blitzkreig
January 21st, 2008, 09:49 PM
After MUCH personal experience I do have a few hints if someone does really want to "get into their Bible" but are having difficulty. Find that it is difficult to "follow".
From an old guy to you ... :preach
A big part of the motivation to study (you know ... that it is when it is so fascinating that you really don't want to put the Book down for the night ... kind of motivation) ... is "personal discovery".
Of course I believe that when it comes to such "personal discovery" it is actually the Spirit who is "turning your lights on" ... But knowing "where to dig" for such "discovery" surely doesn't hurt ... and for that you need to have that "primer". The "primer" is a "key" to "rightly divide the word of truth".
2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. It really doesn't work to have some one out and "tell you" the message. It really doesn't work that way. That is why so many sermons are just down right FLAT. Well meaning ... but flat. I can't "tell you" either ... but I know that if you use the "right tools" to "cut the Word Straight" you are more than just part way there to finding the "light switch".
One tool I would most heartily recommend is an "OLD Scofield Study Bible".
Now I stress it is the OLD Scofield which you want ... not the "New Revised Scofield" ... it just isn't the same. Scofield was long dead by the time the "New" one came about. Newer is often not better and definitely is not better in this case.
The "Old Scofield" has study notes and these have "chain references" ... without which it is very difficult to get "traction" on some topics of study.
The study is "dispensational" and so the notes will emphasize the "Rapture" and is "PreMillenial" and "Pre-Trib" as well. You need the "dispensational aspect" ... you will notice a crisp delineation between Israel and the Church. The one is NOT the other ... Israel has NOT been "replaced". Israel will come into her covenants including the Land covenant. That is at the root of "dispensational".
These same principles are what most of the folks on this forum believe (whether they understand they are dispensational or not).
You can get one from many sources ... but Oxford is the publisher and has the greatest variety. I heartily recommend the "Large Print" version. When you go ahead and get the regular size print one ... you will say "now I know what he meant" ... :idunno
Here is a list ... Oxford Press (http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/?view=usa&ss=price.asc&sf=featured&queryField=keyword&query=old+scofield&viewVeritySearchResults=true&searchType=&format=&title=&author=&keyword=&isbn=&fromMonthField=&fromYearField=&toMonthField=&toYearField=&subjCodes=&pr=50&bookCovers=yes&submit=Sort&view=usa&com.hesketh.taglib.autoform.formName=default.autof orm)
Yes ... it is the older "King James" English ... you will find the poetry in the language will make you stretch some ... but not as much as when Scofield takes you into the Greek or Hebrew rendition of different words ... which is were you have to go to get them really big "Pearls".
If you must ... have another translation open beside it ... after a while you will abandon the other translation and wish you had taken Greek in school instead of "French" ... but I digress ... :doh
Now once you get into "why it is that I have pointed you in that general direction" ... look into Scofield himself ... and some of his compatriots.
"Old Time" preachers ... some even going back into the "Philadelphia era" church (Rev 3:7) many decades ago.
Look into (Google) the preaching of Larkin, Robert Anderson, Pember, CH Mackintosh ... there are so many good authors with studies that can be had for free on the internet many who can be found from the Rapture Ready main page links.
Stand on their shoulders without apology. God gave us these old guys as surely as He gave us the Reformers in the 1600s who brought us out of the "Dark Ages" ...
:wave
From an old guy to you ... :preach
A big part of the motivation to study (you know ... that it is when it is so fascinating that you really don't want to put the Book down for the night ... kind of motivation) ... is "personal discovery".
Of course I believe that when it comes to such "personal discovery" it is actually the Spirit who is "turning your lights on" ... But knowing "where to dig" for such "discovery" surely doesn't hurt ... and for that you need to have that "primer". The "primer" is a "key" to "rightly divide the word of truth".
2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. It really doesn't work to have some one out and "tell you" the message. It really doesn't work that way. That is why so many sermons are just down right FLAT. Well meaning ... but flat. I can't "tell you" either ... but I know that if you use the "right tools" to "cut the Word Straight" you are more than just part way there to finding the "light switch".
One tool I would most heartily recommend is an "OLD Scofield Study Bible".
Now I stress it is the OLD Scofield which you want ... not the "New Revised Scofield" ... it just isn't the same. Scofield was long dead by the time the "New" one came about. Newer is often not better and definitely is not better in this case.
The "Old Scofield" has study notes and these have "chain references" ... without which it is very difficult to get "traction" on some topics of study.
The study is "dispensational" and so the notes will emphasize the "Rapture" and is "PreMillenial" and "Pre-Trib" as well. You need the "dispensational aspect" ... you will notice a crisp delineation between Israel and the Church. The one is NOT the other ... Israel has NOT been "replaced". Israel will come into her covenants including the Land covenant. That is at the root of "dispensational".
These same principles are what most of the folks on this forum believe (whether they understand they are dispensational or not).
You can get one from many sources ... but Oxford is the publisher and has the greatest variety. I heartily recommend the "Large Print" version. When you go ahead and get the regular size print one ... you will say "now I know what he meant" ... :idunno
Here is a list ... Oxford Press (http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/?view=usa&ss=price.asc&sf=featured&queryField=keyword&query=old+scofield&viewVeritySearchResults=true&searchType=&format=&title=&author=&keyword=&isbn=&fromMonthField=&fromYearField=&toMonthField=&toYearField=&subjCodes=&pr=50&bookCovers=yes&submit=Sort&view=usa&com.hesketh.taglib.autoform.formName=default.autof orm)
Yes ... it is the older "King James" English ... you will find the poetry in the language will make you stretch some ... but not as much as when Scofield takes you into the Greek or Hebrew rendition of different words ... which is were you have to go to get them really big "Pearls".
If you must ... have another translation open beside it ... after a while you will abandon the other translation and wish you had taken Greek in school instead of "French" ... but I digress ... :doh
Now once you get into "why it is that I have pointed you in that general direction" ... look into Scofield himself ... and some of his compatriots.
"Old Time" preachers ... some even going back into the "Philadelphia era" church (Rev 3:7) many decades ago.
Look into (Google) the preaching of Larkin, Robert Anderson, Pember, CH Mackintosh ... there are so many good authors with studies that can be had for free on the internet many who can be found from the Rapture Ready main page links.
Stand on their shoulders without apology. God gave us these old guys as surely as He gave us the Reformers in the 1600s who brought us out of the "Dark Ages" ...
:wave