The Bible -- a book like no other book

The 2010 Equipped for Excellence conference is only one day away! As mentioned in my previous post, I will be teaching one of the seminars on "How to Study & Interpret the Bible."

The Bible is a book like no other book. It is both human and divine.

Because it is a human book, we should expect to use common sense and all our mental faculties to understand it. It should be read and studied within its literary, historical-grammatical context, like any other piece of literature. It was written for the average Joe to understand. We do not need some mystical experience or computer logorith to discover hidden meanings. The truth is written plainly on the pages, if only we will exert the effort to find it.

The U.S. statesman Daniel Webster was right when he said,

"I believe that the Bible is understood and received in the plain obvious meaning of its passages, since I cannot persuade myself that a book that is intended for the instruction and conversion of the whole world should cover its meaning in any such mystery and doubt that none but critics and philosophers discover it."

At the same time, the Bible is also a divine book. We have a moral duty to handle it accurately (2 Tim. 2:15), and only through the anointing of God's Spirit can we interpret it properly (1 Jn. 2:27). Paul reminds us, "a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised" (1 Cor. 2:14).


What a gift God has given us in His Word! We should tremble every time we open it, and hang on every printed word.


I invite you to join me this Saturday, as we learn a set of 'tools' that will help us more accurately study and interpret the Bible, for the glory of God and for the joy of our souls.