Lesson 5: “How to Study the Bible”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! Magazine |
In your experience, what’s the best thing about Bible study? What’s the thing you like the least—or perhaps dread or resent? As an Adventist, do you ever find the Bible being confusing, seeming to be irrelevant or even contradictory to the things you believe to be true?
Where Should I Begin?
This week’s lesson contained many good ideas that can be incorporated by anyone when studying the Bible. In fact, this lesson reminded me of the ways I was taught to study the Bible as an Adventist. The whole idea of Bible study is one that both Christians and the cults advocate. Adventism, perhaps, mimics the Christian approach most closely in terms of the advice it gives. Yet anyone who has read The Clear Word knows that even though Adventism teaches “Bible study methods”, the organization expects a particular understanding of the Book. Even though this Sabbath School lesson doesn’t school the reader as to interpretation, still the underlying expectation is clear: what Ellen White says about Scripture is what Adventists believe. For example, Wednesday’s lesson opens with this paragraph:
There are many ways we can study our Bibles, such as the verse-by-verse method (mentioned already), a chapter study, a theme study, a word study, or a book study. We can study with a concordance and Bible dictionary, and we can read the Bible alongside the Conflict of the Ages series for additional insight. We can go for a walk outside in nature and listen to the Bible being read to us, or meet with a friend or small group to study together.
Notice that studying the Bible with the Conflict of the Ages series for “additional insight” is suggested as a valid way to study Scripture in order to understand it.
So what is an Adventist to do? How can he or she study the Bible and figure out what it really says and means?
I understand this dilemma; I lived inside that dilemma for several years as an Adventist. Let me share some things I learned that have helped me.
First, Adventism did not teach us to study contextually. We learned Scripture largely as proof-texts and concepts supporting the great controversy. When we believe that reading Scripture will support what we believe to be reality, we find it confusing if our view of reality is not derived from the Bible. Yet we don’t KNOW that what we believe isn’t real!
The first step to beginning to study the Bible is to admit that we have a dual authority in our heads. As we discussed last week, Adventists believe both that the Bible is their authority and that Ellen White was used by God to teach them truth.
It is important to ask God to remove the Ellen White interpretive grid from your mind. It isn’t possible to know all the ways Ellen White has influenced your thinking and perceptions and beliefs, but the Lord knows, and He knows how to reveal Himself and His truth to us as He gently breaks through our great controversy paradigm.
The second thing we need to do is to read the Bible contextually without outside commentaries. As the lesson confirmed, Adventists learn to study the Bible next to EGWs commentaries for “additional insight”. Yet God didn’t give us the Bible with commentaries included. He gave us His own word, and every word He gave is the word He intended—and the words from Genesis to Revelation build upon each other. Everything is related, but as Adventists we didn’t learn to read the whole Bible and to see God relating to humanity progressively over the millennia, giving prophecy and foreshadowing that relates not only to the immediate time it was written but also to the future.
If you are planning to start a Bible study regimen, I suggest picking a New Testament epistle, because as Adventists we weren’t taught to read Paul’s epistles contextually and literally. I suggest starting with Galatians or Ephesians or Colossians. They are short but clearly reveal the new covenant reality of knowing Christ and how to live in Him. A good companion tool, however, is a good Bible dictionary (not a commentary). Bible dictionaries provide word meanings, references to historic data or context, and provide insight into the different theological views related to more obscure passages without insisting on any certain view.
First, read the entire book in one sitting. These three epistles are short and can be read in 20 to 30 minutes. Ask God to show you what you need to know.
The first rule of inductive Bible study is “observation”. Ascertain the author and the first audience. Who was Paul, for example, and who were the Galatians? Were they Jews or gentiles? Why did Paul write this letter? What is the significance of their location? Observe the details as you read.
Then, get a notebook, and begin copying the book, a few verses at a time, into the notebook. As you copy, ponder the words you write. Notice the meanings of verb tenses, of prepositions. Notice the reactions of the people in the passages. For example, in Galatians 1, Paul condemns those who teach any gospel other than the one he taught—and he condemns them twice! What was the gospel Paul taught? In chapter 2, what did Paul say to Peter in public?
Take your time as you read and observe what the text is telling you. The details matter.
