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This article is written for Christians young in the faith. It
contains information which I would have liked to read when I was just starting
out, so perhaps it will be of some use to you.
The
Bible is straight from God, reliable, and free of errors.
When I started reading the Bible (at age six or seven), I believed it was
a true book by faith. This was an innocent child’s faith - the sort that
believes in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, but then as I grew up and continued
to read slowly through the Bible I began to wonder if it really was true because
there seemed to be so much needless repetition and so many seeming
contradictions. How could long lists of names, and repeats of history be
inspired? How was it that the same events in the New Testament had different
details? Why would God want to say the same things over and over when He had
only one book to make - He was wasting space wasn’t He? And how could I, a
mere child, ever cope with the scholarly work required to prove or disprove the
Bible’s inspiration? It was too difficult for me.
But God helped me, by bringing people and books into my life which
explained things. Over the years I
discovered a pile of books written by people who had devoted their lives to
studying these very questions, and the answers they gave were extremely good.
One of these books, which I recommend is ‘Evidence That Demands a
Verdict’ by Josh McDowell (Vol. 1) another book is ‘The Companion Bible’
by Bullinger.
For many Christians the question of whether the Bible is inspired by God
is not important. They just accept it without question. For me too, at the
start, it was something I took on trust, as an assumption. It seemed quite
reasonable to think that if God made a book it would be as perfect as Himself,
so I didn’t think much about it until I heard some of the criticisms thrown at
the Bible by people who doubted its inspiration. These criticisms were clever,
and they raised questions in my mind which I wanted answers for. Over the years,
as I looked into each criticism, I discovered strong, clear answers, and instead
of growing weaker in my faith I actually grew stronger. God bless the critics!
There seem to be only three
reasons why people reject the Bible as God’s Word. The reasons they give
are usually buried behind excuses and arguments, but in the end they boil down
to either ignorance, or pride,
or some moral problem
in their lives.
Many people are simply ignorant,
that is, they have never read the Bible and they have been brought up in a world
or home or school where the Bible is never opened or heard or taught. They have
only the vaguest ideas about what the Bible says and usually everything they do
know is completely twisted or wrong.
Another group of people know generally what the Bible says but they are
too proud to humble themselves and
accept it. Its a bit like a naughty child who won’t apologise to its parent.
Out goes the lower lip, stamp goes the foot, and the child stubbornly refuses to
admit that he or she is in the wrong. The Bible, to them, is like a bright
light, which wants to shine into their heart and expose their sin - so they keep
away from the Bible, and avoid having to admit they are wrong.
The third group is made of people who understand enough of the Bible to
know it is probably right, but they also know that if they admit this, they will
also have to admit that some sin in
their life is offending God. They love the sin too much to admit what is
probably true, so they hide themselves behind a wall of criticisms and excuses.
Quite often these people will tell you they have “read the Bible” and that
they have also “searched for truth for years” but never found it. Sure they
have. They have searched for truth about as eagerly as a burglar goes looking
for a policeman, or a worm goes hunting for a hen!
Before we look quickly at the proofs of inspiration, here is a question.
What
if the Bible is not the Word of God?
What if the critics are right, and the Bible is, after all, just another faulty,
religious book made by humans? The answer is quite frightening. Logically, if
the Bible is not true, then there is
no book in the whole world which is
really true. Every religious book held precious by every religion is
suspect. Man has no solid truth to turn to - only the ramblings of mystics and
the Man-made spiritual books which fill libraries everywhere. In the end no-one
can trust anything they read, because all religious books contradict each other,
and who is to say which of them is right? It comes down to people’s opinions,
and what are they worth? Truth has to be more than an opinion.
But we don’t need to go down that road, because we have plenty of
evidence to prove that the Bible is reliable, true and perfect. (I’ll explain
what I mean by “perfect” in a moment) Some of these “proofs” do not
actually prove it absolutely, but they sure indicate that we are on the right
track.
Proof
number 1 :
the
Bible is unique.
There is no book quite like the Bible. It is the one and only book of its
kind and extremely different from all other religious books. It was written by
over 40 different authors, over 40 generations, through 1,500 years, and it
covers hundreds of different topics, yet it tells only one story. Over all that
time it never corrects itself or changes direction, as any other book would over
that much time.
Proof
number 2 :
the
Bible is the most published book of all time.
