F. Third step: Theological analysis: This asks the question–What is my view of salvation history (e.g., the relationship between the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the present age) and how can this help me to understand God’s intended meaning for me? (Some theories, such as covenantalism focus on continuity; some, such as dispensationalism, focus more on discontinuity.)

G. Fourth step: Literary (or genre) analysis: Scripture uses many different genres–there is history, there is poetry, psalms (songs), proverbs, parables, allegories, letters, etc.–and each of these genres has different rules for interpretation. So to accurately interpret a passage we must ask (1) what genre is this? and (2) what are the rules for interpreting that genre?

H. Fifth step: Compare your work with others: This step recognizes that the Holy Spirit has been giving insights into God’s Word to students of the Bible for the last twenty centuries, and some of those people may have knowledge of one of the four steps above that we do not know, so it is important to compare our interpretations with those of others.

I. Sixth step: Application: This is not actually part of the interpretive process. Discerning what God meant is done in these first five steps. This last step is asking: “How does God’s meaning or command apply to me in a different time and culture?”

J. Sometimes a question posed in group Bible studies is— “What does this Bible passage mean to you?” From the standpoint of classical hermeneutics, that is the wrong question to ask. It should instead be broken into two separate questions:

1. What did God mean when He inspired this particular passage? (There is a single intended meaning for each passage.) And

2. How does that meaning apply to each of us today?

3. Thus there is only one valid meaning to a text (God’s). However, there may be multiple applications of that meaning, depending on each person’s personal situation.

K. Let’s look at the substeps to each of these six steps.

IV. A Summary of the Primary and Secondary Steps Involved in Interpretation and Application of a Biblical Text

A. First step: Historical-Cultural and Contextual Analysis

1. Determine the general historical and cultural milieu of the writer and his audience.

a. Historical circumstances.

b. Cultural circumstances and norms that add meaning to given actions.

(1) Proverbs 22:28 commands: “Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your forefathers.” Which of the following sentences best conveys the true intent and meaning of this verse in its context?

(a) If you were more psychologically inclined you might say: Don’t make changes from the way we have always done things.

(b) Another possible interpretation: Do not steal.

(d) Or you might say it’s none of the above

(e) Or you might say its all of the above (Pause for a moment to let each person choose which one they think is correct)

(f) [The correct answer is b (do not steal). In ancient Israel they didn’t have modern survey equipment; Each person’s property was identified by boundary stones. It was rather easy to steal some property from your neighbor by going out during the night and moving the boundary markers separating your property from theirs.]

(2) In Mark 7, Jesus soundly upbraids the Pharisees for their practice of Corban. What does that mean? [Pause for a moment to try to answer this. In the practice of Corban a man could declare that all his money would go to the temple treasury when he died. Therefore, since all his money belonged to God, he was therefore no longer responsible to support his aging parents financially. Jesus argues that men were using this Pharisaic tradition to render God’s command (the fifth commandment–Honor your father and mother) of no account.]

(3) Or a modern day example: Suppose someone with a mask over his face comes up to a home, rings the doorbell, sticks a gun in the homeowner’s face, demands something, and the homeowner complies and gives in to the demand, how are we to interpret what is happening?

(4) The point is this: to properly understand the meaning of this OT passage about not moving ancient boundary stones, or the NT concept of Corban, or the modern practice of “trick or treating” we must understand the historical and cultural context in which those commands or behavior occurs.

c. Another thing that’s part of historical-cultural and contextual analysis: Discern the level of spiritual commitment of the audience: Sometimes God is comforting his followers who are going through difficult times. Sometimes he is confronting those who are engaging in outright sin and rebellion. Sometimes he is castigating spiritual leaders who are abusing their positions of power. The important thing is to understand who he is talking to and what their spiritual condition was.

2. Another part of historical-cultural and contextual analysis is to determine the purpose(s) the author had in writing a book. We do that through one of four principal ways:

a. Noting explicit statements or repeated phrases: Examples of this are the books of Luke, Acts, the book of John, or Ecclesiastes

(1) Luke tells us at the beginning of the book of Luke that his purpose is to present an orderly account of Jesus’ life. At the beginning of the book of Acts he says his purpose is to present an account of the history of the early church.

(2) John tells us in John 20 that his purpose was to present an account of the miraculous signs Jesus showed, so that readers might believe that he was the promised Messiah.

