0:03
susceptible to it as uh as other religions and so I think if we're in the word and we're in the word intelligently and we understand that we
0:13
are part of this people with whom God is engaged and I'm not saying I don't go to the point I think it's somewhat trite you know the people who
0:25
say that the Bible is God's love letter not every part of it okay um no it's not and I think that
0:36
again trivializes and essentially takes this epic and puts it into our modern concept of everything is thumbs up you know everything is is God is love um his
0:49
Holiness his absolute Justice we cannot understand the cross if we don't understand Sodom and Gomorrah and the flood okay we we don't understand the
1:01
casting out of Adam and Eve from the garden we we don't understand the concept of sin and therefore we can't understand the cross again this does not mean we are not
1:11
Christians it just means that we have not matured in our understanding we've not renewed our minds and really the only place that we have to renew our minds is God's word so that's why we're
1:23
having this conversation so what I want to get into we have today in a couple more weeks of this session I want to actually talk about some preliminary reading plans and again these are not
1:36
going to be exhaustive there are others who have done that I I again mention um this this book search the scriptures which I think does have a very good
1:46
pattern um it's a three-year program but there's no reason that it can't be a four-year program there's nothing sacred about reading through the Bible in a particular period of time it's far
1:59
better that you read through the Bible in an intelligent and uh edifying productive way than following somebody's reading plan uh I
2:11
will tell you this that um if if you of of all the plans that are out there and that we have available the one by Robert Murray mcshain is essentially the
2:23
climbing of Mount Everest of Bible reading plants okay so take oxygen pack with you and uh okay it it is more than most 21st century people mortals can handle and
2:36
keep in mind he died at age 28 so um those of you older than that don't even try okay but others are you know there there read through the New Testament in
2:47
a year so they're they're different and they're fine but I don't want you to get into a um a self imposed guilt trip that
2:58
there's something sacred about reading through the Bible in a certain amount of time no we're just to be in the word but if you're in the word in an unintelligent
3:08
and and unfruitful manner then it could actually cause more damage than good at the very best it will be of no benefit at all okay so I
3:19
want to try to offer some guidelines and I think that there are three approaches that we can make to the scriptures n all three of which are our accurate and
3:30
should be part of our Bible study mentality now I'm approaching this assuming a functional ignorance of the biblical
3:42
world that is common among us Gentiles especially those who have been in the United States and whether you knew it or not if you've been a chrisan
3:53
for any length of time you have probably em bibed em bibed dispensationalism in the air that you breathe okay which which seals off
4:04
different sections of scripture calling them dispensations these are periods of time in which God dealt with Mankind in a certain way he would begin the
4:14
dispensation with an act of Grace and end it with an act of judgment but then that dispensation is closed and we move on to the next
4:24
one so the scriptures that are associated with any particular dispensation have no real application to the current dispensation now that kind of
4:36
hermeneutics is prevalent in American Christianity even Christianity even Presbyterian even reformed because dispensationalism has uh captured the
4:47
popular literature of our Christian culture and most of the books that you get at a Christian bookstore will have that kind of dispensational
4:58
Armenian um approach to Christianity but not in an overtly doctrinal way coming out right out and saying okay this is an Armenian book no they don't do it that
5:08
way they'll just talk about your will and and uh submitting your will to God and your will and coming to Jesus Christ and he will talk about the dispensation of the Israelites and you know there are
5:21
hints so I'm I'm assuming functional ignorance and I'm doing that um for one reason is because that's how I came to scripture raised nominally
5:32
Catholic uh and by nominal means I didn't even get out of catechism I couldn't get along with the nuns so you know I'll be in purgatory for a long time um well we didn't go to mass we
5:45
didn't we didn't do the things we were supposed to do by the time I came along my family was 100% hedonistic we were thoroughly Pagan and so I
5:56
didn't didn't really have a religion so when I came to to Christ um 1978 there was no Foundation no background I didn't know
6:08
anything about Israel anything about the Bible um and so that's functional ignorance now I knew I knew more than people know today I knew who David was you know David and Goliath I you know I
6:19
went to Sunday school and we had that it's amazing how little people know today about the the biblical uh world it's not that they know it and just
