INTRODUCTION TO
KEY TO THE BIBLE, Student
Complete
the following: Give a man a fish and he eats [or you
feed him] for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats [or you feed him] for a lifetime.
What
is this saying about? Your efforts to help someone are most effective when you
teach them to take care of themselves. Lets consider the saying more carefully.
So, don’t give away anything? No, that’s not the point. The saying has to do
with the relative merits of making someone self-sufficient as opposed to your
regularly providing for their needs [this has many
ramifications]. The second line here is more accurately stated as “train a man to fish…” because you go
with him to get the right gear, set up the line, bait the hook(s) show him
where to fish, etc. He needs more than you’re telling and showing him. He needs
to practice, to be corrected, and build his skill level.
Does
anyone disagree with this principle? I’ve never heard of anyone disagreeing
with it in principle, but in practice, we often revert to giving away fish. I
liken giving fish to teaching,
meaning that knowledge and wisdom gained through study, research, and hard work
is freely conveyed to others who have expended no effort of their own. The key
to learning and becoming proficient at almost anything – plane geometry; a
second language; playing a banjo; boxing; pruning peach trees; etc. involves
both instruction and focused supervised practice. It is through these that one
gains proficiency, and without the discipline of the exercises, there will be little
progress. Improvement is the expectation of practice.
There is a basic assumption at the root
of this course – the Bible discusses real truth, not something vaguely
religious which seems to work psychologically. This means that when we consider
the Gospel or witness to someone, we are talking about real moral guilt before the
God who is there. We are not merely offering him relief from guilt-feelings.
When we read the Bible, we are reading history. The death of Jesus is not just
an ideal or a symbol but a space-time event, the meaning of which the Bible
explains.
One of the goals of this series of
classes is to gain a clear understanding of what you believe and why you
believe it to be true. Our approach will be (1) examine what the Bible says and (2) think
through what it means by what it says. For example let’s say I’m using a plumber’s
snake to unclog a drain at Bill’s house and I remark “this will solve all your [drainage or life – double entendre] problems.” Bill
says “yeah right”! His actual words sound like he is agreeing with me, “it sure will, our worries will be over.” But is that what he
means? No, he is actually saying exactly the opposite, “not very likely.” He is
using the language of affirmation to express sarcasm. [shaded part added in follow-up e-mail]
So, let’s
practice.
1. Begin by writing a short
statement describing your impression of what the Old Testament is about.
·
Employ the following METHOD OF STUDY where appropriate [your training
workout throughout this study]: write out the passage or a portion of it, then observe
and comment - focus and think through what you are reading by interacting
with the passage, dialoging with it: reorganize the wording; identify [label] what is being
stated; describe; categorize; summarize; draw conclusions; question; follow
leads; state implications; note what it doesn’t say. My
interaction and comments are [bracketed].
EXAMPLE: Interact with Mk.1:14-15.
What is the context? [What was Jesus
doing? What does He show?] Jesus came into
[2] 'and the
[3] 'repent and believe in the Gospel' [What does this
have to do with the foregoing?].
The Trouble
with Habits
A
habit is an acquired behavioral pattern characterized by regular indulgence or
practice. The trouble is that bad habits are usually easily picked up, but
developing good habits requires a disciplined approach. Interacting with
scripture as we’ve been doing here is a good habit and those who stick with the
Key program will have plenty of practice. The Christian
life involves four areas of personal discipline. Exactly which areas a person
needs to work on depends on what he naturally gravitates toward, enjoys, and
practices the most. Check out the article on my site entitled MEANS OF GRACE.
Rate your enjoyment/preference for each of the 4 areas. The area you least
prefer is the one you most need to develop good habits in. [shaded part added in e-mail]
Becoming
Aware of One’s Own Framework
Christians tend to adopt the beliefs and thinking of those who
brought them to Christ or raised them in Christ. We absorb our concepts of
Scripture and what being Christian means from those around us. In other words,
we become acculturated through our group or church – the subculture we find
ourselves in. This is a problem because there is much contradictory teaching
within various Christian circles. That’s why there are so many expressions of
Protestantism (for example) – Presbyterian; Methodist; Baptist; Assembly of
God; Christian Reformed; Church of Christ; etc. There are real theological
differences involved here. Theological differences refer to disagreements over
various aspects of the truth as revealed in God’s word. No one thinks that what
he believes is wrong. Truth matters and it’s up to each of us to seek it out.
Here is the problem. Each
of us already has a truth grid or framework in place in his mind1 and we tend to either reject or fit into it what we
learn or hear or read in the Bible. Because our understanding is shaped by what
we have already accepted as true, we often don’t recognize the implications of
what we read as different or as a challenge to our initially embraced impressions.
One tendency is to make it all fit together, even when it doesn’t, and this is detrimental
to correct thinking and reasoning. This course will help you become more aware
of your own assumptions and enable you to be more objective in both understanding
and reasoning. [shaded part added in e-mail]
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1. People accumulate a reservoir of accepted notions and ways of seeing and
thinking about things that functions to judge viewpoints and concepts later
encountered. The formation of this
network of accepted ideas and methodology of thinking is not usually deliberate
or conscious. As a consequence of not
making truth and right thinking priorities, we end up with of contradictory and
conflicting “truths” and “reasonings” at the heart of
our perception matrix. One of the
benefits of this course is an awakening to the existence of such a framework
leading to an examination of one’s presuppositions and logic methodology. For Christians it means replacing some of these
basic presumptions with Biblical concepts and correct
logical thinking. This is one reason
each person must do his own homework.