"EMPOWERMENT & BIBLE TEACHING"

Empowerment Commentary By
Jarrett L. Perdue Sr.

When Empowerment Messages are presented in correlation to the Bible, the message should be presented as highly analytical thinking for determining, evaluating, improving, and presenting the message. The presentation should always be articulated via Scholarship, Analysis, Research.

When anyone presents a Bible message before an audience of Born Again Believers to bring forth Scriptural Principles, and how to correlate those principles with daily living, it is of great importance to make sure the person speaking has done their homework, i.e., prayer, study and dedication. Unfortunately, many times, the "message" gets lost in the theatrics, emotionalism and showmanship of the presenter. The "message" ends up with no substance and the audience leaves depleted of any type of empowerment.

Empowerment Messages should be to engage the audience in independent thinking. The person presenting the message should not have a hidden agenda. They should not present the message from a bias standpoint. They should not attempt to present the Bible from their denomination and organizational perspective. A message should never be presented with deceit to control the minds of the audience. When this is done, they are promoting their own, and not God's program. People should not try to make the Word of God fit into their agenda. Our presentation of the Bible has to correlate with the Word of God.

When the Empowerment Message is promulgated to the listeners, the presenter needs to know what they are talking about. The presenter should not mind anyone checking out what is presented to them. In fact, that shows intelligence on the part of the listener. They are following the principles of study and fact-finding introduced by the Bible students at Berea in Acts 17:11(KJV).

   

 "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”

The responsibility is on the presenter to present scriptural evidence and the responsibility of the listener should be to determine the validity of what is being stated. A Bible message should never be articulated to make the listeners carbon copies of the presenter. A good teacher will engage the students to become independent thinkers.

The scriptures given in any Empowerment Message should have substantive correlation to the subject matter. That is what Empowerment is all about. To hear the message from the presenter and then the listener can process the information received to produce effectiveness for daily living. Processing the information from the presenter is applying Acts 17:11. Here is how this scripture is presented in the New Living Translation (NLT): "And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth."

The Apostle Paul went to the best universities in Tarsus.  He became a minister, teacher, preacher, student of law, a pastor and a man of prayer.  He was a student of Rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3) where he spent many years in complex and industrious study of Old Testament Scriptural Writings. 
Rabbi Gamaliel was a Doctor Of Law(Acts 5:34).
Gamaliel was thoughtful, governmental, theological and far advanced in reading and knowledge. 

The Apostle Paul who studied under Rabbi Gamaliel was a leading Theologian, Scholar, Lawyer, Teacher and wrote 13 books of the New Testament.(Romans - Philemon).  With all of those credentials the Bereans still searched and studied and researched the things the Apostle Paul said as truth.

The Bereans were interpreters of the Old Testament.  As they listened to the teachings of Paul, they received it and then compared what they heard to the truths of the Old Testament Scriptures.  They were a faithful people and positive example of listening, investigating and scrutinizing Biblical teaching.

There are many people who believe they know the scriptures well enough to stand before a group of people and present a message. The reality is,
in-depth research of the Bible is essential. A great amount of time has to be invested in prayer, study, and research, to understand and gain the truths of the meaning by the original writers of the Bible which came from God's illumination. A person may be articulate, charismatic, be an attention getter, move a crowd to high emotionalism, and not even scratch the surface of understanding how to precisely present the truths of the Bible. They have not given profound or thorough consideration for extensive scriptural research.

As in the principles of Bible study, we must remember we are reading translations, not the original writings. As with Bible study, we must realize, as careful as the translators may be, there is still the possibility of copyist errors. This is why teachers of the Bible must understand, vocabulary, contextual meaning, analytical investigation, etymology and translations from Hebrew and Greek to English. Also, the Bible is translated into many different languages, not just English.

A serious student of scripture will have no issue with wanting to uncover the truths of scripture before presenting and teaching them. A person who is not serious and only wants to be an entertainer to get a crowd going, will never take the Bible seriously to give earnest study. As long as there is no accountability, they will continue to just entertain.

When teaching the Bible here are 3 important things to remember:
Biblical Truths.
Biblical Scholarship.
Biblical Conveyance.

Biblical Truths - Giving veracity and historical facts.

Biblical Scholarship - Giving serious study to Biblical Comprehension.  Connecting relevant information to the texts.

Biblical Conveyance - The original intended meaning of the author.  Understanding the narrative of the writer.
 

One who teaches the Bible should always give serious thought to spirituality, prayer and education. There are people that say they are teaching the Bible, when in fact, they are not serious students of scriptures. One has to be a student of learning and understand the seriousness of Bible study before they can become an effective teacher. This takes a lot of work and dedication as in any discipline. A love of the study of the Word of God, can and will produce a love for teaching the Word Of God. This can be called Biblical Philology. Philology is from the Greek term philologia. "Philos" which is defined as love, affection, beloved, loved. Then logos, which is word, articulation, reason, love of discussion, and literature. So the term philology is defined as a love of learning, of literature.

One has to have a love for studying and teaching the truths concerning Biblical Principles.

When studying and teaching the scriptures, people should not bring their own tenets to the presentation. What one thinks is true and seems to sound good may not be accurate. The Bible should never be taught because of what one holds in their mind to be true because of their denominational connection and indoctrination.

It is important to always be a serious student of scripture and a serious teacher of scripture. We must give objective consideration when researching scriptures and have daily correlation with God, that Our Heavenly Father will give us communication of knowledge for teaching His Divine Word.

Jarrett L. Perdue Sr.