It’s Time to Learn the Basics

Great preachers and teachers may inspire you, but the deep truths of Scripture are discovered through personal Bible study.

Is the Bible Too Spiritual to Understand?

Since the Bible is a spiritual book you may say, “What will I learn from a book that is so spiritually complex?” You will learn more than you may imagine if you are the following:

1. A born again believer (John 3:3). Whether a person is a scholar or member of the laity, he/she must have experienced the new birth in order to fully comprehend the message of the Bible.
2. A disciplined believer (2 Tim. 2: 1-4). A believer is commanded to be diligent and faithful in his/her study to become a good solider. Discipline and training prepares him/her to teach others once progress is made toward Christian maturity.
3. A willing believer (Psa. 119:30). A believer must have a desire to be trustworthy, and to please the Lord. Psalm 119:30 highlights faithfulness in keeping the ordinances of God as self-imposed criteria.

Proper Tools are Needed to Guarantee Accuracy

Image: Hannah Busing

Learn from a Study Bible. Use one having a place to jot down you own handwritten notes. Take time to ponder and reflect on what you have written in your notes. Most Study Bibles contain numerous commentary notes; but be sure to compare the Study Bible commentary with other commentaries. If you use only one Study Bible and trust only its commentary for biblical accuracy, you will never develop a deep understanding of scripture.

Learn by studying different versions to gain deeper insight. Most Bibles agree on the essentials of scripture, although caution should be exercised when using a paraphrase. Although paraphrases may help the reader to better understand the Word of God, it is wise to consult a dynamic equivalent or literal version to achieve biblical accuracy.

Learn from a Bible dictionary. No tool is more important than a Bible dictionary. It explains archaeology, customs, climates, people, dates, doctrines, herbs, politics, empires, animals, and much more.

Learn from a concordance. Some Bibles have concordances, but in most instances they are not exhaustive. However, the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance is considered one of the best. Time-tested and inexpensive, it lists every word in both the Old and New Testaments.

Learn from a commentary. Commentaries often explain the Bible verse-by-verse. Evangelical commentaries rarely disagree on major points of scripture, and these are helpful to an interpreter for gaining more knowledge.

Learn from an English dictionary. Some words used today in various English Bibles are archaic. Use a dictionary to look up the definition of hard-to-understand words.

Learn from a word dictionary of the Bible. Difficult words are strewn throughout the Bible; and in many cases the original word in an English Bible may not mean what you think it does. A popular word dictionary helpful to interpreters is Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words.

Basic Principles of Interpretation

Pray. Ask the Lord to enlighten you and give you insight.

Search for Insight. Bible reading alone will not give you insight. Insight is acquired only by studying and reflecting on various subjects, themes, people, verses, words, events, etc.

Consider the type of passage. Ask yourself: What kind of Scripture (or passage) am I studying? Is it prophetic (apocalyptic), law, parabolic, simile, psalm, instructional, wisdom (poetical), discourses, or narrative? Various types of passages will mandate different methods of interpretation. Also, the books of the Bible should be studied in context, or in light of proper interpretation. Begin by considering the background and author of each book, and to whom it is addressed, before you draw conclusions. For example, interpreting the book of Revelation requires different guidelines than those required for studying Genesis.

Examine unique words and phrases used by biblical writers. God is the author of all scripture, but men “wrote” (or recorded) as God inspired them. For example, in the Gospels we find that Mark wrote to the Roman people. Romans were fond of power and action; thus Mark’s repeated use of “straightaway” (i.e., immediately) gains the attention of a Roman audience. On the other hand, Matthew desired to appeal to Jews. In doing so, he was careful to use terms with which Jewish people were familiar; such as “Messiah,” and the “Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew avoided the term “Kingdom of God” as often as possible so as not to inflame the passion of Jews since they were forbidden to say or write the name of God. John focuses on the universal appeal of Christ and is concerned that people everywhere “believe” in Jesus, the Son of God. John uses the term “believe” over 50 times in the Gospel he penned.

Take time to research maps and locations of certain events. Most Bible students know who Moses is, but are unable to pinpoint the locations where certain events occurred in his life. Furthermore, most Bible students do not know the places where Jesus traveled during His 3 ½ years of ministry. Nor do they know where He performed miracles and healings, gave discourses, or talked to the religious, royal, or common people.

Learn to recognize frequently used figures of speech. It’s important that you learn what is literal and what is figurative. During the time the Bible was penned by human beings, various figures of speech were used. Even in modern times we use many of figures of speech. A popular contemporary American term is “Get out of my face.” We understand this to mean “Depart,” “Go away,” or “Leave me alone.” However, it is doubtful that two thousand years from today people would understand this term. The Bible contains many such figures of speech and it’s important not to develop a literal (or systematic) theology based on these terms.

In His Grip,
Dr. Harbuck

From the February 2010 edition of The Grapevine. Used with permission.

Thinking of submitting papers or essays for consideration of publication?

We at PneumaReview.com are a group of volunteers, and most of us are without formal theological training. Unfortunately, time does not allow us to give regular feedback. Therefore, we strongly encourage you to seek out other writers or ministry leaders to help you assess weaknesses in your articles and offer critique.

Our process is to receive final draft submissions which we edit for grammar and readability. If significant changes are needed or if we have a question regarding content, we will contact the author before publishing.

Two of the PneumaReview.com editors: Mike Dies and Raul Mock in February, 2016.

Writers are welcome to send brief synopsis of articles or papers for the editorial committee to consider. It would be our pleasure to let you know if we think your article, whether it is already written or still only a proposal, would be a good fit for PneumaReview.com.

