Main Philosophy:

            The main point of preaching all hinges upon the difference between two words, eisegesis and exegesis. I do not believe I can fully express the importance of knowing the difference between these two words among the context of dealing with the Biblical text. I must say nothing we do in this world will every come close to being more important than how we understand and deal with the Bible. Therefore knowing these two words is of the upmost importance, especially for a pastor.

            Eisegesis- An interpretation, especially of Scripture, that expresses the interpreters own ideas, bias, or the like, rather than the meaning of the text.

            Exegesis- The critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, especially the Bible.

            Eisegesis is a preacher putting his own meaning into what is written and exegesis is dealing with the text alone pulling the meaning out of what is written alone. Obviously, I believe the latter is so much more preferable than the former. I believe with all my heart in the exegetical interpretation of Scripture so much that I believe eisegesis is the equivalent to heresy, nobody grows from any man’s opinion or personal stories alone, growth in God’s Word only happens through the clear interpretation of God’s Word with minimal to no opinion of the preacher. I am haunted, as a pastor, with the threat that I can, in any given week, be guilty of eisegesis and I believe we would not be as Biblically illiterate as a Nation if more preachers were haunted in the same way.

A Follow-up Question:

Here is the logical follow-up question with respect to the continued philosophy on preaching. How can a preacher know he is staying true to exegesis, finding the original meaning of the text?

To answer this question I turn to comparing two more terms, expositional preaching and topical preaching. These are two different types of preaching as any preacher approaches the text. They are as different at the terms eisegesis and exegesis and are equally important to know.

            Expositional preaching- the nature of expounding upon, or to set forth, or explain.

            Topical preaching- the nature of explaining a topic found throughout the Scripture from what is desirable at any given moment.

            Expositional preaching seeks to explain each text in the context it is written and therefore seeks to preach through books from beginning to end. Topical preaching chooses texts of Scripture to preach based on a pre-determined topic of relevance or desire.

My Conclusions:

I believe the only way a preacher can guard against eisegesis in his preaching is to stay committed to expositional preaching. He must preach through the text because then, and only then, will each text be interpreted against the larger context of the whole book. When preachers preach topically there is a huge risk of choosing a text based on how it sounds in a topic instead of its actual intended meaning within the greater context of the book. It is my desire to stay committed to expositional preaching while being led by the Holy Spirit to say only what the text of Scripture says, and by God’s Grace, avoid putting my own meaning into the words of the text I am preaching on. This is not to say that “topics” will not ever come out from the text, we will address the topics of today as they come in the book we are studying and then we are talking about the topic only as the Word directs us there and the Holy Spirit leads.