6:29
believe it they don't even know it okay so assuming functional ignorance is not an insult it's just you got to know where to start and so these three um
6:42
approaches that I want to talk about and kind of uh lead a discussion the first is the historical
7:06
the religion revealed in scripture is scripture is revealed in history it is historical we live in a time uh again the product of the
7:18
Enlightenment where past and present have been divorced from one another we live in a time when people don't think they need they need history um one of our former and very
7:30
contemporary presidents basically said that he had no need of History uh that's a dangerous thing from the leader of the Free World to say uh but it's really a a
7:40
foolish thing for anybody to say because we're not actually divorced from history the writer of Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new Under the Sun uh the names
7:51
have been changed not to protect the innocent but the the sins are the same and the the um machinations of the evil one are the same we are aware Paul says
8:02
of his devices because he's not all that original so history is is very very important to our understanding of scripture it's not a disembodied
8:14
doctrine that again I think this is a a real danger the danger of the reformed Camp is to disembody Doctrine from the
8:24
living world in which it was given that the danger as Yuri mentions of of fundamentalism or of dispensationalism is a disembodied ethic how to be good
8:36
people so that God Smiles at you and lets you into heaven you know that that becomes really in essence a Works religion so um the history of it is not just to tickle our fancy or to to help
8:50
us in a a Bible verse drill in Sunday school that's not the point the point is the realization that this all happened okay now that's under um huge
9:04
attack within our public school system and our universities with the complete um assimilation of evolution to our entire
9:16
worldview you know you understand that is a complete break with history there's no history in The Big Bang Theory because history is about people it's not
9:26
just about times past okay it's about the interaction of people with people but more importantly the interaction of people with God and God with people so
9:38
um you're going to be challenged especially young people as you go you go to college you're going to be challenged with the historical veracity of the scriptures and you know just as a side
9:50
note I I do want to point out and this I you know I encourage you to investigate yourself but the Bible has never been proven historically Ally
10:01
historically Ally untrue there there are aspects of the Bible that have not yet come to light through the science of archaeology but keep in mind that when
10:11
in a thousand years archaeologists are digging around Greenville what they are going to uncover is the enery landfill when we have concentrated our
10:23
stuff in one place you know Ecclesiastes also says that you know when a man eyes his place remembers him no more most of us will not be discoverable
10:35
and what they do find will be a trash dump okay what are they going to think of us when they look through our trash all right so there are a lot of things in
10:45
the scripture that have not yet been historically proven the point is there's nothing in the scripture that has ever been historically been historically disproven that what has come to light
10:55
through archaeology and continues to come to light even the identity of King omry the father of Ahab now he gets about two
11:06
sentences in the Bible because he was a thoroughly Wicked Pagan King well as a thoroughly Wicked Pagan King he left behind a lot of junk
11:17
and they found it okay so you know you they stumble on these things and it's it's probably not more than six months when I'll see another article about something that's
11:28
just been discovered that pinpoints the time of Solomon or the reign of David right so there it's never been historically disproven the burden of proof is on the
11:40
unbeliever for us this stuff happened so we approached the scripture historically and I'm going to um give a kind of a reading plan for
11:53
each of these but I'm going to watch the time another way that we approach it
12:10
theologically this is very important but is not is not first and if it's first I think it's going to lead to trouble again it's going to be that
12:21
disembodied Doctrine um but this is especially within the reformed camp this is where we want to start people we want to start in the theological
12:32
approach um we homeschooled our children our children are homeschooling schooling their children and you know we we talk about I remember Angel and I talking
12:42
about teaching the the young children history and it was my philosophy that it didn't make much sense to teach a child about the War of the Roses when they
12:53
didn't understand that their grandparent was their parents father you know they they don't have an understanding of time and so what you're
13:04
telling them are stories one's a red rose and one's a white rose it there's no actual connection we have to establish that connection within a new believer's mind that these things
