A Tenet Under Examination: Reflections on the Pentecostal Hermeneutical Approach

Abstract

As a religion of the book, Christianity has - like Judaism - placed great emphasis on the Scriptures as the primary source of a common faith. Through the course of time, when Christians had to defend the authority of their Holy Scriptures, apologetic zeal was generated to create confessions of faith and doctrines about the nature of the Bible. Roots of this endeavor can be traced back to the New Testament itself: living in a time when heretical influences threatened the early Christians' beliefs, the Apostle Paul made a statement about the nature of Scripture which was to become a key element for later discussions on the authority of the Bible. key term Paul introduced to biblical literature in general and to Christian literature in particular was God-breathed or inspired, as we can render the Greek word theopneustos found in 2 Timothy 3:16, and is translated by the Vulgate as divinitus inspiratus.' Even though this term appears only once in the New Testament it has become central in many of Christianity's notions about the nature of Scripture. The Bible is a divinely inspired book: this unspecific but common tenet about biblical inspiration is especially important to the free churches, and it is therefore central in the minds of many Pentecostals, Charismatics and Evangelicals. Among believers of these movements it has taken the shape of an insurmountable rock of belief, upon which the validity and truthfulness of one's own faith rests. By proclaiming divine inspiration or believing it subconsciously, a certain trust in the Bible is established and upheld. Since Scripture itself does not unfold a doctrine about its inspiration as a book, the personal attitude of Christians towards the Bible is of great importance. Hence, concepts of its inspiration must be placed in the realm of belief and should not be primarily seen as a doctrine that must or can be proved or disproved. purpose of this article therefore is twofold. On the one hand, the Pentecostal approach in the field of hermeneutics will be