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Excellent Study Bible

By Joe Felim

I have been giving Life Application Study Bibles away for about 8 years now. The study notes are very good. On the top half of each page you have the actual text of Scripture. On the bottom half of each page you have the study notes. The study notes are brief descriptions/interpretations of each individual verse. Of course not all verses are interpreted for us, largely due to space constraints. All the major verses are covered. What’s really neat about this bible is that the study notes really help you to see how any particular verse of Scripture applies to you personally in your day to day life. It breaks each verse down so that it’s easy to understand. Hence the name Life APPLICATION Study Bible. Another neat thing about this bible is that this bible is really right about down the middle as far as Theology is concerned. It’s a bible that pretty much all denominations can agree with. Anyone from Petecostal Assemblies of God types, all the way to the other side of Southern Baptist Conservative types, or middle of the road Calvary Chapel types and everyone in between can enjoy and apprecaite. The reason this bible can be appreciated by such a wide variety of groups is not at all because it’s wishy washy on Theology but, rather, it’s simply because it majors on application. That’s what’s so great about it. Everyone from a brand new believer all the way to a well seasoned Bible Teacher or Pastor can greatly benefit from the study notes in this bible.

If you are looking for a more Doctrinally or Theologically centered bible then I higly recomend John Macarthur’s “The Macarthurs Study Bible. Or if you’re more the Pentecostal type more centered on the gifts of the Spirit, try The “New Spirit Filled Bible” by Jack Hayford. If you’re more on the Calvanist, Reformed Theology type then try the “Reformation Study Bible” by R. C. Sproul. I believe Chuck Smith has also recently come out with his own Study Bible for you Calvary Chapel types.

With all that said, I still highly recomend this Life Application Study Bible. All of the above mentioned groups and many more will appreciate this Bible.

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What Did God Really Say?

by Charles King

Satan asked Eve in the Garden of Eden “Did God really say not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil?” Eve either did not know what God had said or she did not believe God. In either case Satan accomplished his goal “to kill, steal, and destroy.”

Satan’s game plan is still the same today. He is still asking the question, “Did God really say?” It is amazing the answers one gets when a question is asked about a specific Bible verse. Here are some common responses that you hear from many who profess to be Christians, included many well know preachers.

1) The Old Testament was only written for the Jews and does not apply to the Christian.
2) The “Law” no longer applies to the Christian they are under grace.
3) The Bible in the original manuscript contains no errors, which implies that our current manuscripts contain errors and they are the only ones capable of determining which is error, which is not.

For example the group who call themselves the “Jesus Seminar” imply that the Bible does not portray the true Jesus, but they are so intelligent that can read documents from the period of Jesus and determine the true Jesus.

Common sense tells you that if you were to read material of our day it would not project a true picture of those who truly believe in Jesus, but would portray a secular faith of those who have both feet in the world.
Before I attended Bible College and seminary, I had been a Christian for twenty-five years and had earned degrees in physics, mathematics, and computer science. All of these fields are a pure science and have very ridged rules that apply. However, when I started my study in theology, I was surprised at how much of theology, the study of God and His Word, was subjective instead of objective. How could it be that the creator of science, would allow the most important science, the study of Himself, to be that way? After much study of the Bible and different interpretations of man, I have come to the conclusion that the question Satan asked Eve is the issue, “Did God really say?” To answer this question we must address the issue from God’s primary revelation, the Bible. The first verse says “In the beginning God …”.
Hebrews 11:6 says, “So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (nlt). We must first believe there is a God. The Bible goes on to say in Romans 10:17, “Yet faith comes from listening to this message of good news-the Good News about Christ”(nlt).

So first we must settle the issue of is there a God and has He revealed Himself as stated in Hebrews 1:1-3; “Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. But now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he made the universe and everything in it. The Son reflects God’s own glory, and everything about him represents God exactly. He sustains the universe by the mighty power of his command. After he died to cleanse us from the stain of sin, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God of heaven”(nlt).
The first step understanding the truth is a firm belief (faith) that God is and that He rewards those who seek Him through Christ. The second step understanding is seeking God through Christ. “Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father accept by me” (John 14:16). From this though drives the hermeneutic of interpreting the Bible through the lens of “Jesus and Him crucified.” Hermeneutics are rules of Bible interpretation. Interpreting the Bible through the theological lens of Jesus and Him crucified can be found in Luke chapter 24 when Jesus tells the two on the road to Emmaus that they should have known about the crucifixion because Moses and the Prophets (Old Testament) had explained it.
In the physical sciences you have rules that have been established by observation then proven by application such as gravity. The same can hold true for the science of theology. Just as it was observed that an object fell when dropped led to the proof that this was consistent and that rules of gravity could be applied consistently. Yet, Theologians are slow to apply the same process to the study of God and His Word. Satan is still casting confusion “did God really say?” and if He did say something specific, then just what did He mean by that statement?

Many Bible teachers today are more driven by their church doctrines or by subjective theories of man in their Biblical interpretation process instead of by the objective word of God. For example I have listed below a number of our current schools of theology which have developed rules of Bible interpretation, many of which I believe to be more subjective than objective. I must omit I am heavily biased toward Biblical, Covenant, and Systematic theology over the others because I truly believe each of these are more objectively devised from the application of Scripture, than “man’s opinion of Scripture” (subjective).

