Hi Lynn,
Welcome.!
UNDERSTANDING WHAT THE BIBLE MEAN
“What is the Text telling us” – The Literal sense (using various disciplines) The 3 “Spiritual” senses
(a) Allegorical sense – How does this relate to Jesus Christ (Faith)
(b) Moral sense – How does this text fit my own spiritual growth. (Charity)
(c) Anagogical sense – How does this text relate to the Future (Hope)
Literal, Not Literalistic
Not every one who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you evildoers.” (Mt 7:21-23)
Obedience to God, not mighty works — including mighty works of Correct Theology — is what will save us.That means that as important as is a correct understanding of Who Jesus is, it’s not enough.
After seeing Jesus clearly in Scripture, we have to make it our business to walk in His way. It’s not enough to know about Christ, we have to be like Him.-
10 Plagues in Exodus. Historical backgroundLiterary meaning in Context:Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, is superior over the gods of the Egyptians…
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Alleegorical: (The Christological sense – FAITH)
This interpretation will take an historical fact or event, usually one in the OT, and apply a NT truth to it.
Tthe destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the OT is a picture of Hell in the NT (See 2 Peter 2:4-6; Jude 7).
2 Pt 2:4:
For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment; 5: if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6: if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomor’rah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly;
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Moral (CHARITY)
Micah 6:8 ( What God requires of you)
8: He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God
James 2:14-20 (Faith without works is dead)
14: What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? 15: If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, 16: and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? 17: So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. 18: But some one will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19: You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder. 20: Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works is barren?
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Anagogical: (HOPE)
This interpretation is similar to the allegorical, except that the historical fact or event comes from either the OT or NT, and that fact or event is telescoped into the eternal state of heaven.
Israel’s sojourn in the desert is an allegorical picture of the NT Church (cf., 1 Corinthians 10:16; Revelation 12:13-17), but the land of Canaan is ananagogical picture of heaven (cf., Hebrews 11:10,16, 39-40).
Rev 12:13:
And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had borne the male child. 14: But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. 15: The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood. 16: But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17: Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.
