Key Assumptions for Successful Bible Study
God is Real and Alive!
This is is the fundamental key to
Christianity
God is infinitely committed to teaching me and increasing my
understanding of Him
When I accept this statement, I will
view my study of the Bible in a vastly different way from traditional
Bible study methods. The following questions provide a reality check
for our approach to Bible study:
- "Upon whom does the burden of the revelation of truth lie—on
God or on me?"
- "Must I convince myself that God is real, or is it up to Him
to show me that He is real and that He is the one true God of whom the
Bible speaks?"
- "How much about His character does God want me to know?"
- "If God is committed to having me understand the Bible's message
about Him, then what is He doing right now to bring me to a clearer
knowledge of His character?"
The Bible: "Take it as it Reads"
". . . the starting point is
the principle that any text that is deemed worthy of serious study must
be assumed to have been written with such care and precision that every
word, expression, generalization or exception is significant not so much
for what it states as for what it implies. The content of ideas
as well as the diction and phraseology in which they are clothed are to
enter into the reasoning. This method is characteristic of the Tannaitic
interpretation of the Bible from earliest times; the belief in the divine
origin of the Bible was sufficient justification for attaching importance
to its external forms of expression."
Harry Wolfsen, Talmudic Method,
p. 1 |