Bible Study - Seeking the Truth

With every question I had, my second mentor, Robert A. Lillie (Cincinnati Bible Seminary), began with, “Let’s see what the Word says.” For him, the Bible was the final authority. It was the measure against which one could measure anything. As I began my first serious pass through the New Testament, I found the same themes recurring. It made sense to capture those themes and compare what the various passages said about them.

After several attempts at a card file to contain the information, I finally chose a three-ring loose-leaf notebook with alphabetical dividers. Since I wanted to know it all, I followed every theme and idea I found. Not knowing any of the fancy Christian words for things, I identified each idea with the word or phrase that best described it for me.

As I worked on, I realized that Christ and the apostles were teaching from the same body of truth. That defined my goal, to discover the body of truth from which Christ and the apostles taught. I called it “The Apostles’ Truth.” After more than twenty passes through the New Testament and amassing seven three-inch binders of results, I figured I was ready for Bible college.

One other thing: Because my goal was accuracy, I spent all that time working hard NOT to draw conclusions, even the obvious ones. I wanted all the facts before me before I began figuring out what they meant. My allegiance was to the Word, not to any mentor, denomination, or books about the Word. I was then, and remain today, in full submission to the Word. I go where it leads (after I deal with my characteristic stubbornness).

After Bible college (where I discovered how much I didn’t know) I went to work trying to reduce the biblical message to its basics so it could easily be shared with others. My goal was to transplant the Bible college experience into the churches. I knew it was a daunting task, but I figured I could do it in a couple of years. (It’s taken 40, but that’s me. I’m a slow worker.) More than that, my goal remained accuracy in both understanding the message and then in its practical application. On the Day of Judgment I wanted God to at least be able to say, “Nice try, Chuck.”

My first task was to get the Christian message right. With over 200 different sects and denominations roaming the American landscape, lots of opinions demanded attention. Which were accurate? Which were not? So, in the midst of the muddy Christian waters, the doctrinal jungle, where was the safe place to start? I believe my answer to that question makes my results at least worth your consideration.

Realizing that one’s rules of biblical interpretation colored the interpretation, I wanted to find the best rules, God’s rules, if you will. Supported mostly by my friend, Gary Cleaveland, I spend a year and a half studying about Bible study. I went back three generations of Bible scholars trying to discover the safe ground on which to make my stand. Finally I found a book called How To Read A Book. It was written by Mortimer Adler (general editor of Encyclopedia Britannica) and Mark VanDoren (the guy who cheated on that TV quiz show). (I think it was Mark. I've since misplaced the book.) Both were well-known secular scholars and neither had a Christian bias to defend. That was important because many of the Christian books on Bible study championed rules that lead readers to draw a specific doctrinal conclusion, not necessarily God’s.

My favorite bad rule is this one: “The book of Acts is a transitional book and therefore one is unwise to base doctrine on it.”

Acts is transitional in that it documents the transition from the Old Testament to the New, from Jehovah to Christ, from the Law to Grace.

While it seems reasonable to hold that view, the Bible itself makes no such claim. Every book in the Bible, even Philemon, carries the same weight. They are all equally authoritative.

The only doctrinal distinction Scripture makes is the fact that we are now living under the New Covenant. That means the New Testament governs but it does not thereby lessen the authority of the Old Testament. The universal truths that underscore the Old Testament are the same as those that underscore the New. Weakening the authority of the Acts influences at least two controversial Christian doctrines, the role of baptism and the work of the Holy Spirit.

In any event, the How-To-Read-A-Book rules are free of Christian denominational influences. Here are some of the rules that book champions:

The goal of interpretation is to have in your mind when you’re through reading what the original writer had in his when he wrote.

The author can never mean what he never intended to mean. (Although we need to keep in mind that the Bible has two authors, God via the Holy Spirit and the individual human writers.)

One is wiser to understand a piece of writing in the context in which it was written.

One is wiser to understand a piece of writing in terms of the genre in which its author chose to present it.

When you boil down all their rules you get this: “If you can read and understand the newspaper, you can read and understand the Bible.” In Christian terms, the Bible is accessible to anyone wanting to understand it, and that appears consistent with God’s desire for it.

God didn’t give us the Bible so we couldn’t understand it. He gave it to us so we could know the truth, knowing that the truth would set us free. While the Bible is intellectually challenging at many levels—and does in fact contain and allude to various mysteries—its basic message is easily comprehended by those wanting to comprehend it. (Although for some it may take 40 years.)