Heather Adams is an author, speaker, and singer living in Connecticut. Heather's blog, Worship Walk Ministries , offers weekly Scripture passages and insights to ponder. A native New Englander, Heather is settling into her home in the South, trying out local foods and watching for the alligators that live nearby! You can connect with her on her website: heatheradamsworshipwalk.
Plus Toggle navigation. Password Assistance. Email address. What's So Important about Biblical Literacy?
Heather Adams. Share Tweet Save. Western culture in general, whether music, literature, jurisprudence, or philosophy reflects biblical influence. When biblical literacy declines in the culture in general, people no longer recognize or appreciate this influence or have access to this wisdom, considering it irrelevant or unimportant or just ignorant of its existence and value.
Hermeneutics related to the Christian Scriptures generally refers to the methods, presuppositions, and theoretical aspects of exegesis and interpretation that, when applied to the biblical text, enable individuals in their particular contexts to understand, communicate and contextually apply its meaning reliably and consistently.
Where translation occurs, this too becomes a hermeneutical reality. The relationship between theology and hermeneutics requires careful definition. There are moves back and forth between theology and hermeneutics, in that each must inform the other.
To be biblically literate, we must train our minds to understand how each piece of Scripture fits into this story. When we train our minds to see every page unfold another part of this beautiful story, even books like Leviticus become sweeter than honey to us Psalm The Bible still means what God originally intended.
Therefore, things like original audience, historical setting, and context are very important! This background information puts us on the right track to understanding correctly remember, literacy is more than just reading! As we rightly understand, then we can rightly apply. Of course, we apply Scripture differently now than the early church did, but the foundational meaning of the passages still remains the same.
This leads us to approach Scripture humbly and handle it with care. May we wield this powerful, awesome tool with care. This is foolish, and Jesus compares it to building our homes on sand Matthew — James also exhorts us to be doers of the Word James True biblical literacy leads to heart transformation and Gospel-sharing. It leads to growth in our knowledge of God. To truly know God is to love Him, and to love Him is to obey Him.
In Hosea 4 , the Lord accused Israel of a lack of knowledge of Him and said this destroyed them vs. Dear friends, may we heed this strong warning. To lack knowledge of God is to lead ourselves into much destruction. Ultimately, the worst destruction is to not know Christ as Lord and Savior. This negative will spill over into our relationships.
This challenge is daunting because the author describes Goliath as large and fearsome, and because Saul later describes him as an experienced warrior.
So far, so good. But now, notice the climax and resolution of the narrative. You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Following plot is fundamental to reading out of the text, and not into it. Now that we have basic literacy in this story, what is the significance of being fluent in the story of David and Goliath? You might have adopted this misguided moral as your personal mantra, believing it to be divinely inspired wisdom.
And by viewing oneself as the little underdog, one might overlook the more vulnerable in their community. To start becoming literate and fluent in this story and the rest of Scripture so that you can be shaped by its teaching, first and foremost, read the Bible. Read it in large chunks at regular intervals, trying to identify the important plot elements or the structure of the argument. Write down your questions and bring them to church or to your small group.
Finally, check out more resources:. Our articles. Our podcast. Some other online resources. Subscribe now to receive periodic updates from the CHT. Celina earned a B. She was previously an editorial fellow at a political magazine in New York, and then, after graduate school, worked in the editorial department of a marketing company in downtown Boston.
Some of her written work can be found in Christianity Today. This press release originally appeared on bibleliteracycoalition.
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