The Bible has been read by more people and published in more languages
and copied in part than any other book.
Proof
number 3 :
the
Bible is the best preserved book of all time.
To give you an example of how careful the copiers of the Old Testament
were, each letter was counted, and the middle letter for each book was found.
Each letter’s place in the line and page was kept the same, each syllable,
each word, each paragraph.
In the case of the New Testament, so many copies of it were made that
some 5000 copies or parts of copies are available today to compare against each
other. It is easy to find the original when you have that many copies.
Compare this with Shakespeare, whose work after only a few hundred years,
is riddled with ‘alternative readings’ and textual arguments.
Proof
number 4 :
the
Bible is right in its predictions.
The Bible is the only book which accurately tells the future. No other
book has ever been found to do this. Sometimes hundreds of years before an event
the Bible predicts exactly what will happen - for individuals, and nations,
cities and geography. Thousands of years before Jesus came, the Bible predicted
his coming, and described where he would be born, what he would do and say, and
how he would die.
Other
proofs.
Along with these 4 proofs there are other, even more amazing proofs. One
of them is called Bible numerics. To
understand how this works, you have to try to think of each letter of the
alphabet as a number. A=1, B=2, C=3 and so on. In the original Hebrew for the
Old testament, and the Greek for the new Testament, the alphabets were
different, but the letters had number values.
Now if you change the letters into numbers and start adding them up, you
find that the Bible is a vast system of numbers. There are groups of seven, and
sevens inside groups of seven. There are incredibly complex patterns of numbers,
all adding up to the same totals and so on. If you want to get into this
mind-boggling subject, look for books by the brilliant mathematician Ivan Panin.
Another proof is nicknamed “Railways”.
What
this means is that every paragraph of
the Bible, from the first book to the last, is made of symmetrical patterns. Not
only this but every group of verses
is made of patterns, and every group of books.
In fact the whole Bible is a bewildering system of matching verses, which run
like railway lines together. It seems unlikely that any of the writers of the
Bible knew they were laying down railways or working out numerics, so the only
explanation left is that God brought Himself into the work and guided the hands
of the writers.
Some people, when they talk about the Bible, say that it is “just a
book”, and this is true, to a certain extent. A Bible is usually made of paper
and ink, glue and card, so, from the outside it looks quite ordinary. But these
materials are just the things God uses to carry His message.
Look at it another way. When a baby is conceived, the chemicals which
meet in the womb are just the same old chemicals you’ll find in the soil. You
and I are made of the same elements too. But these materials are just the basic
paper and glue, ink and card which God uses to carry the precious thing called
you and me.
When Jesus walked about doing miracles and teaching, some people said
“Oh, its just that carpenter's son!” and they missed the whole thing. They
actually had the Son of God standing only a few metres away from them but all
they could see was a carpenter’s son.
Another example was the rock which the Israelites carried around. This
was the rock which, when struck, produced huge amounts of fresh, clean water -
enough for about 3,000,000 people plus all their animals. But if you looked at
the rock you might say “But its just a plain old rock!”
The Bible is the same. It may look like a common, ordinary book, but God
uses it to speak to us, if we open our hearts and listen carefully.
So now you can probably see why the critics of the Bible miss the truth.
They are so busy finding fault with the outward appearance, they miss the very
thing God wants to give to them.
Getting
Started.
For many new Christians, the Bible seems like such a huge, complicated
book. In some ways this is true - but in other ways it is not.
Lets suppose you are at school, and the teacher gives you a big, fat book
called ‘Lord of the Rings’. You are told that you have one year to do a
complete summary of the book. Where do you start?
There may be many different approaches, so I wouldn’t want to be too
dogmatic, but this may be the best approach.
First of all I would say the book is about a journey. That simplifies the
whole book to one sentence.
Next I would say that the book is about some small, weak characters who
have a quest to follow. They must sneak into the land of a powerful and evil
character and defeat him.
After this I would break the story down into small pieces and describe
what happens in each piece, adding the names of the major characters.
When I was finished, the whole massive ‘Lord of the Rings’ could be
reduced to about one A4 sheet of paper.
Now lets apply this system
to the Bible.
