Hi. My name is Josiah Nichols. I write the Using Hermeneutics blog. It is based off of my book series The Using Hermeneutics Series where I teach biblical interpretation through demonstration. A little about me. I was raised in a strong Christian family. My parents raised me in the Lord. Yet, I was a rebellious, violent, and strong willed child. I loved my own version of God and myself. Then the Lord opened my eyes to how sinful I was and that I was destined for Hell. I had broken the ten commandments I was a lying, thieving, blasphemous, dishonorable child. I then heard the good news that Jesus Christ became payed the penalty for my sin on the cross, that my sins could be forgiven. All I had to do was repent of my sin and trust in Jesus alone as my savior. I surrendered my life to Christ ever since then.
Becoming a Christian was and is not an easy life. I had a hunger for God’s Word and I wanted to grow up into maturity. That was my soul focus, apart from when I slipped up and had to repent again. My peers were angry with me for saying there was only one truth when they were being taught otherwise. I didn’t understand my peers behavior nor my teachers. I also had a few quirks that I grew out of about my food not touching. Because of all that, I was labeled with aspergers, adhd, and ocd. I felt like I was mentally handicapped. I thought that I would never be normal or amount to anything. That threw me into deep depression. Then I started discovering who I am in Jesus Christ. I am an heir with Christ, Christ’s slave, God’s adopted child, His soldier, the Father’s love gift to the Son. I started having my mind renewed. God started directing me to godly teachers like Ken Ham, Todd Friel, John MacArthur, and Alester Begg. I also started to discover what the Bible said about my unregenerate peers. They are spiritually blind, dead, unable to receive the things of the spirit, hopeless, and destined for hell. That is not the normal that I want. I am ok with being “weird” or foolish for the sake of Christ.
I also went to college. I got a bachelors degree in Bible and Preaching ministry. Then I started preaching at a small church. I preached there faithfully for almost two years when I got an offer to pastor at a little bigger church. It was founded by the minister that was retiring. He was dying of cancer. So I took up the role as his replacement. Everything was going well and they loved hearing me preach the Word of God. Then God helped this pastor’s cancer go into remission through medical means. That is when I started having trouble. People were starting to leave the church. Weird rumors were spreading around the congregation about me that were obviously not true. It turned out that the former minister wanted his preaching job back. His goal was to spread enough rumors and lies about me to get me fired. His plan didn’t work for 6 months because they were not true. Then I got married to my wife, and a month later I was asked to leave the church over spelling mistakes in the bulletin and I didn’t mow my yard twice a week. Turns out the former minister got his church back.
With a little under two years of pastoring under my belt. I was not able to find a pastoral position for almost 5 years. The bigger churches said I do not have enough experience. The smaller churches said I’m over qualified. Finally after almost 5 years God has let me start preaching again. I am now the pastor of Hardinville Christian Church in Hardinville, IL near Robinson, IL. I also work in a factory. God has used these past five years to help me go to seminary at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, then go to Liberty University, reach the lost with the gospel that I could not have done before, and write books on how to study the Bible and the gospel. God has been good to me in giving me a wife, three beautiful daughters, and a decent house. I told myself when I went to the factory, “If I can’t preach from the pulpit, I’ll preach from the pen.” That is what I am doing in my book series, and my blog. Now I can finally preach from the pulpit.
I am writing this blog to develop my writing skills, give tips for Bible study, give tips for biblical interpretation, preach the gospel, give tips for biblical evangelism, and how the Bible deals with current events. If you want to, you can check out my books at amazon.com.
Biblical Interpretation Through Demonstration 