TWELVE RULES for Bible Study
Part Two
In the July number of TOMORROW'S WORLD
we covered six of the twelve rules for Bible study. This month we shall
explain the next six rules, along with a thirteenth rule which may help
you apply the first twelve and unlock the inspired Word of God to your
understanding.
by David Jon Hill
REMEMBER the first six rules: First, ask God in prayer for guidance.
Then, let the Bible correct you. The third rule: PROVE ALL THINGS!
Fourth, realize the Bible never contradicts itself. Fifth, ask, "What
does the Bible say?" - and let the Bible answer for itself. And number
six, check the context, asking the questions, What? When? Where? Why?
Who? How? This brings us to rule number seven.
Get All the Scriptures
No one scripture can of itself, taken OUT of context, be used to
establish the Truth. "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the
scripture is of any private interpretation" (II Peter 1:20).
God has put His Bible together in a very unusual manner. He has written
it so that men could study it intricately in its original languages,
poring over its pages for their entire lifetime - and yet never come to
a knowledge of the Truth. Many people have memorized great sections of
the Bible and yet not come to realize what those sections mean. You
must take the whole Bible in its entire context, getting all of the
scriptures in that Bible on any one sub-feet BEFORE you can come to the
knowledge of that particular subject from God's point of view.
"Whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand
doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the
breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line
upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little . . ."
(Isa. 28:9-10).
That is how the converted mind is to study the Bible. Yet, when the
unconverted study God's Word a little here and a little there they are
STILL not able to understand the Message of God's Truth because they do
not have His Holy Spirit guiding them. That Holy Spirit - the very mind
and understanding of God - is the power that inspired those words in
the first place, and WITHOUT THAT SPIRIT TO INSPIRE
THE UNDERSTANDING,
THE DOOR TO
THE WORD OF GOD REMAINS SHUT' (The Holy Spirit is given only to those
who OBEY God - Acts 5:32.) Continuing from Isaiah: "...But the word of
the Lord was unto them {those who DISOBEY] precept upon precept,
precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little,
and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be
broken, and snared, and taken" (Isa. 28:13).
Oftentimes people think that the Bible is contradicting itself when
actually all it is doing is supplementing itself. A good example of
this is found in Matthew 27:37 as compared to Luke 23:38. Here Matthew
and Luke appear to contradict one another in their statements as to
what was written on the sign affixed to the stake upon which Jesus
Christ was crucified.
Now while you're going through this article, just take time to get your
Bible and USE this example to PROVE that getting all of the scriptures
on any one subject WILL give you God's understanding on it. In order to
find out what was written on that sign, u ho wrote it, and how many
languages it was written in, you will need to put at least four
scriptures together, not just two. So turn first to Matthew 27:37, and
write down what the Bible says was written on that sign. Then, go right
on to Mark 15:26 and write, beneath what you have written, what Mark
says was written on that sign. Then do the same with Luke 2^:38 and
also John 19:19. Put them all together and you will see what was
written on that sign.
If one of these scriptures were left out you would not know that it was
Pilate who did the writing. If two of these scriptures were left out
you would not know that the writing was originally done in three
languages. These four bits of information, each from a different
author, supply us with a complete record of what was written there
originally. No one scripture contradicts the other - each only serves
to complement and round out the information of the other.
Let the Bible Interpret the Bible
So many people write in to The WORLD TOMORROW and comment how much they
enjoy Air. Armstrong's interpretation of the Bible. Over and over again
you will hear Mr. Armstrong explain to the radio audience that it is
NOT his interpretation that is being heard over The WORLD TOMORROW but
only PLAIN BIBLE TRUTH!
In your edition of the King James Bible the book of Revelation will
probably be entitled, "The Revelation of St. John the Divine." This is
an excellent example of MAN'S interpretation. Now in order for you to
understand what the book of Revelation is - whose revelation it is, to
whom it was written and what it is about - all you have to do is read
the first few verses of THE BOOK ITSELF! In fact the very first words
of the very first verse directly contradict man's interpretation of the
Bible with the plain Bible
statement that this
book is, "THE
REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST"!
(Rev. 1:1.)
Romans 3:4 is a good clear principle to live by in this EIGHTH rule of
Bible study - "... let GOD be true, but every man a liar."
This book of Revelation has long been an enigma to the people of the
world - GOD SAYS it is a book of revelation. The world says it is a
book of hidden mystery. People have come up with many weird
interpretations for the book of Revelation - yet the book of Revelation
is VIVID in its own clear description and needs no interpretation!
Continue in Revelation 1:
As you read in verse 12 that John saw seven golden candlesticks, you
don't have to wonder what these seven golden candlesticks are - all you
have to do is READ ON until you come, in the context, to verse 20 and
that verse tells you plainly that the seven candlesticks ARE the seven
churches. In verse 16 it states that John saw seven stars in the hand
of the Son of man. There is no need to go into great, eloquent
illustrations of what the seven stars are, because again verse 20
reveals the plain Bible truth - no interpretation necessary - that the
seven stars ARE the angels of the seven churches. And so it goes
through the rest of the Bible.
All you have to do is be patient and search God's Word and you will
come up with God's clear answers to the muddled questions of mankind.
Don't Put Vague Scriptures First
Perhaps a better general statement of this NINTH rule of Bible study
would be: Never establish a doctrine by a vague or
difficult-to-be-understood scripture.
