Bible Sanity - What's in a name?
The Madness
The Bible wasn't even complete when false teachers started coming in to the first century churches, distorting the Scriptures and intentionally leading people away from the doctrines of the apostles.
Very early in church history allegorical and mystical interpretations of the Bible replaced normal meanings. Through the ages, scripture was mixed with "inherited apostolic authority" of the popes of the Catholic church. Today is not any better - now the Bible is presented mixed with bizzare charasmatic elite "revelations", or even simply mishandled by Bible teachers who are more ignorant than knowledgable.
Many people now believe that whatever they read in the Bible could mean just about anything...
Sanity
The truth is that the Word of God is clear and specific, and that the only spiritual dynamic of understanding Scripture is the illumination of the Holy Spirit which allows us to understand God's Word correctly, and to see personal applications for our own daily lives. It is our own personal application which changes, never the textual meaning!
The Bible is meant to be read and interpreted normally, just like you would read any other book. It means what it says, and doesn't mean what it doesn't say - how hard is that? When read normally, the Bible is both meaningful and self-consistent - communicating the truths of God to mankind!
Sola Scripta!
BibleSanity.org
My Pupose here is to Demystify and Clarify the Bible using:
Careful Hermeneutic Methods - Natural, or "Literal" interpretation of Scripture reveals the original intended meaning of a passage. This requires careful attention to context, to the original historic audience, and to various aspects of the original languages. Natural interpretation is based on honest observation and methodic investigation!
Biblical Chronology and Timelines - Many of the Books of the Bible are not written in strict chronological order, and the Books themselves are not arranged in the Bible in order. Also, a great many of them occur at the same time as each other, or overlap. A reasonable understanding of biblical chronology is essential to a proper understanding the Scriptures.
Covenants, Dispensations, and Prophecies - How God deals with man. Covenants and prophecies are the promises of God to specific men, and the dispensations are the periods of time in which God deals with these men. An understanding of God's specific interactions with mankind is a vital component of understanding the Scriptures as a whole, gives contextual understanding to biblical events, and also has direct bearing on unfulfilled prophecies.
Conservative Systematic Theology - Scriptures must be tied together for doctrines to be established. Scriptural truths echo from the patriarchs, to Moses, to the prophets, to Christ, and to the apostles. Many passages are specifically tied to the scope of their immediate context, while other scriptures are universal in nature. This web site is especially interested in the theological area of Bibliology - What the Bible says about itself!
Original Bible History and Modern Translations - The Bible reveals a great deal about its original authors - people like Moses, Samuel, Ezra, Luke, Paul, and John. The Bible has a tremendous history to be studied in manuscripts and ancient translations. There's also a great parade of English Bibles from Tyndale's translations to the King James, and then hundreds of years later, another wave of English translations based a much broader base of manuscripts and 350 years of archeological and linguistic advances - but these new translations must be qualified individually!
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