The Literal "Hermeneutic" and Israel Seen Only As the Physical Seed of Abraham

[tulsa 2011]

The Literal "Hermeneutic" and Israel Seen Only As the Physical Seed of Abraham

A "hermeneutic" is a method or
principle of interpretation." It is a word used by Christian
seminary professors and their students. On
http://www.mac.edu/faculty/richardpa...iminality.html they say
"hermeneia--can be traced back to the god Hermes...hermeneutics, as
the art of understanding and of textual exegesis, does stand under the
sign of Hermes. Hermes is the messenger who brings the word from Zeus."

Dispensationalism has a peculiar "hermeneutic."

C. I. Scofield claimed that "Not one instance exists of a 'spiritual' or figurative fulfilment of prophecy... Jerusalem is always Jerusalem, Israel is always Israel, Zion is always Zion... Prophecies may never be spiritualised, but are always literal." C.I. Scofield, Scofield Bible Correspondence Course (Chicago, Moody Bible Institute), pp. 45-46.

Lewis S. Chafer, a follower of Scofield and founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, says "The outstanding characteristic of the dispensationalist is... That he believes every statement of the Bible and gives to it the plain, natural meaning its words imply." L. S. Chafer, 'Dispensationalism,' Bibliotheca Sacra, 93 (October 1936), 410, 417.

"Dispensationalists claim that their principle of hermeneutics is that of literal interpretation. This means interpretation which gives to every word the same meaning it would have in normal usage, whether employed in writing, speaking or thinking." From: Charles C. Ryrie, Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today, 1965, page 86.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" II Timothy 3: 26

"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." II Peter 1: 21

"But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little..." Isaiah 28: 10

"All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:" Matthew 13: 34

"I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets." Hosea 12: 10

II Timothy 3: 26, II Peter 1: 21, Isaiah 28: 10, Matthew 13: 34 and Hosea 12: 10 all together say that scripure is given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that scripture should be interpreted by scripture (not by man's systems of understanding), and that much of scripture is not literal but is metaphoric in meaning.

In order for the system created by John Darby, C.I Scofield, Lewis S. Chafer and others to stand and be accepted by many who claim to be Christians, a method of interpretation of scripture had to have been established different from that system of interpretation used by Christians before the later 19th century and early 20th century.

The starting assumption of dispensationalism that God now has two peoples, Old Covenant Israel and the Church, contrary to what John 10: 16, Romans 12: 4-5 and Ephesians 4: 4 say, that there is one people of God, was not an assumption in Protestant Christianity before dispensationalism began in the 19th century.

Israel is a word that is found in Scripture over 2500 times. Israel can be seen to mean a group of people who are the literal physical seed of Abraham, Issac and Jacob under the Old Covenant. Or Israel can be seen as being the Body of Christ - as all the elect of God in Christ - since God remade Old Covenant Israel (Jeremiah 18: 4, 6, Romans 9: 20-21) such that to enter it anyone must be born again of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ. "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21. Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" Romans 9: 20-21

The interpretation that Israel is made up of all the elect of God is based upon seeing the Bible is the inerrant divine word of God, and that it is absolute truth and man cannot change that truth in any way, though God can remake Israel. Also the word of God is its own interpreter (Isaiah 28: 10), and relevant scriptures to any particular text should be used to understand that text and not a tradition of men,

Even Lewis S. Chafer acknowledged that dispensatinalism has changed the word of God. Actually, it did not change the Word so much as it changed the interpretation of the Word. But because the word of God is absolute truth, man is not to change it, and scripture must be interpreted by scripture and not by a system of man..

Lewis S. Chafer said that dispensationalism has
"...changed the Bible from being a mass of more or less conflicting
writings into a classified and easily assimilated revelation of both
the earthly and heavenly purposes of God, which reach on into eternity
to come.." Lewis. S. Chafer, ‘Dispensationalism,’ Bibliotheca Sacra, 93 (October 1936), 410, 416, 446-447

Darby, Scofield and Chafer changed the doctrines so that what they said contradicts the teaching that the Old Covenant was fully done away with (Hebrews 10: 9) so that Christ could establish the New Covenant. They changed the New Testament doctrine that God was one people, not two. They set up a system of Bible interpretation not only saying that scripture should be interpreted literally, but also they tended to diminish what Isaiah 28: 9-10 says about taking precepts from different scriptures and putting them together, line upon line. This is interpreting scripture by scripture.