Too many people assume that the vision which Peter had regarding the
unclean beasts lowered to him on a sheet affirms that God "cleansed"
unclean meat. Because they take out of context a verse, unclear of
itself, that says, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou
common" (Acts 10:15). However, all they
need to do is read on two more verses and verse 17 very plainly says
that Peter himself doubted what the vision meant when he saw it - he
didn't jump to any conclusions, but vague-scripture quoters are eager
to! Further reading in the same chapter will explain what Peter finally
came to understand about the vision - read verse 28: "God hath showed
me (by means of this vision) that I should not call any MAN common or
unclean."
Don't overlook the tenth rule.
Use Several Translations
In Matthew 27:46 Jesus Christ, while hanging on the stake before He
died, used the Aramaic translation of the first verse of Psalm 22.
liven though the original Word of God was inspired in the Hebrew or the
Greek, God has allowed it to be translated into nearly every language
spoken by mankind. If we were going to be particular about which
language we used or which translation, then we would all have to learn
Hebrew and Greek and study the Bible in its original languages.
The King James Version was written 358 years ago. In the time since,
the English language has undergone many changes. Sometimes those texts
which are vague and unclear in the King James can be cleared up very
easily by just reading a more modem translation, such as the Moffatt or
the Revised Standard Version.
There is one thing to note about the King James translation and that is
regarding italics. This word italic is written in italics. Words that
look like this in your King James Version are NOT in the original
languages but are supplied by the translators. So everywhere in the
King James Version where you notice words in italics they are supplied
to help you understand the meaning of the sentence. However, since the
translators were carnally minded, they did not always supply the words
correctly. So some of these words in italics are incorrect and do not
help but rather hinder your understanding.
On the other hand, NOT all of the words which ARE supplied by the
translators are in italics. Take I John 5:7 for instance,
where the reference to three who bear witness
in heaven is a completely erroneous reference inserted by a
monk-copyist in the Middle Ages. The fact is this particular verse
appears only in the King James Version Lind is in NONE of the other
translations of the Bible.
Often these difficulties will be cleared up by merely reading another
translation and comparing it to the King James. Any questions arising
after a thorough reading through several translations of any one verse
will be few, and can be handled by studying further in Bible-helps.
If there are words that you have difficulty in understanding, remember
not only to look them up in an English dictionary such as Webster's,
but if possible in a Bible dictionary or in STRONG'S CONCORDANCE SO
that you can see what the meaning of the word in the original is.
Sometimes people will look up a word in a modern dictionary and find a
definition that is not at all the sense of the word as used in the King
James Version. Take for example the word "conversation" in I Peter 3-
Conversation to us today means talking between two people. A modern
dictionary will give this definition. However, in the time of King
James this particular word meant the entire conduct of a person, and
that is the meaning in the Bible usage of this word. In order to
understand it then, you need to understand the meaning of the original
word, and not just the meaning in a modern dictionary.
But this leads to our ELEVENTH rule.
Don't Establish Doctrine With "Bible Helps"
Clarke's Commentary and the commentary by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown
are good reference works - as is Hailey's Bible Handbook. Sometimes in
the back of Bibles there will be sections called "Bible Helps." Even
the marginal references in your Bible, which sometimes prove to be very
helpful, are often misleading. These "helps" often turn out to be the
insidious instruction of Satan himself and they may lead you astray.
Therefore, all of these Bible helps should
be used ONLY
to establish historical or grammatical facts related to the
Bible and MUST NOT be used to establish doctrine or to interpret the
meaning of the Bible itself. The chain reference in my Bible in the
center of the two columns at Revelation 1:10 says, "I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's day.. . ." and by the Lord's day there is a little 2. In
the column by the z there are two scriptural references - one to Acts
20:7 and the other to I Corinthians 16:2 which both refer to the first
day of the week, but have nothing to do with the Lord's day which is
explained in the rest of the book of Revelation. ' Yet to find out what
the BIBLE says about what day Jesus Christ is Lord of, read Mark
2:27-28! "And he said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man, and not
man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is LORD also of the
Sabbath."
So, with Bib!e helps you must remember to use them only for technical
facts and not for interpretative facts. And now, rule TWELVE:
Mark Your Bible!
Perhaps you have thought the Bible should not be marked. But realize
that what is holy about the Bible is not the paper, ink and leather out
of which it is made, but the words of truth, the spiritual facts! Any
physical tool you can employ - such as marking with a pen or colored
pencils - to help you remember and apply the spiritual truths in your
life, is right with God! He expects you to USE His written Word to
worship HIM - not physical paper and ink! Sometimes we hold back from
marking the Bible and think that we'll do it later - especially when
we're listening to a point that we need to remember about a particular
scripture - but we never seem to get around to it. It's always so
difficult to get out the pencil and ruler, and have our hands clean. So
I have found over years of experience that the best way to mark the
Bible is to JUST MARK IT!
When you find out for instance that the word "conversation" in I Peter
3:1 ought to be "conduct," the thing you need to do is to IMMEDIATELY
WRITE DOWN "conduct" in
the margin and draw a little line and circle
the word "conversation" in the verse. This way you will always remember.
Apply these twelve rules diligently, and your Bible study will be both interesting and rewarding.
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