Rebekah - Doug Sparks (2015)

• The Question asked of the text must not be "what is the answer", but "what does the text say?"
• Common fundamental truths: the deity of Christ, the fall of man, the death and resurrection of Christ, his need for redemption, salvation by faith, the Bible makes the core values of faith very clear
• But other issues not so clear
• Each of the books compromising the New Testament were conditioned by the culture of the day: The language, the social mores, the political influences, the philosophies, and other religions, 2000 years ago.
• What is the original intended meaning. The meaning of the words can only be understood in the context of the word written before and after. In other words in sentences, And individual sentences can be understood only in context of the preceding and following sentences.
• Hermeneutics means to take the original meaning of the text and then bringing it forward two thousand years and seeing how it applies today.
• "They wanted to keep heresy out. So they emphasized the sacredness of the scripture, the more the people feared doing anything that would harm its reputation. The church took the same approach and it became infallible, untouchable, and beyond criticism, but also corrupt. It must always be understood that God's word for us must be living and dynamic. If we fear questioning and looking at what it really says, we lose the true essence of its value."