Next subheading: how we arrive at our belief systems. Although I now limit my practice to title work, I used to handle a limited number of lawsuits, and aside from court-appointed cases, I have never lost a lawsuit. Really an attorney? Hardly. I'm barely competent in a courtroom. I won nearly all of my cases simply because the other side never showed up. In law, we call this a default judgment. The worst lawyer in the world can win a default judgment.
Unfortunately, most Christians have acquired their doctrinal beliefs through default judgment. It is not very difficult to convince another person that a given set of theological doctrines are the truth when equal time is not allowed for an opposing set of doctrines. Let's take the case of Peter Hawkins. He was raised in a godly home. Both of his parents were committed members of an Assembly of God church. They inculcated Pentecostal beliefs in Peter from the time he was a young boy.
By the time Peter was an adult, he thoroughly knew all of the fundamental holiness doctrines, and he could defend them quite adroitly from Scripture. He would laugh at the suggestion that he acquired his beliefs by default judgment. "No, I believe what I do because that is what the Bible teaches," he would tell you quite confidently. Mary Rodriguez has a testimony that is a bit different. She was raised in a Roman Catholic home. Her mother went to Mass fairly regularly, her father went less frequently.
Her parents rarely prayed at meal times or at any other time, and they almost never read their Catholic Bible. By the time Mary graduated from high school, she had quit attending Mass altogether. She soon was regularly using illegal drugs and living immorally. One day, a fellow worker named Janet told Mary how she could have a personal relationship with the Lord.
She showed Mary several verses from Scripture that demonstrated the need for Mary to recognize herself as a sinner, to repent of her sins, and to accept Jesus as her Savior. Mary earnestly prayed to Jesus and invited Jesus into her heart. She thereafter began to regularly attend a local Baptist church with Janet. She enrolled in a new member's Sunday school class where she learned what the Bible teaches on various subjects. Today, she is still a faithful member of the same Baptist church.
Like Peter, she would adamantly deny that she acquired her beliefs by default judgment. "No, she believes what she does because that's what the Bible teaches." Despite their denials, Peter and Mary are classic examples of Christians who have acquired their beliefs by default judgment. As a child or as a new believer, only one version of the Gospel was ever presented to them. Ever since, they have read Scripture through the theological eyes of the church to which they belong.
Both Peter and Mary are now quite aware that there are numerous other versions of the Gospel out there, and they even know what Scriptures others twist in order to support their doctrines. Peter can clearly show anyone why Mary's version of the Gospel is an error, and Mary can likewise show anyone why Peter's version of the Gospel is an error.
Unless you belong to one of the unreached people groups that has never heard the Gospel, unless you have never had any contact with other Christians, then you too have preconceived ideas about what Scripture says. That does not mean your preconceived ideas are incorrect, nor does it mean that there is something wrong with the fact that you have preconceived ideas. Parents should instruct their children in what they believe to be true. Churches should provide biblical instruction to their members.
So preconceived ideas are normal, but that does not change the fact that they are a barrier to finding truth. Next subheading: when was the last time you listened to Scripture? Because of our preconceived beliefs, most Christians have never truly experienced what it is like to actually listen to what the Bible writers are saying. Instead, when we read Scripture, all of the preconceived ideas that were inculcated in us as children or as new Christians drown out what the actual words of the Bible say.
We see the words on the pages of our Bibles, and we think we are hearing those words. But in reality, we are often hearing only the words of our teachers, not the words of the Bible. Let me illustrate what I mean. I was raised to believe that all humans inherit the guilt of Adam's original sin. Maybe that's correct theology. Maybe it's not. The correctness of that theology is not at issue here.
As a child, I was shown Romans 5:12 as proof of this teaching, which says, "Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin; and so death spread to all men, because all sinned." As a result, every time I used to read Romans 5:12, my mind was hearing the verse say, "Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin; and so death spread to all men, because all men inherited the sin and guilt of Adam." My mind always heard the words of my teachers, not the actual words of Scripture.
And so I was absolutely convinced that Scripture taught that we inherit both the sin and the guilt of Adam. If anyone denied that principle, I considered them to be ignoring the plain language of Scripture. It took me nearly 30 years to ever realize that I was hearing preconceived interpretations, not the plain language of Scripture. To be sure, the theory that we inherit the guilt of Adam's sin is a plausible explanation of Romans 5:12. Perhaps it is the correct explanation.
But there are other plausible interpretations of that verse, and none of us will ever be able to actually listen to Scripture until we learn to separate our doctrinal beliefs, our plausible explanations, from the actual language of Scripture. In summary, two of the basic rules of truth are: one, what we believe to be true does not change what is actually true. And two, preconceived beliefs are a barrier to finding truth.
Now that we recognize those two characteristics of truth, we're ready to look at some of the common-sense principles of interpretation that we title lawyers use. Next subheading: the blank slate. When my clients give me a title abstract to examine, they want me to begin with a blank mental slate. In other words, they don't want me to have any preconceived ideas as to what sort of title problems I'm going to uncover when I examine that abstract.
The last thing my clients want me to do is to examine title with a slanted mindset. They don't want me to build a good case that the person from whom they are planning to purchase the land has clear title. A biased, slanted title examination would be worthless to them. That exemplifies the first common-sense principle of interpretation. Principle number one: to find truth, you must start with a blank slate. So where does that leave us, you might ask?
Since we all have preconceived ideas, how can we ever discover the truth? Don't be alarmed. There is a way. In fact, the battle is half-won once a person recognizes and admits that his slate is not blank. In other words, we can't have a blank slate until we first admit that we don't have one. I realize that it's hard for most of us to admit we have preconceived beliefs. I was 37 years old before my eyes were rudely awakened. I then came to see how many preconceptions I actually had.
Before then, I would have vehemently denied that I had any. How do you know when you are reading Scripture with a blank slate? The answer is when you have no theological system to defend. When you have no prior conclusions to which Scripture must be molded. Admittedly, that is a very difficult state to obtain. But I'll show you an initial shortcut to get you started. Let's suppose that you were going to do a study of what the Scriptures teach about salvation.
You would be an unusual Christian indeed if you don't presently have any beliefs on that subject. So we're not going to pretend that those preconceptions are not there. Rather, we will try to work around them.
As you look at Scripture pertaining to the subject of salvation, ask yourself, "If I were raised in a pagan society that had never read the Bible before, what would this verse seem to be saying to me?" In other words, "If I didn't know any better, what would I probably think this verse was saying?" That's the first step. Now, let's look at some other common-sense principles of interpretation.