Holy Joys Podcast
A discussion of theology and ministry practice, all for a holy, happy church. A ministry of holyjoys.org.
Holy Joys Podcast
Bible Study Tools and Methods
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Dr. Fry and Johnathan Arnold discuss Bible study tools and methods. Topics include:
- Active vs. passive reading
- Pens and marking tools
- Wide-margin Bibles
- Inductive Bible Study
- Tracking themes
- Christ-centered reading
- Typological reading
- Big-picture reading and focused study
- Contemplative reading and memorization
So I suggest that unless Bible study becomes engaging, even fun, an enjoyable experience, our faith is going to be hindered.
SPEAKER_00So to go back to my illustration of being like detectives where we're on this search, the thing that we're searching for in every theme is ultimately Christ, because he's at the center of every one of the Bible's intersecting themes. All of it coheres in him.
SPEAKER_01You're listening to the Holy Joys podcast, co-hosted by Jonathan Arnold and Dr. David Fry. Visit us at holyjoys.org and stay tuned for weekly discussions of theology and ministry practice, all for a holy, happy church.
SPEAKER_00So both you and I, Dr. Fry, have a passion for helping believers in the local church to read the Bible. I have an article on Holy Joys and had shared a presentation at Outreach Convention about how to help new converts read the Bible for the first time. And you have done a lot more uh hands-on work with this in the local church for years now. And um and I think we really we really have a a common common goal. So what we want to do today is just talk about that and uh talk about maybe some some practical tips that we can give for disciple makers, as well as some big picture, maybe like philosophical um convictions that we have about why and how we actually go about doing this. So why don't we just start there with with big picture? Um, why are you passionate about this? Why does it matter? What are what are your main goals when it comes to this topic?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, this is very important to me uh as a pastor, as a pastor of uh new believers, uh new converts. Uh we have people uh in our church who uh you know new converts every every month. You know, there are new people coming to to the Lord and uh and so that creates this uh tremendous need to help a one who is a spiritual infant to learn to walk and to to stand on their own two feet and to be able to feed themselves, you know, in between you know Christian gatherings, you know, from Sunday to Wednesday, from Wednesday to Sunday. And uh you know, new converts will have a disciple who will check in with them uh sometimes at the beginning, every day they're checking in and having prayer together. But very quickly, uh a new convert needs to learn how to study God's word, and uh they they have to love God's word in order to uh be drawn back day after day after day. Otherwise, they can get uh they can drown in uh misunderstanding and lack of understanding as they get into God's word and they very quickly realize I don't understand what I'm reading. Like this doesn't make sense, I don't know what the big picture is. Uh so it's it can be uh it can be a big task. Uh and so I believe strongly in the need for a young believer to quickly uh come to love God's word. And and I've always I've said this, this is one of the uh things I've said for years now, and that is it's kind of a uh adaptation of something Zig Ziggler said. Uh he said a thing worth doing uh well is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well. Uh I've said you know anything worth doing is worth doing until you love it. And uh so it may start out as a sort of discipline, like I've I've got to just focus and spend time to where we get uh like I can't wait. Like I need to stop, you know, I need to get on to other things, right? Uh that's that's the kind of love that that I have, and and I know many people who have studied God's word have developed.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I love that. And uh I think of Psalm 119, which says, you know, in the way of your testimonies I delight. I will delight in your statues, your testimonies are my delight. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it, for I find delight in your commandments, which I love. Uh their heart is unfeeling, but I delight in your law, for your law is my delight, and your law had not been my delight. I mean, I could go on and on and on, right? But uh, I mean, like this is one of the key things that David wants to say in his great psalm on the word of God. Like it's it's a joy, it's a pleasure. And take that, that attitude of the psalmist and compare it to where a lot of Christians are 10, 20, 30 years into their Christian life, where their primary feeling is, uh, how do I get more out of this? I feel like I am not getting much out of my Bible reading. And uh I read three, I'm in Leviticus. Oh, I'm in Leviticus, like, you know, I gotta get through it, like I'm stuck. And it's like they're not, it's not purposeful, it's not methodical, and it's not enjoyable. And it's like um when you realize that we were created to enjoy God, you know, Wesley says, you were made to be happy in God, you realize that encountering God in his word ought to be a matter of supreme delight. And so I think um I'm with you that that probably like my fundamental goal in Bible study is first and foremost just help people delight in it, enjoy it. And uh part of the way that we do that is by helping them uh to discover things for themselves, joy of discovery, Aletta Wald's book, we've talked about that before. Right, and uh and that's why we need a method, uh, because when we give people the tools to begin to to dig and discover and explore God's word, it becomes exciting and uh and truly pleasurable.