13:17
actually did happen and they didn't just happen as um ancillary events they they were integrated with the revelation of God that that's the
13:29
point of this quote that the things that happened with these people in their engagement with God was integral to God's self-revelation to God's revelation of his purpose to God's revelation of man
13:42
all that God has given us in scripture has been mediated through his engagement with a people that is history and so the history of scripture is where we I think we should
13:54
begin then what is that what is the Revelation that flows out of that history well that's where theology comes in but the theology if it's not grounded in the history becomes nothing more than
14:08
religious Doctrine and we we we are trained to maintain as a shth the right Doctrine we may not be able to defend it and we really don't understand the heart and
14:20
life of it because we haven't rooted it in God's engagement with his people does that make sense I mean when did he give The Ten Commandments when he was bringing his people out of bondage okay
14:33
and and when he says you know throughout the Psalms and elsewhere in the in the prophets he says I am the Lord that brought you out of Egypt you know he keeps going back to that when he's
14:44
giving them doctrinal instructions in Leviticus for example he'll remind them what he did with them and through the doing of that revealed himself revealed
14:55
themselves revealed his purpose for calling them together as a people so Doctrine flows out of Biblical history again this is why as I mentioned earlier
15:29
theology system theology having start I think we have to move to Systematic Theology just as we have to move to theology but a Systematic Theology that is divorced from Biblical theology is nothing more than religious
15:40
Dogma okay it it doesn't touch the heart it becomes cold um and it becomes impotent okay so yeah I think um but the
15:52
analogy of biblical theology that is the history of the the history of Revelation and that history is real but it's also not just illustration so so often uh commentaries
16:05
look at Romans 4 and and think that Paul is using Abraham as an illustration of justification by justification by faith PA you know Abraham is just an example of this no no he's the father of
16:18
it okay he's the foundation of it it's it's in the historical events of Abraham that God is revealing the doctrine of justification by grace through faith
16:28
does that make sense he's not just an example he's the Prototype he's a prototype yes uh he's the Prototype of all who have the same Faith as he does
16:41
so that he's not an example or an illustration he's an analog uh so but that's history that's understanding that when God when these things were happening God was with his
16:52
people revealing his purpose so the theological approach does bring us to the Systematic Theology but I think there's another
17:04
approach that also needs to be incorporated and this one will make some people nervous uh because this is this
17:16
is where liberals start and that is the literary approach to L sorry literary I wanted to askit
17:28
those who do not become teachers is moving on to Systematic Theology Paul said not many of you should become teachers you stronger judgment if biblical Theology of an
17:39
understanding of of the work of Christ of God culminating in Christ throughout the Bible will inform our
17:51
understanding and basically give the spirit the material it needs us to walk after Christ why would someone move on to systematic that's a good question uh and
18:02
it is true not all not everybody should should Endeavor to become a teacher because as such you will incur a stricter judgment but we will all incur a judgment we will all appear before the
18:14
Judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the Deeds Done In the Flesh SI the the historical approach biblical theology that's laying the foundation and I'd say it's laying the
18:25
foundation for every believer to answer why why would somebody go any further I would go to Romans 12 where
18:36
where Paul has you know really just finished up a tremendous amount of Theology and he says I urge you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God
18:46
to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship now that one verse verse one of Romans 12
18:57
you can you can take the entire Book of Leviticus and squeeze it into that verse to understand that verse you need to understand Leviticus you need to
19:08
understand what is a an acceptable sacrifice okay but then go on this is where it really matters and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
19:20
that you may prove what is the will of God that which is good and acceptable and perfect but then he goes on um in the rest of this chap chapter to deal with interpersonal relationships within
19:31
the church and how everyone possesses giftedness within the body then he goes on in Chapter 13 to talk about how we interact with the society around us particularly the government and he pulls
19:44
in the in the Commandments you know the the the uh the second table of the law in in that um and so the the point being is that we all have a responsibility within the