(3) We can discern the purpose of the book of Ecclesiastes by studying a repeated phrase in that book: “All is vanity”, or “All is meaningless.” Probably the author’s purpose in writing the book of Ecclesiastes was to teach us that humans can’t discover the purpose of life using their own reason. Neither riches nor pleasure nor anything else can ultimately give us purpose. It is only by placing God at the center of our lives and serving Him that we can find meaningful purpose.

b. A second way we can discern the purpose of a book is by observing parenetical (or exhortation) sections: A good example of this is the book of Hebrews. While we don’t know the author for certain, the writing style is very different from Paul’s, so it probably was not him (It might possibly have been Barnabus or Apollos). It seems to have been written to Jewish converts to Christianity who were undergoing persecution, encouraging them not to revert to Judaism because what Christ offers is so superior. So by looking at the repeated exhortations throughout the book of Hebrews we discern its purpose.

c. A third way to discern the purpose of a book is by observing issues that are omitted or focused on: Example: If you look at the books of I and II Samuel and I and II Kings and compare them with I and II Chronicles, even though they all cover the same time periods, they focus on different things. The first half of I Samuel emphasizes King David’s triumphs. However, in the middle of the book he commits adultery with Bathsheba and has her husband killed. The second part of the book focuses on one disaster after another that befell David. I and II Kings focus on the kings who followed David and Solomon. They show that when the people obeyed God’s covenant they prospered: when they disobeyed, disaster followed. I and II Chronicles, even though they focus on the same period of time, emphasize something quite different. These two books were written to Israel after their return from exile. They no longer had a king and were still ruled by Persia, so the Israelites probably felt discouraged. It recounts how God had blessed David and Solomon and encourages them that God is still with them. It doesn’t emphasize the mistakes these kings made, because it’s purpose is to encourage a discouraged nation.

d. A fourth way: Understand how the passage fits into its immediate context: A text without a context is a prooftext. As mentioned earlier, this is the most common way that Christian counselors misinterpret Scripture. (We think of a verse that is a verbal parallel, i.e., it uses some of the same words that came up in a counseling session, and we apply them to the present situation without checking the biblical context to see if that verse is talking about the same issue as the one brought up by the client.)

3. A third step in historical-cultural and contextual analysis: Identify the major blocks of material in the book and show how they fit into a coherent whole For example, look at First Corinthians: Apparently the Corinthians had written a letter to Paul asking him several questions. Paul writes a reply, with each section starting “Now concerning.....”

4. Show how the passage under consideration fits into the flow of the author’s argument

5. Determine the perspective which the author intends to communicate— noumenological (the way God sees things–the way things really are) or phenomenological (the ways things appear from a human perspective).

a. Let’s give a biblical example of why this question is important: Is the Flood universal (noumenological–it actually covered the whole earth–or was it confined to the Middle East (universal in terms of drowning all of mankind who were alive at that time, but only covered part of the earth)? When it says “All the high mountains were covered with water”(Gen. 7:19) is this description phenomenological, i.e., all the mountains that I could see were covered (a local flood covering the Middle East) or noumenological, i.e., “All the mountains of the entire world were covered” (a universal flood). The Bible doesn’t tell us which kind of description it is, but many of the geological descriptions given in the Bible are phenomenological, so we should probably be open to either and let geology answer that question.

6. Distinguish between descriptive and prescriptive truth (is this a description of what happened, or a prescription of how God wants us all to live?)

a. For example, does the book of Acts teach us that Christian socialism as the kind of government God wants us to have? Probably not. This passage tells us that Christians voluntarily shared what they had, not that the government mandated a redistribution of wealth.]

b. Even though something is in the Bible, it does not mean it is true.

(1) When God speaks, it is always true.

(2) When man speaks, it is sometimes true and sometimes not.

(3) When Satan speaks and it is recorded in the Bible, it is almost always a combination of some truth mixed with some error.

(4) Thus just because something is in the Bible does not mean that it is true.

(5) When humans or Satan speaks, the Bible is accurately describing what they said, not telling us this is God’s truth.

c. Even all prescriptive truth is not prescriptive for us. Example: In 1 Corinthian 11 Paul bans the Corinthian congregation from having a covered dish supper before communion. He did this because the Corinthians were mistreating their fellow Christians, some of whom were Christians from the working class or slaves who could not come to the meal until they’d finished all their work. Wealthy Christians were bringing better food and eating most of it before the working class and slaves arrived. Because this particular church was abusing the practice, Paul told them that they shouldn’t have a covered dish supper before communion. However, this isn’t necessarily a command for our churches today. If your church occasionally has a covered dish supper followed by Communion, your pastor is not doing anything wrong.

