Principle 12
HERMENEUTICS
PRINCIPLE 12
Be Careful About Spiritualization
What does spiritualizing Scripture mean? Spiritualizing is finding a spiritual “picture meaning” in the historical items seen in a text: in the people, places, things, events, etc., that are in the text.
So in the “Bridge from Then to Now” diagram (from Principle 11), the category designated as “Picture” refers to this Principle: Be Careful about Spiritualization.
Spiritualization of a text of Scripture can be good and legitimate if the use of certain persons, places, things, events, and other items in the text is divinely intended to illustrate biblical teaching.
But we need to be careful about spiritualization. Some biblical persons, places or events are not divinely intended to be seen as “spiritual pictures.” Spiritualizing items that are not divinely intended to be “spiritual pictures” can lead to to unbiblical teaching (allegorization) or biblical over-spiritualization. Let’s look at a few examples of this tricky subject.
Legitimate Spiritualization
Types in the Old Testament
A type is the divinely intended picture of an Old Testament person, place, thing, event, or other item, used to illustrate New Testament truth. Some types are specifically identified in Scripture. Others may not be specifically designated as types, but are hard to miss. Here are some examples in the New Testament.
Romans 5:14
“Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come.”
Adam, the first man and the head of the human race, is a type (or picture) of Christ, who is the head of the new race of believers.
John 3:14-16
“And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
In these verses, Jesus discussed an event that’s recorded in Numbers 21 where many of the Israelites were dying from poisonous snakebites in the wilderness. God commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a pole. If the people looked at the serpent, they would be healed. Why would God use this unusual method of healing? Because it was a divinely intended type - and Jesus specifically identified it as a type! John 3:14-16 explains that the bronze serpent, lifted up, is a picture of Christ lifted up on the cross. Christ took our sins upon Himself on the cross, and when we look by faith to Him as God’s means of “healing” us from our sins, we’re saved.
1 Corinthians 10:11
“These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.”
1 Corinthians 10:1-11 speaks about events that occurred during the Israelites’ 40-year journey in the wilderness. In verse 11, the Greek word that’s translated “examples” is tupos, meaning type. So we can look at the journey of the Israelite people from Egypt to Canaan as a picture, or type, of the spiritual journey in the Christian life.
1 Corinthians 10:3 mentions the “spiritual food” that the Israelites ate. Their manna was real food, but it is called spiritual food because it portrays the spiritual picture of God providing spiritual nourishment for believers today through Jesus Christ.
In John 6:30-40 we learn that manna is a type of Jesus Christ, our Bread of Life.
1 Corinthians 10:4 speaks of the water from the rock that Moses struck. The water then was real water, but it’s called “spiritual drink” because that real water is a spiritual picture of the life that believers have in Christ (John 4:10-14).
1 Corinthians 10:4 also talks about a “spiritual Rock,” which was Christ. Yet Christ was not there in the wilderness in the form of a rock. This is part of the spiritual picture in which the rock is a type of Christ, from whom the water of life flows.
Joseph as a type of Christ
While it’s never asserted that Joseph (of the book of Genesis) was a type of Christ, there are many significant analogies.
Both were special objects of a father’s love.
(Genesis 37:3, Matthew 3:17, John 3:35, 5:20)Both were hated by their brethren.
(Genesis 37:4, John 15:25)The superior claims of both were rejected by their brethren.
(Genesis 37:8, Matthew 21:37-39, John 15:24-25)Their brethren conspired against them to kill them.
(Genesis 37:18, Matthew 26:3-4)Joseph was, in intent and figure, slain by his brethren, as was Christ. (Genesis 37:24, Matthew 27:35-37)
Both Joseph and Christ became a blessing among the Gentiles and gained a bride.
(Genesis 41:1-45, Acts 15:14, Ephesians 5:25-32)As Joseph reconciled his brothers to himself and afterward exalted them, so Christ will be His Jewish brethren.