The whole message of the Bible is very simple : God created the universe
and this world. God made humans and gave them free will, warning them that if
they disobeyed Him they would die. They used their freewill to disobey God so
they began to die, but God promised to pay the price of their sin Himself. God
gave Jesus as a sacrifice to die for them and their children, including you and
me. We are sinners too. Those who freely choose Jesus as their Saviour will
never die - those who do not, will die for ever.
Now that we have a summary, we can break the Bible into pieces.
Genesis, the book of beginnings. The human race grows, the Great Flood
destroys the earth, Noah and his family begin to repopulate the world after the
Great Flood. The nations split up. The rise of Egypt and the Israelites.
(Exodus) God delivers Israel from Egypt and they wander in the desert for 40
years. Israel settles in Palestine, (Joshua) they split into two kingdoms, (The
prophets) fall into national decay, and invaders take them captive. Some
captives return to Jerusalem (Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel) to rebuild the Temple and
city. Jesus comes, dies, rises, and goes back to heaven. (Matthew, Mark, Luke,
John) The Church (Acts) is started and then we have the last 2000 years of
history.
Now, as you can see from this, when you read the Bible, you will find
that it is about God in history. You will also see that the Bible is history. It
is all about real people, in real places, who did real things, at real times.
There is almost nothing in the Bible which is airy-fairy or mystical. Its all
solid, down to earth stuff.
The story starts about 6000 years ago, and goes right through to today.
In fact, the Bible gives us the only accurate account of history from the very
start, and explains where everything came from. No other book in the world does
this.
But how can a new Christian cope with such a large book?! Even at three
chapters a day it takes a year to read it all. The following are some helpful
ways of dealing with this problem.
Bible
Study.
There are many ways to study the Bible, but before we get on to this,
here is a story.
Imagine you are an Olympic athlete. In order to be the best in the world
you will need to train. You may have to get out of bed at 4 a.m. And train for
two hours, then train again in the middle of the day, and again at night. You
may need to eat a special diet and live in a special way in order to keep
yourself fully toughened and ‘wound up’.
On the other hand you may be a more ordinary person, with a 9-5 job, kids
and a fair bit of gardening to do. If you are this kind of person, you would
probably need a bit of light exercise two or three times a week and a sensible
diet.
In the Church there are the ‘Olympic athletes’ and the ‘ordinary
people’. There are the spiritual champions, who preach and teach and work full
time with the flock, and there are the others, who come to have fellowship and
are satisfied with the small amount of teaching they get. These ordinary
Christians have no time for long hours reading the Bible, so they have to make
do with the small snips they get, such as a ‘Word for Today’ booklet. You
can decide which of these two extremes you want to be, but may I say that you
only get back from the Bible what you put into it.
If you are a lazy Christian, who likes to be pampered and have everything
done for you, you will probably live on a diet of spiritual crumbs and never
grow past the baby stage. On the other hand, you might really want to understand
the Bible, and get to know God. If this is you, then I know that you will
receive a huge reward for your efforts.
Now another story.
There was a man living in South Africa, who owned a few acres of land. He
had inherited this land from his father, and his father had inherited it from
his father, and so on for many generations.
It was bare land, dry and almost useless. Only a poor living could be
scratched from it, and the man who owned it was lazy, so he made no progress,
and saw no change for his future.
Then one day a man arrived and offered a large sum of money for the land.
The man who owned the land was amazed, but he controlled himself and took the
money. As he walked off his land he thought “Stupid stranger! He will get
nothing out of this poor soil!”
But the man who bought the land dug a hole, and worked very hard, and
soon he found a seam of gold. In a few months that bare land was one of the
richest gold mines in the country, and the owner was fabulously wealthy.
The Bible appears, to some people, as if it is a bare, useless book. But
this is because of the attitude, not the book. Given a little work, and a little
effort, the Bible yields a rich seam of precious truth. Hard-working Bible
students are the richest people in the world.
How
to study the Bible.
There are many methods - here are three common ones :
The
lucky dip method.
The
boring daily grind method.
The
panorama method.
The
adventure method.
The lucky dip method is as
easy as opening the Bible anywhere and reading whatever you find. It is a good
method in that God’s Word is truth wherever you read it, so you’ll always
find something worthwhile, but its not good because you never gather the right
context of what you read, so you end up with a jumble of Bible verses in your
head.
