Part 1: Why Method Matters More Than Conclusions
Why faithful interpretation shapes faithful theology
“The naive believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.” — Proverbs 14:15
Imagine that you are driving to a destination you have never visited before. You carefully enter the address into your GPS. The route begins confidently enough. Every turn appears reasonable. Every road seems to point in the right direction. You obey every instruction. You make every turn exactly when instructed. Twenty minutes later, however, you arrive at the wrong location.
What happened?
You were not careless. You were not reckless. You faithfully followed every direction that was given to you.
The problem was not your driving.
The problem was your starting point.
One incorrect assumption at the beginning determined every decision that followed.
Theological reasoning often works exactly the same way.
Many doctrinal errors do not begin with a rejection of Scripture. They begin with a subtle methodological mistake. Once that mistake is made, every subsequent conclusion may appear logical, coherent, and even persuasive. Yet if one of the earliest interpretive assumptions is mistaken, every additional conclusion, even if internally consistent, moves progressively farther from the meaning intended by the biblical author.
This observation explains why Scripture repeatedly emphasizes not merely what God’s people believe, but how they arrive at their beliefs. God is not only concerned that His people possess the truth. He is also concerned that they arrive at truth through faithful methods of observation, interpretation, reasoning, and judgment.
That distinction is the purpose of this series.
This is not primarily a series about Christian nationalism.
It is not primarily a series about race.
It is not primarily a series about politics.
It is a series about a much more foundational question:
How shall we think?
That question lies beneath every theological controversy, every cultural debate, and every ethical dilemma the church encounters.
Before evaluating any argument, however, Christian charity requires that we first understand it.
In his recent five-part sermon series, Race, Nations, and Christian Nationalism, Dale Partridge argues that Genesis 9–11 establishes God’s enduring design for the nations. He maintains that Noah’s three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—became covenantal heads of three “macro races” after the Flood. According to Partridge, Noah’s prophetic blessing of Shem and Japheth and his curse upon Canaan reveal an enduring providential ordering among these peoples that extends throughout biblical history and continues to shape world history today. He argues that this framework should influence how Christians think about race, nationhood, immigration, civilization, civil government, and Christian nationalism. He further contends that the church cannot properly fulfill Christ’s command to disciple the nations without first understanding what a nation is according to Genesis.
Central to his argument is his interpretation of Genesis 9. Rather than concluding that Ham merely dishonored Noah by seeing and publicizing his father’s nakedness, Partridge argues that Ham committed maternal incest with Noah’s wife. He describes this interpretation as possessing “the most explanatory power” because, in his view, it best explains why Canaan rather than Ham received Noah’s curse. From there, he reasons that although Noah explicitly cursed Canaan, the curse ultimately extends to Ham’s descendants and continues to manifest itself throughout history.
Whether one ultimately agrees or disagrees with these conclusions, fairness demands that they be represented accurately before they are evaluated. Christians must never bear false witness against those with whom they disagree. Love “rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6), and truth begins with representing another person’s position honestly.
Yet accurately representing an argument is only the beginning. Scripture repeatedly commands believers to examine every teaching carefully.
When Paul preached in Berea, Luke records that the Jews there “received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). The Bereans were not commended because they accepted Paul’s teaching without question. Neither were they praised because they rejected him out of skepticism. They were commended because they measured every theological claim against the written Word of God.
That is the model every generation of Christians should imitate.
Notice something important about the Bereans.
They did not begin by asking,
“Do I like Paul’s conclusions?”
They began by asking,
“Does Scripture support them?”
That difference is profound.
It reminds us that before asking, “Is this doctrine true?” we must first ask, “How did we arrive at this doctrine?”
This is where biblical wisdom begins.
Throughout Scripture, God consistently teaches His people not only what to believe but how to think.
Ezra “set his heart to study the Law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). Notice the order. Ezra first studied God’s Word. Then he obeyed it. Only afterward did he teach others.
Following the exile, the Levites “read from the book, from the Law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading” (Nehemiah 8:8). Their responsibility was not to invent meaning but to explain the meaning already present within the inspired text.
