Christian Doctrine

         Doctrine must be based on the Bible only, and not on traditions, the declarations of self-appointed "prophets" or mystics, and not on the decisions of scholars or councils. Doctrine must not be declared based on individual verses taken out of the context in which they appear. Doctrine should be interpreted by its consistency with the totality of scripture. Knowledge of biblical languages, history, culture, science, religious traditions, and other religions are all extremely useful but must never, by themselves, determine doctrine.

        We must reject any doctrine derived from eisegesis (doctrine read into the scriptures) and accept any doctrines only if they are derived from exegesis (from or out of the scriptural texts). Any doctrines which we derive from the scriptural texts must be consistent with the full body of scripture to be sure that we are not misreading the intent of the texts.

        We have allowed the progressives ("Progressive" is their current self identification. They have also been known as liberals and relativists) to define themselves as "mainstream" or "moderate." They insult historical Christianity by labelling it as backward, racist, reactionary, homophobic, sexist, intolerant,  irrelevant to the modern world, judgmental, imperialistic, sexist, anti-intellectual, etc., etc., etc. Yada, yada, yada. Blah, blah, blah. You get the picture.

        Historical Christianity is none of these things. Part of the reason that this insulting situation has arisen is that many churches have not adequately fulfilled their function to hand on the faith to the following generations. A helpful start would be a renewed emphasis on Christian education in history, doctrine, interpretation,  apologetics, and application of the Christian message in day to day life. We need to be equipping modern day Christian warriors. (Ephesians 6:13-18)

        (... but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks         you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; 1 Peter 3:15)

        Historical Christianity is the "mainstream."  Absolute agreement on all points of discussion among Christians is not required. There is a small remnant of true Christians in every truly Christian body. The Lord knows those who are his. Those who wish to redefine the faith are the ones who are creating another doctrine. Many have already crossed the threshold and have effectively left the mainstream historical faith.

Messianic Prophecies from the Bible: Links to Several Posts

Recently, there has a major burst of interest in the post on this blog about the messianic prophecy of the Star of Bethlehem.  Christians traditionally have believed that the Old Testament is full of references to Jesus and prophecies about Him.  Jewish scholars, of course, deny this and accuse Christians of misinterpreting scripture.  They say that we take words and phrases out of the context of the surrounding text.  Essentially, they are saying that we are practicing eisegesis.

Eisegesis (εἰς, eis, Greek = “into.”) is the process of interpreting a text or portion of text using one's own presuppositions, agendas, or biases. This is commonly referred to as reading your prior suppositions into the text.

Christian biblical scholars stress the need to practice exegesis of biblical texts and not eisegesis.  (Exegesis ἐξηγεῖσθαι (exegeisthai) The English meaning of this Greek word is “to explain,” or “to interpret.”  The idea is that the interpretation comes from within the text. This comes from the etymology of the word: ek (out) plus egeisthai (to lead), “to lead out.”

So, when Christians search the Old Testament for messianic prophecies about Jesus, are we guilty of practicing eisegesis?  The short answer is no and this is because Jesus Himself told us to do this.

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” John 5:39

“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.” John 5:46

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24:27

Listed below are the messianic prophecies discussed so far on this blog.  There will be others.  Click on the link to go to the post.

The Star of Bethlehem

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/07/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-star-of.html

He Will be Called Out of Egypt

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/02/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

He is the Light of the World

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/02/messianic-prophecies-from-bible_24.html

Herod’s Slaughter of the Children of Bethlehem

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/03/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

He Will Be from Nazareth

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/04/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

They Will Give Him Vinegar for His Thirst

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/06/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

A Prophecy Not Yet Fulfilled

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/07/messianic-prophecies-from-bible_29.html

He Will be Sold for Thirty Pieces of Silver

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/10/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

He Will Bring Light to the Lands of Zebulon and Naphtali

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2011/09/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-he.html

He Will Die Among the Wicked But be Buried With a Rich Man

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/01/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-he.html

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/05/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-he.html

God Has a Son

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/04/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-what-is.html

  

His Body Will Not Decay

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/12/messsianic-prophecies-acts-1610.html

Book Comment: The Epistles to the Philippians and to Philemon

The full title of this book published in Edinburgh in 1897 is A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles to the Philippians and to Philemon. The writer was Marvin R. Vincent, the Baldwin Professor of Sacred Literature in Union Theological Seminary in New York, New York. In this book, Dr. Vincent defends the Pauline authorship of the letters.