SPEAKER_02So I suggest that unless Bible study becomes engaging, even fun, an enjoyable experience, our faith is going to be hindered because we're not going to grow apart from God's word having some impact in our life. That's just a fact. And so uh I would warn pastors and disciplers away from uh too quickly or only directing a new convert to some sort of uh you know Bible study that has you know been packaged together and you know, just just read what this guy has to say without really interacting, you know, unless that work it drives them to interact with God's word, but as a substitute for direct interaction with God's word. Uh now I I'm really happy for this. I I think it is maybe somewhat of a trend, but I actually I think it's a very happy one. And that is uh, especially among um uh ladies, uh, I know my own daughters are really, really enjoy this, but there are a lot of Bibles now that are uh very artistic. Uh they journaling Bibles, and you have you know colored pens and you have uh they even have little sticker quotes and things that you can put in the margins. And so it's a way to very to personalize your Bible. I say, hey, if it makes you interact with God's word, by all means, you know, use your pens, put some stickers in there, whatever, uh, to interact with God's word. If it if it becomes an enjoyable experience for you, uh that it needs to be for you to really gain something. Now I hope that along with that comes some Bible memory and and some some reflection and some uh deeper study. That's not all about just having a pretty little Bible, but that it's actually feeding your soul. Uh so uh in I think in this podcast here uh we ought to uh talk a little bit not only about inductive Bible study, but actually different methods of of study as well. Uh we want to introduce, uh we won't have time to go into all of them in in much detail, but I think we do want to introduce uh some various methods of of study.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and maybe I'm I'm jumping ahead here, but with when it comes to marking up your Bible, that is the number one thing that I tell everyone I've discipled, uh, read the Bible with a pen or a pencil in your hand. Um and I've often shared the story of Professor Agasaz and the Fish, where he uh teaches his student to use a pencil to poke around and lift up the gills of the fish and write down his observation. And I think he makes the comment like, a pencil is the best eye. And when you when you have the simple act of holding something in your hand, it mentally shifts you from passive reading to active reading. Where rather than I'm here to be filled up like a bucket, I'm holding my bucket, I'm here to dig, I've got a shovel in hand, and I'm trying to discover something. And I think that simple mental shift can begin to affect the way that you engage with God's word.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Uh so let's let's just go ahead and continue with that thought. Let's talk about some tools for Bible study then before we get into the different kinds of Bible study. Uh some tools. So uh let me throw this question out to you, and then I'll answer it. And that is what tools do you use for your personal Bible study?
SPEAKER_00So for a long time, I just use like uh regular old bic red, blue, black pens. Uh, but you put me onto uh are they gel tech? Uh just like a pack of like 20 different colors. And so if I'm tracking a theme or something, I'll I'll use the different colors uh there. Um I used to use a ruler, I think you still do, and I found that it just slowed me down too much, and I just got over my OCD, and so my Bibles don't look as nice. They're really scribbly and sloppy, but I don't really care. So I I moved past the ruler thing. I know a lot of people like that. Um and then sometimes I'll have a notebook, but I often use a wide margin Bible. So the wide margins are usually sufficient to uh handle my notes. And if not, I will draw a line, an arrow, like straight through the middle of the text up to the top page or whatever. And I mean, some people just cringe, like uh I know people who just can't hardly handle even mark their Bibles, but I've just gotten over it and it's just it's uh it's a place to just mark it up and and it becomes more personalized, and and I find that meaningful.
