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Dr. Jim Dennison, of http://www.pcbc.org/audio, opens by holding up his first Bible, a Gideon New Testament. He remembers reading from this Bible but not knowing what its words, like "begat" meant. After he became a Christian and several years passed, he discovered he still did not understand many words and concepts of the Bible. It was then that he learned about "hermeneutics", a term that many still are not familiar. But it is vital. Hermes was the messenger god with winged shoes and feet. Hermeneutics has to do with the interpretation of messages and literature. There are types of hermeneutics, 1) General hermeneutics - Basic principles 2) Special - applications that are specific to parts of the Bible. Three decisions we must make before God can use the scriptures in our lives; 1) We must know the author personally; God. In 2 Corinthians 2:14, we see that this is necessary. It is the only Book in literature that requires this because it is a book inspired by the Holy Spirit. Someone, years ago, asked Billy Graham the secret of his sermons, Billy responded by saying that the more he quoted scriptures, often saying, "the Bible says...", more people seemed to want to follow Christ. 2) Decide that we're willing to work hard. In 1 Timothy 4:13, Paul calls us to give time in reading. When speaking to the Corinthians, Paul said he was trying to give the people "meat" of the Word, but they were only ready for "milk". 3) We must be willing to obey the Word of God. In John 7:17, Jesus said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." God doesn't give advice, he gives orders. Now, to some guiding principles. In mathematics, there are principles and axioms to follow. They are guiding presuppositions. Likewise, these guiding principles exist for the Bible. Those are 1) We can understand the Bible ourselves. God will speak His Word to us. 2) The New Testament interprets the Old Testament. God reveals Himself on the basis of what He has already revealed about Himself. It's progressive. Mathematics works the same way. We must add before we can multiply. To illustrate, there are many laws that are renewed in the New Testament, but if they are not, they remain as a principle for our lives. 3) The Bible is its own best commentary. Within this concept, we should know about 5 best practices. A) We should interpret difficult passages by relying on the simpler passages. For instance, the Mormon belief of Baptizing for the dead is only mentioned once in 1 Corinthians 15:29, by Paul. This can be confusing and suggestive until we align this scripture with Hebrews 9:27, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment", which is a clear passage. B) We should build the doctrine of scripture based on its entirety, not based on one passage. The thousand year rule of Jesus on earth is described in Revelation within 6 verses. It has been the subject of much debate, but Jim will cover this notion later in the series within the scope of the entire Bible message. C) Judge smaller passages within the scope of larger contexts. A text without a context is a pretext. D) We want to build doctrine on scriptural statements that are made across Biblical genres. If something is stated across both books, law and prophets, it can be understood as law. The issue of homosexuality is an example. Some will support the lifestyle by arguing over one passage although it is mentioned seven times in the Bible, each time saying it is not of God. E) There will come times when we have to accept some contradictions as true. There are some things of God that we cannot understand with our limited knowledge. We find passages in the Bible about how human Jesus is in many places, but there are other places where he is clearly divine. Aristitalian logic says that one cannot be both human and divine. But we have to accept this. We are taught, also, that God is one, but yet that God is three. Is our future predestined or do we have free choice? The dual answer is "yes". Four questions to ask about literature is 1) Who is the writer? When Jim worked on his dissertation years ago, he worked on one of the early computers and he was balancing a lot of activities, getting tired. Galatians 6:9 gave him encouragement, especially when he remembered that Paul was beaten, hungry, thirsty, imprisoned and tired. In Philippians 4:4, we find "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." This, again, means more when we remember where Paul was when he wrote this; in prison after having been beaten. 2) We want to know about the recipients. We can understand the style of writing and the context when we understand the audience. An example is 1 John 1. It is a strange opening for the book, but when we know that John is writing to a church based on "incipient nostacism", which was the notion that the heavenly Christ could not have appeared as a human, we understand that John was making a counter argument. 3) What is the purpose? In the middle of John's gospel, John talks about the works of Jesus. Not everything he did was recorded. How will all of this help us to, as John said, "have life in His name"? This is a purpose for us versus our reading a biography of Christ. We are reading to know Jesus! 4) Know the genre or the kind of literature we're reading. We have history, law, poetry, letters and apocalyptic letters in the Bible. For example, in Romans 12:1-2, these words can be read as a command to us, the natural writing of the epistles. However, in Psalms, it says that "the sun will not harm you during the day". This is not a claim that Christians can't be sunburned, it's poetry!! It's symbolic. If we take these steps in reading the Bible, we will have taken some excellent initiatives. Jim closes with a story about a woman in the middle of the Great Depression. She walks into an insurance office with a yellow document and asks if she should keep making payments on the policy. Knowing the value of the policy, the salesmen asks what her husband thinks about it and she tells him that he died the previous year. As a result, the insurance company reimburses the premiums and then begins making the policy payments to her. It's not enough to hold the policy or to make payments on the policy. We have to read and understand it!!