How do we know when to follow Jesus' example, and when Jesus did things as God that we aren't meant to do? In the last episode of our first season, Dr. Kayser demonstrates some of the principles of biblical interpretation he laid out previously, showing how the Scriptures give us all we need to sort this one out.

What's the biblical defense for the "right of self-defense"? How can we prove that Jesus actually mandated self-defense in Luke 22? Here Dr. Kayser gives two more principles of hermeneutics derived from the Bible itself.

 For dive deeper than we can on this podcast, be sure to check out  https://biblicalblueprints.com/divine-right for loads of resources on resisting tyranny and particularly the message: Self Control Under Tyranny

How do you know what lessons to pull from the Bible's narrative passages? Narrative is descriptive, not prescriptive, right? Here Dr. Kayser explains the relationship between narrative and ethics, the four dimensions of biblical ethics, how to recognize a command or rule, and five questions to ask to make sure you're not drawing the wrong lessons from the narrative.

The Bible isn't a mystical code book that only the superintelligent few can understand because they have a decoding ring. Deuteronomy 6 implies that God intended it to be able to be understood by every father.
Here are six hermeneutical rules and presuppositions to get you started.

1. We must approach the text with humility rather than pride. 
2. God wants us to live by every word of Scripture.
3. The Bible is the standard by which all other truth claims must be judged - including truth claims about hermeneutics.
4. Hermeneutics involves more than simply reading the text.
5. The meaning of a phrase must be gathered from the context.
6. The Bible must be interpreted literally according to its normal grammatical sense.
7. Each passage has only one meaning, even though it can have many applications.

Dr. Kayser starts out his hermeneutics series with examples of bad hermeneutical systems paralyzing the modern church. He then demonstrates that Scripture alone — for example, the examples of how Jesus and the apostles interpreted Scripture — gives an entire system of hermeneutics. This podcast gives a defense for learning our hermeneutics from Christ and the Word rather than man-made hermeneutic systems.