Re-Imagining our Approach to Interpreting the Bible for our Time

In trying to apply "The Ancient Word" to modern life issues, most of us just resort to Authorities (as in, people we feel have wealth of spiritual knowledge and experience).

Now, while Authority is a well recognized source of knowledge, we hereby advocate for a more scientific approach as this has proven to guarantee better outcomes. Just to clarify, Science is the systematic study of empirical phenomena.

The Scientific Method we recommend is nothing more complicated than what you learnt in your Integrated Science class in Junior Secondary School (for those that schooled in Nigeria). It's simply a process of:

Observations‬
Hypotheses‬
‎Experiments‬
Theory‬
Law‬

So, for instance, when you make observations in life or think about issues, come up with possible Biblical explanations for, or answers to them. Thereafter, subject your best explanations or answers to experiments. Experimenting is usually about manipulating one or more variables while keeping the rest constant, and observing the outcomes as you do so. It can be in various forms - trying it out yourself, getting others to try it out, studying others who have tried it out in the past, applying logic and commonsense, etc.

Based on your findings, you can now propound a theory for explaining your observations. When your theory remains valid after a reasonable length of time, it will become law - and remain so until we know better. (Remember, now we know in part... 1 Cor. 13:12)

This was how Jesus applied Scriptures to the issues in His days. If you doubt me, go and read Matthew 12 again. If after that, you still doubt me, bring your doubts to the table let's discuss it.

Meanwhile, drop your comments let me hear what you think. You should also Like and Share so we can get this out to as many people as possible.

Comments

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