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There are five points we must examine about ourselves as interpreters: faith, illumination, qualification, humility, and awareness. Which of these six do you believe has the greatest influence on you as you interpret a Bible passage? How does it help you when you interpret a passage? How does it hinder you?
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Faith for me is most important. Faith that God’s word is true and inerrant. I believe that the other points follow faith. I have faith that God will give me illumination, qualification, humility and awareness if I earnestly ask him to help me understand my readings.
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Illumination has the greatest influence on me as I interpret a Bible passage. I am trusting the guidance of the Holy Spirit to give me clarity and understanding of God’s word as written.
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AWARENESS – because I have been a student of God’s Word for some 39 years and I “know a lot” of His Word. But I bring that to my interpretation and have “attitudes and theological convictions” I bring to the table. It helps because I do know and understand the fundamental principles and doctrines of the faith so largely this works as an advantage…. but….in matters of sovereignty vs. free will there is a “fight” within me to read Scripture in favor of God sovereignly allowing man to express his free will in matters of salvation and I admit to looking for ways to uphold my belief as I have no desire to believe God picks some people to save and others He, even justly, does not pick. This skews what I am willing to see when interpreting Scripture.
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I think humility has the greatest influence on me as I interpret the Bible, or at least I think it should have. It helps me to accept the meaning that grows out of the text when I have it. Often times, I am hindered because I do not have humility.
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I think initially qualification will have the greatest influence on me. This is because I am new to this process, and the process itself as well as some of the tools are unfamiliar. I’ll only get stronger as I “exercise” with this regimen. Over time, though, I pray that Illumination will become the most influential – that I am actually hearing from God’s Holy Spirit as I study.