19:55
body as gifted believers Paul makes that very clear in Corinthians that though only a few are teachers everyone is a joint or a ligament responsible to provide what the
20:07
body needs as it builds itself up how do we do that by renewing our minds because the natural course is to be conformed to the world you don't have to do anything
20:20
for that to happen what he's talking about here he's actually using the Greek word from which we get met metamorphosis this takes an effort and I
20:33
guess that's what I I I would answer is that effort is incumbent upon every believer not necessarily to the point of teaching others but it's the only way for us to be guided in our own actions
20:46
and in our own uh living within the charismata that God has gifted each one of us is to do it according to God's will how do we
20:57
know what that will is is that's what he's saying here what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God will we only know it through the scripture does that I think so I guess what you're
21:08
saying is the Systematic Theology provides a more complete set of tools oh yeah thatal yes to bring construction
21:18
terms that's what I'm hearing yeah it it does and I think it's it's vital to have as complete a set of tools because you're you're not you're not going to run the garage but you're
21:30
or the the work site but you have you're the framer okay the framer is not the foreman the Forman is not the superintendent but certainly your skill
21:40
sets need to increase as your responsibilities increase but as as husbands you have wives as father you have children okay
21:51
as employees you have co-employees you have Masters Okay so and all of this is again if you don't understand the theology
22:02
behind then all you're doing is is living according to a Christian ethic you're not really renewing your mind that's why so when you say that you turn your point theological approach but
22:15
what we understood previously was you should be learning biblical theology in your hisory historic reading of the scriptures right but in order to
22:41
this yes I'm not it's not an either or to me um it's it's a both and but with a priority so biblical theology
22:54
alone is not is not sufficient for us to to understand the doctrines of doctrines of Grace to either live them or to propagate them because we do think
23:08
systematically and the scripture are not given to us systematically Abe you had a comment in comment in moreing that we are responsible for one another can't
23:21
another can't issues don't have to go to the teacher or the to find out you shouldn't have
23:41
we're able to help one another and also we're able to um build one another up yeah um when o when others have questions we ought to be able to give
23:53
answers when our children have questions when our spouses have questions and I mean that either direction I do not believe that the husband is the you know the Bible Answer Man uh I you know in
24:05
the many years of of ministry I've known um quite a number of wives who know more about the scripture than their husbands do so don't get me wrong but that's that
24:15
that interaction that one another U what I'm saying about biblical theology without biblical theology your Systematic Theology is disembodied but it is still
24:26
necessary it it biblical theology just needs to be put back into the puzzle and in its right place when I went to Seminary it was not in its right place it was actually its own course one
24:38
single course where we went through garus Voss biblical theology that was it that was my entire exposure to biblical theology but we had year after
24:48
year and semester after semester of systematic theology and to me again that's just that's just dis embodied Doctrine so it it is for for all of us because what Paul says in Romans here be
25:02
transformed and not conformed I think we agree that's for every one of us he's not just talking about leaders because then again he's going to go on and talk about the individual gifts for ourselves
25:14
even if we were not involved or responsible for anyone else there's still ourselves that we need to present to God as a true Living Sacrifice and
25:25
the way we do that is according to his word okay and to do it in according to his word his word correctly we need to understand the doctrine that the history
25:37
teaches but the literary the reason I want to throw that in and we're coming at the end of of our time here the reason I want to throw that in is that if we just take approaches one and
25:51
two there's a lot of scripture we're going to going to avoid because it doesn't fall in to either the history or the theology
26:01
categories we're not going to read for example Ecclesiastes or really the Psalms or Proverbs or Song of Solomon okay or you
26:12
know there is the apocalyptic Ezekiel okay um Ezekiel you will understand Ezekiel when your eyes are wheels within wheels and they're rolling
26:22
back and forth okay Revelation again um I think it's very significant that that John Calvin never wrote A Commentary on Revelation
26:34
he wrote one on just about every other book but he said I can't touch that one he was at least um he had enough Integrity to to say I I don't understand that book okay so we won't read those