SPEAKER_02Certainly. Yeah, and in fact, my preaching Bible uh is gonna have to retire here shortly because it's getting to where you know I have places where I have so many notes that it's kind of gotten into uh you know the text where I I'm afraid I'll get up there and I'll be preaching and I won't be able to see uh as well. This this particular Bible I started using in 2016, so it's yeah, almost six years. That's probably about five years, five and a half years old. But um do you use the erasable? Are those the erasable pins or those are the permanent permanent ink, right?
SPEAKER_00Those are the permanents you're talking about. Yeah, okay. I honestly like if I make a mistake, there's places I'll just scribble it out. Um if I can use white out, maybe I will, but usually it is what it is.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, same here, same here. I uh for the most part I use a permanent ink. And uh if it's something that is not really a planned study, like for instance, I will usually uh you know, I'll try to have an erasable pen while I'm listening to a sermon. If I'm in the audience and I'm listening, uh uh that point I'll usually have an erasable pen because I will maybe take some notes right in it, and then I'll go back later and kind of reflect over that and and make more permanent notes. But uh definitely, you know, those you know, pens or pencils or uh you know, erasable or not, uh, those are essentials. I think your point uh that when you have that in hand, it makes you read more attentively. I think that's a great point. Uh I have noticed in my reading of any kind of book, when I have a pen in my hand, I'm looking for something to mark, right? I'm looking for something to stand out. And there have been times where I've read through and I thought, okay, that's that's really meaningful. And I continue, and then I realized, oh, wait a second, I should mark that. Like if it's if that's meaningful, I uh it's probably going to be meaningful to me later as well. So I'll go ahead and mark that. And uh yeah, I think it's important for for people to to make uh you know make the Bible their own, like make it, uh own it, make it yours, you know, eat it, right? As the apostle uh was told, eat it, uh digest it. And these are all signs of a Bible being digested when you are uh adding uh some some thoughts and and maybe memories or uh you know notes uh in the margin. So here's a question that a lot of people ask or a complaint that I often hear, and that is you know, the the study Bibles or or the wide margin Bibles, which is what you really need to be able to do Bible study, uh they're so big and heavy. They're so uh you know, you just can't you know tuck them in somewhere. And uh you know, to that I just say that's yeah, exactly. You know, you're you're carrying around a Bible. Uh there's a lot there. And uh so I would just say come to grips with the reality that if you're gonna get a wide margin Bible, uh you know, it's probably gonna be bigger than your little pocket Bible, of course. Uh, but that's that's all right. Um it's there's no shame, no shame in carrying around the big Bible.
SPEAKER_00I uh I have my uh Gideon New Testament, which of course, you know, fits in my shirt pocket or whatever um from high school that is so marked up I can barely read it. And I mean I crammed in there with fine-point pens, more notes than you could imagine. I mean, every page is just uh it's about falling the thing. Well, literally was falling apart. I had taped the back, you know, and and uh but yeah, you're you're right. And have two Bibles, have a church Bible if you want to take and have a different thin line Bible or whatever. Um, but uh yeah, I actually most recently here uh got a copy of the ESV wide margin um artist series, so ESV books artist series, beautiful covers, and it the text is smaller and the margins are smaller, and I'm missing my big Bible. And I actually find that that uh yeah, once you just get over that, like it's really nice. Do you feel like you have a big canvas where you can just put whatever you write whatever you want, and you're not so crammed and contained. So have two Bibles, you know, have one for at home for a study Bible when you can sit down at your desk or whatever.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I want to mention uh there are other tools we could talk about. But let me mention this, and that is uh there are a couple of uh easy to get resources uh that I would recommend having. Now, some of this is online, or you if you're like me, you like to have it on the bookshelf next to you. Uh, one would be a um a background uh commentary or handbook of some sort. Uh so you may be reading about a place in the Old Testament and you have no idea what this place is. You know, look it up in the Bible dictionary. Uh, look it up in a background commentary. Uh they they come in one or two volumes, uh relatively inexpensive. I think you can probably get one for 40 bucks. And uh I do recommend that for any sort of Bible study, whatever Bible method, uh study method you use, I would recommend to have some of those basic resources here uh that will give you a little bit of the context. So uh like a Bible handbook and a Bible background commentary. I know several have been uh published here in recent recent years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, and lots of Bibles have maps in the back, but I have a Zondervan atlas that is is great and has a lot of write-ups as well. And I'm a very visual person, very visual learner. So reading those entries sometimes I have to see it. You know, I'm always making charts and drawing it out or whatever. So those are those are helpful tools as well. So we've we've talked about uh marking, you know, engaging, marking, highlighting. One of the questions I would commonly get is like, what do I highlight? What do I, especially in the New Testament, where it's like, it seems like I could almost highlight everything or almost highlighted the whole page, Pastor? Like, what do I what do I focus on? This is where um inductive Bible study can help you to focus your search. Um, so do you want to just introduce what uh you've done at your church and um in your ministry with inductive Bible study to help new converts?
