Open Your Bible Now!

Open Your Bible Now!

How to Study the Bible and a tour through it, beginning to end.

By Cecelia Jane Jackson

Published by Four Craftsmen Publishing at Smashwords

Copyright Cecelia Jane Jackson 1982, 2004, 2012

Illustrations by June Butler, coloration by Allanna Jackson.

Incorporating Christian’s Personal Bible Study Course, historical fiction and comments by Martin Allan Jackson, used by permission, and

Christian’s Bible Short Course

ISBN 978-0-39644-8-9

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Older versions of the information in this book are available in printed leaflet format exclusively from:

Four Craftsmen Publishing

PO Box U

Lakeside, AZ 85929-0585

USA

Table of Contents

CHRISTIAN’S PERSONAL BIBLE STUDY COURSE

Significance of the Bible

Bible Study Helps

Let’s Practice

CHRISTIAN’S BIBLE SHORT COURSE

OVERVIEW OF THE BIBLE

1) In the Beginning…

2) God’s Covenant with Abraham

3) Getting Into Egypt

4) Getting Out of Egypt

5) Getting the Promised Land

6) In Trouble Again!

7) We Want a King!

8) Kings and More Kings

9) Warnings and Promises

Historical Supplement

10) Punishment of Sin and God’s Mercy

11) Man’s Efforts Fail

12) In the Fullness of Time

13) Jesus’ Ministry

14) The Covenant Fulfilled

15) The Holy Spirit at Work

16) Holy Spirit’s Work Within

17) Holy Spirit Builds Body of Christ

18) King of Kings, Lord of Lords

Group Discussion Leaders’ guide for tour of Bible

About the author

Christian’s Personal Bible Study Course

This course can be studied individually or in a group. Groups can break this course into three blocks of seven sessions with breaks, or use any other convenient plan for fitting the course to class time. Groups need a discussion leader.

The Discussion Leader begins each meeting with prayer such as the one in Ephesians 1:16-23. The Leader depends on the Holy Spirit to bring about love and harmony during the discussion time. Group members need to feel accepted and respected by the others so they feel free to express themselves even if their ideas and feelings are wrong or uncomfortable. Every member of the group brings his or her own personal history to the group which needs to be respected and drawn from just as God’s history (the Bible) needs to be respected and drawn from.

Between meeting times the Leader prays for each member of the group as the Holy Spirit leads. The Leader is not expected to have all the answers but leads the exploration for answers which the Holy Spirit has for the group. Listen to the direction from the Holy Spirit for the particular group.

You can find a Discussion Leader’s Guide for the Tour of the Bible at the end of this book. No discussion questions are provided for the first three sessions of how to study the Bible. The activities are built into those sessions.

Students, you are to look up in Bibles each reference given in this course and write your answers to the exercises in a notebook. Practice writing out your own relationship with the Lord as the writers of the Bible did. You will also need access to various study helps: Concordances, dictionaries, topical Bibles, atlases and handbooks on the Bible. As a group study the Discussion Leader guides the group in the activities for each of objectives of each session.

Objectives for How to Study the Bible:

1) Explain how the Bible came about and its significance.

2) Learn several reasons for studying the Bible for yourself and how to study it.

3) Explain why there are so many translations in use today.

4) Learn to use a concordance and various other Bible helps and practice using the Bible.

5) Learn to express yourself and share your relationship with God with others.

The Bible is truth, giving directions for our lives. The purpose of this Personal Bible Study Course is to teach newcomers to the Bible how to become familiar with it and how to use the Bible for personal growth in relating to God and to other people.

Personal Bible Study

Session 1 of 3

Significance of the Bible

Objectives for this session:

1) Explain the significance of the Bible.

2) Name at least two reasons for studying the Bible.

3) Describe who wrote the Bible.

4) Give at least one reason for the many translations in use today.

5) Identify chapter and verse numbers and tell how to use them.

6) Point out a cross reference in your Bible.

Why is the Bible important?

The Bible is unique. It is the only ancient book that is still widely read. It has been preserved through the centuries in various manuscripts. The unique thing about the Bible is that it is God breathed.

2 Timothy 3:16.

God’s Word is living and powerful. God’s Word stands forever. The Bible tells who God is and how He interacts with people. It also talks honestly about the nature of people.

