Getting Started With Serious Bible Study
Many people of faith are considering becoming a serious student of the Bible -- but they are unsure where to begin. Becoming a serious Bible student requires a true commitment and a systematic approach, but it is not as complicated and confusing as some might have you believe. In this article I want to outline a view general recommendations which will allow you to get started.
A Definite Plan Desired
Among the most crucial points to be stressed is that in order to be successful in Bible research you must have an organized plan. Video Bible Study of people feel this is beyond them because they are too busy -- but in fact, the busier you are the more you require a plan! With a strategy in place, even if your time is limited, you will have the ability to understand exactly where you left off on your studies -- busy people do not have enough time to fool around having a cluttered, hit-and-miss strategy. There are, of course, a multitude of different kinds of Bible study schedules and plans which can be found -- you can discover many of them out of Christian book publishers and from online resources on the Internet.
The main thing is to have an organized strategy -- if you're a pupil in school studying economics, as an example, your teacher would map out a whole program that will take you through the entire textbook -- and that is how that you must approach your analysis of the Bible.
The Value of Context
Ultimately, in your study of the Scriptures, your final objective is to make sense of it all -- to understand it, to translate it correctly. "Context" has several different levels: the immediate context, which would be the poetry and passages which surround the one that you are studying, the book context (how a specific Bible passage fits in with the theme or message of a particular book of the Bible), the literary context (how one prophetical writing, as an example, fits in with another prophetical writings), and ultimately the overall context of the entire Bible.
It's also important to understand something of the cultural and historic setting in which the writings of the Bible were given. The Biblical documents were composed thousands of years back -- during times far removed from our own, if different countries ruled the earth, also when different customs and ways of living prevailed. None of us is born with a built-in knowledge of these ancient times -- we have to take some time to find out about them.
Luckily, there are a great number of resources available that can help us in understanding the cultural and historical histories of the Bible -- Bible study tools such as Bible Encyclopedias and Bible dictionaries can set the vast sources of biblical scholarship at our fingertips.
As you examine the Scriptures, attempt to link the message and significance of a specific passage of the Bible to the overall message of that entire biblical book. For example, suppose you are studying Exodus Chapter 20, the account of the giving of the 10 Commandments. You have to ask yourself questions such as -- who wrote the book of Exodus? Who was the book of Exodus composed to? Getting answers to those questions is essential to obtaining a proper comprehension of what the Bible is all about.
Use Good Tools
Again, not one of us is born with this information already packed inside of our head -- we will at some stage need to look up and research this backdrop utilizing different types of biblical reference tools -- that means that part of your task as a serious Bible student will be to build up, over time, a tiny personal or family biblical reference catalog. It isn't that you were hoping to develop into a "bookworm" -- you need to view these substances as tools, just as any contractor or contractor or a electrician has their set of tools which they will need to get the task finished.
A Definite Plan Desired
Among the most crucial points to be stressed is that in order to be successful in Bible research you must have an organized plan. Video Bible Study of people feel this is beyond them because they are too busy -- but in fact, the busier you are the more you require a plan! With a strategy in place, even if your time is limited, you will have the ability to understand exactly where you left off on your studies -- busy people do not have enough time to fool around having a cluttered, hit-and-miss strategy. There are, of course, a multitude of different kinds of Bible study schedules and plans which can be found -- you can discover many of them out of Christian book publishers and from online resources on the Internet.
The main thing is to have an organized strategy -- if you're a pupil in school studying economics, as an example, your teacher would map out a whole program that will take you through the entire textbook -- and that is how that you must approach your analysis of the Bible.
The Value of Context
Ultimately, in your study of the Scriptures, your final objective is to make sense of it all -- to understand it, to translate it correctly. "Context" has several different levels: the immediate context, which would be the poetry and passages which surround the one that you are studying, the book context (how a specific Bible passage fits in with the theme or message of a particular book of the Bible), the literary context (how one prophetical writing, as an example, fits in with another prophetical writings), and ultimately the overall context of the entire Bible.
It's also important to understand something of the cultural and historic setting in which the writings of the Bible were given. The Biblical documents were composed thousands of years back -- during times far removed from our own, if different countries ruled the earth, also when different customs and ways of living prevailed. None of us is born with a built-in knowledge of these ancient times -- we have to take some time to find out about them.
Luckily, there are a great number of resources available that can help us in understanding the cultural and historical histories of the Bible -- Bible study tools such as Bible Encyclopedias and Bible dictionaries can set the vast sources of biblical scholarship at our fingertips.
As you examine the Scriptures, attempt to link the message and significance of a specific passage of the Bible to the overall message of that entire biblical book. For example, suppose you are studying Exodus Chapter 20, the account of the giving of the 10 Commandments. You have to ask yourself questions such as -- who wrote the book of Exodus? Who was the book of Exodus composed to? Getting answers to those questions is essential to obtaining a proper comprehension of what the Bible is all about.
Use Good Tools
Again, not one of us is born with this information already packed inside of our head -- we will at some stage need to look up and research this backdrop utilizing different types of biblical reference tools -- that means that part of your task as a serious Bible student will be to build up, over time, a tiny personal or family biblical reference catalog. It isn't that you were hoping to develop into a "bookworm" -- you need to view these substances as tools, just as any contractor or contractor or a electrician has their set of tools which they will need to get the task finished.
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