Below is a list of some of the major schools of theology and my ranking of objectivity versus subjectivity.
1) Systematic Theology - heavy objectivity (Word of God) - weakness - Scripture out of context
2) Biblical Theology - heavy objectivity (Word of God) - must understand the whole of Scripture - interpretation based on the unity of God’s Word
3) Covenant Theology - heavy objectivity (Word of God) focuses upon God’s covenant relationship with man - must understand His covenant revelations
The following four schools of theology, if you could say they are truly schools of theology are in my opinion heavily subjective and are more centered on a specific man’s opinion of God’s Word instead of the Word of God itself.
4) Calvinism - Developed from five basic doctrines that drive the Biblical interpretation. It is known by the acronym TULIP. Much information is available on the Web about
Calvinism and TULIP (in the 1500’s AD)
5) Arminianism - James Arminius who lived after John Calvin and developed a five-point theology to counter the five points of the Calvinist. (in the 1600’s AD)
6) Wesleyan-ism - John Wesley developed a theology that is very similar to Arminianism, which led to the formation of the Methodist church. (in the 1700’s)
7) Dispensationalism teaches biblical history as a number of successive economies or administrations, called dispensations, each of which emphasizes that God deals with the people of that dispensation differently than with other dispensatioions. (Darby - in the1800’s )

In fact that ending (ism) should be a clue to their subjectivity. Most people that focus on these more subjective theologies tend to read Scripture through lens that are shaded by their theology (very subjective).

As was mentioned earlier, hermenutics define the rules of Biblical interpertation (exegisis). One’s hermenutics are heavely influnced by their school of theology. I would like to address two current hermenutics (a) HISTORICAL / GRAMMATICAL (b) HISTORICAL / GRAMMATICAL /THEOLOGICAL.
HISTORICAL / GRAMMATICAL - This method relies on the grammatical structure, immediate context and knowledge of the historical setting. Again like the common sense approach to the law of gravity, no one is alive today that understands the grammatical and common understanding to word meanings of that day. For example the word “mouse” today means an animal and also the computer device; the word “gay” means to be happy or a “homosexual”. Image some of the difficulties of interpreting some of our current written material based our upon word understanding two thousand years in the future. Who today truly understands the historical events of Biblical history, in many cases we don’t even know for certain the year with-in a hundred years of the event or even the location, or identity of the writer.

HISTORICAL / GRAMMATICAL /THEOLOGICAL - by adding the theological element to Bible interpretation you add in a variable that from a common sense perspective gives you a higher probability of correct interpretation and that is interpret Scripture in regard to Scripture. I would like to suggest two common sense elements of using theological interpretation.

1) Make sure you interpretation agrees with the most common meaning. That is if Scripture uses one meaning 100 times and another meaning 1 time, the most likely meaning would be the one used 100 times.
2) Let the simplest verses be a key factor in interpreting the more complicated.
As indicated by my comments I believe that you approach theology like you would other God created sciences such a physics and mathematics. You establish rules that can be proven and you build a theology block by block.

For example Joshua 1:8 gives mankind the formula for success; “Study this Book of the Law continually. Meditate on it day and night so you may be sure to obey all that is written in it. Only then will you succeed” (nlt).

Approximately 500 years later the man to whom God grants wisdom, Solomon states “there is nothing new under the sun” and “all is vanity except”; “Here is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is the duty of every person. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad:” (Ecc 12:13-14).

Then a thousand years after Solomon Jesus makes a similar statement when He states, “Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but they still won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven. ( MT 7:21 nlt)

There seems to be a common thread in all of these three references and that is obedience to God’s Word brings blessings, and disobedience brings curses.

Let us “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” ( 2Tim 2:15 kjv)

Pastor Charlie is a pastor of a local church and has formed an Internet Ministry called Four Soils Ministry that offers Bible Studies (individual & small groups), Bible Seminars, and a Bible School that offers certificate programs in Preaching, Biblical Counseling, Bible Teaching and Discipleship.

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Now or the Long Run?

By Jennifer Hallmark

Several years ago, I taught a women’s class at church where we were studying “Keys to Good Relationships.”  A lot of the study was repetitive and one of the verses we talked about over and over was James 1:19-20:

“So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” NKJV

Why do we study these verses over and over?  We are getting ready for the long run!  Too often in church today, we want to study a subject or a verse from the Bible for a couple of weeks and then move on to the next thing.  We, at times, act like children with a short attention span.  Sometimes, in our pride, we think we can actually receive deep revelation or knowledge from studying a couple of days or weeks.  It just doesn’t work that way; you don’t learn algebra in a couple of days either. Today I am gleaning fruit from past long time studies of the Word.  For two and a half years, my major study verses have been Proverbs 3:5-6:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.” NKJV

When I first started studying this verse, I was serious for a couple of weeks and then I was ready for something else.   God wanted me to stay where I was however.  Study to me is keeping this word written in plain sight around the computer desk and Bible, asking God to help me to understand it and thinking of ways to learn to trust as the verse says.  Though I studied other things also, this was a main thought every week.  I would talk to God about going on to something else but didn’t feel released from this study for over two years!  Why?  This was a basic truth that I did not have revelation of and I needed to be strongly rooted and grounded in this truth.  We need to be unshakeable in many areas so we can stand during testing and trials.  God knew the trials that lay ahead in my life: dealing with several deaths in a month’s time and later on health problems and He knew the foundation had to be strong for me to be able to not only survive during this time but grow.

There are two verses I am studying now and hopefully I will listen and be patient:

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11

The point I am trying to make is that we have to be ready to do things that make a difference in the future, not just instant gratification.  It might be fun to study a couple of weeks on this and that but you won’t get rooted and grounded in the Word that way. I challenge you today to think of the last thing God told you to do or study and commit yourself to that until you feel released.  It could be to stop worrying, to work on your marriage or it could be a specific scripture like:

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13 NKJV

Go to the Word and God and let’s build a foundation that will last until Jesus comes back. I want to be in this for the long run!  Do you?