The first and most important is "The Principle of Literal Interpretation".
A folksy way of stating this principle is: "If the plain sense makes good sense don't look for another sense."
In normal everyday conversation the "hearer" takes for granted that the speaker wants to convey information in a straightforward manner. The "speaker" is not expecting the hearer to be looking for hidden messages and esoteric meanings in the words he chooses. Anything else would make it nearly impossible for two people to communicate. We ask the question, "what did you mean by that?" only when we have a problem understanding the normal meaning of what was said. We should approach the Bible in the same way.
Theologian Bernard Ramm states: "The literal interpretation as applied to any document is that view which adapts as the sense of a sentence, the meaning of the sentence in usual, or ordinary, or normal conversation or writing."
A great deal of mischief has taken place when people have preconceived ideas and rather than take a statement for its face value "read into" it something which the author never intended.
Looking for hidden meanings, secret messages and esoteric knowledge in a passage of Scripture may cause the actual message of the text to be lost or misunderstood.
Next time you read the Bible and find a passage that is a little difficult to understand, try taking it at face value, unless it is obvious that a figure of speech is being used. "If the plain sense makes good sense don't look for another sense."
to be continued
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