Romans 9:6: "Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel."

Paul is saying something about Israel which is new and would be taken by members of Old Covenant Israel who believe they are the chosen of God by their physical bloodline as an insult to them. But Paul received revelation from Jesus Christ himself. In Acts 26: 14-18 Paul tells about meeting the risen Christ and his telling Paul that he has been appointed to open the eyes of the Gentiles and that Christ would appear to him. Christ gave Paul the revelation which Paul preached.

In Romans 9: 6 Paul is teaching that in the New Covenant the covenant is no to Israel of the flesh, but to those who are born born again in Christ. "If ye be Christ's, then ye are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." Galatians 3: 29. And in the verse before this Paul writes that Jews and Greeks (Gentiles) are one in Christ.

In making this distinction, is unambiguously making known that the identifying characteristic of the true Israel of God, is not the flesh, but the Spirit. This is an important revelation about the promise. Its fruition is found in the sovereign electing work of God, not in any genealogical descent. We should not overlook the fact that if it were of descent, then this statement of God would be untrue. Paul (under inspiration of God), is declaring that the eternal covenant of God, was not to Israel after the flesh, but was to spiritual Israel, which is a nation made up of all those who are born of the Seed, Christ Jesus.

The word of God is absolute truth and cannot be changed by man. Man changing the word of God is the dialectic in operation where man rebels and argues against that absolute truth of scripture. This is what dispensationalism did in changing the interpretation of scripture at certain key points regarding who and what is Israel. The literal method of interpretation is part of this changing of the meaning of Israel from what the New Testament teaches about Israel.

Romans 2:28-29: "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, In The Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."

Romans 2: 28-29 says that a person can be born Jewish according to the flesh, and yet in God's definition he is not a Jew. Being born a Jew on the outside - in the flesh - is not what determines who is a Jew in God's eyes under the New Covenant.. Those who are the real Jews of God, by being Jews inwardly, are "Jewish" in the spirit. The Jew of God doesn’t refer to a nationality, or to a race, it refers to anyone who is born again in Christ. Except they were raised up in Christ, and he in them, they are not true Jews according to Romans 2: 28-29. Romans 2: 28-29 is not about the literal, physical, outward Jew being a better Jew.

Philippians 3:3: "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

Those in Christ Jesus and he in them, whether born as physical Jews or as Gentiles have no confidence in the flesh in the sense of believing that Jews of the Old Covenant are the chosen people by virtue of their flesh, heir DNA from Abraham, Issac and Jacob.

Revelation 3:8-9: "I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee."

This is not about those who claim to be physical Jews but are not of the right bloodline. Those who say they Jews and are not Jews, but lie, are the physical Jews who claim to be the chosen of God and his elect according to their merit by their genealogy, and not by election by being in Christ and he in them.

I Peter 2:9-10: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal Priesthood, an Holy Nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now The People OF God: which hath not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."

Here Peter is quoting much of Exodus 19: 5-6 where God says is they will keep his commandments he will make them a peculiar treasure above all people of he earth, and that they will be a kingdom of priests.

But Peter in I Peter 2: 9-10 is not talking about Old Covenant Israel of the physical bloodline of Abraham. Notice that nowhere in I Peter 2: 5-10 does Peter mention the ekklesia, the church. But if he had mentioned the ekklesia he would have meant the congregation of Israel born again in Christ. Yet the same promises given to Israel in Exodus 19: 5-6 are given in I Peter 2: 9-10 to the Israel of God of the New Covenant. This is significant.

A remnant of Old Covenant Israel of the physical bloodline became by the election of grace the Israel of God as shown in Romans 11: 1-5.

In whom do we put our trust? God's Word, or in man's word? "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart: and lean notg unto thine own understanding." Proverbs 3: 5

Ephesians 2:12-13: "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the Covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."

"Ye" are the Gentiles. The Gentiles were once aliens and strangers from Old Covenant Israel, but by the blood of Christ are made nigh, or close. Close to what? To the church? No, they are made close to Israel born again in Christ.

