When Bible Tools Influence Bible Interpretation

Gary discusses a recent article by Daniel Hummel about how concordances made Dispensationalism—and a “scientific approach to Bible reading—possible.

We should not be surprised if men do not view God’s world rightly. Romans 1:20 tells us that “since the creation of the world [God’s] invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made.” This means that all men are confronted constantly with God’s true worldview, because they “clearly see” the true nature of things, including the nature of God Himself. Yet, as Romans 1:18 says, men “suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” That is, they refuse to see the world rightly.

It is possible to suppress the truth by means of a direct contradiction, but that is hard to do. If we contradict the whole world, we shall have to commit suicide, which indeed is the way out for some people. It is more common, however, for men to take part of the truth and abuse it in order to negate the rest of the truth. Men take a small part of the truth, and then pretend that this fragment is the whole truth. That way they can “suppress” the true world picture, the true basic interpretation of reality.

For instance, modern man takes part of the truth about the arrangement of the universe—that it is peppered with various kinds of suns called stars, arranged into galaxies, etc.—and uses this truth to suppress the more important truth that the heavens declare God’s glory, and that the heavenly bodies were made for “signs and seasons.” To take one more example, modern man notices that animals resemble each other and human beings. The Bible says that these resemblances are by creation design, so that men can learn about themselves by studying animals. Modern man takes this truth and perverts it into the error of evolution, the belief that men are genetically related to animals.

Our purpose [as readers] is to get into the Bible and become as familiar as possible with the Bible’s own worldview, language, and thought forms. Our purpose is to learn to think the way people thought in Bible times, so that we see the world through new eyes—through Bible eyes.

Gary discusses a recent article by Daniel Hummel about how concordances made Dispensationalism—and a “scientific approach to Bible reading—possible. We take many of our modern study tools for granted, but each new help has brought with it challenges and unintended consequences to how we read and understand what we read in the Scriptures.

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American Vision’s mission is to Restore America to its Biblical Foundation—from Genesis to Revelation. American Vision (AV) has been at the heart of worldview study since 1978, providing resources to exhort Christian families and individuals to live by a Biblically based worldview. Visit www.AmericanVision.org for more information, content and resources