7. Distinguish between incidental details and the teaching focus of a passage:

a. Let’s look at an example from the parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Mt. 18:21-35). In this parable a king forgave his servant for a very large debt. Then that servant went and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a small debt. The man begged for more time to pay it, but instead the servant had him thrown in prison until he could pay the debt.

b. In a counseling class where I was a student a Christian psychiatrist said this: This story teaches that a person can be forgiven without being forgiving, based on a detail in the story. So this psychiatrist concluded that it’s possible to be forgiven by God, but not be forgiving toward our fellow human beings.

c. Is that conclusion valid?

d. Jesus’ conclusion: (vs. 32-25) “‘You wicked servant. I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. Then Jesus drives home the point he was making: ‘This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.’”

e. So what this Christian psychiatrist said was just the opposite of what Jesus taught–if we want God to forgive us, we need to be willing to forgive others.

8. Identify the person or category of persons for whom the particular passage is intended. Some of you who are a little older may remember a little box your parents owned that was filled with cards that included verses from the Old and New Testament. The box often was embossed with this statement: “Every promise in the Book is mine.” But is it true that every promise in the Bible applies to us? No. If you make a promise to a brother or sister does that mean you’re making that promise to everyone in the world? Obviously not. The same is true of promises God made to specific people. Those promises may or may not apply to us.

B. Second step: Lexical-Syntactical Analysis

1. Identify the general literary form: There are many genre in the Bible, but for the moment let’s just talk about three of those–prose, poetry and prophecy/ apocalyptic.

a. Poetry is interpreted less literally than prose. Why is that point important? The OT is 1/3 poetry.

b. Prophecy and Apocalyptic [two similar genre]. Found in most of the book of Revelation, in parts of the book of Daniel and in one section in the book of Matthew. Prophecy and apocalyptic uses large amounts of symbolism to express what will happen in the future.

2. Trace the development of the author’s theme and show how the passage under consideration fits into the context

3. Identify the natural divisions (paragraphs and sentences) of the text.

4. Identify the connecting words within the paragraphs and sentences and how they aid in understanding the author’s progression of thought. Examples of connecting words: Therefore and Because.

5. Determine what the individual words mean.

a. Identify the multiple meanings a word possessed in its time and culture

(1) Example: our English word “green” (can refer to a color, an emotional state, or someone inexperienced)

(2) Lexicons are the equivalent of our English dictionaries. They list the variety of meanings (technically called denotations) a Hebrew or Greek word had at the time the Bible was written.

(3) Besides a variety of denotations words also have a variety of connotations (these are the emotional connections a word had) e.g., Green. When it is used as an emotion, it refers to a state of envy.

b. Determine the single meaning intended by the author in a given sentence: Usually done through one of five ways:

(1) Examine the context

(2) Explanatory phrases the author gives

(3) Examine the verb or noun it modifies

(4) Examine parallel passages

(5) Determine whether the word is being used as a figure of speech. Let me give you some examples of figures of speech in English:

i) His eyes were bigger than his stomach.

ii) It’s raining cats and dogs.

iii) She made the cake from scratch.

iv) The furnace has gone out.

v) The White House said . . . . .

c. Figures of speech are very frequently used in English as well as in Hebrew and Greek (Bullinger’s Figures of Speech Used in the Bible is more than 1,100 pages long).

6. Analyze the syntax to show how it contributes to the understanding of a passage.

a. English is an analytic language–word order helps us understand the meaning, e.g., “the cat ate the rat” means something different than “the rat ate the cat.”

b. Hebrew is also an analytic language, but less so than English

c. Greek (like Latin) is a synthetic language: meaning is significantly dependent on word endings and case endings.

7. Put the results of your analysis into nontechnical, easily understood words that clearly convey the author’s intended meaning to the English reader. (Impress people with the fact that your interpretation “rings true.” As they hear your interpretation they recognize that you’ve explained what God really meant when He spoke those words.

C. Third step: Theological Analysis

1. Determine your own view of the nature of God’s relationship to man. Some theories emphasize the continuity between the OT and the NT (e.g., covenantalism): some theories emphasize more the discontinuity (dispensationalism) between God’s commands to OT believers and NT believers

2. Identify the implications of this view for the passage you are studying

3. Assess the extent of theological knowledge available to the people of that time What did this passage add to what believers already knew?

4. Determine the meaning the passage possessed for its original recipients in the light of their knowledge.

5. Identify the additional knowledge about this topic which is available to us now because of later revelation (Systematic theologies or Bible dictionaries provide this)

D. Fourth step: Literary Analysis (or Genre Analysis)

1. Genre refer to the different ways we speak or write

2. One example of a genre–parables.

3. E.D. Hirsh has said: “Genre are like games. To interpret them correctly you must know (1) what game is being played, and (2) what are the rules for playing that game.