SPEAKER_02Yes, but let me preface it by saying there are different methods of studying scripture, and let me just very quickly give you list those without going into much detail. Uh one is inductive, which I'll talk about in a moment, um, but then there is deductive. So let me comment on that. Deductive is what I do when I pass out my handout for my sermon. It's something like that. Uh, they I am I am preaching an expository sermon through uh, say uh the book of Colossians, and I am uh explaining the passage, applying the passage, um, making uh various remarks, and in my sermon notes on the first sheet, uh the first side of the sheet, they're just taking notes deductively. They're listening and they're adding, they're filling in blanks, they're they're just taking in information and uh and seeing how I am laying out the uh the argument of of the passage. And uh and that's that we could it's it's fairly passive uh there. Uh and then they can take that and they can uh have group discussion and they can say based on what the message was, then let's deduce some uh application, further application. Uh then there is uh a uh thematic study of the Bible, which uh works well with with uh inductive Bible study as well. But a thematic study of the Bible is uh where you are just tracking a theme either through the Bible or through a book of the Bible, and you say the theme of joy in the book of Philippians, uh that's a big idea. Uh the the word believe or the concept of of belief or unbelief in the book of John. Uh that's you could you could do that very easily. That's a thematic study. Uh then there is, I think I mentioned this earlier, uh, more of a contemplative method of Bible study, and that is where you are uh really focused on memorizing a passage. So say you want to memorize Psalm 23. Uh I usually have a passage that I'm trying to memorize. Uh and when I do this, my study is not so much uh trying to dissect it as much as first of all committing it to memory and then reflecting on it prayerfully. And I will do that with a passage uh sometimes for months and begin to understand new ways in which it is applicable to my life. And uh that can only happen if you uh sustain your uh your attention to a single passage over a long period of time. Uh and then there's inductive Bible study. And inductive Bible study is uh really centers around three uh tools or three steps. Uh number one is observation, second is uh evaluation, and third is correlation, uh, and then some people would add a fourth application. Um so we can we can break some of that down, but I want to again preface all this by saying uh you know these in some ways all these can work together. Um I uh usually uh my Bible uh study daily begins with a pretty passive uh method. Uh that is I always listen to scripture before I read it. Uh almost almost every day uh I will listen before I read. Uh by listen and then I read and then uh and then I uh reflect uh on a memory passage. I will recite it to myself, I'll I will uh pray that passage. Uh I do that pretty often, not every day, but um nearly every day. So I have at least three of those methods, and then of course, when I am doing a live study, I will I will study. Uh I'll use both inductive and deductive methods for for study.
SPEAKER_00So why don't you just talk more about those three steps of inductive Bible study that you mentioned? And maybe uh even even for my sake, uh help me to understand how the word inductive is being used there in contrast to to deductive, because you know I think in terms of inductive versus deductive reasoning. So with induction, I'm collecting a bunch of data and then I'm using that, those uh that those general findings to draw like specific conclusions, um, patterns of language, patterns of ideas that that then from those that general those general observations versus with deduction, I'm taking um you know propositional statements and I'm I'm reasoning to a certain conclusion. So deduction is more certain than induction, um, because if the premises are true, then the conclusion is true. So that's right. Help me to understand how you're using that compared to that way of thinking about induction and deduction.