(Genesis 45:1-15, Deuteronomy 30:1-10, Hosea 2:14-18, Romans 11:1, 15, 25-26)
Other parallels worth mentioning:
Both were commissioned to go to their brethren.
Both were tempted to sin.
Both were falsely accused.
Both were silent in their defense.
Both suffered alone in their rejection.
Both were publicly humiliated.
Both were the means of “salvation” for the world.
Noah’s Ark
Here’s an example of a spiritual picture that emerges from the Old Testament. Although it’s not specifically identified as a type in the New Testament, it’s hard to miss.
In Genesis 6, when God judged the world for its unspeakable sin in Noah’s day, He provided a way of escape from His judgment through a huge boat, the ark. The ark was the only way of escape from judgment and death in the worldwide Flood of Noah’s day.
In the same way, there’s one way of salvation from God’s wrath upon the unspeakable sin of the entire human race — that’s through Christ, the true Ark. Just as Noah and his family entered the ark by faith and were saved from judgment in the ark, so we’re saved when we enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ by faith in His atoning death and resurrection. We are eternally secure in Him. As Noah and his family were brought into an entirely new world after the Flood, believers in Christ become a part of a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
There are many other examples of types. In your personal Bible study, you may want to explore some of the following:
The Ark of the Covenant as a type of Christ.
The battles in the book of Joshua as types of spiritual warfare.
Eve and Rebekah as a types of the church.
Even though we can find many types in the Bible, we should be careful not to push types too far - by over-spiritualizing!
Parables in the New Testament
The parables of Christ are another category of legitimate spiritualization. A parable is a natural story with a spiritual meaning. Parables are verbal pictures. When we admire an artist’s painting, the artist wants us to focus on the main subject, not every detail of the background. Likewise, when we interpret parables, we should look at the big picture, or the main theme. We don’t have to find a spiritual meaning for every tiny detail. However, sometimes the details may have a supportive meaning.
Matthew 13:1-3
The main subject of the Parable of the Sower is the different heart responses to the good seed, the Word of God.
The seed that was sown on stony ground and thorny ground began to grow, but then died off. Does this mean that a believer can lose his salvation? No, because that is not the main theme of the parable. The main theme of this parable is the different heart responses to the Word of God. Some people do not respond, pictured by the hard ground. Some people have a superficial response. They are the stony and thorny ground. True believers respond gladly, and their lives bear fruit.
The main theme of the parable is the potential of the seed to bear much fruit when it is sown on good ground - not on whether an individual can lose his salvation.
With this parable we don’t have to wonder about the interpretation, because the Lord Himself interpreted it for us, beginning in verse 18. Notice that the birds represent Satan and the thorns represent worldly cares. In this parable, small details in the verbal picture do have meaning. But notice - they support the main theme of the picture.
When we interpret parables that are not explained by the Lord, we look first for the subject and main idea of the spiritual picture. Then we let any details in the picture support this main theme, without taking them too far (over-spiritualization).
The Miracles of Christ
The miracles of Christ are often spiritualized to represent salvation and the Christian life. For example, when a blind person is given physical sight, it’s a spiritual picture of a sinner (spiritually blind and living in spiritual darkness) coming to Jesus Christ and receiving spiritual sight. A lame person who is miraculously able to walk again is a spiritual picture of a sinner (spiritually paralyzed) coming to Christ and enabled to spiritually walk in newness of life. All of the miracles of Christ picture and contain some spiritual truth. His miracles were not the magic of fairy tales. Their purpose was not simply to demonstrate Christ’s supernatural power. The miracles of Jesus were planned in the eternal counsels of God to teach spiritual truth.
Luke 5:4-11
In this account, the Lord told Peter where to cast his fishing nets. Peter obeyed, and caught so many fish that the nets began to break. Jesus pointed out the spiritual meaning in this miracle: Peter and his companions would be fishing for men from then on (v10).
