Our Personal Commitment to Jesus demands that we desire to know Him more and more clearly and accurately. Such a relationship of intimacy should be cultivated and pressed onto through enlightenment of the eyes of our understanding. Our passion and zeal for knowing Him should be guided through light in order not to fall in the trap of false intimacy but know Him accurately the way He wants to be known.

1. Kingdom Minds Renewal Hub
Presentation By: Ps T.N Makhubu

2. Important questions every believer should be
able to answer without hesitation/Thinking
Twice.
 Whom have your believed?
 You need to know whom you have believed [Christology]. 1 Tim 2:12 AMP
 What do you believe?
 You need to know what to believe. And you need to distinguish what is primary
[Essential], secondary [Important but not essential] and interesting [not essential
nor important]. [The 3 Broad Levels of Doctrine]
 Why you believe what you believe?
 You need to be able to communicate/ give a reason for your hope. Be able to
give a defense [Apologetics] _1 Peter 3:15, Jude 4 AMP

3. Christology
 Basically, Christology is concerned with the nature and work of Jesus, including
such matters as:
 The Incarnation, the death, the Resurrection, and Lordship of Christ.
Acts 85: Stephen Preached Christ to the Samaritans. This refers
 To His Nature_ Jesus was fully God (Divinity) and fully human (Humanity) [Isaiah
9:6; 1 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 2:9].
 To His Work_ Jesus died, was buried and arose from the dead according to the
Scriptures for our Justification [1 Corinthians 15:4].
 To the hope of His Second Physical Return _ [Hebrews 9:28].

4. Continuation…Discipleship as a call to Personal
Commitment To Jesus the Christ
# With Him & Knowing Him
 The Supreme way to Know Him is through His Word
 A personal commitment to the Word is a commitment to Him
 To know is not to be intellectually informed about some abstract principle, but to
apprehend and experience reality.
 Knowledge is not the possession of information, but rather its exercise or
actualization.
 Thus, biblically to know God is not to know about him in an abstract and impersonal
manner, but rather to know Him intimately and experientially.
 To know God is not to struggle philosophically with his eternal essence, but rather to
recognize and accept his claims.
 It is expressed in living conformity to his will.

5. Sola vs Prima Scriptura: Which is God’s
Standard Authority
 One of the great slogans of the sixteenth-century Reformation against the Roman
Catholic church was the Latin phrase sola scriptura, meaning the “Bible alone”
 What did the phrase sola scriptura mean at the time of the Reformation?
 The Five Solas: The five solas [Latin word for ‘Alone’] state that Christians are:
• Saved by grace alone [Sola Gratia] _Ephesians 2:8
• Through faith alone [Sola Fide] _Romans 4:4-5
• In Christ alone [Sola Christus] _John 14:6
• As revealed by Scripture alone [Sola Scriptura] _ 2 Peter 1:21
• To the glory of God alone [Sola Deo Gloria] _Titus 3:4-5

6. Sola Scriptura
 Firstly, sola scriptura meant Scripture was the supreme authority over the church.
• As Heinrich Bullinger said: “As God’s word is confirmed by no human authority,
so no human power is able to weaken its strength”
 Why was the supreme authority of Scripture an issue at the Reformation?
 A variety of medieval theologians believed that the institutional church’s
leadership, the bishops headed by the Pope (technically called the
“magisterium”), were the true interpreters of Scripture. This effectively placed the
teaching authority of the bishops over Scripture itself. The magisterium then
could not be questioned

7. Sola Scriptura
 A turning point was Martin Luther’s famous debate with John Eck (1486-1543) at
Leipzig in 1519. There it dawned on Luther that the magisterium could be in
error, only scripture was infallible.
 The supreme authority of Scripture served to keep church leadership
accountable.
 The second aspect to sola scriptura was the sufficiency of Scripture. The Catholic
church in the sixteenth century affirmed that Scripture needed supplementation
with various rituals and beliefs not be found in Scripture. As John Eck put it: “not
everything has been clearly handed down in the Sacred Scriptures”.