4. So how do we do literary analysis or genre analysis? Several possible steps:

a. Look for explicit references which indicate the author’s intent regarding the literary method he was using.

b. If the text does not explicitly identify the literary form of the passage, study the characteristics of the passage deductively to ascertain its form.

c. Apply the principles of literary devices carefully but not rigidly. [Reason: the biblical writers were not bound by our modern rules regarding the genres they used.]

d. Simile

(1) Characteristic: an expressed comparison. “The kingdom of God is like....” Uses the words “like” or “as” to indicate the author is making a comparison between two things, frequently something we know well and something else that we’re not so clear about.

(2) Interpretation: usually a single point of similarity or contrast.

e. Metaphor

(1) Characteristic: an unexpressed comparison. Doesn’t use the words “like” or “as.” You’re expected to recognize that the two things are not identical, but are like one another in some way. Examples: “I am the bread of life.” “You are the light of the world.”

(2) Interpretation: as with a simile there is usually a single point of similarity. When Jesus said “I am the bread of life” he is indicating that he is the source of our spiritual sustenance. When he said that believers are to be “the light of the world” he meant that by the kind of life we lead, it should lead others to also develop faith in God.

f. Proverb

(1) Characteristic: comparison expressed or unexpressed. Proverbs are short, practical pieces of wisdom.

(2) Interpretation: usually a single point of similarity or contrast. Also, realize that proverbs are general truths about life, not absolute promises from God. (For example: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” While it’s generally true that if we give our children good instruction they are more likely to become upstanding citizens than if we let them grow up without any parental correction. However, once children become adolescents or adults they start to make their own decisions about their lives.)

g. Parables

(1) Characteristics: an extended simile—comparisons are expressed and kept separate; the story and its meaning are consciously separated.

(2) Historical interpretation: determine the focal meaning of the story and show how the details fit naturally into that focal teaching.

(3) Discussion of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Is Jesus main point in this parable:

(a) A story about how sin can lead to very painful consequences?

(b) A story about how much God loves us?

(4) How might we go about finding out what Jesus meant when he told this story?

(a) Historical context

(b) Conclusion of the story

(5) Look at Luke 15:1-32

(a) Historical context: vs. 1-2 (Sinners were coming to Jesus in repentance: Pharisees were grumbling that Jesus was accepting them.)

(b) First parable: vs. 3-7 (Parable of the lost sheep). Read those verses.

(d) Third parable: vs. 11-32. Parable of the lost son, or Parable of the Prodigal Son.

(e) Skim vs. 11-24. Then read vs. 25-32.

(f) Debate among modern theologians about whether parables have only one teaching point, or whether each major character might teach us something.

(g) That hypothesis–that each of the major characters in a parable might teach us something–is possible.

(h) The primary question we should always ask when interpreting a parable (or any other part of Scripture) is: What was the author’s primary intended meaning? And the way we generally determine that is by looking (1) at the historical context, and (2) the concluding statements in the discussion.

(i) So I think Jesus’ primary intended meaning was Option c above–it was a rebuke to the people (the Pharisees) to whom Jesus was talking. Jesus was contrasting the Pharisees’ unloving, non-acceptance of repentant sinners with God’s loving acceptance of them, and the fact that all of heaven was rejoicing when a sinner comes back to God. That is the primary teaching of the parable.

(j) It is possible that it has other applications (e.g., an illustration of the dreadful consequences of sin, or an illustration of how deep is God’s love for us), but I think the primary meaning of the story of the Prodigal Son was to contrast God’s loving acceptance of repentant sinners with the unloving non-acceptance of the Pharisees.

h. Allegories

(1) Characteristics: an extended metaphor—comparisons are unexpressed and intermingled; story and its meaning are carried along together.

(2) Interpretation: determine the multiple points of comparison intended by the author.

(3) Example: the allegory of Christ the Good Shepherd in John 10:1-18

(a) In verses. 1-5 Jesus tells a very compressed story. However, his audience did not understand his point–vs. 6, so he expands it and explains it further. Since there are several teaching points, this is considered an allegory.

(b) First point: vs. 7-8: There had been many false shepherds in Israel up to that time–religious leaders who claimed to be shepherds, but who did their jobs motivated by self-interest

(d) Third point: vs. 11-13: Unlike the hireling, who runs away when danger threatens, Christ is willing to give his life for the sheep.

(e) Fourth point: vs. 14-15: The sheep have a personal relationship with Jesus and they recognize him as their shepherd

(f) Fifth point: vs. 16: A prophecy that Jesus will become the Shepherd not only to the Jewish people, but also to Gentiles.

(g) Sixth point: vs. 17-18: Jesus will not be killed because of events beyond his control: rather, he would voluntarily choose to give his life for his sheep.

