Two words we might hear from an educated preacher which we probably don’t understand are exegesis and hermeneutics.
Now I’m 55 my exegesis of any page in my Bible is that it’s simply a blurry piece of paper that’s got lots of random ink marks on it. But when I use the hermeneutics of a pair of reading glasses my exegesis changes completely, and the page has now become an incredible piece of text!! That’s how I remember what those words mean.

In this section I want to introduce what’s most likely a new hermeneutic to you, a different set of lenses to read the Bible with, a set that clears up the blurry parts, or any confusion we often have. It’s a hermeneutic they don’t teach us nowadays, even though Paul endorsed it, and you’ll see later why I believe it’s not taught today. May I gently now ask you, the reader, to simply listen to what follows without responding to that urge to correct me that I know will well up inside you!
You can rest knowing that I know the scriptures you know, and I’ve still got my old pair of what are today’s standard hermeneutical lenses, and after 20 years listening to preachers in church I know Bible interpretation through these lenses pretty well now without others keeping on telling me! I grew up being taught all about raptures, tribulations, antichrists and beasts!
This here is, generally speaking, just presenting Paul’s hermeneutic to you, one that actually makes instant sense of all these pre trib, post trib or mid trib things that confuse us all, one that they will not teach you and me in a UK church today. Then you can think about it for yourself and then I’ll be much more happy to engage in discussions!

That hermeneutic is called….

Typology or Types and Shadows.

I always keep Occam’s Razor in mind and keep things straightforward, and this is Wiki’s definition of typology, and for Wiki it’s a remarkably good one…

“Typology in Christian theology and biblical exegesis is a doctrine or theory (hermeneutic) concerning the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament. Events, persons or statements in the Old Testament are seen as types (or shadows) prefiguring or superseded by antitypes, events or aspects of Christ or his revelation described in the New Testament”.

Think of the shadow that a bicycle makes on a sunny day. Depending how we position the bike it is possible to make it very difficult to even identify the real object as a bike from this shadow. But, if we observe from a more appropriate angle it should be fairly obvious from the shadow what is making that shadow, even though the finer detail about the bicycle will always be lacking.
So it is with the relationship of those things in the Bible pre Christ and those things post Christ.

If you Google ‘typology Ligonier’ there’s a much better scholarly description on there but personally I think so many scholars miss the bigger picture by not being able to see the wood for the trees.

Paul unquestionably validates typology in 1 Cor 10 but Matthew’s gospel, the gospel specifically written to Jews to show them how Jesus is the fulfilment or antitype of Old Testament scripture, also alludes to, if not clearly validates typology as a valid hermeneutic right through the whole book (ditto the book of Hebrews).

One specific example of typology, and a very important one is that of Moses and the brazen serpent which John validates in John 3. The Old Testament account of the type was clearly literal but equally clearly the real truth for this current dispensation is in the typological interpretation.
This unquestionably shows us that literal interpretation is not always a valid hermeneutic for today, crucifying a snake and looking at it will save nobody today, and hopefully from this example we can see how and why there are so many different teachings and Bible interpretations in the broader Church – because we all have differing levels of illumination.
I have heard this next verse being taught as follows, and although the word referred to is only used once in the Bible so it’s hard to work out a clear meaning, the guy was an ‘expert’ in Greek and in Rom 12:6 he interpreted Paul as telling us “to prophecy (teach) according to this ‘analogia’ (analogical) lens of our faith” ie we teach according to our analogical illumination, not necessarily literal but relative to the current dispensation.

Now a question. Have you heard of typology? You’ve maybe been taught about Adam being a type of Jesus from Romans 5 but they certainly never taught me typology as a hermeneutic in the 20 years that I used to sit in a church every Sunday morning. In fact as I’ve systematically returned to ask most of the influential people in my early days what they really know now I’m a little more clued up, invariably they’ve never even heard of the word typology (incredible isn’t it, preachers, teachers and housegroup leaders, the guys I once trusted)!
Why?
Well, you will see in the next section how typology completely exposes by far and away the biggest deception in this modern era of world history. Typology was so commonly understood in the 1800’s it’s literary style can be seen even in secular poetry and this was a major hurdle this modern deception had to deal with if it was to succeed. The introduction of the Bible College though in the early 1900’s was the answer to this and was an absolute master stroke. Pure genius. I’ve had two or three pastors ask me ‘which Bible college did you go to William’? I think they were being sarcastic but I’ll give them the benefit of my doubt but nowadays I’m just so really thankful I can just simply say, ‘I haven’t been to Bible College’…. without any longer feeling a need to justify that response.

I’ll leave it there for this section, but I hope there’s been enough here to encourage you to work your way through the next section which will be much longer and may take many weeks, months or in my case what was years to be granted the grace/illumination to perceive what is written there.

Please don’t give in though, the Bible and its illumination is incredible in that it doesn’t matter which ever level we read it on, to an open hearted reader it makes sense and is a wonderful revelation at the time as well as a stepping stone to the next level.