What Do They Study in Those Seminaries & Colleges, anyway?

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You would think a class with the title of New Testament Interpretation would be a class led by the Holy Spirit that takes you INTO the Bible itself, as that is one of the many 'jobs' of the Holy Spirit -John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

So what we have here in this class is a title to draw 'religious' interest, but in reality, is a class that is totally opposite of the title.  This class is supposedly there to 'discover' the meanings of the writings in the New Testament, but instead, the student is given a man named Irenaeus as the 'father of authoritative exegesis in the church' (130-200 A.D.) and then has their attention directed to Clement (150-215 A.D.) and Origen (184-254 A.D.) in Alexandria.

The Alexandrians are presented as truth seekers who "led the soul into a  realm of TRUE KNOWLEDGE where the vision of TRUTH could be discovered."

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Who was this Irenaeus? 1.  He was a teacher of Baptismal regeneration.
2.  He said that Peter preached in Rome and Mark was his 'interpreter.'
3.  He said that Rome is the greatest church of all because it was founded by Peter and Paul, thus establishing the germs of the Roman Catholic Church beginnings.

Then on to Clement & Origen!

1.  Clement & Origin never professed a conversion experience a day in their lives.
2.  Both associated water sprinkling with regeneration.
3.  Origen taught there was no literal physical resurrection and that the Devil would eventually be saved.
4.  Neither man believed in the restoration of Israel; both men believed Genesis 3 was a myth.
5.  Origen rejected Premillennialism although it was being preached during his entire lifetime.

You will then be told that Antioch did NOT follow Origen nor did they follow Jerome (341-420), or Augustine (355-466).  Well, that part they did have true!  See your The Path chart.

Continuing on to Jerome and Augustine

1.  Jerome taught that Peter committed a sin in getting married.
2.  Jerome adopted Origen's Alexandrian text (via Eusebius at Caesarea) for the New Testament, thus getting rid of the Antiochian text where the disciples were first called "Christians" (Acts 11:26).
3.  Augustine approved of imprisoning and killing Donatists (Baptists eventually, etc.)
4.  Augustine taught the Second Coming of Jesus Christ occurred every Sunday morning on Catholic altars with "Jesus" showing up one bit (or bite) at a time in wafer.
5.  Augustine taught an absolute predestination which is controlled by Catholic sacraments: i.e. The baby is "elected" if you sprinkle it quickly enough.
6.  The fruits of adopting Jerome's Version, which contained the Apocrypha as part of the OT inspired canon - were the DARK AGES!

Remember, this course is called New Testament Interpretation!

Next, we go on to John Cassian (433), Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) and then on to Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274).

With this bunch, we have 1) approval of the Inquisition and authorizing of the torture and burning of Christians at the stake, as witches. 2) We hear that infants are detained in hell for the sin of Adam; 3) There is no restoration of Israel, no Millennium, no Rapture, no Tribulation and no Judgment Seat of Christ; 4) The Catholic church can save or damn anyone by refusing water sprinkling for them.

This is the material that prepares pastors to be pastors today.

When this pastor in training gets to Reformation Hermeneutics, he runs into Luther (1483-1546), John Colet (1466-1519), Erasmus (1466-1536) and Calvin (1509-1564).  He is then told that Erasmus and Colet rediscovered the "priority of the literal sense."  They did nothing of the kind - these men used the correct Latin (old Latin, not Jerome) and the correct Greek (Antiochan-Syrian texts) for publishing Bibles, but neither man believed that ONE verse of Revelation 13; Job 40,41; Isaiah 34; Matthew 25; or Revelation was literal.  Erasmus' hero was Origen.  Erasmus was one of the most controversial figures of the Reformation wtih both sides appealing to him for support and both sides hating his guts and cursing him for his "neutrality."  Erasmus was a true Humanist and true scholar and had just enough Catholic in hi to hate church splits, etc. and just enough Protestant in him to know that Jerome's Alexandrian New Testament was worthless.

You are then told that Calvin "was the greateste exeget of the Reformation, focusing on the place of meaning in the historical interpretation and developing the spiritual message from the text.

1)  This 'great interpreter' tried to establish a Jewish theocracy in Geneva using the Old Testament laws of Exodus 21:17; 22:18; Deuteronomy 21,  This led him to have Christians executed for slapping their parents and theological opponents burned at the stake.
2)  Caling taught the damnation of unelected infants, baptismal regeneartion by sprinkling and Amillennialism.
3)  Calvin was a "Protestant Pope" who taught that the new birth took place BEFORE repentance and faith in Christ, and that the new birth could be conditioned by sprinkling in a church.

Continuing on in the class, this aspiring pastor is then led through the Post Reformation Scholasticism, Pietism and Rationalism.  From there, he goes off into Bengel, Semler, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, Lessing, Reimarus, Scheiernmacher and Co. and, lo and behold, what began with Ireneaus the Tertullian winds up with unsaved German rationalists (Griesback, Storr, Paulus, Wrede, Bultmann, etc.) leading Wescot and Hort to produce the RV of 1884!

That was a general summary of New Testament Interpretation.  This class was designed to make sure you learn NOTHING from the New Testament and learn NO PLAN for finding out ANYTHING from it.

Every school listed (and then some) is engaged in supposedly "progressive work" along the lines of New Testament interpretation.  This muddled, confused mass of irrelevant nonsense is called "recent developments," and means nothing except the whole mass of deceived tradesmen are still re-examining each others theories and inventing "new" theories for their own kind to 're-examine' again later.

There has been no progress since Origen (254 A.D.) except from the work of men who got common ordinary people interested in reading their Bibles or got them interested in going by what the Book SAID instead of what the Catholic Heirarchy claimed it 'taught'.

Let's finish with what we started with:
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Boy, isn't it simpler just 'believing' what the KJV says and let the Holy Spirit interpret those things for you?  John 20:29  ...blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

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Why is 'seeing by believing' so hard for folks?
Let's be obedient to the Scriptures and let the Holy Spirit answer that question:

II Corinthians 2:9-14  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

I Corinthians 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

I Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

There is more:

They are still behind the vail!  II Corinthians 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

The Devil has blinded them! II Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to see!
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:3

The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind...
Psalm 146:8a

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalm 27:1

For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
Psalm 36:9

And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light,
and thy judgment as the noonday.
Psalm 37:6

O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me;
let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.
Psalm 43:3

Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound:
they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.
Psalm 89:15

Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness:
he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
Psalm 112:4

God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light...
Psalm 118:27a

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Psalm 119:105

The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.
Psalm 119:130

We don't need New Testament Interpretation classes!
We need the Holy Spirit and His Hebrews 4:12 Sword
- The Living King James Bible -
And that can only be had through Jesus Christ!