 

[tulsa 2011]

"...he taketh away the first, that he may establish the second;" Hebrews 10: 9

"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, And not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually., make the comers thereunto perfect.." Hebrews 10: 1

"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Colossians 2: 16-17 The "body" means the Old Covenant restrictions on food, and requirement of observance of holy days, the new moon and sabbath days were just shadows of the substance to come which is Christ.

Paul says in Philippians 3: 2-8 to beware of evil workers and of the concision, and then he says he himself was circumcised, is of the tribe of Benjamin, that he had zeal in persecuting Christians, but that he now counts all this as dung.

In the Old Covenant the law or the Torah is not divided into that which is the righteousness of God which God would have man also have and the law which is about ceremonies such as animal sacrifice and circumcision and observances as in Colossians 2:16-17. So you have to be careful in reading about the law even in places in the New Testament. God did not do away with his righteousness, which he would have man have, when he remade Old Covenant Israel. This does not mean that God did not do away completely with all the ceremonies and observances that are included in what is called the shadows - and this includes circumcision - of the Old Covenant. And he put his moral law in the hearts of those of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31: 33).

Often in scripture you cannot take a verse in isolation and make a doctrine out of it, which is partly true also of Hebrews 10: 9. He, Christ, took away the ceremonies and required observances of the Old Covenant "law" but not the righteousness which is of God that he wants his own to have. You have to use related scriptures to interpret many verses.

 

[tulsa 2011]

Look at the idea that a sentence of a Bible text has its surface structure, which is its literal verbatim words in some order, and there can also be the jist meaning of that sentence.

Jist is said to mean: "the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work......the substance or essence of a speech or text."

The linguistics of Descartes, especially the work in 1662 of Arnauld and Nicole in Le Logique ou L'Art Penseur (The Art of Thinking, 1662), made a distinction between the literal verbatim words of a sentence and the gist meaning of that sentence. Modern linguists have called the gist meaning of a sentence its "deep structure," an interesting concept when applied to scripture.

The Bible says that: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" II Timothy 3: 26 And, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." II Peter 1: 21

And also the Bible says ""All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:" Matthew 13: 34 And "I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets." Hosea 12: 10

Part of the Bible is written in parables and metaphors. Applying the concept of the surface structure of a sentence - its literal verbatim words - and the deep structure of that sentence - its jist meaning - to the Bible being partly in the language of metaphor we see that for metaphoric Biblical texts the surface structure of the sentences have a different meaning than does the deep structure or jist meaning. For example, look at the surface structure and deep structure or just meaning of the locusts of Revelation 9: 1-11. Verse 7 says " And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle...." Hal Lindsey in his book Apocalypse Code of 1997 suggests they are Cobra helicopters of the Viet-Nam war era. Lindsey is acknowledging that the locusts are metaphoric, but he is speculating on their jist meaning, and is following the surface structure to some extent of the text rather than interpreting the text by other scripture. The jist meaning of the locust or locust-scorpions is found in Joel 1: 4 where they are metaphoric for destructive false doctrines and practices.

In Ezekiel 2: 3-7 the rebellious children of Israel (Ezekiel 2: 3) are called scorpions. In verse 6 God tells Ezekiel not to be afraid of their words, indicating the scorpions speak or write false doctrines. Then in Luke 10: 19 Christ says "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you."

Christ gives those who belong to him some spiritual power over the scorpions so that they cannot hurt his chosen ones by their words or deeds. But he also gives us power to tread on serpents. Serpents are found in Revelation 9 also, in Revelation 9: 19 in describing the huge number of the army of horsemen of Revelation 9: 14-19. Serpents are found in Matthew 23: 33, where Christ is taking to the scribes and Pharisees and says to them "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" Serpents are the leaders of the locust-scorpions, and the serpents can be said to be the false prophets, the religious leaders. The locust-scorpions are their more numerous followers, who may not pretend to be on moral high ground like the religious leaders.

And the Bible is not written like just any book created by men. It is written by men inspired by the Holy Spirit to write particular surface structure sentences and particular gist meanings. There are many surface structure verses in scripture, but fewer deep structure jist meanings.

This means that some literal verbatim verses have the same jist meanings or deep structure, and understanding this and bringing it out is a kind of connecting of the dots in scripture. And within many literal verbatim Bible texts are common jist meanings although each literal verse often provides some new information not in the other verses.

