Where It All Begins: Why a Straight Forward Interpretation of the Bible?

As I was thinking about what to share in my very first blog on this channel, one conviction kept rising to the surface: if we truly want to understand what God desires to communicate through His Word—on any topic—we must begin with a solid, trustworthy, and time-tested hermeneutic.

In simple terms, a hermeneutic is an interpretation method. It’s the lens we use to read and understand the 66 books of the Bible. And that lens matters more than we often realise.

Broadly speaking, scholars identify four main approaches to biblical interpretation: literal, allegorical, analogical, and moral. I’d actually encourage you to do a simple study of all four using trusted scholarly sources and see which one you naturally gravitate toward. You might be surprised! After all, don’t we all want to be as accurate as possible when searching the Scriptures—so we can be more confident in what God is really saying to us? And of course, your interpretation method stands firm on well-researched exegesis!

From the outset of my own faith journey, I found myself drawn to a more literal (straight forward) interpretation of God’s Word. Why? Because God created language to communicate with understanding. It stands to reason, then, that He did not intend Scripture to be endlessly obscure or reserved only for intellectual elites. In essence: God says what He means, and He means what He says.

Seen this way, we don’t need to rely solely on scholarly complexity to hear God clearly. Instead, we cultivate a posture of learning—trusting the prompting of the Holy Spirit—so that even children can begin to grasp what God is communicating (of course, in age-appropriate ways). God’s Word is living, accessible, and meant to be understood.

After developing valuable skills at Bible college and exploring the strengths and weaknesses of each interpretive method, I still today adopt a consistent literal hermeneutic. By consistent, I mean not switching methods simply to make a passage say what we want it to say when the context doesn’t warrant it. And by literal, I mean a historical-grammatical approach—one that allows for figures of speech, symbols, and types, yet prioritises a plain, straightforward reading of the text, always interpreted in context.

This approach becomes especially important when studying Bible prophecy, where attention to helpful understanding really matters. Scripture will interpret Scripture. Context is paramount. And through this lens, God’s clear directives and principles are discovered—not forced.

My prayer is that this content will help you better understand God’s Word, draw you closer to Jesus, and stir a deeper desire to examine the whole counsel of God.

What’s the whole counsel of God, you ask—and why does it matter?

Hmm… maybe that’s a topic for another blog. 🤔❤️