. PERSONAL BIBLE STUDY
. What does Bible study mean? That is, how do we study the
Bible and what results can we expect?
. I Assumptions and Deductive Reasoning
. We must approach the Bible with a bias. We must trust that
the Bible is the only trustworthy source of truth of all that it
declares. All the accounts of historical places, names, times and
events are assumed to be accurate and true. We believe from the
outset in the integrity of the contents of the Bible. This of
course is a natural consequence of our trust in the God who wrote
it. We therfore must come with a prejudice of faith that God
alone has the character to be trusted...as we read, "...let God be
true but every man a liar!" (Romans 3:4)...and that what He wrote
reflects that trustworthy character, not only in the original
autographs but also in the Bible we have today. Because we adhere
to certain assumptions, we will be influenced by them as we look
at the Bible. Whenever we make a decision about a particular
piece of data based upon a prior assumption, we are applying
deductive reasoning. The key idea to keep in mind is that the
results of our Bible study will depend upon how we view the data,
which is in turn a result of our assunptions. These then are some
of the assumptions and deductions with which we approach the
Bible.
A. The Bible is the Word of God.
. This is, first of all, the testimony of those who write it.
For example, this was David's attitude in II Samuel 23:2; this was
Paul's attitude in I Thessalonians 2:13. The authors also
realized the inspiration of each other. (See II Peter 3:16.)
Secondly, we notice that each word is very important, given to us
for a purpose. For example, in Galatians 3:16 the whole
discussion depends on one letter, the plural form of the word
"seed." Therefore we must honor the Bible as a holy volume. We
must treat each detail with respect. This assumption leads to the
following practical points.
. 1. A Bible with explanatory notes in the margin should not be
used. It leads us to rely upon the notes, since they are an easy
reference, and to form thoughts that are "in the Bible" when they
are really only in the notes.
. 2. The words are as important as the thoughts. The integrity
and reliability of one rests upon the other. So we must not
tolerate a view that says the Bible "contains" the Word of God
rather than "is" the Word of God. If the details in the Bible are
not reliable, then we can have no confidence in its message.
Similarly, studying a paraphrase is not studying the Bible. A
paraphrase is no better than a commentary on the Bible. And in a
way it is worse than a commentary. Many times people will read
and study a paraphrase and think they have spent time with the
Bible. This error is encouraged by the fact that some paraphrases
actually contain the word "Bible" in their title.
. 3. Every part of the Bible applies in Bible study. As long
as it's in the Bible it is relevant and must be taken into account
before a firm conclusion can be made.
. Furthermore, one part of the Bible does not have greater
authority than another part. Some commentators put a greater
significance upon upon the words of the New Testament than those
of the Old Testament. Also some Bibles unfortunately print the
words of Jesus in red to emphasize them. But every part of the
Bible was authored by God and commands equal respect. Therefore
we must never think that certain verses have more weight or
importance than other verses simply because of where we find them
in the Bible.
. 4. The awkwardness in some passages is often a signal that
some special truth is to be found there. Rather than try to
dismiss these problems as errors or seek a "better" translation,
we should investigate the structure and parts of difficult
passages to find the reason God wrote it as He did.
B. The Bible is Dynamic.
. We read in Hebrews 4:12 that the Bible not only informs us but
it forms us as well. The Bible insists upon personal application.
And application can be viewed as the passage being fulfilled in
our lives. This is true whether we accept or reject its teaching,
because the Bible not only shows us truth but also shows who we
are as we react to it. Any time spent with the Bible will
influence our thoughts and actions. This assumption leads to the
following practical conclusions:
. 1. As we read in Isaiah 55:8-11, God's Word will do the
work God intends it to do. A real God is working through real
truth.
. 2. We do not stop with an objective review of the Bible. The
Bible is not open for inspection, like a laboratory specimen. It
commands a Christian response (II Timothy 3:16.). Remember, when
we study the Bible, the Bible is also studying us.
. 3. We do not have to worry about what portion of the Bible to
study, thinking that if we study this part of the Bible we will be
missing something valuable in another part. We must remember God
is a Person. And whenever we spend time with the Bible we have
spent time with God, Someone who cares a great deal for our souls
and rejoices to fellowship with us. We will never lose out when
we study the Bible. After all, God is in control even in our
Bible study, and He will guide us in the truth we need to know.
. 4. Sometimes we find ourselves spending a long time
unraveling all the interesting things we find just within one
verse. It might seem that we will never make it through the
passage which we have chosen to study. And in our concern for
progress, we might abandon our in depth study of one verse and try
a more cursory study which allows us to cover more verses.
