Hermeneutics Lesson 11

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The proper Way to do Word Studies.

This lesson will teach the difference between 'interpretation' and 'application'.  When we look at how a Bible word is used in context, we see an 'application' of that word.  When we see how a word is used in every 'application' of the Bible, and then find all that is common in every usage, that gives is the 'interpretation'.  Trying to get the 'interpretation' by any other method leads to doctrinal error.  Please also see the Lord Jesus Christ Study for our example.

1. Every Word belief.
...by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.  Comes from Deuteronomy 8:3.  It is quoted in Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4.
1. Ignoring one place where a Bible word is used, when defining it, is rejecting an 'every word belief'.  The name of Jesus  is used 983times in the Bible but only 981 times is Jesus  used for 'the Son of God in human flesh'.  Ignoring the other two usages is what led to the doctrine taught by true Biblical antichrists.
2. Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.  (Psalms 119:160).  Ask any lawyer and they will tell you that the legal meaning of a law or contract can (sometimes) be changed by deleting, or changing, one word or even one punctuation mark.  Not only must God's Word remain unchanged in order for God's judgments (to) endureth for ever,  but if God's Word was changed then it either was not true from the beginning,  or the changed version is not true.  Since judgments  can be changed by changing one word or punctuation mark, both the original version, and the current version, are required to be the same in order to have the never-changing truth.
3. Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.  (Proverbs 30:5).  The word pure  means '100%'.  When we have walls around us '100%' of the directions (including roof and floor), then we have a shield.  However, if any part is missing, or less than '100%' reliable, then we do not have the true protection of a shield.  We need every word  and we need every word to be pure  in order to have our spiritual protection.  Deleting or changing any word  destroys our protection.
4. Jeremiah 9:20 is in the middle of a chapter which tells us of the judgment that God would bring upon His people who thought they could change God's Word and leave out the parts that they didn't like.
5. Jeremiah 23:36 says ...ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.  As a result, God says the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden.  That is, God stopped talking to people who thought they could pervert the words of the living God  (add to or delete from or change God's every word).  When God says every man's word shall be his burden,  He means that we will be judged (his burden)  for our word  that we used to pervert  God's Word.
6. Ezekiel 33:30-32 tells of the consequence for claiming that the words of men are the words of God and of treating the preaching of God's true Word as entertainment.  Remember that Ezekiel was preaching to people who were in captivity for doing these things.
7. Matthew 12:36 references back to Jeremiah 23:36.
8. 2Corinthians 4:1-2 tells us that if we are not living out an every word  belief in a way that by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God  then we have not renounced the hidden things of dishonesty  and we are walking in craftiness  and we are handling the word of God deceitfully.  True every word  belief is manifested  to all men including the lost.
9. 2Thessalonians 2:16-17 tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father  will Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.  Notice the word in.  In the Bible, what is good  comes from God.  Our having comfort  and being stablished  by God requires us to be in every good word and work.  If we are changing or ignoring any word,  or are not doing the work  commanded by a true every word  belief, then we lose these blessings.

Bottom Line: we see blessings given to people who have a life which demonstrates an every word  belief and judgment upon any of God's people who reject an every word  belief.

