Recap of Talk with Dr. Eric Bargerhuff on The Most Misused Bible Verses

Thanks to everyone who came out to hear from and chat with Dr. Eric Bargerhuff about how to read the Bible well! It was a great evening and Eric did a fantastic job sharing with us.

The conversation with Dr. Bargerhuff was recorded and can be viewed here (starts at 7:11).

What follows is an in-order recap of the main discussion points from the conversation. You can, of course, listen to/watch the full talk for more details.

• Authorial Intent = What the author intended his original readers to understand. 
• This should be our first, basic task when reading the Bible.
• If we miss understand the author's intent then we will miss God's intended meaning to us.
• The Bible is primarily a book about God. Therefore, as we read we should principally be asking ourselves, "What does this teach me about God?"
• Context. Context. Context. Given a verse, read chunks of text before and after it to understand the context. 
• Matthew 18:20 was used as an example of how someone can misunderstand what it means that "when 2 or 3 are gathered, there I am in their midst".
• In context Matthew 18:20 is not about God's general presence in a prayer meeting, it's about church discipline.
• Don't miss the main point. Make sure we grasp the main point of a text before extending it to other applications.
• The story of Zaccheus was used as an example.
• The main point is about Jesus seeking Zaccheus, not the other way around.
• Exegesis not eisegesis. Exegesis = pulling meaning out of the text. Eisegesis = reading meaning into the text.
• We have biases as we read so we need to be aware of potential biases as we read.
• An example was given of a prosperity gospel preacher who reads something into a text for inappropriate purposes. E.g., Using the parable of the seeds to say that people need to "sow a seed of faith" via a certain amount of money to reap a harvest of prosperity.
• Jesus saying "judge not" in Matthew 7:1 is not telling Christians to not make moral assessments.
• Jeremiah 29:11, about God's plans, is a promise to Israel, not us.
• The "good" in Romans 8:28 is not about health and prosperity, it's about our transformation to become Christ-like.
• Proverbs 22:6 is not a guarantee that your child will stay a Christian for life.
• Reading the Bible is a form of worship and glory to God.
• Doxology is the study of God's glory.
• Understand the context of a OT verse that a NT author uses.
• Matthew 7:13-14 is about Jesus being the narrow way.
• 2 Chronicles 7:14 is about healing the land of Israel if they turn back to God, not necessarily about us.
• What are recommended Bible reading plans for new and seasoned Christians?
• It is true that God is in the midst of 2 or 3 gathered together but Matthew 18:20 is not the correct justification of that truism.
• The imprecatory Psalms (e.g., Psalm 5) should be used as a heart cry to God for justice.

As a quick reminder, we will begin our study of "How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth" on October 23 in rooms 9-10 but we will push back the start time to 6:30pm.