Pet Peeve: Did you know that the word “hermeneutics” (often described as the collection of principles that enable sound Bible study) is derived from the Greek god Hermes, the message boy of the more powerful pagan gods? Does that sound strange to you at all?
Strange that by definition hermeneutics claims to be the defacto delivery boy for biblical understanding and divine revelation? Strange that our study techniques, which could just as easily be applied to studying Shakespeare or Howard Stern’s blog, claim to unlock God’s divine revelation to everyone who uses them — even though Paul says the true meaning and power of the scriptures is “spiritually discerned”? Strange that Jesus said, “When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth,” but we roll our eyes and say, “Thanks so much, but I’d rather develop a logical system for interpretation than rely on your continuous inspiration”? Strange that we refer to a Bible passage as “a text” we can handle instead of seeing it as God’s message that is designed to handle us?
Given our emaciated view of scripture, it is NOT strange that we tend to “hold to a form of godliness, but deny it’s power.” Last time I checked, Mr. Hermes doesn’t work for Jesus. I’m not saying Hermeneutics is demonic, but I am saying that relying on it is dangerous and worldly. Principles are fine, but deifying them is not.
Last night at a board meeting I read a portion of scripture and honestly didn’t know what was going to come out of my mouth next. But as we read it together, God opened it up to us and I saw some things I’d never seen before. My words poured from my soul effortlessly and eloquently, deeply moving everyone present, including me. We sat humbled by God and his word, and our prayer time following was rich and real.
Hermes wasn’t present. The Holy Spirit was.