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y first impression of hermeneutics in a Ph.D.s structured college class wasnt very good. Id just finished two years of Charismatic institute studies before relocating with my wife Alisa to L.A. for Bible College, and the purely mental regiment of it all just cut across the grain. My historic and contextual under-standing of the Old and New Testaments was relatively comprehensive. But I had never been directed to study the Bible through the dissection of its nouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, definite articles, and verbs. The Word of God isnt some piece of Elizabethan literature , I complained as I completed my assignments that first term of classes. And verily it did vex and aggravate me until I finally saw what we were doing in a later theology class. As we divided the local epochs of Gods interventions throughout the biblical record wham! it finally hit me. Key words and events observed in the discipline of biblical hermeneutics dotted the landscape of biblical history. A few years later when I finally took the time to engage a systematic eschatology of the biblical textsthe same thing proved true. Key words led me back and forth in the Old and New Testaments connecting key prophetic events and figures, providing a general time frame and schematic of world history in advance. The same will be true for you. Inductive Hermeneutics for Eschatology Today To whom a biblical passage was directed, what, when, where, and why it was said is the inductive objective of the her-meneutic technique. Inductive reasoning involves logical analysis that draws conclusion from observable facts. The Word of God is a report, and God is its writer. So we must take it at face value if we believe what He says. This is biblical scholarships study approach to every New Testament bookexcept Revelation. Stopping this nonsense is what Eschatology Today is all about. Those writing and teaching on the subject today have done an excellent job of opening these anointed passages of text to the church. But not many have approached the visions and revelations of Johns prophetic adventure with scholarships pen of logical, literal intent. So we will pick up the slack. Some of the more confusing interpretive practices applied over the years have misread the literal nature of Revelations prophetic symbolism and replaced its chronological sequence throughout the text. Disassoc-iating its coming woes from the work of God; rearranging chapters to fit particular perspectives; reversing to repeat the books message at chapter 12 (regardless of literal trumpet/bowl differences); and attributing its seven church letters to various church ages through which we have never historically passed, are all well written on prophetic perspectives. If you were to rummage around most Bible bookstore shelves today, these views would jump out of most interpretive texts. They arent based on a purely literal interpretation of Johns prophecy and pay little, if any, attention to key words and key events. This is so because the interpreters themselves have no foundation of literal intent. The greatest victory I experienced as a Christian publishing house editor was to get a certain prophecy author to remove his absolute statements on his interpretation of certain eschatological events. Statements like, without a doubt the Bible teaches, were replaced with his own wording of, I believe this Scripture is saying this. And by press time, the burden of his many free interpretations was placed on his own shoulders, where it belonged. So lets take a look at the principles of literal interpretation in the remainder of this article to provide you with the foundation necessary to intelligently interpret the Bibles eschatological texts. Combining the information from this article with last issues interpretive piece, Interpreting the Rules of Revelation, will prepare you to intelligently engage this issues pre-, mid-, and posttrib rapture critiques. Where the Word of God Is Bound,
So Are We: The Principle of Literal Intent
This first and most basic principle of hermeneutics maintains that God reveals Himself in the form of His printed word for the purposes of self disclosure. And that in every case of Scripture, prophetic revelation included, we are to interpret the Bible as literally as possible, assuming literal intent. This hermeneutic linchpin contends for the fact that it is not Gods nature to further frustrate mans innate spiritual ignorance by making biblical contributions that add to our confused state. John the Journalist The principle of literal intent also acknowledges that what Revelations prophet was granted to witness during his privileged spiritual adventure was equally inspired throughout his text. In other words, that which John saw and wrote, as a Spirit-led journalist, he simply saw and wrote. There is no need to read anything else into it. Hail and fire mixed with blood, means hail and fire mixed with blood. Hail stones and earthquakes from heaven, mountains burning with fire, and locust-like creatures with scorpion like tails, mean just exactly that (not helicopters). Poison means poison, blood means blood, one third means one third, and all means all. To interpret Johns revelation soundly, you must be able to distinguish the difference between the visual revelation gifts (word of knowledge, word of wisdom) and the parabolic display of prophetic visions and dreams. We will deal with this thoroughly in next quarters issue. The Principle of Chronological Ascent Complementing and paralleling Gods mindset of literal intent is His systematic coherence of chronological ascent. Chapter 2 comes after 1, 13 after 12, and 22 after 21, with each of their respective revelations building to an orderly sequence of events. This hermeneutic principle contends for the simple intent of forward motion in the progression of Johns Revelation. Chapters were inserted by scholars for the sake of mans convenience. Chronological ascent maintains that they should never be reversed or replaced from their inspired order of sequence. This, after all, is only common sense. Rightly Dividing Revelations General and Local Truth
As with any biblical book study, a working understanding of its historic background is important. When studying the Book of Revelation particularly, it is important to distinguish the three separate directions of Johns prophetic text. A simple observation of who? was being spoken to in the pro-phecys opening chapter shows it to be the writer himself. Commanded by Jesus in verse 11 to record and send out his revelation to seven local churches, John was next directed to write down three distinct events:
The Things Which You Have Seen The things which John had seen up to that point of his prophetic encounter consisted of his magnificent vision of the resurrected Jesus, the seven golden stars, and seven lamp stands. The stars and lamp stands are revealed in verse 20 as being the seven congregations and their seven respective angels to which Johns first-century letter was to be addressed. The Things Which Are The things which are at that point of Johns vision consisted of the local historic problems confronting these seven local churches. Con-tained within their letters are many GENERAL principles applicable to any centurys church. But the LOCAL truth of their individual messages was for their personal first-century welfare.
