Handout 1:

What we’ll do, how we’ll do it, and why it matters

July 16, 2010

1 Intro
Here’s what we all want: to be discipled unto Jesus. We know this requires
learning from the Bible, to be masters of Scripture example: the way Jesus
brilliantly refutes Satan’s twisting of Scripture in Matthew 4 . But we’re not
where we need to be.
Proof by demonstration: Most Christians can recite John 3:16 by heart.
Fewer can recall that John 3:16 is a part of Jesus’s conversation with Nicode
mus. Fewer still can tell what the conversation is about, and how John 3:16 ts
in. What was Jesus arguing? Why was Nicodemus confused? Likewise, many
Christians can recite the verses along the “Romans road.” But not many can tell
you what Paul’s central argument in Romans is. Less still can tell what part of
the argument Romans 3:23 ts into, and what parts 6:23 ts into they’re very
different parts! . Many Christians believe that there will be an event called
‘the Rapture.’ Very few Christians know the central prooftext 1 Thessaloni
ans 4:17 . Much, much fewer know what the context of the verse is, and if
the context justies interpreting the verse as supporting the Rapture. Due to
programs like Awanas, many Christians can recite dozens of verses. But how
many can take any book of the Bible, identify the central message / argument
/ narrative of that book, and explain how that message / argument / narrative
unfolds? I hope you can see how examples could easily be multiplied.
I hope to have shown that we’ve a problem. In this study, we’ll get a crash
course in some methods necessary for remedying this problem. Then, over
the course of the next year, we’ll continue to develop these skills. Our primary
goal: teach you to develop skills necessary to study the Bible at a high level.
Why? Eyes on the prize: we want to disciple ourselves unto Jesus, and we
know that takes work especially work studying his Scriptures.

2 Obstacles to Getting Better

So we want to get better. What’s keeping us from getting there? Well, a num
ber of reasons. Here are some:

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3 Three Methods We’ll Try to Develop
To recap, briey: we want to move onto the solid food in the Bible. We’ve
seen that this takes work. More exactly, it takes the right kind of work we
need methods that help us to learn from the Bible. I’ll the remainder of this
handout, I’ll briey sketch three methods we’re going to try to cultivate over
the next year.

3.1 Skill 1: Seeing the Big Picture

3.1.1 The Problem
Recall the observation from earlier: most Christians can recite John 3:16 by
heart. Fewer can recall that John 3:16 is a part of Jesus’s conversation with
Nicodemus. Fewer still can tell what the conversation is about, and how John
3:16 ts in. What was Jesus arguing? Why was Nicodemus confused? Inability
to answer these questions is a problem.
Here’s the upshot: we’re good at memorizing certain verses. But we’re not
good at seeing the big picture. This is a huge problem! To understand those
verses well, we’ve got to understand how they t into the context. We’ve got
to see how Romans 6:23 is part of an argument Paul’s making; we’ve got to see
how John 3:16 ts into Jesus’s dialogue with Nicodemus.
To understand the book of Romans, you’ve got to have the big picture
before you mind. Evangelical Christians, it turns out, are not good at this.1
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How did we get here. It’s a somewhat complicated matter. But one factor is the rise of
historical criticism of the Bible. In the late 19th and early 20th century, nonChristian scholars
began analyzing the Bible by emphasizing its human nature.
Suppose, for example, that we wanted to gure out what the founding fathers of America
might have meant when they wrote the Establishment Clause of the constitution. It seems
like we would do well to consider things like 1 what were the prevailing political theories at
the time, and which of these theories did various founding fathers prescribe to? 2 Are there
allusions in the clause to other works at the time? 3 What …And so on. We’d answer that
question by considering the human inuences on the authors of the constitution. Critical
historical scholars tried to analyze the Bible this way. The problem: those scholars began
reaching conclusions that were diametrically opposed to Christianity.
To avoid these troublesome conclusions, Christianity especially evangelical Christians
threw out the whole lot. Historical criticism was given the mark of Cain. As a re
sult, there was a lessened focus on the overarching story of the people in the Bible
the story that those favorable to the historical criticism method were trying to discover.
Sermons, for example, became localized. In a recent Christianity Today article, Colin

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We need to do better. And to do that, you’ve got to have the big picture of
the entire Bible up to that point before your mind.
For example, here’s a list of every Old Testament passage and story Paul
cites or alludes to just in Romans:

And Paul’s not citing this verses as decoration; he’s resting critical steps of his
arguments off of the Old Testament consider: the importance of Genesis 15
in Romans 4; the importance of Deuteronomy 19 20 in Romans 10 .
This

3.1.2 How We’ll Go About Getting Better at This

We’ll start in the fall by going back to the beginning. We’ll study the Old Tes
tament especially the prophets major and minor with a keen eye towards
showing how the Old Testament matters to understanding the New Testa
ment. By studying this closely, we’ll try to draw the connections between the
messages of the Old and New Testaments.

3.2 Skill 2: Getting into the Mindset of People in Jesus’s

day
Consider the following questions:
Hansen observes Collin Hansen 2010 , “Why Johnny Can’t Read the Bible” May 24, 2010 ,
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/may/25.38.html?start=2:

As a result, sermons about King David often amount to little more than moral
biography: David committed adultery and murder, and we shouldn’t. Or pastors
may search for allegorical meaning behind the Old Testament gures, matching
a sermon point on courage to each of David’s ve smooth stones. In either case,
churchgoers do not see how David contributes to the messianic pattern fullled
in Christ.

And that last part, ironically, is the part the Gospel writers emphasize the most!

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3.3 Skill 3: Learning How to Research and Why it Mat-
ters That We Do
3.4 Two Warnings and a Bad Argument
3.4.1 Two Warnings
So far, a promise. In the previous section, I sketched some problems facing
the church as well as how we’re going to go about trying to get better. I’ve
proposed a number of skills that are important to learn. We’ve promised to
help you develop these skills over the next year. We’ve also promised that
developing these skills is worthwhile thing to learn as a disciple to Jesus. But
we do not promise the world. I’ll close by making two warnings:
First, keep your eyes on the prize. Our prize is discipleship unto Jesus. We
want to know what Jesus wants for our lives, and we want to do whatever that
is well. No Christian has ever claimed to understand the Bible completely.
And we do not intend to be the rst. Better to be the unlearned widow who
gave her last mite than be the wise pharisee who pushed for Jesus’ crucixion.
Unsurprisingly, Paul says it best: “If I speak with the tongue of men and of
angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophesy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I
have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” 1
Corinthians 13:1 2 . We want to learn more because 1 you want to learn more
about the person whom you love and 2 because learning more is integral to
our discipleship unto Jesus. The learning is not itself the end game but it is
an irreplaceable part of how we get there. Thus when you read the Bible, we
don’t want you to be xated entirely by the things we’re studying. But we don’t
want you to forget about these things either we know that the word of God
is “living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, and piercing as far
as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge
the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Second, we make no promises that our method gives all the answers to all our
questions. Remember, part of stepping up to the solid food of the Bible requires
us being honest about the fact that the some parts of the Bible are hard, that
the Bible doesn’t always answer concretely questions we might have. We must
be honest about the fact that the Bible is not and was never meant to be
an F.A.Q. about life.

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3.4.2 Considering an Objection
Objection: After those two warnings, you might be tempted to think some
thing like this: you’ve just admitted that the methods you’re teaching us aren’t
the most important thing; you’ve just admitted that love loving God and
loving others is most important. And you’ve also said that the methods you
teach us won’t give us all the answers. So: why are we doing this? Why take all
this time and make all these commitments? Why aren’t we focusing on loving
one another; isn’t that enough?
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