Jesus Himself modeled this same approach repeatedly. Again and again He asked,
“Have you not read…?” (Matthew 12:3, 5; Matthew 19:4; Matthew 21:16; Matthew 22:31).
Christ continually redirected His listeners away from assumptions, traditions, and speculative reasoning back to what God had actually spoken.
Even after His resurrection, He explained the Scriptures beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, showing what they already testified concerning Him (Luke 24:27).
This pattern establishes an important principle.
Observation must precede interpretation.
Interpretation must precede theology.
Theology must precede application.
Whenever that order is reversed, theology gradually becomes controlled by something other than Scripture.
Historically, Christians have described this difference with two important words.
Exegesis asks,
“What did the biblical author intend to communicate through the words he actually wrote?”
It seeks to draw meaning out of the text by paying careful attention to grammar, syntax, literary context, historical setting, and canonical development.
Eisegesis, by contrast, asks a different question, often unintentionally.
“How does this passage support the conclusions I have already reached?”
The interpreter may sincerely desire to honor God. He may quote Scripture faithfully. He may appeal to respected theologians and church history. Yet outside assumptions quietly become the controlling framework through which the biblical text is understood.
The difference between these approaches can be surprisingly subtle.
Exegesis follows the author.
Eisegesis asks the author to follow us.
This distinction explains why method matters more than most Christians realize.
A faulty method often produces convincing conclusions.
In mathematics, a student may perform every subsequent calculation perfectly after making one incorrect assumption near the beginning of the problem. Every step appears reasonable. The work is neat. The arithmetic is consistent. Yet because the initial premise was mistaken, the final answer cannot be correct.
Theological reasoning often unfolds in the same manner.
One interpretive assumption influences another.
One inference supports another.
One conclusion becomes the foundation for the next.
Eventually an entire theological system rests upon assumptions that may never have been demonstrated from the biblical text itself.
For this reason, Scripture repeatedly encourages careful thinking.
“The naive believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps” (Proverbs 14:15).
“The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him” (Proverbs 18:17).
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings to search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2).
James exhorts believers to be “quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger” (James 1:19).
Isaiah records God’s invitation,
“Come now, and let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18).
Paul commands believers,
“Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
John similarly writes,
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1).
Collectively, these passages present something far richer than isolated commands. They reveal a biblical epistemology, a God-given pattern for knowing truth.
God calls His people to observe carefully.
To define terms accurately.
To reason honestly.
To test evidence.
To distinguish what is stated from what is inferred.
To refuse partiality.
To reject false witness.
To submit every conclusion to His revealed Word.
This is biblical wisdom.
It is striking that the Book of Proverbs rarely portrays wisdom as merely possessing information. Wisdom is the disciplined ability to interpret reality according to God’s perspective. It is learning to think God’s thoughts after Him.
That is why this series is titled, How Shall We Think?
The church certainly needs sound doctrine.
But sound doctrine grows from sound interpretation.
Sound interpretation grows from sound reasoning.
And sound reasoning grows from the wisdom that God Himself teaches in Scripture.
The purpose of this series, therefore, is not simply to critique one pastor’s conclusions. If these articles accomplish nothing more than that, they will have failed.
The larger goal is to help Christians cultivate habits of mind that honor God, habits characterized by humility, patience, intellectual honesty, careful observation, faithful interpretation, and a willingness to stop where Scripture stops.
Every believer is capable of making interpretive mistakes.
Every pastor.
Every seminary professor.
Every theologian.
Every author.
The question is not whether we are capable of error.
The question is whether we love God’s Word enough to let it correct us.
That requires humility.
It requires loving truth more than winning arguments.
It requires caring more about accurately representing Scripture than defending our favorite theological system.
It requires recognizing that God has not only spoken, but has also taught His people how to listen.
In the articles that follow, we will use Dale Partridge’s sermon series as our first case study, not because the issues it raises are unique, but because they provide an excellent opportunity to practice biblical discernment. Together we will examine hermeneutics, biblical epistemology, logical reasoning, and common interpretive fallacies, asking at every step not merely, “What conclusion has been reached?” but the more fundamental question:
How shall we think?
For faithful theology has always begun with faithful interpretation, and faithful interpretation has always begun with humble submission to the Word of God.