Devotional Verses From The Gospel of Mark
And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.
Mark 9:9,10
     I know we're looking at it with hindsight, having learned the truth that Jesus died for our sins and then rose again from the grave, but how is it that the disciples did not get it at all? The operative word here is dead, they knew what dead meant and they knew what rising meant so how come they didn't take the obvious meaning that Jesus was giving and have a preview of the gospel? Well, one thing they did that modern theologians like to do is question with one another what it means.
     Proper hermeneutics, in my opinion, is to believe what the Bible says: to interpret it in its natural sense; what did the author of that portion of Scripture actually intend to say? Theologians call this the literal, grammatical, historical, approach to hermeneutics. High falootin' stuff!
     It simply means that if God says He created the world we should believe it: if God says you must be born again we should believe it; if God says the way to be born again is to trust in Jesus who carried your sins on the cross and died for them and then rose again so that you could be justified by believing in Him by your faith we should believe it; if God says that Jesus is going to come and call the church to meet Him in the air we should believe it; if God says Jesus will reign on earth someday we should believe it.
     This is not to dispute theological discussion, for there will always be differences of opinion, but it is to lay a foundation for that discussion: take the Bible for what it says and discuss the theological ramifications, don't try to make it say something other than what it says. But Rev. you don't understand, those out in the world think some of the stuff we believe is unscientific and maybe even a little wacky, we'll be looked down upon as anti-intellectual if believe the Bible. I do understand, but we ought believe God rather than the high sounding nonsense of unbelief.