Sermon Tone Analysis

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS:

Systematic theology has a hermeneutical concern, no less than all the other theological disciplines.

Systematic theology must be alert to issues of the exegetical method as well as to the wide range of principles and procedures that inform valid interpretation.

Systematic theology does not have a “special” hermeneutic of its own but one it shares with all other theological disciplines.

THE BIBLE IS GOD’S WORD

LBCF 1_4: The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof; therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.

2 Peter

The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof; therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.

2 Tim 3:

Heb 1

THERE IS A UNITY TO THE BIBLE

Hermeneutical reflection has no more important task than to think through the unity of the Bible, to clarify this unity and the way in which it controls interpretation.

The Protestant Scripture principle SOLA SCRIPTURA—it should not be missed—is pointedly hermeneutical; it involves a hermeneutical proposition.

So, it is not a detachable or additional principle but brings out and makes explicit the hermeneutical significance of “Scripture alone” when the Reformation and subsequent fidelity to it insist that “Scripture is its own interpreter,”

“Scripture is the interpreter of Scripture.”

This of course does not mean that the Bible is to be understood in isolation, apart from extra-biblical materials insofar as the latter shed light on the background and circumstances in which each biblical book was written.

Rather, the thought is that Scripture has a unified sense, a single pervasive meaning, and because of this, it is its own best interpreter, or better, God, its author, is his own best interpreter.

(Duguid, Iain M.. Seeing Christ in All of Scripture: Hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Kindle Locations 750-756).

Westminster Seminary Press.

Kindle Edition.)

Duguid, Iain M.. Seeing Christ in All of Scripture: Hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Kindle Locations 750-756).

Westminster Seminary Press.

Kindle Edition.

THERE IS FORMAL AND MATERIAL UNITY TO THE BIBLE

The formal unity of Scripture as God’s Word, rightly understood, entails its entire truthfulness and reliability.

THE REDEMPTIVE-HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE

A redemptive-historical orientation requires giving careful attention to this instrumental role of the human authors of the biblical documents.

The material unity of Scripture, its overall unity in terms of its content, has no more basic characterization than that this unity—against the background of the originally “very good” creation () and the subsequent entrance of sin in the fall—is redemptive-historical.

The substance of the Bible as a whole is Christ as the consummate saving revelation of the triune God.

In his coming “in the fullness of time” (), covenant history reaches its nothing less than eschatological culmination.

In terms of hermeneutical significance, then, sound interpretation has no more essential task than to consider a text, however factored, within its redemptive-or revelation-historical context.

Duguid, Iain M.. Seeing Christ in All of Scripture: Hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Kindle Location 792).

Westminster Seminary Press.

Kindle Edition.

Duguid, Iain M.. Seeing Christ in All of Scripture: Hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Kindle Locations 843-844).

Westminster Seminary Press.

Kindle Edition.

Duguid, Iain M.. Seeing Christ in All of Scripture: Hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Kindle Locations 853-858).

Westminster Seminary Press.

Kindle Edition.

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY & BIBLICAL THEOLOGY

Biblical theology is the indispensable servant of systematic theology.

Biblical theology, taking a cue from , considers God’s speech specifically as it consists in the diverse and historically situated contributions of the various human writers.

Heb 1:

In doing so, always presupposing the unity of that speech, it serves the more ultimate task of systematic theology to present the overall unified content of that speech, comprehensively, under appropriate headings (God, creation, man, sin, salvation, etc.).

In doing so, always presupposing the unity of that speech, it serves the more ultimate task of systematic theology to present the overall unified content of that speech, comprehensively, under appropriate headings (God, creation, man, sin, salvation, etc.).

To that end, biblical theology is indispensable, simply because, as we have seen, it is indispensable for sound exegesis, the exegesis on which the very existence of systematic theology is staked.

At any one point in actual practice, the relationship between biblical theology and systematic theology is reciprocal.

As the systematic theologian is to build on biblical-theological interpretation, so the biblical theologian ought not to operate indifferent to the assessment of the Bible as a whole that systematic theology provides.

To that end, biblical theology is indispensable, simply because, as we have seen, it is indispensable for sound exegesis, the exegesis on which the very existence of systematic theology is staked.

At any one point in actual practice, the relationship between biblical theology and systematic theology is reciprocal.

As the systematic theologian is to build on biblical-theological interpretation, so the biblical theologian ought not to operate indifferent to the assessment of the Bible as a whole that systematic theology provides.

As systematic theology builds on biblical theology, as its formulations are informed or, where necessary, reformed by redemptive- historical exegesis, that will serve toward realizing its high calling: to exalt Christ, the one Mediator between God and sinners as he is the final saving revelation of the triune God.

Doing that will ensure the soundness and value of the essential contribution systematic theology has to make to the church and its mission in and to the world.

(Duguid, Iain M.. Seeing Christ in All of Scripture: Hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Kindle Locations 877-881).

Westminster Seminary Press.

Kindle Edition.)

Duguid, Iain M.. Seeing Christ in All of Scripture: Hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Kindle Locations 877-881).

Westminster Seminary Press.

Kindle Edition.

Duguid, Iain M.. Seeing Christ in All of Scripture: Hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Kindle Locations 858-859).

Westminster Seminary Press.

Kindle Edition.

Duguid, Iain M.. Seeing Christ in All of Scripture: Hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Kindle Locations 877-881).

Westminster Seminary Press.

Kindle Edition.