8. Sola Scriptura
 In response the reformers argued that, whilst there were many truths of science
and history that are not in Scripture, the Bible is sufficient for final salvation.
Scripture equips believers with all that is needed to be saved and persevere to
ultimate salvation.
 They proved this with the words that sum up John’s gospel:
 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not
recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is
the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his
name. (John 20:30-31, NIV)

9. Sola Scriptura
 The third element of sola scriptura is the clarity of Scripture. The clarity of
Scripture denoted that any person could read Scripture for themselves and
discover the basic way of salvation.
 The reformers did agree that parts of Scripture were difficult to understand. But
these passages did not threaten the sufficiency of Scripture. They need to be
interpreted with the clear ones.
Conclusion
 Sola scriptura is a simple phrase. But contained in it, are three critical truths: the
Bible is the supreme authority, sufficient, and clear. All three are essential to the
life of God’s people.

10. Prima Scriptura
 Prima scriptura teaches that Scripture is merely “first” among other sources of
divine revelation.
 Prima scriptura holds to the primacy of Scripture, but the Bible becomes one of
several sources for faith and practice in the Christian life such as: Experience,
tradition and Reason.
 Prima scriptura says that, to some extent, we can rely on something other than
the Bible. Sola scriptura says we live under the authority of scripture alone.

11. What does the Bible Teach?
 The Bible teaches sola scriptura. In 2 Timothy 3:15-17:
 Paul says to Timothy, “From infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are
able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-
breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in
righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good
work.”
 Notice the scope of Scripture’s sufficiency in this passage: 1) it is sufficient for
salvation, 2) it is God-breathed, and 3) it is able to equip us for every good work.
 Conclusion: God says not to add to or take away from Scripture (Deuteronomy 4:2;
12:32; Revelation 22:11-19) but prima scriptura subtly allows additions to be made. We
are to preach and teach the Word, not our own opinions of what the Bible says.

12. General Principles of Biblical
Interpretation
 PRINCIPLE #1: THE SCRIPTURES INTERPRET THEMSELVES
 The greatest exegetical source for the Scriptures are the Scriptures themselves. The Scriptures are
capable of interpreting themselves. This principle is called “inner-biblical interpretation”. Because the
Bible is God’s word, and God is true, the Bible will not contradict itself.
 PRINCIPLE #2: INTERPRET THE TEXT ACCORDING TO THE AUTHOR’S INTENTION AND ACCORDING
TO ITS LITERAL MEANING
 Every text has one meaning, the one the author intended when he wrote it. Therefore, the right to
determine the meaning of a text does not belong to the readers, but to the author. Our job is to get as
close as we can to the author’s original intention. The interpretation should be done in accordance with
the literal meaning; in other words, in accordance with the grammar and syntactic rules of that
language.
 PRINCIPLE #3: EVERY BIBLICAL TEXT NEEDS TO BE INTERPRETED ACCORDING TO ITS LITERARY
GENRE
 The Bible contains many different types of literature: law/ Torah, narrative, wisdom, poetry, gospel,
parable, epistle, and apocalyptic. Each of these types of literature has specific features that must be
considered when interpreting a text.

13. General Principles of Biblical
Interpretation
 PRINCIPLES #4: INTERPRETATIONS MUST BE DONE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PASSAGE.
 What does this verse mean? Context determines meaning! The nearest context must be given the most weight
in interpretation. First, there is the near context of the sentence, then the paragraph, then the section and then
the book and even author. The interpreter should look at all these circles of context to be able to correctly
assess the meaning.
 PRINCIPLE #5: INTERPRETATION MUST BE DISTINGUISHED FROM APPLICATION.
 While there is one interpretation that is historical, there are many applications that can be carried over to our
modern context. Build an application bridge from the interpretation to the timeless principle and then to the
application now
 PRINCIPLE #6: WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND EVERY STORY IN LIGHT OF ITS CONTEXT IN THE ENTIRE
SCRIPTURE.
 The Scriptures are not a random compilation of unrelated books that were put together. Rather, a unified
storyline is interwoven into every single book. In other words, there is continuity and correlation between the
books. For example, the Torah ends with Moses’ death in the book of Deuteronomy. How does the following
book begin – the book of Joshua? “After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua
the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant,” – Joshua 1:1

14. General Principles of Biblical
Interpretation
 PRINCIPLE #7: WE MUST INTERPRET THE UNCLEAR IN LIGHT OF THE CLEAR.
 If we find ourselves face to face with a confusing or an unclear passage or
verse, we need to interpret it in light of the clearer passages which deal with the
same issue. This principle prevents us from reaching far-fetched exegetical
conclusions, or misleading conclusions based on one unclear verse. This
principle forces us to look at the other passages in Scripture that speak more
clearly on the subject.

15. THE END
God Bless You