Our Life and Times : Biblical Reasoning for a Modern Age
BLOGGER · THEOLOGIAN · APOLOGIST
Norman Harold Patterson Jr.
Patterson’s 10 Rules of Biblical Interpretation or Why You are Having Trouble Understanding the Bible
An entire course in Biblical hermeneutics and exegesis in 10 clear and understandable rules.
Rule #1: You don’t interpret the Bible, the Bible interprets you.
Rule #2: If there is something you read in the Bible that you don’t agree with, you must change, not the Bible.
Rule #3: There is only one meaning to Scripture that matters and that is God’s intended meaning. Our job is to find out what He meant to communicate. Anything else is superfluous and a waste of time.
Rule #4: You cannot truly understand the Bible apart from the Holy Spirit, yet anyone can understand what the Bible says.
Rule #5: While there is only one meaning to Scripture, there are as many applications as there are people.
Rule #6: First obey what you read in Scripture, then you will understand. Obeying the clear parts of Scripture prepares you to understand the difficult passages.
Rule #7: The Bible is the only self-attesting Book that is the self-revelation of the self-existing triune God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the mediator between God and man and many Scriptures speak of Him. Yet, the Bible also reveals the Unity of God, the Fatherhood of God, and that God is the Holy Spirit. It is a mistake to interpret the Bible as only revealing or speaking about the Second Person of the Trinity.
Rule #8: God uses different literary devices and genres. If you don’t understand this, you will remain confused as to what the meaning is.
Rule #9: There is always a structure in writing. Try to understand the skeleton of how a passage is put together and you then will grasp the whole.
Rule #10: The Bible is not made up of two Books, one old and one new, nor is it 66 Books. It is One Book that reveals all that we need for faith and practice. If you read it as two Books or 66 Books, you will not understand it. And just as you can’t understand a book by reading one sentence or one chapter, so you will not understand the Scriptures as you should unless and until you read it in its entirety.
We find the Dominion Mandate for Bible-believing Christians in Genesis 1:26-28:
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
For Christians, this means that God has given us the responsibility to take dominion over the entire world. We have God's approval and authority to "fill the earth and subdue it." Add to this Christ's call in Matthew 28:19+20 to:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
And 2 Corinthians 10:3-6:
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
While God called Christians to be separate from the world in holiness, He doesn't give us the option to isolate ourselves from the world physically. As Jesus said:
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. John 17:14-15
Because of false piety and a lack of understanding of these and other Dominion affirming Biblical texts, Christians far too often vacate the world, leaving an "influence vacuum." As the old saying goes, "nature abhors a vacuum." Because of this, instead of taking Dominion over the arts, sciences, court systems, political offices, universities, and so on, Christians withdraw into isolated communities only to leave the world unoccupied.
As a result, anti-Christ people and philosophies have readily taken over virtually every facet of life. The greatest antithesis to Biblical Christianity has understood and intentionally implemented the Dominion Mandate for their own sinister ends.
The most dangerous of all are those espousing Cultural Marxism. Briefly, Cultural Marxism is an expansion of Classical Marxism, which focuses primarily on the economic philosophy of Karl Marx. Cultural Marxism is much more all-encompassing than Classical Marxism.
Ultimately, Cultural Marxism is about liberating humanity from the moral constraints of Biblical Christianity. The Bible prohibits same-sex intimacy, adultery in all forms, polygamy, bigamy, bestiality, pedophilia, and so on. God created man and woman in His image and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply; the Dominion Mandate!
The method Cultural Marxism employs to propagate its insidious agenda is through applying the Biblical Mandate. The plan has been and continues to be for those who oppose Biblical Christianity to infiltrate and dominate every known sphere of influence. As Voddie Bachem pointed out, their strategy is to take over the "robes" of society; professors, pastors, and judges, for example.
R.J. Rushdoony and the Christian Reconstructionists proposed the same tactic, taking over the "robes" of society. However, instead of a great "Amen" from the rest of the Church, Christian Reconstructionism has been vilified as patriarchal, extreme, and misguided.
In the meantime, Cultural Marxism is dominating the universities, media, churches, courts, arts, etc. They are putting Christians and Christianity to shame by their ardent intentionality to dominate the world for Self.
As the degeneration of our culture continues, so will the hostility toward Biblical Christianity. And just as Marxism tried to destroy Biblical Christianity through the reign of terror in anti-Christ regimes like the Soviet Union and Communist China, modern Marxists will not rest until Biblical Christianity is destroyed.
The good news, however, is the promise of Jesus Christ. He said that the "gates of hell" will not prevail against the Church. (Matthew 16:18) The image Christ was giving was not a Church that was cowering in the corner, battening down the hatches until the storm of hell subsided. Just the opposite. Hell is under attack, and its filthy gates are no match for the power and glory of the Risen Christ and His Bride.
Christians can no longer cower in corners. It is time for us to take up the battle cry and assault Cultural Marxism and any other "high place" (2 Corinthians 10:3-6) that dares to raise itself against the knowledge of God. Our weapons are not of the flesh (Ephesians 6), but they are weapons nonetheless and are worthless if left unused.
It is time for Christians to take back our country, our world for Christ. We must do it according to the means and methods of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom, which means we must take Dominion and occupy all walks of life for the glory of the crown rights of Jesus Christ.
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