Sharpening Your Tools
[EGW
editors preface: This article originally stems from
a handout I received in Bible class many years ago at the Watertown
church of Christ. The handout presented a brief summary
of basic general information about the Bible along with some
practical suggestions for the beginning Bible student. Since
then I have occasionally added and rewritten several paragraphs
to assist my own efforts in teaching people to begin studying
the Bible for themselves.
(For more tips on good Bible-reading
skills, click the subjects Hermeneutics and Bible study)]
Introducing
Yourself to Bible Study
provided by
David
Churchill
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If there is a God (and we are convinced
there is); if He is a just God (and we are convinced He is);
if He has a plan for us (and we are convinced He does); then
it is certain that He has given us the answers to our questions
about that plan.
The Bible, as Gods recorded
revelation to the world, was written for that very purpose. These things I have written
to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, the apostle John explains in 1
John 5:13, in
order that you may know that you have eternal life. In John 12:44-50, the same
apostle records Jesus own explanation for teaching what
He did to deliver the words of God the Father so people
could believe the message and accept eternal life and
a few chapters later in John 20:30-31, John explains why he wrote
what he did about Jesus, but these are written that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
you may have life in His name.
Therefore, our goal in studying
the Bible is threefold: 1) find out Gods plan for
us; 2) find out about
Gods offer of eternal life; 3) find out what He asks
of us to accept that offer. Like any worthwhile goal, this
goal can only be reached with plenty of persistent effort, honest
and open thinking, and some sincere feeling.
In
a sermon recorded in the book of Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and
7, Jesus spends a great deal of time discussing the importance
of seeking out Gods will and of listening to His word.
He also emphasizes the equal importance of understanding
and obeying Gods word correctly. Jesus finishes this
lesson with a warning against people who claim Jesus as their
Lord, but do not obey Him as their Lord.
In other passages of the New Testament,
Jesus (and the apostles whose letters are recorded) pointed out
that many man-made doctrines will be taught and practiced as
God-made doctrines. Those people who teach such are labeled
as hypocrites, deceivers, and blasphemers (Matthew chapter
23; Timothy 4:1-4; Titus 1:10-16,3:9-11). Those people
who follow such teachers are obviously being deceived and being
led away from eternal life. So
how can we recognize
and avoid these false doctrines made up by people? How
can we recognize the teachings that come from God?
A man in England, famous for his
ability to identify counterfeit (or fake) money, was once asked
how he was able to do it and did he need to spend all his time
studying all the different kinds of fake money. He replied
that he spent his time studying the real thing: by understanding
the characteristics of genuine money, he could pick out the fake
money. Likewise, if we spend our time studying God
written instructions about His true religion, then we will be
able to understand it and also be able to identify what is really
fake or false religion.
Our
study of the Bible will be more profitable if we remember the
following seven suggestions:
1)
Try to study only one book at a time.
2)
Start with the New Testament.
3)
Try to understand the motive of the author.
For example, the styles
of the four Gospel
writers are different because
they are
addressing different groups
of people.
4)
This brings up the fourth point: try to
understand to whom the book
was written.
5)
Understand what the message meant to the
original reader.
6)
Remember that every Scripture should be
interpreted by other Bible
passages and
not by theological theories.
7)
Realize that, with the exception of
some prophetic passages
and especially
some prophetic books such
as Revelation,
every verse should be understood
as
literal unless there is
some clear motive
to consider it figurative.
In contrast,
language of prophetic books
should be
understood to be symbolic
unless there is
some valid reason to consider
a particular
passage as literal. This
distinction is
not as hard to make as it
might seem,
if we deal honestly with
the verses that
we are reading.
Successful
Bible study is an ongoing learning experience
a
process of growing
in other words, good Bible students
are both prepared and committed to changing what they
know and think. Sometimes they uncover evidence compelling
them to abandon a sincere, but mistaken, viewpoint. Sometimes
they gain a new awareness of a truth they previously ignored.
Sometimes they simply reinforce a grasp on the truths theyre
already handling well. Do you see the Bible as a confusing
puzzle with many jumbled unrelated pieces and several other pieces
seem boring, redundant, unmeaningful
with some of the
pieces apparently missing? Are you ever surprised or frustrated
with yourself about how little you actually know of what God
has told us through the Bible? Be patient and humble, and
you will make progress. With time, practice, and experience you
will find yourself seeing more and more how Gods written
Word fits together as well-knit and well-planned as a finely
woven tapestry from the hand of a master craftsman.
As we said earlier, God has a purpose
for providing us the Bible. This purpose gives His Bible
a reason and meaning
an intended aim that lays down
the rules for the why of the what God tells in the Bible.
Therefore, we should expect each book in the Bible to fulfill
some responsibility in supporting this overall aim. Likewise,
each chapter and passage in a book has a meaningful role in fulfilling
the books purpose, and in turn the Bibles purpose,
and ultimately Gods purpose. Find the purpose(s)
of a passage and you will begin to appreciate the value of that
passage.
With any learning process (hobbies,
school, job training, etc.), some of what a person learns can
be described as simple to understand, basic
fundamentals, and must be learned first to understand
the rest correctly. The same is true for Bible study
and several important Bible teachings fall into this description.
This also means that some Bible teachings can be described as
difficult to understand, challenging and meaty,
and advanced material not for beginners. In
the letter to the Hebrew Christians, the writer rebuked some
of his readers for still needing milk
when they should have been ready for solid food
and that they needed someone
to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God
they had stopped learning
and had lost the value of the written Word (Hebrews 5:11-14).
He then mentions several of what he calls the elementary principles
of Christ (Hebrews
6:1-2). In his letters Peter also warned Christians
then and today concerning some things hard to understand, referring in this case to Pauls
letters, which
untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction,
as they do also the rest of the Scriptures
(2 Peter 3:11). Clearly, some Bible Scriptures and
teachings are easier to understand while some are more challenging,
and we should try to learn the right way to handle what we read
in all the Bible.
In John 4:24, we find Jesus telling
a Samaritan woman, God
is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and
truth. Truth
is valuable to God. If we intend to offer acceptable worship
to God, then we must value truth, too. How important is the truth
to you? How concerned are you about worshiping God with
the right attitude and according to the instructions
He really gave us?
We
will look more closely in other articles at valuable tools and
techniques for studying the Bible. In the meantime, what
follows is some background information about the Bible that will
help make your studying a little easier.
The Bible was written by about
40 men, most of whom were Jews. The first books were written
about 1500 years before Christ. The last ones were completed
during the first century after Christ. It was written in
many places such as Palestine, Babylon, Greece, and Italy. It
was inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). It
must be studied today because only in it do we find the will
of God for our salvation.
How is the Bible set up? There
are 39 books in the Old Testament. The first five (Genesis
- Deuteronomy) contain the early history of the world plus
the law of Moses. The next 12 (Joshua - Esther)
give the history of the Jewish nation. Then there are five
books of poetry (Job - Song of Solomon or Song of Songs).
The last 17 in the Old Testament are books of prophecy.
Some are called major prophets while others are identified
as minor prophets. This has nothing to do with the importance
of the writings. It simply refers to the lengths of the
books themselves.
The New Testament starts with four
accounts of the life of Jesus (Matthew - John). Then
there is the book of Acts, the history of the church at the beginning.
From Romans to Jude there are 21 epistles written to churches
or various individuals. In these letters we discover how
we should live as Christians or as groups of Christians (known
as churches). At the end of the New Testament is Revelation,
a beautiful prophetic book written to give courage to Christians
of every era.
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