On August 24, 2016, a new writer asked, “Customarily, does one also send a pre-publication copy of the review to the author of the book?” We do certainly want to encourage book authors and review writers to interact at PneumaReview.com. Commentary and written exchanges enrich the content for our readers and increases our visibility on the internet. Therefore, we prefer to share published reviews with the publisher or with the author of the book or article.

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On September 28, 2016, a reviewer asked if they could make a last minute change to their forthcoming review. Including last minute or even post-publication changes are one of the benefits of being completely digital and no longer tied to a print schedule. Yes, please send your proposed changes. In fact, our web developers tell us that search engines love content that is being kept fresh.

To send updates: The easiest way for us to work with updates would be for you to send a copy of your original where you have highlighted changes. If you are using a versatile word processing program, use the Strikeout option to cross out what you want eliminated. Please indicate what you wish to add by changing the text to bold, changing the text color, or highlight the text background. This allows us to see at a glance what you want added.

On December 4, 2016, a reviewer asked: “I also have a question, in my researching what books I’d like to review, I noticed that some of the books had several reviews on Amazon.com. If a book is already reviewed (say 5 or more reviews) on Amazon (for example), is there a benefit to the readers of Pneuma Review for someone to review them in PR?” In general, I would say there are lot of reasons to publish reviews on PneumaReview.com. First of all, our readers appreciate knowing that a review is coming from a Renewalist (Pentecostal/charismatic) perspective or someone who is friendly to the movement. Secondly, our mission as an organization is to broaden and deepen our readers, Renewalist church leaders around the world. To read the reviews on an Amazon sales page, you have to be interested enough to go there, yet we sometimes hear the comment, “I didn’t know about this book.” A review of a book increases visibility and interest, and publishers know that every exposure increases the likelihood of a browser purchasing the book. For us, introducing readers to new books makes it more likely that they will grow and help others grow. I could also talk about the benefits of giving up-and-coming scholars and church leaders opportunities to get published, or how publishers gladly send review copies to reviewers without cost, but both of those reasons seem a bit self-serving. In summary, every quality review that we publish helps us bridge the gap, a little more, between the seminary and the local church.

Translation: It is the policy of PneumaReview.com to support translation efforts whenever feasible. The individual or organization wanting to carry out the translation will need to acquire permission from the owner of the material, as the articles published at PneumaReview.com remain the intellectual property of their respective authors. Permission to use any images or photographs will also be necessary, but we usually find authors and photographers to have open-handed generosity when it comes to sharing the story of what Jesus is doing through his people. PneumaReview.com will gladly include any links or updates to any translations that do occur.

We could not continue were it not for our Authors. Thank you for helping us publish excellent material for our global audience.

Here is an invitation to writers I published in October, 2014: “Looking for Good Writers: Have Something to Say?“

Is Word-Faith theology only rotten apples?

In the midst of our last phase placing articles and reviews from all of our print issues online at PneumaReview.com, I came across a response we received and published almost ten years ago. If I remember how this went, the editorial committee felt we had to turn away a submission this writer made to us because of how he was responding in anger instead of trying to win over those that disagreed with him. Although we cannot usually explain our reasons for turning something away, and believe me when I say I never enjoy writing those rejection letters, we saw potential in this writer and pointed out some things he could improve. When we received his thoughtful response, we knew he had taken to heart what we had tried to communicate. Here is his response:

Thank you for looking at the article I submitted. I am now inclined to think that a more ‘humble’ piece of writing, coming from a little amateur theologian like me, would perhaps be more palatable for your website readers. At the time of writing, I had felt the need to produce something approaching a polemic in order to defend my continued theological studies from… well, from various people. And I believe my article is still useful for that purpose. But Pentecostal/charismatics, in general, need to be more gently wooed out of their errors. I have spent some time discussing various issues (in a friendly fashion) with some of the older WordFaithers and traditional Pentecostals (and trying to learn from them too) over the past year, and I think they’re just plain tired of having their heads smacked by aggressive apologists and supercilious theologians! Usually at the heart of the various errors and excesses we are all too familiar with, there is some valid insight or understanding—it may even be distinctive. When we fail to discern it, affirm it and extricate it from the general mess it has got itself into in our critiques, I think we probably end up doing more harm than good. I suspect that, more often than not, people tenaciously cling to various errors (regardless of how much we criticize) because there is something true that they have seen somewhere at the bottom—though they have perhaps made erroneous inferences from it.

I mention all this because you aren’t running an apologetics website per se, but a resource site for Pentecostals and Charismatics, in the hope of nurturing doctrinal maturity and curbing excesses. It has occurred to me that perhaps something gentler might be called for than my original article. I will try my hand on a revised article and submit it again. Thanks for the consideration.

– GTA

Although this comment was originally published in the print edition of the Spring 2005 issue of Pneuma Review, I think it is still a good reminder for me.

I do remember spending many long hours in numerous libraries researching the destructive errors I found in Word of Faith teachings. At the time, it had not been that long since God had freed me from a sectarian mindset. I was arming myself to argue against the ugliness I saw. Yet there were several individuals, mentoring voices including Ron Messelink, Paul King, William De Arteaga, Geir Lie and Jon Ruthven, who challenged me to look deeper than the charges laid against the Word-Faith movement by heresy hunters. No one claimed that the movement was not full of poor theology or even serious error on the fringes, though there was disagreement about how deep those fringes were. Ultimately, my layman’s research led me to conclude that despite serious problems, there were emphases and insights that could be gleaned from the movement. The new challenge I saw was what writer GTA pointed out, that while it is difficult to draw those caught up with error towards the truth, it is impossible to do so if they think you are angry with them and when they know they have seen something true despite the mess. I continue to learn how this is a good way to look at many controversial subjects, particularly when it is all too easy to exclude others because they believe differently.

If you agree that learning how to share the truth in love is a life long calling, join me in asking for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit to carry it out.