Jesus Didn't Say...

"You can't judge a book by its cover."*
What he did say:  "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.  You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  
Matthew 12:33-34

and

"For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.  The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.  
Luke 6:43-45

*Paul Washer

Studying the Bible

In my previous post,  I introduced the word hermeneutics.  It simply means how one goes about studying the Bible.

There are different ways in which to do this:  The way many pastors and theologians use is Grammatical, Historical and Systematic.  These terms are pretty clear.  Grammatical is what the text actually says, not what you could make it say or want it to say.  Historical is looking at how other theologians during the course of history have interpreted the Biblical events.  A systematic approach is one that is orderly, building on the Biblical text over time.

Trouble arises when these approaches are deviated from.   Some examples?  Stay tuned.

What's Hermeneutics, Anyway?

The conversation went something like this:

A young male friend lopped over to my section of the choir room  in his oversized robe.

"Hi!" I said, "how are you?"  "Fine!" Tim replied.

"And what classes have you signed up for this term?" I asked. 

"Something-or-another and Hermenuetics."  Said Tim.

"What's "Hermenuetics?" I asked.

Meanwhile, a choir buddy seated on my other side, shifted in her seat, adjusted her robe over her legs to get more warm from the frigid air conditioning and echoed my question, "Yes, what is that?"

"Well, it's a way to study the Bible."  My young friend replied.

(Spring 2008)

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A nice $20 theological word, isn't it?

Why Basement Theology?

I was thinking about calling this blog Theology 101, but I knew that would be too exalted a position from my starting point.  I am learning about theology from the ground up, as it were.  Hence the name:  Theology in the Basement.

I wish I would have started this blog a good year to 18 mos. ago to chart my journey, ramblings and insights.  But we have to start where we are, so while I was sitting in church this a.m. I decided to begin this blog.  It's not intended for anything, necessarily, other than documenting my own journey.  If something else evolves along the way, that's just life.