Many times the spiritual truths in the miracles of Christ are easy to see. For example, in the miracle of the Feeding of 5000, it’s obvious that the young boy who shared his lunch can teach something to all believers. If we bring what little we have to the Lord and give it all to Him, He can multiply it to the blessing of many.
When it’s not as easy to see the spiritual truth in a miracle, our other hermeneutical principles help us, as in the next example.
Mark 8:22-26
In this miracle the Lord Jesus healed a blind man in stages. After the first stage, the man’s vision remained fuzzy. Does this mean that on some occasions the Lord Jesus lacked the power to heal people completely? No, of course not!
This miracle was designed to teach us that there’s no shortcut to spiritual maturity. The stages of healing represent the process of gaining spiritual insight. We must be obedient, and let the Lord keep His hands on us, so we’ll come to clear spiritual vision and understanding.
What principle of hermeneutics helps us to understand this parable? Notice that the context surrounding this miracle helps us with this interpretation. In verses 14-21, the Lord rebuked the disciples for their lack of spiritual understanding. Again, after the miracle (v33) the Lord rebuked Peter for his lack of understanding of God’s plan and purpose. The disciples were believers, but they lacked spiritual insight and maturity. The miracle pictured the Lord’s teaching. The context helps us see that the essential meaning of the miracle was not salvation, but spiritual maturity.
Matthew 21:18-22
Near the end of His ministry, the Lord Jesus cursed a fig tree because it produced no fruit. This miracle is sometimes called a “negative miracle,” and it is often misunderstood. What spiritual truth was the Lord teaching in this incident?
Here the hermeneutics principle that helps is knowing some background. In the Bible, the fig tree often represents the nation of Israel (see Hosea 9:10; Luke 13:6-9). The fruitless nation of Israel would be set aside, and God’s program with the Gentiles would expand. However, God’s not done with Israel (the fig tree). There will not only be a physical return of the Jews to the land of Israel, but there will be a spiritual awakening of God’s chosen people as well.
In Mark 13:28-29, Jesus told his listeners to “keep their eye on the fig tree.” Israel is a secular nation once again. It’s putting forth religious leaves, but has yet to produce spiritual fruit. Praise the Lord that one day the Jewish people will produce spiritual fruit!
The Actions of Christ
Because many of the actions of Jesus Christ dramatize His teachings, His actions are also spiritual pictures.
Mark 6:45-52
Consider the events that occurred after the miracle of the He fed more than 5,000 people. That night the Lord sent His disciples across the Sea of Galilee while He went up on a mountain to pray. The disciples were overwhelmed with fear by a terrible storm on the sea, when suddenly they saw the Lord walking towards them on the water. He told them not to be afraid, and then He calmed the storm.
Like the disciples, we’re on the “sea of life,” and we’re battling the storms of life. Meanwhile, the Lord is in Heaven making intercession for us (see Hebrews 7:25). He sees our struggles. He can come to us in the darkest part of our stormy night and calm our troubled seas. This beautiful picture is legitimate spiritualization of one of the actions of Jesus.
Spiritualization of other items in Scripture is legitimate if a sound hermeneutical basis can be shown for the spiritual picture. Consider the following example:
John 13:30
“So Judas left at once, going out into the night.”
After sunset, Judas left Jesus and the other disciples in the upper room and went to make preparations to betray the Lord. Is it legitimate spiritualization to see the word “night” here as picturing spiritual darkness? Was it now “night” in the soul of Judas, and he walked away from the Lord into the darkness of spiritual night?
Answer? Yes - but only because there’s a solid hermeneutical basis for such spiritualization. Light and darkness is a theme that runs throughout the Gospel of John. Jesus is the true Light that shines in the darkness (John 1), but men love darkness rather than light (John 3). Judas turned away from the Light of the World (John 8, 9, 12), and walked out into the night forever.
ILLEGITIMATE SPIRITUALIZATION
While God clearly intended to include many beautiful spiritual pictures in His Word, there are two main categories of spiritualization He did not intend: allegorization and over-spiritualization.
