The word hermeneutics refers to the study of how one interprets the Bible. Most Grace people have a dispensational hermeneutic. One characteristic of such interpretation is that it makes a distinction between Israel and the Church. Some verses address Israel and are not addressed to the Church or to people today.
Such a distinction might be considered unimportant. If we discuss it, we might be accused of splitting hairs.
But it does matter. If we are to correctly interpret much of the Bible, we must address this issue.
Luke 12:54-59 is an example. In these verses, the Lord addresses “the multitudes.” He rebukes them for being able to predict the weather based on signs in the sky but being unable to correctly discern the signs of the time. He then says that when someone has an accusation against you, the wise thing to do is to settle with that person before you go to court. If you go before the judge, you will have to pay for what you did wrong.
How do we interpret these words? Is the Lord saying Christians should avoid going to court at all costs? Is He talking about evangelism?
It is very common for people to take what Jesus says in this passage and apply it to people today. The Church, they say, has a mission to proclaim the gospel to unbelievers. We should tell unbelievers to look around. They should look at the “signs.” If they are living in sin, God will judge them. They will have to pay for their sins in hell.
Others say these signs reflect what is going on in the world today. Look at the moral collapse in our society. Look at what is happening in the Middle East with Israel. Jesus is coming soon. Get right with God, or you will go to hell. As believers today, we should be concerned about the judgment of hell that is about to fall on the world.
A very popular Evangelical Bible teacher takes this view. Commenting on these verses, he says:
How tragic that men today can predict the movements of the heavenly bodies, split atoms, and even put men on the moon; but they are blind to what God is doing in the world. They know how to get to the stars, but they do not know how to get to heaven! (Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, p. 223).
But what if Jesus is not talking to the Church or to unbelievers today at all? What if He is talking to the Jews of His day, and His words are specifically addressed to that generation? What a difference that would make!
That is indeed the case. The multitudes He spoke to were Jews. He had come to them and shown that He was the Christ by performing miracles that only the Christ, sent by the Father, could do. He was offering the nation of Israel the kingdom of God. The signs were right before them. If that generation did not respond properly, the kingdom would not come to them. Christ had an accusation against them. If they did not come to Him, the judge would punish them.
That is exactly what happened. Because the nation rejected Christ’s offer, God judged it in AD 70 by means of the Roman army. That is the punishment of which Christ speaks in Luke 12:54-59. The punishment He speaks of is not hell. Notice, the punishment is temporal. It will last until the last mite has been paid (v. 59). People do not pay to get out of hell.
If we understand the hermeneutical principle that Christ is sometimes talking to Israel and not to the Church or to unbelievers today, our use of these verses changes dramatically. We cannot look at current events in the Middle East and say, “The Lord is telling us He is coming soon and casting people into hell.” We can’t use these verses to say the unbeliever needs to take stock of his sin and get right with God in order to make it into heaven. The Lord is not telling believers today that they should never go to court.
He was talking to the generation of Jews in His day. He was warning them about what was going to happen to Israel in the very near future if they continued on the path they were walking. They faced a temporary, but dreadful, judgment from God.
Even respected Bible teachers can miss these simple principles. But they are not unimportant. It may not be an exciting subject, but our hermeneutics do matter.
