At the end of a recent Ultimate Fighter Championship match, the victor looked into the camera and said, while pointing to a very large tattoo of a cross on his arm, "I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me." I'm pretty sure St. Paul did not intend for these words written to the church at Philippi to be used as motivation for bashing the head of an opponent for sport, but it does highlight just how often particular verses of the Bible are ripped out of their literary and historic context and applied to a contemporary situation not even remotely connected to the original intent of the passage.
I read a lot of books each year as part of my vocation, and every now and then one comes along that makes me think, "I cannot believe it took this long for someone to write this book." Such is the case with Eric Bargerhuff's latest, The Most Misused Verses in the Bible: Surprising Ways God's Word Is Misunderstood. By looking at the most commonly used and abused verses of Scripture, Pastor Bargerhuff brings clarity to these passages, and in doing so provides his readers with the accompanying benefit of an applied hermeneutics text.
Through numerous personal examples and in an easy-to-read fashion, the author shows how important the context of a passage is to its particular meaning’both then and now. For example, many believers take the promises of Jeremiah 29:11’13 ("For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you") and apply them as a life verse for their material success. This is particularly true in charismatic circles and popular strains of evangelicalism. The author asks a good question: "Is it an appropriate use of this text to put God on the hook for a life of prosperity and blessing that fits my timeline and my definition?" (35). By backing up a few chapters and reading the whole narrative in context, we find that these promises are delivered by the prophet to the Israelites from Judah, and not directed to any particular individual, let alone one living in the twenty-first century. Here God is promising to restore his people Israel, to bring them back from Babylonian captivity in seventy years. In other words, the only people who could truly apply these promises are the future children and grandchildren of those currently living in exile at the time of this prophecy. This is not to say that contemporary Christians do not live with the promises of a blessed heavenly future, but using this particular passage for such a thing is to misuse it by ignoring the historic setting in which it is given.
In the end, the author wants his readers to hold to a high view of Scripture, which means that we do not settle for surface readings but dig deeper, interpreting Scripture with Scripture and allowing clear passages to assist the cloudy ones. These hermeneutical principles are not new, of course, but each generation needs to be reminded of them. And in this book, they are delivered in a creative way rather than a dry textbook.
While I enjoyed this book, I would point out that there are places where a Lutheran or Reformed interpretation of a passage will differ from that of the author, who is a conservative Baptist. This is especially the case regarding baptism as mere symbolism in chapter 15. While I commend Bargerhuff's desire to defend monergism, he ignores the means by which God has chosen to deliver salvation, and therefore renders baptism as a human-centered act of obedience rather than an act of God by which he makes disciples, as Jesus makes abundantly clear in Matthew 28:19.
With this said, the author and publisher are consistent with their Baptist roots, so the interpretation of these passages is typical of other notable Baptists such as D. A. Carson and John Piper. Nevertheless, the author often leaves out two key hermeneutical principles that Reformed and Lutheran Biblical scholars utilize. First, he ignores the covenant context of baptism, particularly rich in the sermons and narrative of Acts, connecting it to the promises of the Old Testament. Second, he fails to read the Bible with the church. We have the benefit of over two thousand years of Christian tradition from which we can draw. An important question for any interpreter to ask is, "How has this passage been understood in the past?" This is not to say that every saint who has gone before got it right, but it is arrogant to think we cannot learn from historic interpretations of the Bible going all the way back to the early church.
Despite my problems with this particular chapter, it is otherwise a good book that would make for an interesting Sunday school study. I found this book to be on par with and similar to the old Hard Sayings series by F. F. Bruce, but updated to meet contemporary concerns.
