Setting the State for a Personal or Group Bible Study
The inerrancy and truth of the Bible must be the basis for any Bible Study. For me personally the interpretation of the inspired words in the Bible, Bible study, plays an important role in my day to day life.
Today we do not live in a vacuum. We live in a postmodern informational age, where we bring our experiences (true and false) and countless outside influences (‘helps’) into our interpretation grid of understanding. We begin our Bible study first with simply looking at what the passage is saying, focusing our attention on the original meaning, ‘the grammatico-historical method’. As I heard it once put, “preaching out of the text, verses preaching the text”. Next in our Bible study, we must interpret the text according to its genre or literary form, such as narrative, poetry, wisdom, prophecy, apocalyptic, parable and didactic (teaching). Then we can work to draw out the main themes thus forming our Biblical Theology, which we will test against the passage we are working through in our Bible study.
Now that we have both observed the text at hand, and articulated the truth of the passage, we are ready to apply it. However, I believe you need to teach the whole council of scripture, using the wide diversity of genres of Scripture and not just isolated passages within our Bible study. Looking at the Law, the Prophets, Psalms, the Gospels and the Letters will give a clearer meaning to the truth(s) you are teaching. This is known today as the ‘analogy of faith’.
Over the last two thousand years, our forefathers have been doing this very thing, and have as a result formed several systems of theology (Systematic Theology), which we must again test against the original passages. In this whole process, the final authority is the Scriptures and the Scriptures alone.
Moving into our application, we can begin to determine what the central truth means for us today. We must realize that this does not happen in our own strength but by the work of the Holy Spirit, which will bring illumination of this truth into our life. I believe that the level of illumination that the Spirit brings is based on the level of perspiration I put into my Bible study.
Submitted by Tim Buhler