2. God demands that we use His definitions.
1. Our quoted verse says ...by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.  The phrase that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD  means that we must use God's definitions in order to truly have the meaning of God's words.  Without God's definitions we do not have the promises of God's Word.  Many religious people prove their foolishness by claiming to have an every word  belief and then leave out the phrase that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD.  He is not your Lord  if you ignore His commands about life.  Leaving out part of the very sentence that you are claiming as the basis of your so-called every word  belief makes you a very obvious fool.  The phrase that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD  means that we must use God's definition for God's words.  However, religious man changes the definitions which suit their wrong doctrine and believe that God can't or won't judge them for such actions.  Remember the prior lessons on judgment and realize that if you do this you are daring God to bring judgment upon you.
2. With just a little thought, it should be obvious that religious men change the definitions of God's Words within the Bible.  How many different religious definitions are there for salvation  or sanctification  and how many different ways do religions claim to be the Biblically correct way?  They can not all differ and be the one true definition used by a 'never changing God'.
3. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.  (1Corinthians 14:33) When we have two different words with the same definition or one word with two different definitions, we have confusion.  We also do not have peace...in all churches  but we have doctrinal disputes which have led to church splits, character assassinations, murder, war and other things.
4. Men's definitions lead to doctrinal error, and destroy authority.  Have you ever heard someone proclaim: 'The day that Adam ate the forbidden fruit he died spiritually but did not die physically'?  When someone claims that and then criticizes another religion for rejecting the literal meaning of the Bible, he destroys his own credibility before men and brings judgment from God.  First, Romans 2 teaches that when we condemn another for religious error, we prove that we know that the error is wrong.  Then when we do the same thing we bring greater condemnation upon ourselves.  While he can plead for mercy based upon ignorance (not knowing that he was doing wrong), we can not because we already proved that we knew it was wrong.  Obviously, remaining ignorant is not the answer because doing that because still brings judgment, if somewhat reduced, based upon our responsibility to learn better.  Further, leaving Jesus (John 6) is not the answer.  Diligently digging down to our true foundation (Rock  / Christ)  for the truth is the answer.
5. Returning to the true meaning of death,  we've all heard how that a person can be declared dead in one country, state, county and be declared alive in the next with the exact same physical conditions.  Therefore, the definitions of dead  that are used by man are not consistent.  Since God does not change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8), none of the varying definitions from men can be correct.  However, when we do a proper Bible Word Study we find that the Biblical meaning of physical death  is: 'An ongoing process that opposes life and starts at conception and continues past the point that the soul and spirit abandon the body to the end result that all which is left is inert matter such as calcified bones'.  The student can do their own Biblical Word Study to verify this definition.  However, defining anything as a single incident which the Bible teaches is a process results in doctrinal error.  Not only do we have death  as a process in the Bible, but we have salvation,  sanctification,  life,  and other things which the Bible says are ongoing processes.  In all of these instances except life,  we find religion trying to define the process as a single event.  The conflicting definitions of death  that are used by men reflect the impossibility of such attempts to be accurate or correct.  Further, when we accept that physical death  is a process, we have no conflict with the Bible when we say that the process did not start in Adam's body until after he sinned.  Therefore, the Bible teaches that Adam died spiritually and physically on the day that he sinned in that the physical process was started (not ended) on that day.
6. Men's dictionary definitions lead to doctrinal error.  People use dictionary definitions for Bible words and that is OK so long as people realize that those definitions contain errors which can lead God's people into error and are to be used only when there is not time to do a proper Bible Word Study or get the definition from someone else who has done a proper Bible Word Study.  For example, people consider Webster's 1828 to be the best dictionary when studying the Bible.  It is, but it is still a dictionary of men's definitions.  Look up adultery  in it.  Now look up adulterer  in it.  You will find that adulterer  includes 'one who violates his covenant engagements' which is not included in the definition of adultery.  Since an adulterer  is someone who does adultery,  a proper definition of adultery  should include 'a violation of covenant engagements'.  If you look at the Word Study on Adultery, you will find that this is the exact Biblical definition and everything else in the definitions from mens dictionaries lead to doctrinal error when applied to the Bible.  Fornication  involves sex and, Biblically, includes the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.  However, adultery  is strictly spiritual.  A covenant  is a 'spiritual contract that is enforced by the court of God'.  When two saved people get married they sign a marriage contract that is enforced by the courts of men and they swear vows that are enforced by the court of God.  For all of men's history men have tried to deny God's judgment upon the violation of marriage vows.  That is why men, including men's dictionaries, give a wrong definition for Bible words.  They seek to change God's Word but God holds to His definition.  Men claim that there are 'problem verses', instead of confessing their own error and sin, when God uses other places in His Word to try to show them their error in interpretation.


