Greetings again my friends
and any interested who come across my blog:
Since I hope I’ve laid a
sufficient basis for the bible being God’s word to mankind, enough that we can
move on to other things, like teachings.
As they come up along the way other things I know which reaffirm to me
that we can have confidence in the Bible will be examined as we get there. Now we start to put the rubber to the road.
How does one study the
Bible to get at truth? I know it is a
good habit to either read or listen to the bible daily, I post a reading
assignment and small devotion on my Facebook page daily. However, that isn’t study. Early on in tis blog I posted Psalm 1:1,2”
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he
meditate day and night.”
Notice the way the Psalmist stresses the idea of
meditation? He doesn’t mean meditation
in the sense we often hear it expressed in connection with transcendental
meditation. No, he is peaking about
pondering over the things read and learned in order to gain insight and clarity
of vision into what God’s word really teaches.
That takes real work. That is
because God didn’t always just lay it out so the truth becomes obvious to
anyone. He does that with some
teachings, but he who created us knows we remember better and appreciate that
which we work for. He also
invites those who are best for the great prize because they are willing to put
the effort into making his word and his truth their own.
There are several methods of Bible Study. Most rely on books written by trained
expositors to help them in their quest for insight into the word. However, that only works if the expositor in
question has a truly accurate insight into the word; most don’t for all their
expensive training. That is because most
universities and seminaries are run by organizations with their own creeds and
their study is oriented around reinforcing said creed in the minds and hearts
of their students. Inquiry which leads
another way, even if the evidence is legit, is discouraged.
So what is the independent student to do? How can he or she study God’s word and arrive
at an objective understanding of it and truth?
I use several closely related methodologies of study
myself because of my skills, all of them focused on the Bible text for
that is where the real Gold is to be found.
The most basic and important of these is the Topical method of
biblical study. I will put up a link to
a booklet which discusses the method in depth, along with some important points
for the study of Bible prophecy, it is downloadable for free from the page I’ll
link to and is in PDF format. It can
also be purchased from the folks who own the site, but rest assured there is no
financial incentive in it for me in its recommendation.
Basically, what the topical methodology amounts to is
that one looks up every verse in the bible which bears on a subject, including those
which appear to be contradictory to the general flow of the majority, then one
seeks to understand how the verses harmonize and what they are saying to us on
the topic. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness” Paul wrote to his younger fellow
worker in the Lord’s field (1 Tim. 3:16)
and he meant it. What many don’t realize
was that he was writing about what we popularly call the Old Testament, the new
one not having been written yet.
In time his words, as well as those of others of his
contemporaries, came to be recognized for the scriptures they are. And Christians extend Paul’s words to include
them as well. So where am I going with
this? While we aren’t under the old
covenant with its law, we cannot ignore what the Old Testament witnesses as to
truth, as some do. The Old Testament
lays a foundation for us with respect to doctrines, a foundation both Jesus and
later early writers built on. They gave
greater clarity to some things, expanded others, and, yes, introduced some new
concepts along the way. But they
appealed to the old for authority for much of what they said and made it clear
we weren’t to ignore it, as Paul’s words above make crystal clear.
So the principle involved is to search the scriptures,
much like the Bereans of old (Acts 17:10-12)
with the same diligent determination to arrive at the truth. One good way to do that is with the aid of a
good concordance of God’s word. An excellent
one is Strong’s exhaustive concordance of The Bible. Strong’s lists every word in the King
James Bible and identifies every Greek and Hebrew word from which the English
comes. It also Contains a lexicon with
brief definitions of all those words as well.
Since most publishers of lexicons have adopted the Strong’s numbering system
as well, it makes it easier to utilize more comprehensive lexicons, such as Thayer’s
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, a very excellent lexicon at an
economical price.
Strong’s
allows easy access to a wide array of scriptural passages which bear on a given
subject. All one needs to figure out
what words to look for. The lexicon
gives alternative meanings so that one may fill out the scriptural picture by
looking up a word, such as the Hebrew nephesh, or “soul” (H5315) and
seeing how it’s used throughout the Old Testament and how that may help us gain
insight into the soul and its nature.
Try it if you already have Strong’s good friend and see if you
don’t find yourself in for quite a surprise.
Now you know the foundational methodology which will
guide this blog. I won’t go through
every occurrence of words for obvious reasons, and I will bring in other
information and sources as I judge them appropriate. However, that is my primary methodology of
biblical study with my focus being on the text of God’s word instead of
mens reasoning and interpretations.
The Booklet mentioned earlier is here:
And it will be linked in my link section as well.
