A year-long journey exploring how we read and interpret Scripture. Examining frameworks, traditions, and the path to interpretive humility.
This isn't just another Bible study. It's an invitation to examine how we read Scripture - the frameworks we use, the traditions we've inherited, and the assumptions we bring to the text. Over 50 weeks, we'll explore translation choices, denominational differences, interpretive methods, and historical frameworks that have shaped (and sometimes distorted) our understanding.
The goal isn't to tell you what to believe, but to equip you to examine your own beliefs critically and biblically. To help you distinguish between what Scripture says and what we've built on top of it. To encourage interpretive humility alongside confidence in Scripture's clear truths.
Understanding How We Read Scripture
How did you get your Bible? What is translation? Why does "church" appear where "assembly" should be? This foundation examines the journey from original manuscripts to your hands, and how translation choices shape theology.
Why Christians Disagree and What It Reveals
45,000 denominations - how did we get here? Catholics, Orthodox, Presbyterians, Baptists, Pentecostals - each claims biblical support. This fragmentation reveals something important about interpretive certainty.
Tools, Principles, and Dangers
Scripture interpreting Scripture, typology, numerology - these tools can help or harm. Learn to distinguish between sound interpretation and elaborate speculation. Discover the difference between exegesis and eisegesis.
Ages, Eras, and Prophetic Frameworks
Dispensationalism organizes history into distinct ages. It's enormously influential but relatively recent. Examine its appeal, its problems, and what happens when frameworks become more important than Scripture itself.
Learning from unexpected outcomes
1844, 1914, 1988, 1994, 2011 - sincere believers using elaborate frameworks calculated Christ's return. Each failed. What can these failures teach us about frameworks, certainty, and interpretive humility?
Episodes are released weekly. Each 25-45 minute session includes opening prayer, teaching, reflection questions, and practical application. Listen at your own pace, or follow along week by week.
Part 1: Foundations — Understanding How We Read Scripture
20:14
Unless you're reading in Biblical Hebrew or Greek, you're reading a translation — and every translation involves choices. Ernst explores how Scripture traveled from original manuscripts through centuries of copying, comparing, and translating to reach your hands. Understanding this journey doesn't undermine Scripture — it honors it.
Part 1: Foundations — Understanding How We Read Scripture
42:41
Translation is not decoding — it's an act of interpretation. Ernst shares how after fifty years with the King James, he discovered that tenses, parts of speech, and grammatical structures were consistently smoothed over. Through the work of Jay P. Green Sr. and the KJ3 Literal Translation, he found a way to see what was actually on the page.
Part 1: Foundations — Understanding How We Read Scripture
34:11
The Greek word ekklesia means "called-out assembly." Yet every major English Bible translates it as "church" — not because of the Greek, but because King James ordered it. Rule Number Three of his 1604 translation instructions explicitly forbade translating ekklesia as "congregation." William Tyndale had translated it accurately eighty years earlier — and was executed for it. Ernst traces this single word from Sinai to the New Testament and shows how one political decision shaped four centuries of theology.
Part 1: Foundations — Understanding How We Read Scripture
24:50
Episode 3 told the story of how “church” replaced “assembly” through royal decree. But that was 1611. No king oversees the NIV or ESV today—so why does every modern translation still use “church”? Ernst traces the word kuriakon—which appears only twice in the New Testament and is never once translated “church”—and shows how it was swapped in for ekklesia, a completely different Greek word. Through the Hebrew distinction between beit Adonai (a place belonging to the Lord) and qahal (a people God calls together), this episode reveals what English erased: the difference between a building and a living community.
Elders, overseers, servants - functional descriptions vs. formal titles
25 minutes
Scripture describes what people did, not formal offices they held. Later tradition created offices where Scripture showed functions.
What Scripture actually describes
25 minutes
When you strip away institutional language, you find something beautifully simple. Scripture describes simple, organic gatherings.
New episodes released weekly. Check back for updates.
Episodes are released weekly as they become available. Subscribe to our mailing list to receive notifications when new episodes are published, or check this page regularly for updates.