SPEAKER_02Right. So I don't really love the uh the label of inductive Bible study and and it what I I do is not as neatly inductive Bible study as what you might read in um in David Bauer's book by that title, Inductive Bible Study. And actually, let me comment about this. So some of you may be familiar with uh David Bauer, who I want to say is at Asbury. Yes, he's at Asbury. Uh so David Bauer uh published a new edition, expanded edition, I believe, of Robert Traina's book, Methodical Bible Study. And he renamed it Inductive Bible Study. And uh I prefer methodical Bible study, uh, I think, because I think it tends towards a uh different concept of induction than what we might be accustomed to. So inductive reasoning is reasoning that shows probability, deductive reasoning is reasoning that shows certainty. You know, if all the premises are true, then this must be true. Whereas induction is I see this, I see this, I see this, therefore this is probably true, but not necessarily so. Uh so now that I think we is part of what we mean by inductive Bible study, or at least what David Bauer means. But I am definitely not an inductive Bible study purist at all for a couple of reasons. Uh, number one, my goal is not just observation. My goal is to love God's word and to grow. That's the number one goal. We don't ever want to lose focus on fostering a love for God's word among those who we're we are discipling or in those we're discipling. Uh with with that said, um, I do believe that that one of the strengths of this inductive uh method is the observation strength uh step. Uh the observation step, you're trying to look at at the text for what it is, and you're really trying to look at the details. It is a way of forcing yourself to look at details that you would easily overlook otherwise. It's amazing that we can read something familiar, like say the Lord's Prayer or Psalm 23, and uh we think, oh yeah, we know that, we know that well. You know, we've read that hundreds of times, we've memorized it, uh, and we miss some nuances that are there. So I recall that when I took uh my first inductive Bible study class in seminary, uh the professor said, you know, he gave us like eight verses and said, I want you to come back with a hundred observations. Like just tell me what you see. And so we would come back, and like 75 of our hundred observations would be very interpretive. Like we would say, okay, I see this, and so I'm writing an observation that I'm just kind of importing into it. Like I'm assuming this is in the text, but then when I come to class, and he's like, okay, well, show me where that is in the text. Like, why are you saying this? Like, is that what the text says? And uh so it's refining my observation. Uh when you are trying to just see what the text is actually saying, you're refining your your way of reading so that uh you are not uh importing something that shouldn't be imported. Now, this is where inductive inductive methods, I'm not a purist, and I don't think anyone is a purist, uh, because there are things that we should be bringing with us to the text. Because, number one, uh, we don't read, for instance, the New Testament without the Old Testament. We don't read the Old Testament. Jesus gave us the key to the Old Testament, right? Uh He He explained the Old Testament, how everything refers to him. Like He is the key to understanding the New Testament. So I know we've talked about uh uh typological or typological uh interpretation before, um, and understanding the Old Testament through uh the eyes of Jesus. Uh what we we that's necessary, right? We can't bracket out Jesus because his name doesn't appear in the text and say, okay, I can't import Jesus here. No, no, no. We must import Jesus uh into the Old Testament because he tells us to. Um and there are other other uh examples as well. But uh so so I do not believe that inductive Bible study should be practiced as if we are looking at the Bible as a blank slate. Uh that's not what uh inductive Bible study should be. Um that's not what I don't I don't think it claims to be that, although it it can come across that way sometimes. Yeah, but I mean I've yeah Yeah, it does. I've I've heard I've heard uh some people try to teach it, and it comes across as you have to have a blank slate, and uh that's no, that's that's dangerous.
SPEAKER_00So uh the last time that I talked to somebody about inductive Bible study uh in a discipleship context, I used the illustration of like a detective who's going into a room to try to solve a crime. And this person loves crime shows, so I thought that would be a good illustration. And I said, uh, you know, they have to look around and look for clues, and they are tagging or marking everything that could be relevant. They are putting uh it in an evidence bag. So they might find a broken uh vase, and it could be that the intruder knocked that over and his fingerprints are on it, or it could be that the dog this morning knocked it over and it has nothing to do with what's going on. So induction is about looking for data that could be helpful or relevant in piecing together and building and constructing our theology, drawing conclusions. Um but when I go about this study of induction, um I am not I am not ever trying to shut out what I already know as a matter of certainty. So to continue to at risk at risk of pushing this illustration too far, um if if Jesus had never come and we were living in the Old Testament, it would be like we were detectives going into a room where the lights are turned off. All the furniture is there, but all we can see is the silhouette. Jesus comes and flips on the lights and walks around the room and says, Look, there I am, and there I am, and there I am, right? So now as an inductive Bible student, I'm not gonna go to read the Old Testament and be like, well, let's turn the lights off because we don't want to import anything that we know about the gospel here. You know, we just want to, what would Abraham have thought? You know, what would what would Moses have thought when he wrote this? Don't don't worry about like just focus on the original, this narrow context and and come as a blank slate. That that's that is not Christian interpretation. That is sub-Christian. I might even go further to say it could be actually anti-Christian. It's it's serious. Like he gives us, he is the key to scripture. Jesus is the key. And uh we don't we don't forget him or push him out. We always come with him in view.