26:47
because we don't seem to get anything out of them um and and yet they are scripture and therefore as Paul says to Timothy they are inspired they are
26:58
profitable for our instruction for our reproof for our uh preparation for any good work so that means they're there uh and so I think the literary approach is
27:09
one in which we we kind of uh and this is a dangerous phrase we open our mind we allow God to speak to us in Psalms we allow God to speak to us in
27:20
Proverbs or in wisdom Literature Like job and I think you know in listening to Tim's teaching through Sunday school on job um it just kind of dawned to me that to
27:33
me that um in job we're listening to the suffering of a righteous man we're we're listening to as it were the the righteous suffering of Jesus Christ that
27:47
was wordless in his life it wasn't wordless between him and his father okay U so job is a very significant but I wouldn't
27:57
necess necessarily put uh a newborn Christian Into the Book of Job or or Revelation okay or Ezekiel I mean these are there's there's
28:08
no uh critical demand that you get through each of these books within a certain amount of time of the date that you wrote in your Bible that you accepted Jesus you know there there's
28:20
nothing that says that within the first five years you will have read Song of Solomon okay uh there's nothing that's that's not that's not true but to say that you can go your
28:33
entire life as a Believer and not read what God has written now that's also not true so I I do think that this approach the reason I put it up here third is
28:43
because this is where liberals begin they say it's all about the the genre it's all about the literary uh it's a narrative it's a legend it's a song you know so we don't really take it
28:54
seriously because you know what it's poetry well many poems have been written with with very Earnest seriousness okay so uh and I think the scriptural uh poetry is very very
29:05
serious so these are the three approaches and we're we're just about out of time um there there are probably others again I I said a couple weeks ago I have no intention of writing a how to
29:16
study your Bible book because there are enough of those and and I think it very much has to do with the Holy Spirit leading you but I want to close today
29:26
you know again reminding that when you read the Bible you read it as a child of God which means it it's it's like when you read um
29:37
history you know I can I can read I'm reading a book um called Pax which is a period of the Roman Empire from the year of four Emperors I think on through
29:48
Marcus aelius but the author is great Tom Holland I've read his Rubicon and and his dynasty and this is his third one and I'm like you know it's history it doesn't resonate because even though
30:00
my people came from Sicily they had nothing to do with the Roman Empire okay so there's like no connection there but if I'm reading um American history even
30:11
though my grandfather immigrated in 1921 which means we weren't here for most of this history I'm reading I connect with it does that make sense because this is part of the world
30:24
in which I live this is part of the her Heritage in which I was raised and I connect with it well when you read the Old Testament you know if you look at Romans 11 you have been grafted in to
30:38
that one Olive Tree this is your heritage this is your history and and you should connect with it okay but finally one other thing to say and I
30:50
hope to pick this up a little bit more next week as a society We have basically a abandoned reading all
31:01
reading all together so for some people it's not just how to read the Bible it's how to read and and even there I would suggest
31:13
that it will not hurt your reading of the Bible to also begin reading Jane Austin or Dickens or the trilogy of of
31:23
the Rings or you know just start reading again okay put down the phone put down the iPad and pick up a book although the book may be on the iPad I understand um
31:35
but but just getting back into that um that habit of reading will once again reprogram your mind and I I do think our brains are
31:47
somewhat like our lungs if we stop smoking they will clean up over time okay if we if we start reading I think our brains will reprogram to be where mankind has been
31:59
for Millennia and that is this is where we get our information so um don't dive into Ezekiel uh read something lighter and and and don't think that you have to at
32:10
every waking moment you need to be reading your Bible no you can read something else as well so let's close in prayer father we do thank you that you have given us your word and that your
32:22
word is a panoramic uh View of of all that you desire for us to know about you and about ourselves about the past the
32:34
present and the future we pray that you would by your Holy Spirit compel us into your
32:45
word do not give our souls or our minds rest or rest or peace if we are not in your word we do this father we pray this that
32:57
you might edify and build us up that we might indeed be an acceptable sacrifice to you for you alone are worthy through
