Literal Interpretation
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What does it mean to interpret the Bible literally? Today, R.C. Sproul communicates the importance of seeking after the plain meaning of God’s Word.
Get R.C. Sproul’s teaching series Knowing Scripture on DVD, plus lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide, for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3938/donate
Meet Today’s Teacher:
R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Bible is the Word of God and alone the Word of God. It's inspired. It's infallible. It's an errant. |
| 0:05.2 | But when I come to read it and to interpret it, the rules for interpreting it are no different |
| 0:11.3 | from the rules of interpreting any other book in this regard. That the Bible is written with sentences |
| 0:17.8 | and the sentences have individual words. And in the Bible, a noun is a noun, |
| 0:24.3 | and a verb is a verb. |
| 0:26.6 | And if you want to understand how these things fit together, you have to understand the rules |
| 0:31.2 | of grammar. |
| 0:36.2 | How do you interpret the Bible? It's an important question, because if we get the answer wrong, |
| 0:43.7 | we'll struggle to know what God has said. Is the Bible a magical book, and our Bible study |
| 0:48.9 | should be filled with attempts to find hidden meanings, or perhaps where to flip it open, point to a text, to find |
| 0:55.9 | our verse of the day, or a word from God to help us know who we should marry or what job we |
| 1:01.3 | should take. Today, on renewing your mind, R. C. Sproll will bring clarity to what it means |
| 1:07.0 | to interpret the Bible literally, avoiding errors made by both theological liberals |
| 1:12.9 | and conservatives. Here's Dr. Sprawl. In this session of our course on understanding |
| 1:22.7 | scripture, we're going to consider the meaning and the function of the literal interpretation of the Bible. |
| 1:35.2 | Sometimes people will say to me, as I think they do to you from time to time, that that's your |
| 1:39.7 | interpretation, isn't it? Well, another one that I hear very often, and I suspect you do too, |
| 1:47.1 | is that when I will be citing something from the Bible or giving a theological point and referring to |
| 1:53.7 | the scriptures for support, people will look at me and say, R.C., you don't interpret the Bible literally, do you? And they look at me with |
| 2:05.7 | kind of an expression of consternation and bewildered disbelief. And notice even how the question |
| 2:11.0 | is phrased. It's not simply a direct question. It's not simply, do you interpret the Bible literally? |
| 2:16.2 | But it's phrased more negatively than that. It's, you don you interpret the Bible literally? But it's phrased more negatively than that. |
... |
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