5 - Starting Bible study
A LIBRARY of books about the Bible will never be complete unless it leads on to Bible study. It’s one of the pitfalls to avoid: that you read about the Bible rather than the word of God itself. That’s why we often encourage people to take our literature before adding – “Read it with the Bible, not instead of it!”
Earlier reference to the booklists in Exploring the Bible and Preaching the Word has so far failed to mention that both those books contain excellent suggestions for Bible study. This point was made by Brother Peter Hale recently in his letter to the Editor (April, page 124), in which he heartily recommended Preaching the Word. But you may need an easier way in.
Study Guides
Some years ago, the CMPA began a series of Study Guides to provide a gentler way to start Bible study, either individually or in groups. So far there are five, the most recent one on Revelation being reviewed after this article. The other subjects are Philippians, The Tabernacle, The Song of Solomon and one which gives an overview of the whole Bible, called The Sixty-Six Books of the Bible. More information about each of these is available on the website, as usual.
These guides have a standard format. They are structured in a way which leads the reader gently through a Bible book or theme. There’s usually an overview of the subject, then a step-by-step analysis of the various issues. The language is clear and uncomplicated and any necessary definition, or background information, is given as the guide proceeds.
Illustrations
Pages of text can be a bit daunting if you’re not a regular reader and a few illustrations can make a book a little more inviting. That’s partly why these guides use a lot of illustrations – diagrams, charts, drawings, photographs and maps. The other reason is that we are now used to absorbing information visually.
Being in landscape format (where the pages are wider than they are tall), the guides flop open nicely and present two pages of information, so you can have your Bible open and work your way though 600-700 words of text at a time, and make real progress. And it’s not just academic study that is being encouraged. The reader is prompted to think through some of the practical implications as well. For example, Paul was writing to the ecclesia at Philippi about the things God had graciously given them, so the reader of the Philippians guide is also encouraged to think about the various things that God has given us.
Remembering
Of course, you may not read much because you think that “It goes in through one ear and out through the other”! Many readers say they can’t remember what they have read, and it would be a very unusual person who could remember everything he or she had read, and where to find it again. So the guides have one solution to this problem.
At the end of each section, you are invited to “Test Yourself”, to see how much you remember and “Outline Answers” are provided at the end, with more detailed information again, and Bible references which can take you further into the various topics. Finally there are recommendations for more detailed books you could read, so that if your appetite has been whetted you can try reading something a little more challenging, with more confidence than you might otherwise have had.