The book is quite technical and requires at least a rudimentary understanding (like mine) of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. Dr. Vincent examines the Greek text of both books, word by word, phrase by phrase, and describes the usages of the words in other literature of the same time period. He discusses various possible interpretations of certain words and passages and gives his reasons, based on Greek grammar, lexicology, and consistency of biblical interpretation, for making the translations which he does.

Vincent makes many interesting observations, such as the following on Philippians 1:5:

“For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;” (ἐπὶ τῇ κοινωνίᾳ ὑμῶν εἰς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης ἡμέρας ἄχρι τοῦ νῦν). τοῦ is the definite article “the,” so, literally, this is “the now.”  Vincent says this is “only in Paul,” which may mean that Paul was the writer who introduced the modern idea of “the now.”

This is a commentary which respects the Scriptures it examines. As he says in his preface to the book, "The main object in this commentary has been to exhibit St. Paul's thought in these two letters ..."

Definitions: Exegesis and Eisegesis

All of the numerous approaches involved in biblical interpretation actually reduce down to two; exegesis and eisegesis.  These are not actually hard concepts to understand when you look into the etymology of the words involved.  Etymology is just a fancy word for the study of word origins.  The origin of the word "etymology" is from Greek, meaning "true word."

The word "eisogesis," from the Greek "to lead into," means to carry a preconceived meaning into the biblical text and then looking for proofs.  I think that many systematic theologies make this error, forcing their conclusions into the text rather than letting the text speak for itself.   Examples are Marxist, feminist, capitalist, extreme Calvinist, extreme Arminian, historical, New Age, social justice, liberation, and many cultic theologies.  These suspect theologies tend to ignore any biblical texts which don't fall into line with the point they are trying to make.  Often Bible verses are quoted entirely out of context and sometimes only a portion of the verse is quoted.  In modern terms, think "cut and paste."

"Exegesis" (from Greek words meaning "to lead out;" reading theology out from the biblical text; letting the text speak for itself) while praying for illumination by the Holy Spirit is the preferred method.  Any doctrinal statement in this method of interpretation must be consistent with the totality of scripture and should take into account the original intention of the text rather than our modern concerns.

British Israelism

I realized after I posted yesterday that some may not know what "British Israelism" is. The doctrine, also known as Anglo-Israelism, holds that persons of Western European ancestry are direct lineal descendents of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Many British Israelists also believe that the British Royal Family is lineally descended from King David. As with Mormonism, the genetic, historical, and linguistic evidence just does not add up.

The doctrine existed earlier but was first clearly expounded in the late 18th Century. The most prominent proponents of the doctrine have been Princess Alice, the Countess of Athlone; Roger Rusk, a university professor and brother of United States Secretary of State Dean Rusk; William Massey, Prime Minister of New Zealand; and Herbert W. Armstrong, the founder of the Worldwide Church of God. Armstrong even declared that he was called by God to explain and prophesy about the doctrine.

Groups which have expounded the doctrine (or still do) are The Shepherd's Chapel, the Bible-Pattern Church Fellowship, the Orange Street Congregational Church, the Christian Revival Crusade, Brit-Am, the Revival Centres International, the Worldwide Church of God, and the Churches of God in Ireland. The Christian Identity Movement adds a racist angle to the doctrine. In a modified form, traces of the doctrine can be seen in the teachings of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon (LDS) Church.

The main Bible verses on which the British Israel doctrine is based are Genesis 12:2-3, 17:4, 18:18, 27:29, 35:11, 48:14-20, 49:22; Exodus 31:13; Deuteronomy 2:25, 4:7-8, 15:6, 28:10; 1 Chronicles 5:1-2; Isaiah 24:15, 42:19, 49:6, 49:12, 66:19; and Hosea 1:9. This is clearly an example of eisogesis at it's worst; assembling random bits and pieces of scripture together to prove a point one has already accepted.

Eisogesis (Greek "eis" = "into") is the practice of taking an idea "into" the scriptures and trying to find "proof texts" to confirm one's thesis. Exegesis (Greek "ek" = "out") works in the opposite direction, seeking to derive doctrines from the scriptures which are internally consistent with the entire Bible.