SPEAKER_02And when we come to any truth in in life, whether we are studying you know the book of nature or especially God's word, we come with a an idea of truth. And as Christians, we affirm uh what is known as the coherence and uh the uh the other word just slipped my mind, uh coherent theory of truth and correspondence theory of truth. And what this means, let me talk about the coherence theory. Uh it is that all truth is consistent. That what is true just is true. Uh non-contradictory, right? Necessarily so. Um now you don't have to be a Christian to believe that, but that is that is uh what Christians affirm. Um the image that's often used is like the image of of a web. Um, you know, a a web, a spider web is has different connecting points. And um I like to use uh let me use this image. I like to use the image of climbing oh of climbing a wall. Uh so I don't know if you've ever done those uh uh you know recreational uh you know climbs where you are climbing up a you know what, a 20, 25 foot wall, and you have these hand grips and you have these footholds and you're you're climbing up and and when you're climbing a wall, you you you have you know one hand and you have your two feet and these you know handholds and footholds, and you're reaching up with your other hand, trying to find another one to raise yourself up, right? Well, you don't have to let go of your other hand and your feet in order to see if this new hand hold is going to hold you. No, no, no. You hold on to what is already holding you, and then you add another one to where you're stable and you continue to build that way. Well, that's how we come to a text. This is how we come to scripture. We don't give up what has held us, uh, but we're adding to. And uh and and again, Jesus gives us the hermeneutical key, that is himself. Uh so and none of us, we we can't. If we wanted to, we can't, we can't just come to a text with a uh as a blank slate. Uh it's just it's really simply not possible. Uh and so I let me give you an example. I think it's actually uh a letter of uh walled uh in her book, which is a nice little book called The Joy of Discovery, but she says this. She says, um, no interpreting until you have observed carefully all that is written. Well, I understand what she's saying, but it's overstated because we cannot read anything without some measure of interpretation. Understanding requires interpretation. Now, the reason I can understand you and I can have a conversation here today is because generally we interpret the same words uh the same way, right? We're using words that you and I probably use largely in the same way. But there are times where we will use a word slightly different. And uh, but even if we're familiar, uh it requires some interpretation uh to hear someone or to read uh the Bible, it requires some level of interpretation just to read and understand. So that's the kind of language that I I just don't find ultimately helpful. Um to say, you know, don't interpret, you know, don't uh and I think there was another statement here that Bauer makes. Again, these are both you know good books, but I think they overstate some of their uh case. Uh he says here in his definition of inductive Bible study, he says that inductive Bible study is it's a this long paragraph. I'm not gonna read the whole paragraph definition, but uh he says it is a notice the words, comprehensive, holistic study of the Bible that takes into account every aspect of the existence of the biblical text, and and then goes on. So notice these like sweeping, huge, comprehensive, every aspect, holistic. Uh he goes on uh letting letting the canonical shape speak on its own terms, uh and and so on. Well um in a sense, yes, the Bible speaks to us, and we want to listen, and we want to listen well. But the Bible seeks to engage us in a sort of conversation. Uh it it is the authoritative word of God coming to us, but it's trying to draw us in, and uh it wants to draw us in on its own on its terms, but recognizing that the text itself requires us to bring the right keys to it. And this is where uh you know, over and over in this podcast, the the uh phrase the rule of faith has come up over and over and over. Uh and yes, the Bible uh very often gives us an interpretation of itself, right? Jesus does that, uh, the gospels help us. Uh we uh talked on this podcast about Psalm 22 and how uh we can go between the testaments and we can understand what's happening in Psalm 22 and in Matthew 27. Uh so very often, but sometimes it doesn't. And in that case, we have to bring a rule of faith, which is why uh we uh have a an orthodox creed understanding of who Jesus is, of the quality