The
boring daily grind method is just that. Its a system of Bible reading which
is set by some book or routine, and its as enjoyable as cleaning windows, or
brushing teeth. Its just another job to do, and although you will always gain
some truth, it makes Bible reading into some sort of punishment.
The panorama method is one of
the best ways. You simply start at Genesis and read through the whole Bible to
the end, then you start again. Many Christians have never read their Bible right
through, even after several years. What the panorama method does is put
everything in its context. Its a bit like standing on a hill and turning a full
circle slowly. Everything sweeps by, and you understand where every object is in
relation to all the other objects. The down side is that it tends to be like the
boring daily grind method.
The
adventure method is by far the best, in my opinion. This method involves
exploring wherever your interests lead you. But, like all good adventurers you
need a full pack of equipment, a compass, good boots, and several tools. These
tools are listed below :
Bible
(obviously!)
Pad
and pen
Bible
concordance
Bible
dictionary, reference book.
Other
helpful books.
A
CD ROM Bible is also really handy
Now, before we set off, some words of warning: The way ahead will be both
easy and difficult. You will have to think
a lot! (Groan) You will discover surprising and amazing things you never even
knew existed. Sometimes you will find things which will challenge you to change
your life. The more you discover, the less you will have in common with other
lazy Christians. Once you have travelled this way for a while it will be
impossible to get back. It will be absolutely worth every bit of effort, because
as you work at it God will reward you richly along the way.
Approaches
of Bible Study.
One of the main things to remember is organisation.
If you study the Bible (or anything at all) like a dog jumping about in a
paddock, you will have a great time but everything will be in a mess. What you
need to do is keep focussed, and organise as you go. This is what most kids do
when they have homework, so why not apply the same methods to the Bible?
Another thing to remember is that God has not written His book in such a
way as to put everything about each subject in one place. In fact its quite the opposite!
Its as if God wrote a whole lot of little books about each topic then put them
through a shredder and stuck the bits together again, all in different places.
This means that if you want to find out about something, you have to look for it
in many different places, and gradually put all the pieces together into one
little book again.
So,
if we want to understand the Bible, we have to come at it the right way,
otherwise we’ll end up with a lopsided view of everything, (and this is how
cults and sects grow.)
Here
are some of the main approaches we can use to understand the Bible:
The
concordance approach.
The
theme approach
The
critical approach
The concordance approach is
really easy and simple. All you do is think of a word or topic which you are
interested in and open your concordance. (A concordance is like a dictionary. It
has every word in the Bible arranged alphabetically, so you can find every verse
with that word in it)
The best place to start with any Bible study is the FIRST MENTION. I put
this in capitals because it is VERY IMPORTANT. In fact there should be a Law
of First Mention, because when Christians forget to keep it they wind up in
incredible messes!
So, if you are using the concordance, see where God first
mentions something. That will give you an instant background to the subject,
then follow the word through and build up the whole picture.
Here is one example to show you how it works. Suppose I wanted to find
out what the Bible says about the word “slow”. Of course I could hardly read
the whole Bible just to find that particular word (!) So I would open my
concordance and look up the word. Suddenly I find I have 13 verses with the word
“slow” in them. Now I can do a little study on this. (I have shortened the
verses to make this easier for you to follow)
1.
“And Moses said . . . I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”
Exodus 4:10
2.
“You are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger,
and of great kindness.” Nehemiah 9:17
3.
“The LORD is . . . slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.” Psalm
103:8
4.
“The LORD is . . . slow to
anger, and of great mercy.” Psalm 145:8
5.
“He that is slow to anger is of great understanding . . .” Proverbs
14:29
6.
“ . . . he that is slow to anger appeases strife.” Proverbs 15:18
7.
“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty . . .” Proverbs
16:32
8.
“ . . . God . . . Is . . . slow to anger.” Joel 2:13
9.
And (Jonah) . . . said . . . O LORD . . . I knew that you are a gracious God,
and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness . . .” Jonah 4:2
10.
“The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power . . .” Nahum 1:3
11.
“Then (Jesus) said to (his disciples), O fools, and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken” Luke 24:25
12.
“The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.” Titus
1:12
13.
“Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger”. James
1:19
So what have we learned from these verses? We have learned that God does
get angry, but He takes a while to get there. This gives people a chance to
repent before God does something. (God waited 120 years in the time of Noah
before He sent the Great Flood, and 400 years before He sent the Israelites into
Palestine to attack and kill the wicked Canaanites, and 70 years before He sent
the Romans to destroy Jerusalem after the Jews rejected Jesus)
We have learned why God is
slow to anger. It is because He loves us, and because He is merciful, and kind,
and patient. This tells us something true about God and helps us to get to know
Him better.
We have learned that if we are
slow to anger, we are like God.
We have also learned a few other things, about Moses and Jonah and the
disciples and Jesus. Now if you jot down these things in a book, just as you
would for a school assignment, you will have your first Bible study page
completed and you will come away knowing a lot of truth straight from God’s
Word. Easy?
The theme approach
is a bit like the concordance approach, except that it deals with big subjects,
like Covenants, or Law, or the Church. It is like looking at a whole apple,
rather than one of the pips. To use the theme approach you usually need some
solid books written by experts, so it is probably better to leave themes alone
until you are competent at the simpler things. No point in trying to run before
you can walk.
The critical approach
can be the most fun, and also the most rewarding. To use the critical approach,
all you need is some teaching from someone else. It can even be from a cult, if
you feel able enough to tackle their crafty and cunning twisting of the Bible!
But the main thing is to just get hold of something someone else teaches
and then check it verse by verse in the Bible to see if the Bible agrees with
what the person says.
I used to attend a church many years ago, where a well-meaning minister
gave sermons every Sunday, but he made such a botch-up of the Bible every time
that I decided to take notes. I used to sit there scribbling down what he said
every Sunday for months, and then I’d go home and spend the afternoon checking
the Bible. The result was a pile of writing and a ton of great discoveries,
because the errors the minister made actually helped me understand the truth
when I found out what the Bible actually said!
There are, of course, many Bible study helps - books and booklets, CD
ROMs and tapes. A good preacher/teacher is also very valuable - if you find one
hang around him (or her) and listen hard. Older, mature Christians are sometimes
keen Bible students, although in my experience such people are as rare as
hen’s teeth, but if you find one who actually does regular Bible study,
its a good idea to make friends with them and see what you can learn. The
InterNet may also be helpful.
But in the end, I find that the one-to-one situation,
just you and the Bible is all you really need. By using the above methods,
God is able to teach you directly
through His Word without anyone else shoving their books or notes in the way.
Personalising.
The main reason we have a Bible is because God wants to reveal Himself to
us. Its not as if God is unknowable. He wants us to get to know Him. But He
cannot just roll the clouds away and shine at us because we’d all be burned to
a frizzle like onion rings on a barbecue! But He can
give us truth about Himself in a much safer
way. That’s why we have a Bible. Its a safe way to find out about God.
So the Bible is a book of truth, but who is it for? It is for God’s
children. Oh sure, anyone may read it, but most people don’t want to. Most
people in the world read anything and everything but
the Bible! In fact, most people go anywhere but
a church, sing anything but Christian
songs, do anything but join a
Christian fellowship, study anything but
Christian things, and think about anything but
the things in God’s Word!!!
Christians are the only people in the world who have decided to live for
Jesus, and because they have decided to do this, they have been “born
again”. This means God has started to live in these people, and because this
has happened they have become a lot more
like God than people who have not
chosen to live for Jesus.
So the Bible is for Christians (or, in the days before Jesus, the
‘godly’). Because this is so, the Bible is like a love letter, written
especially for God’s children, and one way to make this seem more personal to
us is to imagine our name in the Bible. This is called personalising,
and this is how it works.
Suppose we start with these verses from Ephesians 1:1-3
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints
which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ . . .”
Now, let us personalise it :
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to (you, Richard)
who is at (Temuka), and to the (other faithful Christians) in Christ Jesus:
Grace be to you (Richard), and peace, from God our Father, and from the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
(you Richard) with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ . . .”
You’ll find, once you get the hang of this, that you can personalise
just about every bit of the Bible, and the result is a feeling that the whole
Bible is God’s book written just for you - as if you were the only person on
earth!
Gems
in the Word.
Another reason why Bible study is an adventure is because you never know
what treasures you will discover! Hidden in the Bible are thousands of amazing
nuggets of truth, like buried ingots, or precious stones, tucked into the verses
and not visible to any lazy reader. But with a little effort these valuable
treasures suddenly appear, and you feel such excitement because you know that
God has just given you something very special.
