Is There An Apostolic Hermeneutic And Can We Imitate it?

Yes and yes. No, it’s not in the Scofield Reference or Ryrie Study Bibles. It seems that some of our dispensational friends have yet to read the memo. See this example sent to me a by a friend. This writer, whom I do not know, claims that folk such as we talk about the apostolic hermeneutic and claim to be able to replicate it but never say what it is.

It’s isn’t that complicated. Pay close attention here: The Apostolic hermeneutic is to see Christ at the center of all of Scripture. We’re not reading him into Scripture. We’re refusing to read him out of it. There, I said it. That’s what it is. Perhaps the reason our dispensational friends cannot see it is because they are blinded by a kind of rationalism: They know a priori what the organizing principle of Scripture must be and it isn’t God the Son, it’s national Israel. “What my net can’t catch must not be butterflies.” Do they ever stop to think that the trouble could be their net? Does it ever trouble them that any system that leads to the conclusion that one day the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 36), who is presently ruling the nations (Acts 2:36; Rev 5:12-13) is going to sit on a throne in Jerusalem to watch sinful human priests slaughter lambs? Does it trouble them that, effectively, they agree with the Pharisees? I’m sure I remember J. Dwight Pentecost saying that the Pharisees had the right hermeneutic but they came to the wrong conclusions. Really? Is that what Jesus said about them? “You guys are really close to getting it right if you would just tweak this one little detail?” I think not.
Just so no one thinks that I’m pulling hermeneutical rabbits out of exegetical hats:

“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (ESV)

“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory” (2 Cor 1:20).

“For Abraham saw my day and rejoiced” (John 8:56).

Yes, Reformed folk (and others) have been reading the bible like this for a very long time. The earliest post-apostolic Christians, in contrast to the Jewish critics of the Christian faith, read the Bible to teach a unity of salvation organized around Jesus Christ. The entire medieval church read the Bible this way as did the Reformation and post-Reformation churches.

There were exceptions, however. In the patristic period the Marcionites radically divided Scripture and set the “Old Testament” god against the NT “God.” In the medieval church the Albigenses did something similar as did the 16th-century Anabaptists (many of whom denied justification sola gratia, sola fide). Those groups all also had trouble with the humanity of Jesus. What ties those two things together? A Platonizing dualism that sets the material against the physical. This same tendency produces a similar hermeneutic among many American dispensationalists as well. This dualistic tendency explains why dispensationalists refer to the apostolic hermeneutic as “spiritualizing.” Yes, rather, but not in the way they think. “Spiritual” in Paul’s vocabulary does not mean “immaterial” but “of the Holy Spirit.” The same Spirit who inspired Moses also inspired Paul. There is a “Spiritual” interpretation of Holy Scripture that focuses on the God-Man who entered history and around whom all of God’s self-revelation is organized.

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In light of common claims, and a recent thread

Elipsis, much skipped. I recommend reading the whole piece.

Is that what Jesus said about them? “You guys are really close to getting it right if you would just tweak this one little detail?” I think not.

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No, but, to be fair, I do believe Our Lord did say the following with respect to the accuracy of the teaching of the Pharisees (see, especially, verse 3, where no exception is given touching the area of eschatology):

Matthew 23:1-3 King James Version (KJV)

23 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,

2 Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:

3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

Just so no one thinks that I’m pulling hermeneutical rabbits out of exegetical hats:

“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (ESV)

“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory” (2 Cor 1:20).

“For Abraham saw my day and rejoiced” (John 8:56).

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I love these verses: Just curious how/why, exactly, should they trouble a dispensationalist in the least?

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