Bible Study

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV)

Bible study.  It is a vitally important part of our faith.  How can we worship God if we don't know anything about him?  The bible is the best tool we have to try to figure out who God is and what he expects of us.  Unfortunately, the bible can also be very confusing.  We can find scripture that seems to contradict other scripture.  We have to figure out what is supposed to be taken literally and what is to be taken figuratively.  We find the "God who never changes" to be very different from Old to New Testament.  We see God forgive an adulterous, murderous, lying David and even calling him a "man after God's own heart," but in the Book of Acts, he strikes dead a man and his wife for lying about how much they gave to the church.

I think the most important part of bible study is studying how the Bible - as it is today - has come into being.  When was each book written?  By whom were they written?  Why were certain books included and others not?  How have translations affected the original words?  How might the historical context affect how we should understand specific scripture today?

The bible is not a magical book that floated down from heaven directly from the hand of God.  Is it divinely inspired?  I certainly believe so.  Is it useful for teaching, correcting and training in righteousness?  Absolutely, if used carefully.  But I don't believe God ever meant us to worship the bible or use it to subjugate others or as a tool to control the masses.

Serious study of the background of the bible can be quite eye-opening and very difficult for those who have been led to believe that the bible has magical qualities.  It's hard to hear that maybe some of those that have books of the bible named for them probably didn't write them at all.  It's hard to learn that there were many gospel stories about Jesus that were written that "didn't make the cut."  It is eye-opening to learn how the Jewish people read the different books that are included in our Old Testement and how they interpret them.

Honestly, it can really shake one's faith when we learn some of these things, but in the long run, I also think it makes our faith stronger.... to know that God is bigger than these words... to know that we can still find God in those words and feel Him speak to our hearts in amazing and miraculous ways.  The bible IS a miracle, but it is not magic.  Really studying the bible from its beginnings might remove the magic, but it will also compound the miracle.

Holy God,
Help us to study not only your word given in scripture, but the process you used to bring it to us.  Deepen our faith even as we question it.  Amen.