of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we bring that to the Bible. Why? Because the Bible only makes sense in light of that. It requires that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So uh reminded of a statement by Gerald Bray. For the early Christians, the study of the Hebrew Bible was above all a Christological search. And so to go back to my illustration of being like detectives, where we're on this search, the thing that we're searching for in every theme that we that we that we might study is ultimately Christ, because he's at the center of every one of the Bible's intersecting themes. All of it coheres in him. In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and the riches of knowledge. So so uh what I find troubling about some of uh the approaches to modern inductive Bible study is that they are suspiciously modern. Um and uh and they seem to be missing the big thing. So it's been a long time since I've uh looked at Aletta Wald's book. I did flip through it um uh recently here, but if I'm correct, she never gets into Christological reading or typology. That's just not even a priority. Um and it almost seems like that's just out of place. Uh, I think of Grasping God's Word by Duvall and Hayes, a hermeneutics textbook that has like one chapter on typology, and like it you walk away from it, and the biggest impression that you have is uh typology is dangerous, and it's basically something to be like take very cautious about, and it's just this suspicion towards it. And I'm like, man, like uh actually, I would say like typology is maybe the very first thing that I introduce a new disciple to. So, you know, practically speaking, um take like uh Psalm 23. You know, you can go to that psalm and you can follow Aletta Wald's mess, you know, method, and you can, uh which is great, right? There's a lot of good stuff there. Um I might even use it in local church discipleship at some point as one resource, but but you know, you go through that and you could do a word study and you could break up the grammar of and the look at the Hebrew parallelism or whatever that might be in that passage and talk about grammatical concerns. Uh but if at the end of the day I don't walk away thinking Jesus is my shepherd, I shall not want, because Jesus has satisfied my soul by his incarnation, death, burial, and resurrection. Uh he makes me to lie down in green pastures because he feeds me. And you just go on and on and on. So, you know, an exercise that I might want to do with a non-new convert is have them read the gospels, equip them with the rule of faith in the creed, and then say, okay, hey, let's read Psalm 23 and tell me every connection that you can think of to Jesus. So you prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. So here the psalmist is talking about the Lord's table. Well, when does when does Jesus prepare a table for us as the church in the presence of our enemies? Oh, well, every week at the Lord's table, at the Lord's Supper, when he feeds us with the, you know, with his pre divine presence in the in the wine and the bread in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation in which we're gathered, right? Our surrounding community that doesn't know God. Like that to me is the heart of Christian interpretation. I think it's how the apostles interpreted the Bible. You know, you look at like, like uh, I love the two examples of Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 and Peter in 1 Peter 3, where it's like uh the Red Sea crossing. I mean, how many times have you read that and thought of uh Christian baptism into Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection? Because Paul says they were baptized into Moses in the sea as we are baptized into Christ. So it's like if you follow this modern method of inductive Bible study, are you ever going to get there? And how long is it going to take you to get there? And is it baptism into Christ like the biggest thing? Like the Christ as leading the new Exodus, our new Moses? Like it's a Christological search first and foremost. And I think that is the source of supreme delight and joy for the Christian interpreter. So as I'm setting out to help people delight in the Bible, I've been thinking a lot about how can I adapt and adjust my Bible study training, especially as I'm pastoring in a new church and kind of have a chance to start fresh here. Um, how can I adapt it to prioritize those Christological and canonical concerns that were the heartbeat of the early Christian interpreters, uh, rather than perhaps falling into some of the narrow modernistic pitfalls that come along with certain forms or approaches to induction.