I’ll never forget the moment when I found these treasures:
1.
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions
from us.” Psalm 103:12 How far is east from west? Well, if the world is round,
east NEVER meets west, so God must have removed our transgressions from us an
infinite distance! (But what of God had said north and south? That might
imply that forgiveness was not very lasting.)
2.
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall
be upon his shoulder: and his name
shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
In Isaiah we see that God lays the whole government of Israel on his
shoulder, but in the parable of the lost sheep, the Good Shepherd lays the sheep
on both his shoulders! This shows how
valuable one lost person is to God, that He would put that sinner on both
shoulders, yet use only one shoulder for the whole of Israel.
“And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders,
rejoicing.” Luke 15:5
3.
When I was at school I was taught that people in the past thought the world was
flat, so it was wonderful moment for me when I read that God “sits upon the
circle of the earth” in Isaiah 40:22
4.
Every Christmas, when I was a kid, I thought the baby Jesus was visited in the
stable by shepherds and three kings. I even sang “We three kings . . .” In a
Sunday school drama. So it came as a big surprise to me when I read the Bible
and found that (a) they were not kings, (b) they didn’t come to the stable,
but instead they visited Jesus some 2 years later in Nazareth, (c) they didn’t
follow the star all the way from the east, but instead they “saw” the star
there and came to Jerusalem because they had seen it.
5.
I used to wonder about unborn children. Did they qualify as ‘human’,
or were they ‘nothing’ until they were actually born? Then I read Psalm 139,
and also Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before
you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you (to be) a
prophet to the nations.”
So that clinched it. God considers us to be human before we are born,
right back to conception, so abortion must be the same as killing a human,
therefore abortion is a sin in God’s sight. It also shows how precious we are
to God, even in the foetal stages.
6.
Another nugget I discovered was hidden in a long, aimless, uninterrupted,
boring list of names, in the book of Chronicles. I was ploughing through it one
day when I suddenly discovered a man called Jabez. Listen to his prayer : “And
Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that you would bless me indeed,
and enlarge my coast, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would
keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he
requested.” 1 Chron.4:9.
What an amazing prayer. All Jabez wanted was blessing, and more land, and
God’s power, and safety, and God gave him all the things he asked for. I
suspect that Jabez was probably one of those people you’d call an ‘on fire
Christian’, with a great zeal to live for God, so his prayer wasn’t a
‘bless me bless me’ request. All he wanted was God’s best in his life, and
because his motivation was right, God gave what he asked for.
7.
One last amazing discovery : the meaning of names.
In the Bible, every name means something, for example Jerusalem means
City of Peace, and Bethel means House of God. Abraham means Father of Nations,
and Jesus means Jehovah Saves.
In Genesis there is a list of men who are the sons of Adam. If you use a
concordance to get the meaning of each name, then write the meanings in the same
order as they appear in Genesis, you have a rather clumsy sentence which
actually presents the gospel message. Who would have thought God would hide John
3:16 in the names of these men! The only way anyone could know is through a
little Bible study.
Finally.
If you have read this book you may have decided to do some Bible study.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with just reading the Bible, but remember
this: you only get out of the Bible what you put in. If you are content with a
light snack now and then, go for it, but if you want more, this book has given
you the main tools to enjoy a really good meal.
You will probably find it difficult to study. You have a new spirit as a
Christian, but you still have a body which is a raging enemy to God. Your old
nature is full of sin, and it will do everything it can to escape the discipline
of God’s Word. You will find your flesh telling you things like
“Hey! I’m hungry! Hey! I’m lonely! Hey! I’m bored! There’s a
great movie on TV! The room is too
hot/ cold/drafty/noisy/damp! The chair is uncomfortable! I have homework to do!
I’ll do this after I finish that meal/book/bath/phone call/game/video!”
Start small and simple and gradually get better at it, just as you would
for any other skill, such as playing the piano. Take little bites. Write your
findings down and add the date. Watch how you improve and enjoy the things you
discover.
Now its over to you.
Handy
books :
Evidence
that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell
The
Companion Bible by Bullinger
Dictionary
of Greek/English, or Hebrew/English words
Creation
Magazines
Mere
Christianity by C.S.Lewis
Stay
away from commentaries and Handbooks