Description

In this chapter, I give some guidelines for reading the bible in a responsible, grammatical-historical way, but also in a way that seeks to see and learn of Christ from beginning to end. To that end, I discuss the spiritual nature of the scriptures, and the necessity of the supernatural illumination of the Holy Spirit; the typological nature of the Old Testament in general, and the appropriate way in which to see Christ in the types, prophecies, and christophanies; some different ways in which Christ is portrayed in the various genres of the bible (histories, poetry, etc.); and finally, the importance of learning from the historical church and avoiding any radically new interpretation, together with a brief overview of “covenant theology,” which is essentially the hermeneutical approach of the mature, Reformed Protestant Church, in continuity with what they inherited from the Church fathers.