As a student of God’s Word for over 40 years, one question fills my heart and mind as I read the Bible: “What does this passage mean?”
Bible teachers are called to explain the Bible, to help people understand what it means, and how it fits into one powerful message from God to us.
The only way to apply God’s Word correctly is to understand first what He has said, what He meant, and what response He desires from us. That is why we have started a monthly study of the elements of Biblical Interpretation.
Someone long ago told me that my job as a Bible Expositor was to build a bridge that transported people from where they live in the present back to what God said and did in the historical context of His Word and then to bring them back into their daily lives understanding what God expected from them.
To build that bridge, we must realize that there is a gap between them and us.
1. A Gap of History (“they lived in a very different time”);
2. A Gap of Geography (“they lived in a very different place”);
3. A Gap of Culture (“they lived in a very different way”);
4. A Gap of Language (“they spoke in a very different way”).
So, the first elements of Biblical Interpretation are bridges that help us create an understanding of the history, geography, culture, and language that surrounds the world of the Bible.
For more of Dr. John Barnett’s Bible teaching messages, go to: https://dtbm.org/