3. How to find God's definitions.
1. There is only one interpretation but many applications.  In order to have only one interpretation, you must verify that the definition which you use holds true for literally every use of the word in the Bible while also using proper rules for interpretation as you verify each usage.  When people us less than every usage, they can get doctrinal error.  For example, the name of Jesus  occurs 983times in the Bible.  All but 2 are talking about 'the Son of God in human flesh'.  Therefore, the major application of Jesus  is 'the Son of God in human flesh'.  However, the true interpretation of Jesus  is 'the name of a physical man'.
2. 1John and 2John were written because of this specific error, among other things.  So, if God had 2 books of the Bible written for a specific error, then God thinks it is important.  What happened was that people were preaching that 'Jesus is God' and neglecting to mention that He was/is also human.  Then they moved from neglecting the doctrine of His humanity to denying it.  There is a lot of doctrinal truths that are based upon the humanity of Jesus Christ.  Therefore, the distinction between application and interpretation is critical in this particular instance and shows us the importance of keeping this distinction in mind for every Bible Word Study.
3. God said what He meant and meant what He said.  Most people will probably think 'Well, that is obvious'.  However, most people read their Bibles and only see what their religion tells them to see.  That is why people who believe differing doctrines can read the same passage and claim that it has different meanings.  I had been raised in a very religious family and I had read the Bible, but only to verify what my religion told me it said.  When I was trying to find the truth, I first prayed (each time) and then I read the Bible for what it literally said.  The result was that I saw the lies of my religion and I got saved.  When Jesus  and the apostles confronted the religious leaders they kept saying it is written  and have you not read.  Each of them were killed because they showed the error of the 'religious interpretation' that disagreed with what God had literally written.  When we read our Bible for what religion tells us is there, instead of for what God literally had written, souls can end up lost.
4. Context is critical.  The primary way of dealing with doctrinal error is to pray and then go to the context of the verses used by the person who is teaching doctrinal error and look at the context.  At least 80% of doctrinal error can be dealt with that way.  Remember that when Satan was tempting Jesus he quoted Scripture.  The problem was not with what he quoted but with what he left out.  Satan gets even 'good godly Bible fundamental KJV only' people to do the same thing.  Therefore, it is critical to carefully look at the context of every usage of the word being studied to be sure that you truly understand how the word is being used.
5. I've known people who looked up a Bible word in a Bible program on a computer, skim the verses and then try to claim that they did the same thing as I did in my Bible Studies.  When I developed the Lord Jesus Christ Study I was at it for over 7years.  I literally studied each book in the New Testament a dozen times while looking at nothing except how the names of the Son of God were used in context and writing down what God showed me.  I then consolidated my notes and came up with a definition for each of the names.  I then went back through each book in the New Testament another dozen times each and verified the definitions of the names by reading the context as written and then re-reading it while substituting the definitions for the names within the context.  The result was that there were NO conflicts and God actually increased my understanding of these names.
6. Diligence is mandatory.  Matthew 7:21 says Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven.  This is just before the parable of the wise man  and the foolish man.  In the Bible, the kingdom of Heaven  is different from being saved.  In this parable, both the wise man  and the foolish man  were saved.  The difference was obedience.  The wise man was diligent  enough to dig down to the rock,  which is a type of Christ.  Hebrews 11:6 tells us ...he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.  Meanwhile, Proverbs, and other places in the Bible, tell us about judgment coming upon the lazy and slothful.  In our parable the foolish man  built upon sand, a type of trusting the doctrine of religion, because he was too lazy to be diligent.  We have all of these different doctrines which claim to be the Biblical truth and many of them are believed because God's people refuse to do all that is required for God to consider them to be diligent  and reward them with His truth.
7. Reached from LJC1611kjv.com ' Site - Word Studies: is a list of almost 500 Word Studies in various stages of completion.  These represent the various stages in doing a complete Word Study.  First, it is proper to do, and record, partial Word Studies so long as you keep the attitude of planning on completion and you record that what you have produced only applies to the part of the Bible studied and is not a complete definition (interpretation of the word).  Also, partial Word Studies must be worked on with the attitude that further study can alter everything believed so far and might require redoing all prior work when God gives new revelation.


4. Detailed list of steps to do.
1. Be sure to record your research at each step and do it in a way that allows changes and corrections.  Do not rely upon your memory which is prone to error.


2. The first step is a quick review of every usage of the word in the Bible which includes looking at the context of any 'questionable' verses (ones that might not match what you already think).


3. Then a more detailed review must be done which requires reading at least several of the surrounding sentences so that you are sure that you have the context.


4. Next is to do a detailed analysis going book by book within the Bible and being 100% positive that you have the correct usage of the word within the context that it is used.


5. After that is consolidating all notes and determining what is true in every case.  That is the interpretation with the differences from one passage to another being the application.


6. Finally, a review, in context, of every usage should be done which includes reading the passage as written and re-reading it with the definition substituted for the word.