In scripture the same or very similar gist meanings appear with somewhat different surface structure, that is, with different literal verbatim words of sentences. In other words, verses of scripture which have different literal verbatim words have the same gist meanings.

Take the metaphor in Luke 13: 18-21 - the leavening of the kingdom of God - over time and the statement in II Thessalonians 2:3-4.which talks about a falling away to occur before the Lord appears again, and then it goes into the man of sin and a metaphor about him sitting in the temple of God.

Part of the same gist meaning is in both texts, but also each text adds something that is not in the other text. Luke 13: 21 adds that the leavening occurs over time until the whole is leavened. II Thessalonians 2: 3-4 adds the information about the revealing of a man of sin and his sitting in the temple of God.

Both texts require other scriptures to provide an accurate gist meaning for each text. To arrive at an accurate gist meaning of Luke 13: 18-21 the reader needs to know what leavening is in scripture. This is provided in Matthew 16: 6, -12 and in I Corinthians 5: 7-8.

For the metaphor of the man of sin sitting in the temple of God, the gist meaning includes the knowledge given in Acts 7: 48, I Corinthians 3: 16-17 and I Corinthians 6: 19 that God does not dwell in temples and that believers are the temple of God..

But the central gist meaning of Luke 13: 21 and II Thessalonians 2:3-4 is that prophecy tells us that there is to be a departure from sound doctrine.

A method of interpreting scripture which emphasizes the literal verbatim surface structure of scripture can come up with quite different interpretations than a method which acknowledges that surface structure but also considers the gist meanings of this text in view of the gist meanings of other relevant scriptures to modify that gist meaning.

Romans 11: 26 is a key but highly debated text, which has a surface structure - its literal or exact words - which dispensationalism holds up as proof of its theory that God has two peoples, Old Covenant Israel and the Capital C Church. But applying the surface and gist meanings of relevant scriptures to Romans 11: 26 brings into question that dispensationalist gist meaning derived from the literal verbatim words of the verse. Other texts in Romans - Romans 2: 28-29 and Romans 9: 6-8 - and other verses in Romans 11, such as 11: 17-20 do not support the gist meaning in Romans 11: 26 that all Old Covenant Israel are to be saved at some point in the future, but that Paul is suddenly writing about Israel as everyone who is of the elect of God.

Arriving at accurate gist meanings of scripture often requires a knowledge of other scriptures, and knowing how to apply that knowledge of other scriptures requires help by the Holy Spirit of God.

In translating the Hebrew or Greek words of a sentence in the Bible, the translator should select English words such that each matches the meanings the Hebrew or Greek words. That is, the surface structure of a metaphoric Bible text should not be interpreted in translation, but the exact words of the original - the surface structure - should be preserved in the translation. For example in II Peter 2: 3 in the New International Version the Greek words "και εν πλεονεξια πλαστοις λογοις υμας εμπορευσονται" are translated as "In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories." This is not a word for word translation of the Greek words above. It is an interpretation which diminished the metaphor. And there is no Greek word in the part of the sentence quoted above that means "stories." The Greek says plastois logois, false or feigned words

emporeusontai, the key Greek word, is in the future tense, middle voice and indicative mode, from emporeuomai, to carry on business, to trade in, to cheat, make a gain of, exploit." And emporeuomai is from emporos, which Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says means "a wholesale tradesman,merchant," and A Linguistic Key To the Greek New Testament, Volume Two, by Fritz Rienecker, 1980, page 508 says in Revelation 18: 23 means "...merchants who deal in foreign exports and imports (Mounce)."

The William Tyndale 1526 English translation has "And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you." The Geneva Bible of 1599 Bible says "And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you." And the King James Version has "And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you:" Many New Testament verse wordings of the Geneva and King James Version are identical or almost identical to that of the 1526 Tyndale New Testament.

There can be power in the use of a metaphor like making merchandise of you, a power which can be diminished by trying to interpret what the metaphor means. This means the Greek word used as a metaphor should be translated by the English word which is most close in meaning to it. The Holy Spirit uses metaphors like merchandising you and expects the reader to figure out the metaphoric meaning by the Spirit of Christ in him, those who have been given ears to hear.

 

[B-A-C]

Of course the Palestinians (sons of Ishmael) would also be considered the seed of Abraham.