Saturday, November 14, 2009

Hanegraff's Hermenutics

The list below is taken from Norman Geisler's Article HERE.

Hank Hanegraff, and other amillennialist, can allegorize away the literal truth of Scripture. The examples Geisler lists are:.
  • The plain meaning of the Bible into a so-called “deeper” meaning
  • Literal promises into spiritual ones
  • Unconditional promises into conditional ones
  • Jewish tribes into Gentiles
  • A thousand years into eternity
  • A literal resurrection into a spiritual one
  • Land Promises for National Israel into spiritual life in Christ
  • A literal mark of the Beast into a mere symbol of identity with him
  • Physical clouds into mere symbols of judgment
  • A literal earthly throne of David into a heavenly reign of Christ
  • Two literal witnesses into literary representatives of the Law and Prophets
  • Cosmic judgment into the destruction of a small city (Jerusalem)

Geisler writes:

All of this Hank is fond of calling “Reading the Bible for all it is worth.” Well, for all it is worth, this is not reading the Bible; it is a serious misreading of the Bible. So serious a misreading it is that were it a reading on an essential doctrine of the Bible – like the virgin birth, the sacrificial atonement, the bodily resurrection, or the second coming–it would be a rank heresy!
I do not desire to attack amillennialism or postmillennialism (I disagree with their interpretation, but not their love of God and pursuit of the truth), but I certainly want to defend historical premillennialism, and even more, dispensational premillennialism. I want believers to have a chance to analyze the scriptures and consider the Bible from a dispensational premillennial position with out having to academically succumb to the label "heretic" as is applied to them by Reformers, Covenantalist (Supersessionists), or their younger counterparts found among the Evangelicals and Emergers.

Galyn Wiemers
http://www.generationword.com/