More Joy Ministries
Full Bible Study
PROLEGOMENA: CHECK THE FOUNDATION FIRST
It means the stuff you need to deal with before the study starts.
Before we argue prophecy, salvation, the Trinity, Israel, the Church, baptism, tongues, gifts, end times, or anything else, we have to ask a more basic question:
What is our authority?
Because that’s where most people already lose the fight.
They’ll say they believe the Bible, but the second the Bible crosses their feelings, their church tradition, their favorite preacher, or whatever culture is screaming this week, suddenly the text needs “reimagined.”
That’s not Bible study.
Jesus didn’t pray, “Sanctify them through their opinions.”
He said:
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
John 17:17
That has to come first.
Before I ever open the text, I need to be honest about what I’m bringing with me. Pride. Bias. Bad teaching. Emotional attachments. Denominational filters. Things I heard my whole life and never actually checked.
That’s prolegomena.
It’s walking into the study and emptying your pockets before God.
Lord, here’s what I was taught.
Here’s what I assumed.
Here’s what I want to be true.
Here’s what makes me uncomfortable.
Now let Your word correct me.
That’s where real Bible study starts.
If Scripture is the final authority, then I don’t get to bend the verse until it sounds like me. I have to let the verse do surgery on me.
“Let God be true, but every man a liar…”
Romans 3:4
That includes the preacher.
That includes the commentary.
That includes the denomination.
And yeah, that includes me.
Hermeneutics is how we handle the Bible.
Prolegomena is checking whether we’re even willing to be handled by it first.
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