Doctrine Of Bible Interpretation 3 by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Local Church as a Training Centre

Kenneth Hagin observed that if the local church were doing her job properly, there would be no need for Bible schools. The epistles were written to churches and church leaders — not to academic institutions. Leaders were being produced within local churches. By Acts 13, the Antioch church already had teachers and prophets. James, the biological brother of Jesus, who was absent before the resurrection, was a pillar in the Jerusalem church by Acts 15.

The apostles themselves were largely uneducated men. Acts 4:13 records that the religious leaders "perceived that they were uneducated and untrained" — the Greek word translated untrained is idiōtēs, which is where the English word "idiot" derives. Yet these men had moved in power. What identified them was not eloquence, but the fact that a lame man stood healed beside them. Theology does not box God — God uses it.

Ephesians 4:11–12 — "He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry."

Two things are clear from this passage:

• The saints do the work of the ministry — the fivefold gifts equip them to do it
• All five gifts operate within one local church — not distributed across separate churches so that each one has a different office

The word "pastors and teachers" in verse 11 is a single compound word in the Greek, joined by the conjunction kai. There is no pastoral work without teaching — a pastor corrects through instruction. So the structure is: pastoring-teachers, evangelists, prophets, and apostles — all functioning within the same congregation to equip its members.

2 Timothy 2:2 — "These things you have heard of me among many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." The faithful men are the people in the church. Ministry training happens inside the church.

In essence, if Ephesians 4 is functioning properly, the church becomes a training centre — not a preaching centre alone.

Matthew 28:19 — "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." The Greek word translated make disciples means to make students. A student is in a school.

A school has:

• A teacher
• A curriculum
• Consistent class attendance
• Written records of what is taught
• Questions asked for deeper understanding
• Personal study outside the classroom
• Acceptance of correction and instruction

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• Expectation of being tested

Spiritual growth is only in the revelation of the knowledge of Christ. What distinguishes Jesus from every other figure in scripture — including Solomon, the wisest man — is soteriology: salvation. If a believer is not learning salvation, they are not learning Christ, and they are not growing. They may be accumulating knowledge, but that is not growth.

The test of what is being learned will come. If God has been teaching that he will never leave nor forsake, the test will be a moment where it feels like abandonment. If a believer cannot call him Father in that season, they have failed the test. The abundance of spiritual encounters a person enjoys in a season is not the destination — it is the revision for the examination that follows.

Biblical Historical Framework

When the historical framework of the Bible is ignored, interpretation becomes shallow and scriptures are easily taken out of context. Hermeneutics depends on historical awareness.

Understanding biblical history falls under two categories:

1. Historical Demography — the changing structure of human population in the Bible, identifying major characters and audiences
2. Historical Geography — the movement of peoples across locations and how geography shaped Hebrew culture and writing

On the audience: The Bible was written primarily to poor people, slaves, and new converts — Jews cycling in and out of captivity under Egypt, then Babylon, perpetually re-entering faith. Hence it was written in childlike simplicity, with goals of deliverance, hope, and repentance. Understanding this changes how the Bible is read. If it is approached as mystical and inaccessible, that disposition itself becomes a barrier.

On the timeline: The Bible covers approximately 6,000 years of history:

• 4000 BC — Creation of Adam
• 3000 BC — Noah's ark and the flood
• 2000 BC — Abraham establishes covenant
• 1000 BC — David
• 430 BC — last prophet before John the Baptist
• 0 — the coming of Christ

It is worth noting: 430 years elapsed between the last Old Testament prophet and John the Baptist — the same number of years Israel spent in Egypt before Moses came. What this reveals is the faithfulness of God. He made a promise to Abraham, and everyone who heard that promise died. Generations passed. Yet God went to their descendants and said, "I made a promise to your great-great-great-grandfather — it is time." God does not owe. He is faithful even when the original recipient is long gone.

On the structure of the Old Testament:

• 5 books of Moses (the Torah / Tanakh) — the foundation of everything
• 17 historical books — detailing Israel's journey and key events; subdivided into pre-exile (Joshua through Chronicles) and post-exile (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther)
• 5 wisdom books — Job (theology of godly suffering), Psalms (theology of worship), Proverbs (practical living), Ecclesiastes (godly living), Song of Solomon
• 17 prophetic books — 5 major (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel) and 12 minor; the distinction is volume, not anointing

On the transmission of the text: Moses wrote in hieroglyphic script, having been educated as an Egyptian prince. By around 800 BC, during the Babylonian captivity, literacy had shifted to Phoenician script. By 500 BC, virtually no one could read what Moses had written — except Ezra. Ezra therefore:

• Rewrote the first five books
• Coordinated the prophetic and wisdom writings
• Founded the synagogue system
• Introduced modern biblical Hebrew and the block letter writing system still used today

Ezra is regarded in Jewish tradition as second only to Moses in importance.

On the Greek translation: When Alexander the Great came to conquer Jerusalem, a Hebrew historian records that the night before his arrival he dreamed of the high priest. When the high priest met him at the gates in full regalia, Alexander recognized him from the dream and granted the Jews their religious freedom. The resulting Hellenistic influence meant that by the time of Jesus, the scriptures had been translated into Greek — the Septuagint. This is the Bible Jesus used when he taught. This is why New Testament writers quote in Greek rather than Hebrew.

The Three Questions Hermeneutics Must Ask

Every interpretive question must begin here. When these questions are ignored, doctrine becomes distorted.