After observing the details, move to interpretation. Why was Paul angry in Galatians 1? In chapter 2, consider the significance of Peter’s vision in Acts 10 as you think about the significance of his sin for which Paul rebuked him. What do the details you observed tell you about the people’s relationships with God, or with the Jews and gentiles? How does the cultural background of Judaism clash with new covenant reality? Why was the message of obeying the law an attack on the gospel?
Finally, only AFTER observation and interpretation, move to application. Application is about what the text means to you. We can never start with application, as so many people do. The late Howard Hendricks, formerly a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, created nine application points to ponder:
Is there an example for me to follow? Is there a sin to avoid? Is there a promise to claim? Is there a prayer to repeat? Is there a command to obey? Is there a verse to memorize? Is there an error to mark? Is there a challenge to face?— https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/howard-hendricks-4-bible-study-steps.html
Each passage of Scripture has only one meaning. Only after understanding the context and understanding the meaning that the first audience would have understood can we make application to ourselves. The original meaning cannot change when we apply the text to ourselves, but there are principles in that meaning that apply to believers of any era.
Finally, the last step of interpretation is communication. Having worked through the passage in context and having understood the author’s original intent, after seeing what application from the passage can apply to you today, then share what you have learned.
Take you time as you study—but realize that the purpose of reading the Bible is not to figure out what it means to you. It’s purpose is to reveal God’s presence and power and faithfulness as He interacts with humanity.
The Purpose
Adventism did not teach us to study contextually. Yet studying the Bible in context, whole books at a time, one chapter a week with our christian neighbors was what launched Richard and me on the journey of discovering the true gospel. As we read and discussed one New Testament book after another, beginning with James and moving through the epistles and even Daniel, we began to see many of the memory verses we had learned over the years in their context. In context those verses said something completely different than we had learned they meant!
Yet even so, it was hard to shake our underlying assumptions. When we began to study with our neighbors, we thought we had jettisoned Ellen White as a scriptural interpreter. In fact, I had been praying for a couple of ears at least that God would help me read the Bible without Ellen White lenses
As we would discuss what we were reading each week, Richard and I would sometimes offer a suggestion of how to understand certain verses. One evening Mel and Monica sat across the living room from us, and we made some comment (now forgotten) that didn’t make sense to Mel. He looked at us and said,
“Where do you find that in the Bible?”
Richard and I were stunned but tried to stay composed. We both realized that our comment had come right out of our Ellen White insight from our great controversy worldview. I said to Richard,
“Do you suppose we ought to tell them?”
He replied, “I think we should…”
We looked at Mel and Monica and said, “Adventism has a prophet…”
The stunned looks on their faces said it all. They had Adventist doctors and dentists, but they had no idea what Adventism really taught nor on what it was based.
That night all of us turned a corner, Our neighbors began to understand that they were dealing with people coming from a cult—and we began to realize that Ellen White had permeated our worldview so thoroughly we couldn’t tease her out of our normal view of reality.
We had to think about context as we discussed Scripture, and we kept praying to lose EGW’s influence.
Over time, the Lord rewired our brains, and we began to see reality through the words of Scripture.
I cannot say this any more directly nor clearly: there is only ONE WAY to learn what is real and true, and that is to submit our Ellen White influence to the Lord and ask Him to remove it. Then, contextual Bible reading is the only way to put truth inside one’s head.
Adventist Double-Speak
This week’s Sabbath School lesson is an example of Adventism’s deception and double-speak. On the surface it appears to be teaching Bible study, encouraging readers to make Bible study a habit, setting aside regular time for reading. Of course, all of these ideas are good ideas.
Yet in the context of this lesson encouraging Bible study, quotes from Ellen White punctuate the lesson, validating the need for Bible study. How confusing!
To be sure: if an Adventist consistently reads contextual Scripture, it will have an effect on him. The Bible is God’s living word, and it will eventually cause cognitive dissonance in one who consistently reads it with a desire to understand it.
Yet Adventists in general do not love to read the Bible—and there is a reason for this quiet aversion. They do not know the God of the Bible—and even worse, they believe the tritheistic god they serve and their fallible Jesus define the Yahweh of Scripture.
Adventists don’t have to read Ellen White to believe her worldview. They just have to have internalized her Satan-centered great controversy paradigm and her physicalism that denies the human spirit, and they will not grasp what Scripture is really saying.
