Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 166:663 (Jul 2009)
Article: How a Hermeneutical Virus Can Corrupt Theological Systems
Author: Robert B. Chisholm, Jr.

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BibSac 166:663 (Jul 2009) p. 258

How a Hermeneutical Virus Can Corrupt Theological Systems

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

Robert B. Chisholm Jr. is Chair and Professor of Old Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.

The Bible includes many generalizations about God that are universally true. For example when God declared, “I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2), one can affirm that this statement is true at all times and in all places. Scripture consistently depicts God as the transcendent Sovereign of the world who has established the moral code by which His creatures are obligated to live. God’s holiness is a fact that remains true at all times in all places.

However, not all generalizations about God are universal truths.1 Unfortunately in their quest to derive universal truths from Scripture, interpreters sometimes ignore the historical and/or literary contextual boundaries of passages and elevate contextually conditioned generalizations to the status of universal truths and principles. Theological “systems” sometimes then highlight these alleged universals and extrapolate from them. These universals and their derived principles can then be used as theological trump cards, leading one to minimize or deny what other passages clearly teach. However, this procedure may result in a deficient or even

BibSac 166:663 (Jul 2009) p. 259

warped theological position that is not thoroughly biblical. A theological system’s failure and/or inability to accommodate all of the scriptural data, including competing generalizations, is a telltale sign that it has been corrupted by the hermeneutical virus just described.

God and Sacrifices

Regarding God’s attitude toward ritual sacrifice, several passages in the Old Testament seem to indicate that God considers formal sacrificial ritual repulsive or at least undesirable. For example in Isaiah 1:11 God declared, “I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.”2 In Hosea 6:6 He said, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” In Psalm 51:16-17 the psalmist wrote, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” One could take these statements at face value and assume there is no place for sacrifices in genuine religion, which consists of ethical and moral standards, not form...

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