Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 04:2 (Fall 2000)
Article: Toward a Missions Hermeneutic
Author: Marshall Wicks

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Toward a Missions Hermeneutic

Marshall Wicks

Professor Of Bible
Word Of Life Bible Institute, Pottersville, New York

As Christianity stands on the shore preparing for the new millennium, it might be helpful to review a few of the basics. If missions is the work of God, then a most basic of matters is that of sufficiency. Has Christ provided a sufficient message? Is that message sufficient to be understood? Is Christ sufficient to empower His messengers to complete the task? This is part two in a three-part series which will attempt to provide some answers: Part One: Toward a Missions Apologetic; Part Two: Toward a Missions Hermeneutic; and Part Three Toward a Missions Homiletic.

The Dilemma Of Meaning

A text with multiple meanings is a text with no meaning.

In the latter part of the twentieth century a number of works were published calling for a return to the sufficiency of Christ, particularly in the area of counseling. First, Jay Adams1 and later John McArthur2 made passionate pleas to the church for the removal of the social sciences from the foundation of the evangelical counseling paradigm. These calls have largely gone unheeded. Psychology continues to be venerated in many evangelical circles. At risk is the doctrine of sufficiency. When believers concede a spiritual need for the anything in addition to Christ, they disparage the adequacy of the cross.

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These social sciences have now penetrated and attached themselves to the very lifeblood3 of the church—hermeneutics,4 the art and science of interpretation.5 Before the latter part of the twentieth century, hermeneutics was a modest discipline generally consigned two hours in a seminary curriculum. It was but one discipline among many in the theological method. Things have changed.6 By the 1990s hermeneutics had expanded to include everything from presuppositions to preaching. How that transpired and the effect that it has had on conservative evangelicalism is a matter that calls for careful scrutiny. The question is no longer “Is this true?”; Rather it is, “Does truth really mean anything?” Because truth is constantly

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changing, Scripture is empowered to offer a plethora of possibilities.7...