BIBLICAL HERMENUETICS IN PENTECOSTALISM

Abstract

This work examined “Biblical Hermeneutics in Pentecostalism”. The ideal theology that lies behind Biblicalhermeneutics has a strong linkage with the early church in the past; the early Church had some fundamental doctrines and laudable values.But it was discovered in this research that with the intervention of the Martin Luther led Reformation coupled with the advent of Western type of Christianity/Western Civilization, Colonialism, Indigenous African churches/Pentecostalism and so on, several traditional values of the Church were jettisoned and corrupted. The contemporary Nigerian religious landscape has witnessed a massive interpretational abuse of the Bible. Consequently, this paper investigated the early beginning of Biblical interpretation of the Church in Nigeria: 1842-1969 and contemporaneous challenges of Biblical Hermeneutics in Pentecostalism and its effects, contextually on leaders in the Nigerian Church.All these were examined.This work recommended the following as panaceas to the challenges of Biblical hermeneutics and its effects in Nigerian Pentecostalism:

(i) The Need for the Christian National Executives to deliberate on professionalism for an ideal Biblical interpretation, and (ii) shunning egocentrism and materialism. The methodology of this paper is socio-historical approach, interview, internet explorations and narrative approaches.