(h) The structure of the story shows us that Jesus intends to teach several points with this story, not a single focal idea as is often the case with a parable.

(i) Types, prophecy and apocalyptic are probably less relevant to your work as counselors, but if you have the time, here is a short discussion of how to interpret them.

i. Types (the best-known example of a type is John 3:14-15). “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” (The Old Testament story is found in Numbers 21: 4-9).

(1) Characteristics:

(a) There must be some notable resemblance or analogy between the type and its antitype.

(b) There must be some evidence that the type was appointed by God to represent the thing typified. [The concept of type was probably overused by some older Bible teachers, who “found” types everywhere in the Bible. A modern understanding of types is that there must be some evidence that the type was appointed by God to represent the thing typified.]

(d) Classes of the type and its antitype: typical persons, typical events, typical institutions, typical offices, and typical actions.

(2) Interpretation:

(a) Determine the significance within the time and culture of both the type and its antitype.

(b) Search the text for the point(s) of correspondence between the type and its antitype as they relate to salvation history.

j. Prophecy and Apocalyptic

(1) Characteristics:

(a) Be aware that the style is generally figurative and symbolic.

(b) Watch for supernatural elements such as information conveyed by the announcement of angels, by visions, or by other supernatural means.

(d) Follow the action to its usual conclusion by a sovereign intervention of God.

(2) Interpretation:

(a) Determine the specific historical situation surrounding the composition of the writing. Study intervening history to see whether or not the prophecy has been fulfilled.

(b) Study parallel passages or other cycles within the same prophecy for further information.

(c) Analyze whether this passage is part of a progressive prediction, is capable of developmental fulfillment, or includes prophetic telescoping.

i) Progressive prediction: this refers to the fact that, although each prophetic passage has a single intended fulfillment, often a series of passages exhibit a pattern of chronological progress in the prophetic enactment. Thus passage A may tell us about certain events, passage B about the events immediately following them, and passage C about the culminating events of the series. The combination of these various passages forms a whole that can be identified as progressive prediction. Sometimes the passages are presented as cycles within the same book, with each cycle presenting additional information. Two well-known examples of progressive prediction that occur in cycles are the books of Zechariah and Revelation.

ii) Developmental fulfillment: the completion of a generalized, comprehensive prophecy in several stages. E.g., the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 that speaks of the bruising of Satan’s head. Various stages in the developmental fulfillment of this prophecy include: (1) Christ’s death, (2) Christ’s resurrection and ascension, (3) the development of the church, and (4) Satan’s eventual imprisonment in the abyss and permanently in the lake of fire.

iii) Prophetic telescoping: When the prophets looked to the future, it can be compared to looking at a range of mountain peaks through a telescope. Although the mountains may look, at a distance, like they are one right behind another, there may be considerable distance between one range and the next. Biblical example: prophecies about Christ’s first and second coming.

E. Fifth step: Compare Your Work with Others

1. Compare your analysis with that of other interpreters. (Realize that other Bible students may have more knowledge of the Bible culture, or of Hebrew and Greek than we do. Also be aware that the Holy Spirit may have been giving illumination to those who seek it over the many centuries since the Bible was written. Humility is important. We can often learn from them.)

2. Modify, correct, or expand your interpretation as appropriate.

F. Sixth step: Apply Your Work to the Present Time and Culture: As we mentioned earlier, this step is not part of hermeneutics per se. Hermeneutics focuses on what God meant when he spoke it to the original audience. This step asks “How does that meaning apply to us in a different time and culture?”

1. There are two major categories of Scripture that we need to do this with:

a. First, how do we make the stories in the Bible relevant to today?

b. Secondly, how do we make the biblical commands in Scripture relevant to today’s believers in a very different time and culture?). Let’s look first at how we do that for the narrative portions:

2. God says in II Tim. 3:16 that All Scripture is useful for teaching believers, including New Testament believers. Therefore that must mean the stories found throughout the Old and NT must have relevance for us today. How do we find that relevance? One way we can do that is through Principlizing: Look at the historical setting, the culture, the context, the words and grammar used to identify the principle(s) that passage was intended to teach, or the principles (descriptive truths) illustrated within the passage that remain relevant for the contemporary believer. E.g., the biblical stories of Noah, Abraham, Samson, David, Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, all can be models for us of how to live life (or in some cases, how not to live life).