SPEAKER_02So we should uh do a separate recording on uh the the rule of faith. I know that's come up a lot, but uh there are several issues here that I think need more time than what uh we have in this podcast. Uh namely because I think it's is it the Heidelberg? I think I was reading that yesterday. Um I think it's the Heidelberg that says that scripture is the only rule of faith. Um so that is language which has some currency. And so people are well, naturally, that's going to raise the question, okay, wait a second, how do we understand then the creeds as a rule of faith? Um so I that warrants a discussion on its own. Uh let me say this, I guess, and say that uh the the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed is that's what I mean when I talk about the creeds. Um I think you have uh included the Athanasian Creed as well, which you know, which is fine. Um Apostles' Creed is typically used at baptism, Nicene Creed is typically used at the Eucharist. Uh those are the two common creeds used in the church through history. But those two creeds, uh, they they summarize our Christian faith. And uh I think it was uh Gerald Bray who said they they teach us or they tell us how to speak the gospel. Uh they tell us how to speak the gospel. Why? Because there are people uh by the name of Marcion and Arius and others who took the Bible and did not speak the gospel, right? They said what the Bible says, but they misinterpreted it, and so there then became the need for a consensus, a consensual uh uh statement on what does the Bible mean here? And so that's uh that's just a quick summary on the rule of faith. Uh let's let's get into just a little bit. Let me mention this before we uh end here, just a couple of ideas of how to study. Uh the method I uh use often and and promote uh among our uh congregation is heavy on observation and the next step, which would be called evaluation or asking questions, raising, letting, letting the text raise questions, or even bringing questions to the text as well. Uh but making observations, tracking a theme, again, whether it's through a single book, through, say, the gospels, or through the entirety of scripture, uh a lot of a lot of themes that can be uh tracked. So I have uh I don't know, I've done dozens. Uh I know right now, this year, uh actually we're both uh tracking the idea of the sacrifice. Sacraments, baptism, and the Eucharist through Scripture. You mentioned that here just a minute ago. One that I have students do is tracking the theme of the kingdom. There are volumes of books written on that. That's an easy one to track. Easy because you it's everywhere. Difficult because it's everywhere. But here's what I would say. If you are going to track a theme, let's just say you want to track the grace of God through scripture. You're going to start out. And I typically read from Genesis straight through. I just go in the canonical order. You're going to start out, you're not going to know exactly what all to mark. And you're not, you're you may be a little uncertain. Okay, what do I what do I mark? What do I do? Um I tend to allow the the study itself to kind of shape to some extent, recognizing that I know what's coming, right? I know the New Testament, I know Jesus Christ. And so I can't help but read Genesis one one through three, especially those very foundational in some ways, uh scriptures in light of you know Christ and new creation and new man and and all that and and grace, right? Uh so you're going to that's okay. You're you're supposed to. But as you track that, you're just going to maybe highlight or or mark the passages that stand out along that theme. And then later, I would challenge a student to go back and begin to categorize those. Look at your markings and begin to put them into groups and see, okay, well, there's this set of scriptures that talk about this aspect of grace, and there's these scriptures that point to this aspect of grace. And you'll start seeing some patterns uh come come to the surface. And I think that's where it becomes really rewarding, is when you begin to discover the patterns that uh recur in uh in the text.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think that's helpful. Um, so we're out of time here for today, but um what would you say by way of conclusion, just to kind of tie up um the uh the loose ends of what we've discussed today and and how it might be helpful for a pastor who's trying to disciple uh somebody in reading the Bible, or even somebody who's listening who just wants to uh themselves uh be a better Bible reader?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think my final word for today, this is where I am, uh, would be uh in your daily Bible study, uh do some big picture study, like tracking themes, but do some really focused study like that is more contemplative, memorizing. Uh choose a passage, uh start with the proverbs if you're just starting out, choose a proverb and memorize it, reflect on it. So do keep both in your daily practice, uh the big forest, and then really focus down to the tree and get uh both aspects of Bible study.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I think what I would stress is that as you do that, remember that the whole Bible coheres in Christ, and He is at the center of everything. And do not lose sight of the faith, the faith once for all delivered, those matters of first importance that we serve a God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, created all things, redeemed all things, is making all things new even now. And keep that trajectory of the canon in mind as you read, uh, and you will see more, not less, and you will not be unfaithful to the context of any one passage, because uh if and if grammatical historical context is king, uh Jesus is the king of kings, and we've got to put it all in context of him.
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