Adventists need the true gospel. As they settle their source of authority—as they ask God to remove the influence of Ellen White from their minds and hearts, they need to grapple with the reality that they themselves are born dead in sin, in need of a Savior. They need to understand the truth of Paul’s words in Romans 3:
What then? Are we better? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME WORTHLESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN TOMB, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”; “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”; “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.” “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”—Ronans 3:9–18 LSB
The Adventist gospel of Sabbath-keeping, the investigative judgment, and coming out of the Babylon of Sunday-keeping is not a saving gospel. Keeping the law is not the way one demonstrates he is worthy of salvation.
Our natural condition of being spiritually dead means we cannot rise above our natures. We cannot please God just because we discipline ourselves to perform good habits and Bible reading.
The issue of our salvation is NOT doing good things; it is in becoming spiritually alive!
Monday’s lesson attempts to demand spiritual disciplines by imitating Jesus:
Although Mark 1:35 is just one verse, we can learn so much here from Jesus’ example. Long before the sun came up, He removed Himself to a solitary place of quiet so He could be with His Father. Can you imagine the scene—Jesus, sitting by the Sea of Galilee or on the side of a hill, praying and communing with His Father before the world around Him woke up? Although this verse describes Jesus’ commitment to prayer, we clearly see that it was a priority for Him. No doubt this time was what gave Him strength to face all that He endured. If Jesus needed this to start every day, how much more do we?
Notice that once again, Adventism uses the accounts of Jesus in Scripture as object lessons, examples to us of how we need to disciplines ourselves in order to grow. This interpretation of Jesus’ praying early in the morning is incredibly self-serving. Jesus and the Father are ONE, and while His praying does give us insight into what living as a born again believer looks like, His prayer times were not examples to us.
The last sentence of that quote reveals the self-centered way Adventism sees this account: “If Jesus needs this to start every day, how much more do we?”
This is not a comparison of Jesus with sinful humans! Jesus Is God, and His communing with the Father was how He was able to do the unique ministry He was sent to do: to proclaim the arrival of the Kingdom of God and to die for our justification!
We don’t need “more prayer time”. We need to be born again! Jesus came to open a new and living way to the Father so that when we see and believe Him to be the Son of God, the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament who is the Lamb of God, we will believe and be born again, passing from death to life!
Summary
In conclusion, by all means read the Bible! Read it in context, believing the words literally mean what they say, knowing that God has given these words to humanity so that we will know who He is, who we are, and what His will is.
Yet know that Bible reading is not the definition of a Christian life. Knowing Jesus is the definition of a Christian. We have to decide who our Authority will be: God and His living word, or Ellen White and her “spirit of prophecy”? You cannot hold onto both because they are diametrically opposed.
Concurrently, we have to know the true gospel. The Three Angels’ Message are not the gospel. Rather, the gospel God gave Paul to preach is this:
Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believed for nothing. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.—1 Corinthians 14:1–5 LSB
The true gospel is that the Lord Jesus died for our sins, that he died and was buried, and that He rose on the third day demonstrating that His sacrifice had been sufficient to pay for human sin! The gospel is that when we believe in Jesus and His finished work, we are born of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and we pass from death to life!
The Adventist worldview does not deal with the need to be born again. It does not teach that we have immaterial spirits that are born dead in sin and must be made alive. Rather, Adventism teaches spiritual disciplines, camping on reading the Bible to try to grow in Christ.
Bible reading apart from belief in the real Lord Jesus will not yield the new birth, and without the new birth, the Bible will be inscrutable. Adventism binds its members in a false worldview created by a false prophet, and Adventists are united invisibly by this false worldview. They hide behind good works and disciplines, but they are not, on the whole, born again.
We must be born again, and unless we face honestly that Adventism is a false gospel, we will remain in our sins. We have to be willing to submit our Adventist identities to God, and when we are willing to let go of all we know and love for the sake of knowing Him, He will show us Himself.
If you have not believed and trusted the Lord Jesus and His finished work, I invite you to trust Him now. Surrender your right to your Adventist worldview and ask the Lord to plant. You deeply in truth and reality. When you trust Jesus more than you trust your Adventism, you will know what it means to be born again. You will be given life in your spirit, and the word of God will suddenly make sense. Trust Him today! When you know Jesus and have His life in you, studying His word will be a joy because He will teach you what it means. Trust Him today, and discover what Adventism could never give you: the miracle of spiritual life. †
This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
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