3. The second category that we need to consider are biblical commands. How do we take the biblical commands given in a vastly different time and culture and apply them to our lives today? One was we might do this is a process we could call Transcultural transmission of biblical commands. There are four steps we can use:

a. First step: Discern as accurately as possible the principle behind the command. (What principle is God attempting to accomplish with the behavioral command?)

b. Second step: Discern whether the principle is transcultural or culture-bound by examining the reason given for the principle.

c. Most principles are transcultural because they are rooted in God’s holy nature. If a principle is transcultural, determine whether or not the same behavioral application in our culture will express the principle as adequately and accurately as the biblical one.

d. If the behavioral expression of a principle should be changed, suggest a cultural equivalent that will express the God-given principle behind the original command. (E.g., Greeting one another with the holy kiss–commanded 5 times in the N.T.) Men were to greet men, women were to greet women this way; no kissing across genders. If that were applied in churches today, it might have a different meaning than it did in ancient Israelite culture. Compare with J.B. Phillips attempt to do a transcultural transmission of that biblical command: “Greet one another with a hearty handshake.”

V. An important question for Christian counselors, especially in a postmodern age: Doesn’t Jesus tell us not to judge others, but allow them to do what they believe is right for them? Therefore if some people believe a certain interpretation of a passage, shouldn’t we accept that as God’s truth for them and refrain from making any judgments?

A. God’s Word does prohibit us from engaging in certain kinds of judging. However, there are other kinds of judging that God commands us to do.

B. For the purposes of our present discussion, let’s briefly look at two kinds of judging that Scripture prohibits, but then look at three kinds of judging Scripture commands.

C. Matthew 7:1: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”

1. Read verses 2-5. What Jesus is prohibiting is not all kinds of judging, but a very specific type of judging. He is telling us not to judge others before looking at our own lives and making sure we are not guilty of the same sin ourselves.

2. Another reason this is not a prohibition against all judging is that just a few verses later Jesus tells us to beware of false prophets (vs. 15), since identifying someone as a false prophet requires making a judgement about them. Jesus even gives specific criteria by which we can make those judgments (vs. 16-23).

D. A second kind of judging that we are not to do is to make judgments about other people in the “gray areas” where what is right or wrong depends on personal human opinion than clear guidance from God.

1. Romans 14:1-13 (Two gray areas: are Christians to be vegetarians or can they eat meat? Is Sunday a special day, or are we to regard every day as devoted to the Lord?)

E. One kind of judging that we are commanded to do is to recognize sin in our lives and turn from it before participating in the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:27-31).

F. A second type of judging we are commanded to do is to recognize open, unconfessed sin that is occurring in the Church that has been confronted and from which the person refuses to turn. (1 Cor. 5:1-13).

G. A third type of judging God calls us to do is to judge the teaching coming from pastors, Bible teachers, and evangelists to make sure it accurately aligns with Scripture (Titus 1:9, Phil. 1:9, Gal. 6:1, Acts 17:10-11 I Cor. 14:29, I Thess. 5:20-21).

H. Judging sometimes has a bad reputation because sometimes people sometimes combine biblical judging and judgmentalism together. When people sense the anger that is shown when people are judgmental, they reject that, not realizing that there is a type of biblical judging that is valid.

I. Biblical judging should always be done out of love for the person, and it should only be done in situations where God has given clear guidance that something is morally wrong.

J. Therefore some of the implications of this question for this discussion are:

1. When clients are causing themselves or others unnecessary emotional stress because they are misinterpreting the meaning of one or more Scriptures, God calls us to be accurate interpreters of His Word (see verses in Point G above), and

2. When clients are misinterpreting teachings from God’s Word in order to justify or rationalize unbiblical behavior that is hurting others, we have a responsibility to talk with them in love and confront them on their misinterpretation of God’s teaching (e.g., 1 Cor. 5:1-13)

3. For example, if a husband is emotionally abusing his wife by saying she must submit to him, I think it is appropriate to spend some time going through Ephesians 5 with him and helping him see that he is misinterpreting that passage (i.e., husbands and wives are to submit to one another. Submission is not a one-way street.)

4. So let’s use what we’ve learned this morning and apply it to some verses that Christians and Christian counselors frequently misinterpret.

VI. Examples of Passages Frequently Misinterpreted By Christian Counselors or Their Clients

A. Jeremiah 29:11: Sometimes when believers are going through difficult experiences, their friends will quote Jeremiah 29:11 to them, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’” This verse is usually intended to encourage them that God’s promise to them is that their situation will improve in the near future and that they will soon be prospering. Is this a valid application of this verse?

1. Answer: This is a passage from a letter to the exiles in Babylon (29:1). God was promising that after they had been in captivity for 70 years God would bring them back to Jerusalem (vs. 10), would restore them, and would allow them to be prosperous once again (vs. 11).

2. Hermeneutical principles violated when we apply this to believers today?

a. We aren’t doing a careful historical-cultural and contextual analysis (we’re quoting this verse without studying the context)

b. We aren’t identifying the person or category of people for whom this particular passage is intended. [This is a promise to the nation of Israel, not be present-day Gentile believers.]