. But a shallower more extensive study might leave us wondering
if we missed something valuable. A very real struggle can develop
between choosing a slow or fast pace; either way we might feel
that there are things we would be losing. Sometimes this conflict
can immobilize a Bible student. He just can't decide how to pace
himself and stops, at least for awhile, any significant Bible
study at all. But we must remember that Bible study is not
measured in the number of verses we cover at one time, nor in the
number of insights we are able to glean from one verse. Rather,
the Bible is where we meet God to hear His Word. Again, God is a
Person. When we open the Bible, God is speaking to us. And the
verses we study are what He wants to say to us. The most
important thing for us to remember is not to focus upon the
quantity of information we learn but to remain faithful to
whatever spiritual truth God has entrusted to our care.
. 5. Because the Bible is the expression of a living God who
wants to talk to us, because He is the almighty Creator of all
that is and we are weak, we need to ask Him to help us. Prayer is
a requirement to Bible study, as we read in James 1:5. We might
pray before we start; we might pray in the middle of our study; we
might pray at the end of our study; we might pray when we are away
from our study and meditating upon what we learned.
. Prayer reminds us of our dependence upon God and the gratitude
we should have for all that He has given us, including the
marvelous gift of His precious Word. We will then have the proper
attitude whenever we discover something in the Bible - pride and
boasting will be replaced by joy and wonder. As a matter of fact,
Bible study will teach us how God thinks and therefore how to talk
to Him in prayer.
C. The Bible is a Spiritual Book.
. This was what Jesus expected His listeners to understand when
He spoke to them in John 6:63. The Bible is not only accurate in
history and in all the facts it states, but it answers the
questions of the heart. It is written to resolve spiritual issues
of the soul (John 20:31). In fact, the Bible is the only source
of spiritual knowledge that is dependable.
. Too often some Bible students accuse others of "spiritualiz-
ing" passages, while they champion a literal interpretation of
scriptures. This view displays a fundamental confusion of terms.
We must keep in mind that the term literal, correctly understood,
is describing our observations of a passage, and the term
spiritual refers to our interpretation of that same passage. It
is not possible to interpret a passage literally. The term
literal tells how we look at the passage, not what we think about
it.
. All good Bible students look at the Bible literally. In other
words, all good Bible students will agree that we must be faithful
to all the facts we observe just as they are presented in the
Bible. We must read the Bible literal word by literal word.
Each concrete and specific fact must be noted. Unless we adhere
to the literal facts, just as the Bible presents them we have
essentially an empty Bible. Facts are, then, not what they seem
and we may believe what we choose. No! All Bible students who
respect God's integrity read the Bible literally. The real
question is whether the literal facts convey a spiritual idea or a
material idea. Spiritual is not the opposite of literal, but
rather the opposite of material.
. The key point is that spiritual refers to content. When we
say that the Bible is a spiritual book we mean that every part is
dealing with spiritual subject matter: real literal sin, real
literal salvation, real literal judgment and wrath, real victory
over sin.
. An extermely important corollary to the assumption that it is
a spiritual book is that the Bible everywhere deals with the
Gospel and specifically with the Lord Jesus Christ. This was what
Jesus taught as the central theme of all the scriptures (John 5:39
and Luke 24:27). We should expect to find some aspect of the
Gospel in every part of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.
For example, Old Testament believers had a trust in God's Christ
as their Savior. (See John 8:56 and 12:41). In Hebrews 4:2 we
read that the Gospel was preached to those who wandered in the
wilderness. In that case only the first few books of the Bible
had been written. Space does not permit to list the many other
references that support this corollary. However, it is one of the
most important concepts which help unlock the meaning of the
scriptures.
. The assumption that the Bible is a spiritual book is based
upon the fact that the Bible is God-centered, and that John 4:24
applies to our view of God's Word as well as His Person. It is
about His will, His glory, His perspective, His promises and His
fulfillment.
. At this point one potential misunderstanding must be averted.
There is a material interpretation to many of the literal facts
that we read in the Bible. The account of the flood given in
Genesis Chapters 6 through 9 has an historical, materical basis.
This must be so since the integrity of the Bible is rooted in the
accuracy of the historical accounts of the people, places and
events it describes. Nevertheless, since the Bible is a spiritual
book, we should expect to see more than just a physical material
point to what God set down in the pages of scripture. For
example, the greatest value of Genesis 6-9 is what a careful
examination of those chapters can tell us about the return of the
Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 17:26,27). It is very common for a
passage to have both an obvious material as well as a not so
obvious (and more important) spiritual dimension. For example,
Hosea 11:1 is a simple and straightforward reference to the nation
of Israel when God led His people out of Egypt under the
leadership of His servant Moses. However, it is also appropriate
to ask if this verse also is a reference to the Gospel in any way.
With the help of Matthew 2:15 we can see that it does indeed have
a spiritual or Gospel dimension.
. In fact, some passages set in an historical setting have only
a spiritual dimension. This is illustrated in II Samuel 7:12,13.