1. Who were the people being addressed? (Subject and object context)
2. What historical situation were they in?
3. What covenant or stage of redemption were they under?

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Five Examples of Misread Scriptures

Example 1 — Genesis 8:22

Genesis 8:22 — "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night shall not cease."

This scripture is commonly applied to sowing and reaping in giving. But reading from verse 20, Noah has just built an altar and offered burnt offerings. God responds by declaring that he will never again curse the ground or destroy every living thing. The text is about God's faithfulness to maintain seasonal order — not about financial giving.

The interpretive error here is significant: reading it as a giving text shifts the actor from God to man. In the correct reading, God is the actor and man is the recipient. In the misreading, man becomes the actor and God becomes the one responding. These are fundamentally different theological positions.

Example 2 — Revelation 3:20

Revelation 3:20 — "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him."

This is commonly used in evangelism to describe Christ appealing to the heart of unbelievers. But the historical audience reveals something different. Verse 14 opens: "To the angel of the church of Laodicea, write..." Verse 19 establishes: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten."

The actor in this passage is Christ correcting a compromised church, not Christ inviting unbelievers to salvation. The passage speaks of the restoration of fellowship, not the initiation of salvation. The receiver of the message changes entirely when historical awareness is applied.

Example 3 — Malachi 3:10

Malachi 3:10 — "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse..." The broader question, "Will a man rob God?" is in verse 8.

Reading the context: Malachi 1:6 opens with a direct address — "If I am the father, where is my honor?" directed at the Levites. Malachi 2:1 states plainly: "And now, O priests, this command is for you." Malachi 3:3 then speaks of purifying the sons of Levi so they may offer righteous offerings.

The people robbing God in Malachi 3 are two categories of people:

• The Levites who were handling the tithes improperly
• The people who were not bringing the correct tithes

The text is not a universal promise that tithing produces financial blessing. Reading the context gives the exact audience.

Example 4 — Isaiah 45:11

Isaiah 45:11 — "Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel and his Maker: 'Ask me of things to come concerning my sons; and concerning the work of my hands, you command me.'"

This verse has been used to teach that believers can command God. Reading the context corrects this immediately.

Verse 9 begins: "Woe to him who strives with his maker." The flow of thought through verses 9 and 10 is a rebuke: the clay does not question the potter; the son does not instruct the parent. The thought builds to verse 11 — and in that context, the phrase "command me" is a rhetorical construction in Hebrew. The verb tsavah, frequently used in rhetorical form, carries the sense of "will you command me?" or "are you the one giving me instructions?" — which is a rebuke, not a permission.

Confirming translations support this reading. The NLT renders it: "Do you question what I do for my children?" Romans 9:20 — the New Testament commentary on the same theology — says: "But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God?"

God is not a demon that can be commanded. He is a king.

The issue with this kind of misreading often begins with translators. Bible translation is a professional task, and translators bring cultural and linguistic assumptions to the text. Some statements in Hebrew, translated literally, lose their meaning entirely — just as in Yoruba, "hunger is killing me" is an idiom for "I am hungry," not a statement about a character named Hunger. Idiomatic and rhetorical constructions exist throughout scripture and require cultural awareness to interpret correctly.

Additionally, some widely used translations have removed verses from the text without textual basis. When Jesus said, "This kind does not go out except by fasting and prayer," that statement does not appear in the NIV. There are at least 18 such deletions of that nature across certain modern translations.

Example 5 — Matthew 18:18–19

Matthew 18:18 — "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

This is commonly used as a prayer formula — declaring that whatever believers bind in prayer, God will then bind in heaven. The Amplified Bible renders the same verse: "Whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on earth must be what is already forbidden in heaven."

The NKJV construction implies: you act, God reacts.

The Amplified construction implies: God acts, you react.

These are two completely different theologies. The context shows which is correct. Reading from verse 15: the passage is entirely about reconciliation between believers who have sinned against one another — not about prayer. The "two or three" of verse 19 refer to the witnesses of verses 15 and 16. The agreement Jesus describes is agreement in the process of settling disputes between church members.

The passage does not teach that when two believers agree in prayer, God is obligated to produce the result.

Faith, Scripture, and Right Application

John 5:39–40 — "You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and they are they that testify of me. But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life."

Scripture gives hope. Scripture reveals who God is and what he has done. But reading that God is a healer does not produce healing. Knowing that God has resources does not transfer those resources. The pattern is:

1. Scripture reveals what God has and what he is willing to do
2. That revelation is brought to God in prayer — "Lord, I read in your word..."
3. God responds — faith is the response to a specific promise received
4. Expectation is then legitimate

Faith must come by hearing, and hearing by the word. If God has not promised a specific thing, declaring it is not faith — it is supplication at best, presumption at worst.

Many believers are injured not because God is unfaithful but because they entered expectation based on a misread promise. Romans 10:1–2 — Paul's lament over Israel applies directly: "They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." Zeal with wrong teaching does not produce right results. If someone is taught that 2 + 2 = 3 and studies that diligently, diligence does not make the answer correct.

The difference between Christianity and every other religion is not prayer — they pray. It is not fasting — they fast. It is not willingness to sacrifice. The difference is theology.

Wrong theology means it is possible to gather in a church building and, functionally, be oriented toward something other than the God of scripture. The word level in the body of Christ is too low. A sermon that uses many scriptures is not difficult — it is doing exactly what a sermon should do. The discomfort with theological depth is not a sign of spiritual health. It is a symptom of the problem being described.