3. Question: If people get comfort from our use of a verse with them, what is the harm in using a verse out of context?

a. Three reasons: First, II Timothy 2:15 isn’t a suggestion that it would be nice if we didn’t take things out of context; it’s a command to study the Word so that we correctly handle it.

b. Secondly, if we use verses out of context, we have no justification for correcting those who are harming themselves or others by using verses out of context.

c. Thirdly, this passage seems to be promising people that God is promising them He will make them prosperous: “For I know the plans I have for you; plans to prosper you.” Does God promise to everyone who follows him today that he will make them rich? [No. This was a promise to national Israel, that if they obeyed God once they returned from the exile, God would bless them financially. However, God doesn’t promise to make all NT believers millionaires.]

4. Are there some verses that could be validly used to bring comfort to believers today?

a. Matt. 11:28-30: [Given to all Jesus’ followers] “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

b. Phil. 4:6-7: [A promise given to the Christian believers]: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

B. Proverbs 23:7 says: As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (KJV). Is this a good verse to base Christian cognitive-behavioral therapy on?

1. Take a moment to turn to Proverbs 23:6-7.

2. Read other translations:

a. (NASB). Do not eat the bread of a selfish man or desire his delicacies, for as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink” but his heart is not with you.

b. (English Standard Version). Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating, “Eat and drink” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

c. (New Century Version). Don’t eat the food of selfish people; don’t be greedy for their fine foods. Selfish people are always worrying about how much the food costs. They tell you “Eat and drink” but they don’t really mean it.

d. (New International Version). Do not eat the food of a begrudging host, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of person who is always thinking about the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

3. Major point of all these translations is: When you’re the guest of a stingy man, be careful how much you eat, because he is always calculating in his mind how much your food is costing him.

4. Should we then say that this verse can be the basis for teaching cognitive behavioral therapy?

5. This example points out well that when we quote half a verse without reading its context, we can often think it says something very different than what it is actually saying.

6. Does that mean that the Bible does not support the idea of cognitive behavioral therapy, i.e., that to change a person, you should help him or her change their thoughts? If you say that the Bible does support that idea, what might be some verses that do support that notion?

a. Romans 12:2 Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

b. Philippians 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. . . . .

c. Colossians 3:1-2 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. . . . .

d. Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. . . . .

7. So Scripture does support the idea of cognitive behavioral therapy–we can help people change by encouraging them to change their thought life. We just shouldn’t use Prov. 23:7 as it’s basis.

C. Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.”

1. Suppose a client with whom you were counseling was in a serious car accident. She is going to survive, but it is not clear whether she will ever walk again, even though she desperately wants to recover her mobility. You want to encourage her by sending her a card. While card shopping you spot one with Philippians 4:13: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Should you send her this card, implying the promise that with God’s help she will definitely walk again?

2. Problems with that interpretation: [We all know of Christians who have had accidents who haven’t regained full mobility, even though they prayed for that.]

3. How will we go about deciding what is a valid interpretation? [Look at the verses in context].

4. Read verses 10-13.

5. So what is Paul saying here when he makes the statement “I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength?” He’s saying, “The thing I have learned to do through Christ is to be content in every situation, whether I have plenty or whether I am in poverty.” That is the “everything” that he can do.

6. So this isn’t a promise that if she has enough faith, she will walk again. It is a promise that God can help her live with contentment, whatever her situation is.

D. A well-known Christian counselor and author, discussing the way to discover God’s will for one’s life, made the point that inner peace was an important indicator. The only verse he used to anchor his argument was Colossians 3:15 (“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts”). Would you agree with his use of this verse to make this point? Why, or why not?

1. Background: Discussions of God’s will often center around two concepts: God’s general will—his general moral commands that apply to all believers, e.g., “Marry only a believer,” and God’s specific will—what God wants a specific believer to do in a specific situation, e.g., “Should Julie marry Jim, Tom or Russ if all three are available, interested, and are believers?”

2. Does this verse substantiate the idea that intrapersonal peace (peace inside ourselves) is one way of discerning God’s specific will?

3. Historical-cultural and contextual analysis: .

4. Immediate context: Read verses 12–15. “Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you have against one another. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.”

5. The hermeneutical principle violated: Study how the passage under consideration fits into the flow of the author’s argument. Paul is teaching that interpersonal peace (peace between brothers and sisters) is God’s general will for all believers. He is not teaching that intrapersonal peace (peace within yourself) is a valid means of determining God’s specific will for your life.

