Every statement you ever hear, has the meaning it has in the conversation it’s part of. We all know that.
Same with the Bible. Every statement in the Bible has the meaning that it had within the ‘story’ that the author was living in.
If we mistake the overarching story - the controlling narrative - then we could mistake what a Bible-passage really meant, and misapply it.
That would be like overhearing someone talking on the phone, but not knowing what his conversation was about.
Or like reading instructions, without noticing what project the instructions applied to.
The New Testament writers lived within a ‘story’ - a ‘worldview’ - and they were making certain claims about that story.
In a ‘storied’ worldview, everyone of us is answering questions like:
Who am I?
Where did we come from?
Where are we going?
What is the problem?
What is the solution?
And, What time is it?
The answers we give to that set of questions equals our ‘worldview’.
The same goes for Abraham, Israel, John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and the New Testament writers. They lived within a certain ‘story’ that was going somewhere. In their case they believed in the One true God; in election; and Old Testament eschatology.
By the first century AD there was a sense of the ‘problem’ and the ‘time’ in Israel: the ‘gospel’ is presented as the solution and climax to that ‘story’.
Israel’s One God had come, in the person of His Son, on time, judged evil, inaugurated the redemption of His people - entered His glory, and was presiding over the new-creation project - through His ministry, cross, resurrection, ascension, seating, reign, Spirit, and true people - with the promise to come again and consummate that project.
Any statements found within the New Testament therefore have the sense that they made within the author’s claim and announcement about that ‘story’ in which he, as an Israelite, lived.
The New Testament writers even made claims about the real meaning of Israel’s (Old Testament) Scriptures (promises, covenants, shadows, figures and prophecies). Their claim about the climax of the story, gave the meaning to Old Testament passages that those passages and themes were always going to have.
If we instead approach the Bible with our own ‘story’ (or our denomination’s, or our favourite teacher’s) - and lift Bible-statements and passages out from the story in which they existed, and try to understand those themes in terms of our own story - we could miss part of what the Bible-statements were really telling us. We could even end-up painting a quite different picture in our own minds altogether.
This can help provide perspective on a number of questions today, like: eschatology; sloppy-grace versus legalism; and Calvinism versus Arminianism.
Bible-statements are often lifted out from the author’s worldview story, and given a meaning which exists in the reader’s own ‘story’. But when we discover the meaning that the Bible-statements had within the author’s story, very often rather than answer our modern questions we find it dissolves the issue itself. Because sometimes the controversy only began in the first place because of misreading the Bible passage due to not grasping the meaning it had in the conversation it was part of.
Same with the Bible. Every statement in the Bible has the meaning that it had within the ‘story’ that the author was living in.
If we mistake the overarching story - the controlling narrative - then we could mistake what a Bible-passage really meant, and misapply it.
That would be like overhearing someone talking on the phone, but not knowing what his conversation was about.
Or like reading instructions, without noticing what project the instructions applied to.
The New Testament writers lived within a ‘story’ - a ‘worldview’ - and they were making certain claims about that story.
In a ‘storied’ worldview, everyone of us is answering questions like:
Who am I?
Where did we come from?
Where are we going?
What is the problem?
What is the solution?
And, What time is it?
The answers we give to that set of questions equals our ‘worldview’.
The same goes for Abraham, Israel, John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and the New Testament writers. They lived within a certain ‘story’ that was going somewhere. In their case they believed in the One true God; in election; and Old Testament eschatology.
By the first century AD there was a sense of the ‘problem’ and the ‘time’ in Israel: the ‘gospel’ is presented as the solution and climax to that ‘story’.
Israel’s One God had come, in the person of His Son, on time, judged evil, inaugurated the redemption of His people - entered His glory, and was presiding over the new-creation project - through His ministry, cross, resurrection, ascension, seating, reign, Spirit, and true people - with the promise to come again and consummate that project.
Any statements found within the New Testament therefore have the sense that they made within the author’s claim and announcement about that ‘story’ in which he, as an Israelite, lived.
The New Testament writers even made claims about the real meaning of Israel’s (Old Testament) Scriptures (promises, covenants, shadows, figures and prophecies). Their claim about the climax of the story, gave the meaning to Old Testament passages that those passages and themes were always going to have.
If we instead approach the Bible with our own ‘story’ (or our denomination’s, or our favourite teacher’s) - and lift Bible-statements and passages out from the story in which they existed, and try to understand those themes in terms of our own story - we could miss part of what the Bible-statements were really telling us. We could even end-up painting a quite different picture in our own minds altogether.
This can help provide perspective on a number of questions today, like: eschatology; sloppy-grace versus legalism; and Calvinism versus Arminianism.
Bible-statements are often lifted out from the author’s worldview story, and given a meaning which exists in the reader’s own ‘story’. But when we discover the meaning that the Bible-statements had within the author’s story, very often rather than answer our modern questions we find it dissolves the issue itself. Because sometimes the controversy only began in the first place because of misreading the Bible passage due to not grasping the meaning it had in the conversation it was part of.
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