Hebrews 4:12

Isaiah 40:8

Exodus 34:6-7

Leviticus 20:7-8

Romans 3:9, 23

The God of the universe has told us about His character and given us a glimpse of His plans in the Bible. It was written over thousands of years by many different authors. Each of the authors knew God by experience and told what they knew about Him. That’s a witness. In Scripture each author is a separate witness to God, so when the same concepts appear over and over, they are truth. Truth is determined by two or three witnesses.

John 8:17-18.

The Koran and the Book of Mormon were written after the time of Jesus and were written by only one author each.

Why do we need to study the Bible?

The Bible brings us directions for a complete life.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3

Matthew 4:4

John 10:10

Two reasons to study the Bible for ourselves:

1) To determine what is true:

John 8:31-32

Luke 24:26-27

Acts 17:10-12

2) To get to know Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit intimately which is eternal, abundant life.

Jeremiah 31:34

Matthew 22:36-40

John 6:45; 17:3

2 Peter 3:15-16 (implies what Paul wrote is Scripture.)

Therefore, it is necessary to search the whole Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, to learn to know God and relate to Him who is unchangeable.

Malachi 3:6

Hebrews 13:8.

You just have to be willing to learn what the Bible really says about God and people. Let the Bible interpret the Bible to you. Seek God expecting the Holy Spirit to teach you as you read Scripture and other resources.

Jeremiah 29:12-13

John 14:26

The Bible is not a textbook that we figure out by ourselves. You don’t have to be a scholar with lots of degrees to understand the Bible. The Holy Spirit is your individual teacher. He gives you wisdom, knowledge, and discernment to know what is truth and how it applies to you. He shows you what is right or wrong about a teaching or prophecy you have gotten from others.

1 John 2:27

1 Corinthians 2:6-10

1Thessalonians 5:21

How is the Bible written?

Let’s look at Bibles. All Bible contain the Old Testament which has 39 books and the New Testament which has 27 books. These 66 books vary in length and styles of writing. The Old Testament is divided into three sections: historical, wisdom, and prophets.

From Genesis to Esther is historical, reporting the activities of the Hebrews and the countries surrounding them.

From Job through Song of Solomon are known as books of wisdom. These are in narrative, poetic, or drama style.

The next section is the prophets, referred to as major and minor depending on the length of the book, not on the importance of the recorded messages. The books of the prophets are written in narrative, poetic, and reporting style. Prophecies are not chronological and some of them have multiple fulfillments over a very long period of time.

EXERCISE: Look in Isaiah for examples of different styles of writing.

EXERCISE: Look up an example of multiple fulfillments of a prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23.

The Lord stopped speaking to the prophets for 400 years, but continued working on preparing the world for the coming of His Messiah, Jesus.

Amos 8:11-12

The historical accounting of this period is found in the First and Second Books of the Maccabees in the Apocrypha which is not included in most Bibles. There are modern English versions of the Bible which include the Apocrypha.

What is in the New Testament?

The New Testament consists of the four Gospels which give the history of Jesus on earth. The Acts of the Apostles is the beginning of the Christian church. Then Romans through Jude are letters from Paul and some of the other apostles. The final book, Revelation, is what John experienced in the Holy Spirit and resembles the Old Testament prophetic books with the same kinds of messages.

Have you wondered how all these sections of the Bible fit together?

There is a New International Version set in Chronological Order in 365 daily readings published by Harvest Home Publishers.

How was it decided what should be in the Bible?

Since the Bible is God breathed, God Himself guided the men who were seeking to determine what was to be in the Bible. It is thought that the first five books of the Old Testament were written by Moses, then put in their present form around 445 BC. The other books of the Old Testament were written later. The final decision of what went into the Old Testament was made by the Council of Jamnia around 90 AD.

This encouraged a collection of a list of Christian writings which would constitute the standards of the Christian churches. These were the books and letters that were read publicly in the congregations and considered to have special God breathed authority.

Other writings about Jesus and the apostles appeared which were not authentic so there needed to be a finalized list of acceptable books for the New Testament. The first formal list was made about 140 AD. After many years of debate, the list was finalized by the end of the fourth century AD.

The criteria for accepting a writing in the list were:

— It had to be written or sponsored by a first century AD apostle of Jesus of Nazareth.

— Be recognizably following the accepted and established faith of the apostles in content, and