6. Another reason this author’s interpretation is invalid, this one psychological rather than hermeneutical: We human beings have an amazing ability to rationalize the option we want, and think our feelings are God’s peace.

E. Romans 8:28; A Christian man lost his job due to company downsizing. He and his wife interpreted Romans 8:28 (“All things work together for good,” NRSV) to mean that he lost his job so that God could give him a better-paying one. Consequently he turned down several lower- or equal-paying job opportunities and remained on unemployment for over two years before returning to work. Do you agree with his way of interpreting this verse? Why, or why not?

1. What should we do first?

2. Two common misinterpretations of this verse:

a. All things work together for good. No, we realize that all things don’t naturally work together for good (a pantheistic interpretation). Sometimes young mothers or fathers get cancer and die early, leaving resentful families.

b. We sometimes interpret “good” to mean good from our human perspective, meaning a higher-paying job or a better situation, as this couple did, without pausing to look at what God and Paul intended it to mean.”

3. Hermeneutical principles violated:

a. Make sure the KJV is a correct interpretation. A better interpretation is the NIV: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” The verse is not saying that all things naturally work out for good, but that in the lives of those who love God, he is working behind the scenes to work in situations to help them work out for our good.

b. Secondly, do a contextual analysis to find out the authors’ definition of what God means by “good.” The believer mentioned in the exercise defined “good” from his own perspective (getting a higher salary) rather than understanding the authors’ (God and Paul’s) intended meaning. They define what they mean by good in verse 29, where they define it as becoming more like Christ. So what this verse really teaches is that God is working in every detail of our lives, using those experiences to help us become more like Christ.

c. So what God is promising Christians is that he is working through all circumstances to help us become more like Christ. But he is not causing us to lose a job so he can give us a higher-paying job.

F. A sincere young Christian attended a teaching series based on Psalm 37:4 ("Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart"). Based on the teaching, he began to write checks "on faith," and was rather dismayed when they "bounced." How would you counsel him regarding the teaching he had received concerning these verses?

1. Contextual analysis: [If you turn to Psalm 37 you would find the whole psalm has to do with godly wisdom, as opposed to looking at the world from a human perspective.]

2. Remember the first half of the verse when interpreting the second half: Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. As we delight ourselves in the Lord, he will change the desires of our hearts. We will not be obsessed with acquiring earthly possessions and earthly toys, but with pleasing him. As we delight ourselves in him, he will grant us the desire of our hearts, i.e., he will help us develop in ways that will truly please him.

3. Another verse later in the psalm, verse 16 states "Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked."

4. Hermeneutical principle overlooked: Careful contextual analysis.

VII. Closing Comments

A. Benefits for counselors of understanding hermeneutics [when I used to teach that course in hermeneutics to our Counseling students in Atlanta, at the end of the program many would tell me that they thought it was the most useful course in the whole program for preparing them to do Christian counseling. So I hope you will consider studying hermeneutics further than we’ve been able to touch on in this presentation. Here’s a brief reminder of the things we’ve gone over:

1. Hermeneutics can prevent us from reading our personal opinions or our preformed theological theories into Scripture.

2. It can help us help our clients to be able to correct psychological or spiritual problems that result from incorrect interpretations of God's Word.

3. It can help us be able to distinguish better from poorer interpretations of a text.

4. It can help us be able to show why an incorrect interpretation is incorrect.

5. It can help us be able to understand the meaning of texts which, on the surface, seem to contradict one another.

6. It can help us be able to remove roadblocks to someone coming to faith in Christ caused by misinterpretations of biblical texts.

7. It can add authority, credibility, and edification to our counseling, writing, or teaching.

8. It can help us serve as models of good biblical interpretation to those who look up to us.

9. It can help us not make incorrect theological statements which, if our clients repeat them to their pastors, would cause us to lose credibility with pastors who can be important referral sources.

10. And lastly, it can help us to “correctly handle the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

B. If you only take one insight away from this webinar, the most important hermeneutical principle is to study the verse or passage of Scripture in context.

C. If the meaning is still unclear, consult expository commentaries.

D. If you would like a more complete exposition of these points Dr. Karelynne Ayayo and I have coauthored a book that expands on these points. It is Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation, 3rd edition) available from Baker Book House. It includes 100 exercises, the first 50 or so came from counseling sessions where Christians were having problems because they were interpreting one or more verses incorrectly. The second 50 were added by Dr. Ayayo since she teaches in a seminary where most of her students are preparing to enter the ministry.

E. If you’re interested and want to talk further, you can call me at 561-317-4369. Or you can contact me through email at Hvirkler@aol.com

F. Also, if you have a hermeneutical question that wasn’t answered in this workshop, feel free to email it to me at my home and I’ll try to answer it if I can.

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