ENGAGING WITH SCRIPTURE

Determining the original meaning of the text.

Authorial intent vs. Reader-response.

• Authorial Intent: discovering the author’s message.

• Reader-response: discover the audience’s response.

Cataloging the “then and now,” differences.

• Covenant: Old covenant vs. New covenant

• Situation

- Culture & language

- Governance & politics

Cataloging the “then and now,” similarities.

- Covenant

- Situation

Discovering the spiritual principle or the Spirit of the text.

- Use “then & now” similarities to determine the spiritual principle.

- Apply the parts-whole spiral [reflect back & forth between the teaching of the text and the teachings of the whole Bible].

Applying the principle in our lives or “walking the spirit” of the text.

- Scripture is meant to be lived out.

- A text generally has one spiritual principle but many applications.

- Wrong application of a spiritual principle can be very harmful.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:

Grasping God’s Word [by J. Scott Duvall & J. Daniel Hays]