7. Verify that the basic meaning of the passage does not change and write down any increased understanding.


8. Only after that should dictionaries or commentaries be consulted and then it should be with the idea of finding how those sources added to, or took away from, what the Bible actually says.


5. An example of a common error due to rejecting the literal meaning of Acts 2:36.
Find a teenage boy.  (They all like to eat.) Ask him if he would like to eat some good pure ('100%') food and then offer him a cup of flower.  Try again with powdered coco straight out of the box with nothing added.  Then try margarine.  Then offer him brownies and tell him that someone took all of those ingredients, and others, and made them to be brownies.  Then ask him if he would agree that there was a very significant, basic change when the ingredients were made to be  brownies.  The expected change in his willingness to eat the brownies, as opposed to the ingredients, should make the answer obvious.

Now read Acts 2:36 which says ...God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.  The word made  is an action verb which specifies a change in the existence (be)  of something so that the results after the action (made)  is different in a basic way from what existed before the action (made)  was done.  What's more, this action (made)  is applied to the result of Lord  and to the result of Christ  because of the word both  and God's command for true believers to live by...every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Therefore, what this sentence literally says is that Jesus  was changed in a very significant way when God hath made that same Jesus...Lord  and when God hath made that same Jesus...Christ.  (See the word both.) Further, because of these differences, it is Biblically doctrinally wrong to interchange Jesus  with Lord  or with Christ.  Yet, on a regular basis we see preachers read Christ  in a passage and preach about Jesus,  or the other way around.  We also regularly hear the same type of doctrinal error occurring with Jesus:  and Lord.  What's worse, we have people insisting that doctrinal error is correct and trying to stop other people from preaching the truth about God's plan of salvation.

Have you ever heard someone say (or said yourself) 'Say a prayer to Jesus and ask Him to be your Savior'?  There is NO place in the Bible which says that but several which say (some variant of:) whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  The operative title is Lord,  not Jesus.

Let me ask you: Can God die?  When God and death get into a conflict does not death always lose?  Is the Biblical use of the name Jesus always used only to speak about God?  So how did Jesus  die?  Is not the death  of Jesus  an essential part of the Gospel message that leads to true salvation?  So how do we explain God's 'plan of salvation' if Jesus  had to die as God and not as a human man?

The basic truth is that Jesus  died as a literal physical man and, after Satan took Him into Hell, God made Him to be...Lord.  As Lord,  He now had all of the power He had before becoming a weak physical human man.  With that power He defeated, and bound  Satan and all of the devils by Himself.  However, He had to live, die, and enter Hell as a weak physical man in order for God to remain righteous  when the Son of God paid for man's sins.

The Overview part of the Lord Jesus Christ Study explains this in detail and the Verses part provides links to notes on every verse in the New Testament which uses one of the major names of the Son of God and shows that each of these verses support the details found in the Overview.

Basically, Jesus  is used 983times in the Bible, but only 981 are referring to 'God in human flesh'.  Two times Jesus  is used to identify other men.  So while the major application of Jesus  is 'God in human flesh', the true Biblical interpretation is 'the identifying name of a human man'.  There is a lot of doctrine about the humanity of the Son of God and Hebrews makes it clear that He could not fulfill the Biblical requirements without being a weak physical man like the rest of us.  1John and 2John were both written, among other things, to denounce the doctrine which denied the humanity of Jesus  and insisted that He was God and, therefore, could not be human.

6. Prayer before any Bible Study is essential.
This section has the least verbiage but probably has the most important message.  James 1:2-5 says My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.  Notice the requirement for patience.  Please also notice the instruction to ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.  Start EVERY Bible study with a prayer for God's wisdom  and make sure that God shows you something that you can use that you may not have known before or may have forgotten.  Expect God to change your thinking on things and avoid going to the Bible simply to confirm the religious doctrine that you have been taught.  Finally, let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire.  Much doctrinal error are because God's people refuse to be patient  and diligent.

Bottom line: The world and religious literature are flooded with doctrinally wrong and incomplete claims about what the Bible uses as the definitions of words.  Many wrong methods are taught about how to find God's truth that support religious error and feed the flesh.  You must be patient,  diligent  and willing to put in the 'sweat equity' required to dig down to God's foundation (Rock  / Christ)  or you will be led into error that will allow the destruction of your life and the lives of all who depends upon you when the 'big storm' of life comes along.

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