The Things Which Shall Take Place After These Things Finally, those things John was commanded to write that would take place after these things consisted of the futures revelation contained in the rest of the book. Looking for Key Eschatological Figures, Now to the meat of these principles. By providing certain key descriptive words in the Bibles prophetic record, God has laid down an eschatological road map of recurring words, ideas, and events. This foundational hermeneutic principle of grammatical observation is an undeniable key to Bible study in general, eschatology included. As the student of biblical eschatology keeps an eye out in the Old and New Testament prophets for KEY words, prophetic figures, and eschatological events, KEY words such as, first, last, mystery, coming, trumpet, three and one half, seven, and blood will perceptively repeat themselves. So will KEY periods in days, weeks and months, and KEY events such as resurrection, Abomination of Desolation, Day of the Lord, tribulation, and Great Tribulation. The Word of God is, after all, the verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs of God. The principles of hermeneutics presupposes, and rightly so, that each one owns an important communicative purpose in their individual biblical placements. The interpretive process then purposes to know through studied observation why God breathed them into text. In the case of the Rapture they provide a roadmap to the general timing of the event, which most prophecy experts discount or leave out. So in this issue we will apply them to this key eschatological doctrine which was presented in our last issue by Hilton Sutton, Paul Benware, and Pat Roberson. And we will do so by the emphasis each position places on two very key timing words breathed into Scripture: last, and trumpet. But first, in concluding this article, lets examine the mind-boggling prophetic event. The Eschatology of Deathlessness
We get the word, rapture, of all places, from the antiquated Latin Vulgate. Raptura is the Latin word translated from the Greek word, harpazo, that our English Bible translates caught in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18. It means; to seize, catch up, snatch away, carry off. Jesus Himself experienced the redemptive event when He was raptured before His disciples eyes at the end of His post-resurrection time with them on earth.
Jesus was caught up into heaven before His disciples watching eyes. He was raptured as we say, while His followers looked on.
This angelically delivered promise of the aerial return of Christ was the foremost expectation of the early church. It was also the reason Pauls earliest epistles included explanations concerning the dead who wouldnt be present to see it.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Two key eschatological events and groups of people are prophesied by Paul in this eschatological passage:
First of all the prophet explains: 1. Those dying in the Lord previous to His coming were not to be grieved. Why? Because ...the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first (v. 16). So Paul first reminds the church of the well-known Old Testament promise of a coming resurrection with the New Testament churchs prophesied Rapture event. Your dead will live; their corpses will rise... Isaiah 27:19 He next describes a mind-boggling heavenward snatching of the living that will happen in sync with the resurrection when he reveals#151; 2. The members of Christs body who will be alive during this eschatological period will be caught up together with the resurrected saints to meet the Lord in the air, and along with them, always be with the Lord (v. 17). Both groups, Paul prophesies, the dead rising first, along with those physically alive in Christ at this coming redemptive juncture, will be jointly snatched upward, seized, carried off #151; to meet the Lord in the air. No Longer A MysteryPauls mystery of the New Testament gospel includes this epochal event again in Corinthians 15, disclosing an even more graphic physical description of what take place.
Allaso is the Greek word translated changed here, and simply means, to make other than is. The change is further explained in verses 53 and 54:
First Corinthians 15:52 contains the hermeneutic key that generally times the Rapture event. The apostle writes the heavenward snatching of the living will happen, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperish-able, and we shall be changed. I had read this passage many times before I finally approached the doctrine as a directed study. When I did, the key words contained in it jumped out at me in purple and red. I started looking for last trumpets everywhere. And so should you. So lets do some looking. Click on now to Rapture, Right or Wrong; Are You a Pritribber? and lets start applying these principles to the Bibles eschatological texts. TOP || HOME |
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