The phrase "thy seed" (v.12) cannot refer to David's son Solomon.
For one thing, the "seed's" throne was to be established forever
(v. 13) and we read in I Kings 11:11 that Solomon's lineage was
cut off. Furthermore, II Peter 3:10 dismisses any potential for a
material interpretation. This world will be destroyed and no
material never-ending throne can be established. The real
interpretation and the only one that will fit the literal fact of
"forever" is the spiritual kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ which
goes on into eternity. (Compare Acts 2:30.)
. In this context a few words should be said about parables.
What are parables? In the Bible they are stories that contain a
spiritual meaning. The story itself may involve real historical
events, or it may be a story that did not necessarily happen but
was constructed in order to make a spiritual point.
. Where do we find them. Here is a surprise. The whole Bible
is a parable. This is a natural consequence of the assumption we
made, which was that the Bible is a spiritual book. We should
expect to see the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel on every page
of the Bible. For example, an obscure passage as Ecclesiastes
12:11 can be compared with John 10:11, to show that even here we
learn about the exclusive and unique authority of Christ's words.
It is an Old Testament statement of Matthew 7:28 & 29.
. But we do not have to rely upon surmisings when we state that
the whole Bible, even in its historical parts, is written in
parables. For this is the expressed testimony of the Bible
itself. Psalm 78:2 states, "I will open my mouth in a parable,"
and then proceeds to relate the history of Israel up to the time
of David. Likewise in the New Testament we see that Mark 4:34
reveals that everything Jesus said had a spiritual dimension to
it. It is therefore appropriate in studying the Bible to ask,
"What does this teach about Jesus Christ and His plan of
salvation?"
. As a further thought it is often stated that parables are
given to clarify an idea. Actually, according to Mark 4:11 & 12,
parables are given to hide truth from those who do not have ears
to hear. This agrees with another assumption which we will make,
namely, that we must be a true believer before we can secure a
real understanding of the Bible. If the whole Bible is a
spiritual message, and so qualifies as a parable, then only those
who are spiritually alive can receive it.
D. The Bible Interprets Itself.
. Whenever we are faced with a problem in our study of the
Bible, we must ask, "How am I to understand what this word or
phrase means?" There can be only one answer to that question. We
must go back to the Bible and see how that word or phrase is used
in all of the other places in the Bible in which it appears. We
do not have a bias that is sometimes expressed, "literal unless
proven otherwise," but rather we say "Biblical," period! As we
learned above, taking something literally does not mean anything.
All Bible students look at the data objectively, just as it is
presented, or literally. What is implied by the expression just
quoted is "physical or material unless proven otherwise." But is
does not matter what we think is the obvious meaning of a word or
phrase; the issue is what the Bible means by these words.
. Therefore the Bible can be looked at as a dictionary for terms
which we encounter. We must make comparisons of items within the
Bible, sift out that which is common and follow logic to its
conclusion. For example, if we read in I John 1:5 that "God is
light" (A=B), and Jesus says in John 8:12, "I am the light" (C=B),
then we conclude that Jesus is God (A=C). Words which we use in
everyday speech may very well have a different emphasis in the
Bible. We must cultivate the habit of I Corinthians 2:13, which
is compare spiritual things with spiritual things.
. A common tendency is to place a great deal of significance on
the secular history or cultural context of passages. This is only
interesting material after we have made our study based on all
verses in the Bible that tell how to solve our problem. As far as
Biblical research is concerned, we are interested only in the
historical or cultural facts presented in the Bible itself. We
make conclusions based only on the reservoir of material contained
in the Bible. This must be the case since God is writing for all
men of all ages. There are really only two cultures: Christian
and worldly. There is only one history; God's triumph of His
salvation plan through the ages.
E. The Bible Can Really Be Understood Only By a True Believer
. Famous intellectual theologians notwithstanding, Psalm 19:7
states that those who put their trust in God are the ones who are
truly wise, no matter how simple they appear to the world. We
should expect this for two reasons.
. First, as I Corinthians 1:27-31 teaches, God will get all the
glory for what we learn, since we are basically foolish people
whom God has redeemed, and any wisdom we achieve as we study God's
Word is really the work of God, and not the result of our academic
expertise. And second, it is just plain impossible for someone
who has only natural ears to hear spiritual truths (I Corinthians
2:9,14). The Bible puts it another way in Mark 4:9. Only God can
give us the ears to hear His Word. That is, we must be saved to
benefit from Bible study. An unsaved person will only gain some
superficial moralistic knowledge. This kind of hearer goes his
own way after studying the Bible; and as James 1:25,26 states,
such a person has a vain or empty experience. But if he becomes
saved through this knowledge he has achieved real wisdom. True
wisdom from Bible study comes to those who are willing to obey
what they find therein (Job 28:28).