From God to Us - Hermeneutics: Week 3 - 5/21/25

My notes for Wednesday night, May 21st. Remember, these are my personal study notes and not a manuscript of the sermon. They are provided as an outline each week for our Tabernacle Church family. Our study over the next few months will be a study on Hermeneutics: Becoming Students and Teachers of the Word. Our goal is to develop tools to help us read, study, apply, and share the Bible more effectively. You can find Sermon Notes, Family Devotional Guides, Prayer List, and other resources at our Church Website.

Hermeneutics – HERMENEUEIN from Luke 24:27 to explain or interpret.  The term simply describes the practice and discipline of interpreting the Bible.

Revelation – The What

• The act of God by which He has made known what was otherwise unknowable.

• God making Himself known
  

General Revelation

• Revelation that is available to all persons at all times, particularly through the physical universe, history, and the makeup of human nature.[1]

• All can experience

• Psalms 19:1-4; Romans 1:20
  

Special Revelation

• By special revelation we mean God’s manifestation of himself to particular persons at definite times and places, enabling those persons to enter into a redemptive relationship with him[2]

• One’s mind and heart open to the need of salvation. We see who we are in light of who God is.

• Exodus 3:1-4; Genesis 28:12; John 1:1,14; Hebrews 4:12
  

Inspiration – The How

• The act of God by which He superintended/guided the human authors of the 66 books of the Bible so that using their own individual personalities they composed and recorded without error, His revelation to man in the words of the original.

• The act of the Holy Spirit upon the biblical writers that ensured that what they wrote was the Word of God.[3]

• 2 Timothy 3:15-16; 2 Peter 1:16-21
  

Inerrancy – The Result

• The quality of being free from falsehood or error, which ensures that Holy Scripture is completely true and reliable in all of its statements.

• The Bible is without error.

• Matthew 5:17-18; John 10:35; 17:17
  

Infallibility – The Result

• The quality of neither misleading nor being misled ensures that Holy Scripture is a sure, safe, and reliable guide in all matters.

• The Bible is never wrong.
  

Interpretation – Our Responsibility

• The process of determining the biblical author’s intended meaning.

• Read, Study, Understand the true meaning.
  

Illumination – Our Resources

• The work of the Holy Spirit, which assists the reader in gaining both the sense and significance of God’s written revelation.

• The work of the Holy Spirit giving understanding when the Scripture is heard or read.[4]

• God opening the mind and heart of the those under the Word

• John 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16
  

Application – Our Response

• The process of determining the current relevance of Scripture and then actively responding.

• Life change. Obedience. The Go and Do

• James 1:19-27
  

Sources for these notes include:

• Personal study

• Danny Akin, Hermeneutics Class notes. Southeastern Theological Seminary.
  

[1] Millard J. Erickson, The Concise Dictionary of Christian Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 171.

[2] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 144.

[3] John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 931.

[4] John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 931.