St.Augustine

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St.Augustine
Hermeneutics Lecture Series
I. How to Use the Bible
II. How to Interpret Anything
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How to Use the Bible
For Knowledge Of its Contents -------------- Book
by book Hermeneutics Mastery Stable
information And insight
For Communion with God ------------- A means of
grace Meditative reading Spiritual Memorization
devotion Lectio divina
For Practical Guidance ------------- Seeking
principles How-To books Topical
sermons Searching the Scriptures with
specific situations in mind.
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How to Use the Bible
For Communion with God
For Practical Guidance
For Knowledge Of its Contents
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R. A. Torreys Guidelines (From the introduction
to his topical guide to scripture) 1. Study it
daily 2. STUDY it, don't just read 3.
Topically 4. By chapter 5. As the Word of God 6.
Prayerfully 7. Look for Christ 8. Memorize it 9.
Improve spare minutes
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It is astounding how much heedless reading of the
Bible is done. Men seem to think that there is
some magic power in the book, and that, if they
will but open its pages and skim over its words,
they will get good out of it. The Bible is good
only because of the truth that is in it, and to
see this truth demands close attention.
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A verse must oftentimes be read and re-read and
read again before the wondrous message of love
and power that God has put into it begins to
appear. Words must be turned over and over in the
mind before their full force and beauty takes
possession of us. One must look a long time at
the great masterpieces of art to appreciate their
beauty and understand their meaning, and so one
must look a long time at the great verses of the
Bible to appreciate their beauty and understand
their meaning.
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Here we have to deal with a false method of
seeking edification and deriving pious
reflections from every passage of Holy Scripture
without regard to the time, the place, or the
persons to whom it was written. This method of
constraining the text to meanings that it cannot
bear, does violence to the Word of God, which is
not only not to be added to or taken from as a
whole, but also as to all its parts. This spirit
of interpretation, while nominally most
reverential, is really very irreverential. It
originates from a lack of knowledge of the
Scriptures, and the neglect to use the proper
methods of exegesis.
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Hermeneutics
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Hermeneutics
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Hermeneutics
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,how he has
brought desolations on the earth.9 He makes wars
cease to the end of the earthhe breaks the bow
and shatters the spearhe burns the chariots
with fire.10 Be still, and know that I am
God.I will be exalted among the nations,I will
be exalted in the earth!
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Hermeneutics
Be Still, and Know That I am God
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How the Bible says to Use the Bible
II Tim. 316 All Scripture is God-breathed and
is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and
training in righteousness, that the man of God
may be competent, equipped for every good work.
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Chicago Declaration on Inerrancy (1978)
Holy Scripture, being Gods own Word, written by
men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is
of infallible divine authority in all matters
upon which it touches it is to be
believed, as Gods instruction, in all that it
affirms obeyed, as Gods command, in all
that it requires embraced, as Gods pledge,
in all that it promises.
The authority of Scripture is inescapably
impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any
way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a
view of truth contrary to the Bibles own and
such lapses bring serious loss to both the
individual and the Church.
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How to master the English Bible! High-sounding
title that, but does it mean what it says? It is
not how to study, but how to master it for there
is a sense in which the Bible must be mastered
before it can be studied, and it is the failure
to see this which accounts for other failures on
the part of many earnest would-be Bible students.
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As I proceeded,I began to catch the drift of
Pauls thought or rather, I was caught by it and
drawn on. The mighty argument opened out and
arose like a great work of art above me till at
least it enclosed me within its perfect
proportions. It was a revolutionary experience.
I saw for the first time that a book of Scripture
is a complete discussion of a single subject I
felt the force of the book as a whole, and I
understood the different parts in the light of
the whole as I had never understood them when
reading them by themselves. Thus to master book
after book is to fill the mind with the great
thoughts of God.
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I do not think half as much of this beech tree as
yonder squirrel does. I see him leap from bough
to bough, and I feel sure that he dearly values
the old beech tree, because he has his home
somewhere inside it in a hollow place, these
branches are his shelter, and those beech-nuts
are his food. He lives upon the tree. It is his
world, his playground, his granary, his home
indeed, it is everything to him, and it is not so
to me, for I find my rest and food elsewhere.
With God's word it is well for us to be like
squirrels, living in it and living on it. Let us
exercise our minds by leaping from bough to bough
of it, find our rest and food in it, and make it
our all in all. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon
(1834-1892), How to Read the
Bible, 1879
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How the Bible says to Use the Bible
II Tim. 316 All Scripture is God-breathed and
is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and
training in righteousness, that the man of God
may be competent, equipped for every good work.
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