Allegorization
The Bible contains allegories (see Galatians 4:22-26). We’re not saying that allegories are always illegitimate spiritualization. However, we are saying that it’s wrong to allegorize Scripture by reading unbiblical teaching into Scripture by spiritualizing the text. That is bad hermeneutics! Let’s look at two examples of this kind of illegitimate spiritualization.
Noah
Suppose the biblical account of Noah was spiritualized to teach New Age philosophy. A cult leader might teach, “Noah was a New Age philosopher. He preached that a new world order was coming. The ark represents the altered-conscious state that is the key to deliverance from this present system!” This is allegorization, or spiritualizing Scripture to force false teaching into the Bible.
The Nation of Israel
A not-so-apparent example of allegorization would be the teaching that the nation of Israel in the Old Testament should be spiritualized to represent the New Testament Church. In this view, all the blessings promised to Israel should now be applied to the Church.
However, look at the account of “the valley of dry bones” in Ezekiel 37. This vision is a prediction of the literal, future restoration of national Israel, including a national revival. Israel doesn’t represent the Church here. And Israel does not represent the Church anywhere else in the Old Testament. Israel is Israel! Interpreting Israel as the Church is allegorization.
Over-spiritualization
Over-spiritualization is forcing biblical meaning or teaching that God never intended into Scripture verses or passages. Sometimes over-spiritualization is harmless. It can even be helpful if it emphasizes and enhances what the Bible teaches. But when it goes too far it can be harmful. It can even go beyond over-spiritualization and become heretical. Let’s look at one example from each category.
Harmless — John 18:10
Here’s how someone might spiritualize the account of Peter cutting off the ear of Malchus in the Garden of Gethsemane: “What a great picture of contending for the faith! The sword here is the Bible—the two-edged sword of the Spirit! We should defend the faith by using the Bible.”
This is over-spiritualization. It’s somewhat harmless, because the Bible does teach that we should defend the faith using the Word, but clearly this truth is not pictured here. Why not? Because Jesus condemned Peter’s action!
Helpful — Mark 14:13
Jesus sent His disciples to meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. A man carrying a pitcher of water would be easy to spot and follow, even in a crowd, because in that day, women carried the water. Now let’s spiritualize this event: “The pitcher of water symbolizes the Word of God. What a great picture! Believers should follow ‘men of the Word.’ They will lead us to the upper room where we’ll be taught by the Lord Himself.”
Is this the intended picture here? Probably not. It’s certainly not unbiblical teaching, and it may even be helpful, because we should learn from the “teachers of the Word” that the Lord has given to the Church. But seeing that truth pictured here is probably fanciful - and over-spiritualization.
Harmful — Genesis 27
This is the account of Jacob and Rebekah tricking Isaac into giving the patriarchal blessing to Jacob rather than to Esau. Rebekah put goatskins on Jacob to make him feel hairy, like his older brother Esau.
Some commentators have wrongly written that this is a picture of Christ taking on humanity in order to secure the blessing of salvation for us. This is harmful over-spiritualization. In fact, it’s very bad hermeneutics! It’s true that the Son of God took on humanity for us, but God certainly didn’t intend that to be pictured by a sinful act of deception. When Jacob put on the goatskins, he was deceiving his father in a sinful scheme to grab the blessing! This would definitely not be a picture of the incarnation of Christ.
Heretical — Genesis 25
This is the record of Jacob buying the birthright from Esau for a bowl of red lentil stew. This account has been over-spiritualized to say that Jacob is a picture of Christ buying our birthright of salvation from the devil, who is pictured by Esau. The red stew supposedly pictured the blood of Christ that was paid to Satan.
This is not just over-spiritualization - it’s heresy! The Bible doesn’t teach that Christ paid the devil for our salvation. The payment for our sins was required by God Himself (Hebrews 9:22).
Be very careful with “spiritualization” of Scripture!