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Chapter 4 and 5 Summary and Chapter Outline - William Barclay’s “Introducing the Bible”

February 9th, 2007

Summary
Chapters four and five make interesting points regarding the proper setting for effective study of Scripture.  Emphasis is placed on establishing a method for study and understanding as much as possible about the writers, the time in history when the passages were written, and critically important, the perceptions and views held by the writers.  William Barclay did a remarkable job in emphasizing that we must not look past the fact that writers of Scripture were men inspired by God without the benefit of divine dictation which speaks volumes to the a shared belief among many Christians, that a perfect God can inspire and use an imperfect vessel for the purpose of fulfilling his will.  The modern Church faces a challenge that is critical in terms of its empowerment in the 21st century and centuries to come, and that is will we embrace the concept of developing revelation or will we continue to believe as we always have; which boils down to this, will we trust God to take us beyond that which we are familiar and comfortable with in order for us to arrive at the place of his choosing.  The Church is at a stage and has been for quite some time where we seem afraid of becoming more complete in Christ Jesus for fear of upsetting the Elders or Saints of our congregations or for appearing to simply want to be more complete in the Lord.  God has so much more to reveal to his people but we must be willing to allow him to enlarge his presence in our lives.   Divine Dictation unlikely, Divine Destiny certain!

Chapter 4 Outline
“How to Study the Bible”

  1. Read the Bible with Reverence
    1. Readers must reverence to the Bible, their duty will be to begin reading the Bible with prayer; that God in his great mercy may grant you the true understanding of his word
  2. Study the Bible Within the Fellowship of the Church
    1. Scripture is best studied within the fellowship of the Church
    2. No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation
    3. All learning begins in a fellowship of learning, and Christian learning should begin in the Christian Church reinforcing the knowledge of Christ
    4. The deeper the understanding of Christ, the deeper the understanding of Scripture
    5. The study of the Bible in a Christian fellowship is richer than the study of the Bible in isolation and alone
  3. Study the Bible Honestly
    1. Students of the Bible must go to the Bible to find out and to seek the truth, and not to prove a case about which they have already made up their minds
    2. Avoid using the Bible as an arsenal of proof texts to prove things about which you have already made up your minds
    3. When we study the Bible we should be very sure that we are listening for God and for the echo of our own voice
  4. Study the Whole Bible
    1. Avoid a selective approach to Scripture designed the suit your own point of view and agrees with your own case while deliberately ignoring all the material on the other side
    2. An honest approach to the Bible is an approach to the whole Bible, and not a selection from the Bible to suit ourselves
  5. Study the Bible Wholeheartedly
    1. Man has to bring the whole of himself – heart and mind to the whole of Scripture
    2. The mind of man has to toil to understand and to communicate the message of the Spirit
    3. God does not spoon-feed man; the more man brings to the Bible the more he gets from it furthering the interaction between the Spirit of God and the mind of man
  6. Study of the Bible Leads to Action
    1. The study of Scripture is meant to lead to action
    2. Apply the whole of yourself to the study of Scripture and then apply the whole of the result of your study to yourself
    3. When we study the word of God in a group, we should not do so for the sake of a pleasant argument and discussion, do so to find the will of God, and having found it, we should not only know, we should also obey
  7. How to Study the Bible
    1. Set a goal from beginning to end to find out what the Bible means
      1. Study to understand the original meaning of Scripture
      2. Understand the need for and appreciate Modern Translation
      3. Examine the Background of Biblical Passages; historical, geographical, etc.
      4. Recognize the Importance of Poetry in the Bible
  8. The Bible as Developing Revelation
    1. Revelation is an ongoing process all the time – for example Jesus more than once said: “You have heard that it was said… (revelation then) But I say to you… (revelation now)”
    2. Man’s Revelation is relative to his ability to receive it – God will not force upon man what he has no ability or desire to accept
  9. The Bible Writers
    1. To understand the Bible we must first understand the men who wrote it
    2. We must continually remind ourselves what the object of the writers of the Bible was in writing at all
    3. Understand their view of the world at the time of their writings
      1. Their view of sickness; often attributed to demons or to the sin of the sick person

Chapter 5 Outline
“The Inspired Book”

The Bible as the Literal Word of God

  1. Differences in the Biblical Text
    1. Early manuscripts were all copied by hand, and in the copying changes, variations and errors crept in
    2. The variations made no material difference but if a book is the verbatim word of God by divine dictation then the words must be fixed as well as the meaning and in the case of the Bible this simply isn’t so
    3. It would have been a strange thing for God to dictate the original work and then not to take care for its infallible transmission
  2. The Different Styles of Biblical Writers
    1. The Bible is the word of God, but it is quite definitely in the words of men
    2. Their independence is seen even in the way in which they tell a story
  3. Variations Between the Four Gospels
    1. If the Gospels were written by divine dictation, surely there would not have been three versions of the one saying
      1. Take the case of Jesus’ saying about himself at his trail, the saying which made his condemnation quite certain: Matthew 26:63, 64, Mark 14:61, 62, and Luke 22:67-70
  4. Different Opinions Expressed in the Bible
    1. We must take into account the writers had different opinions and expressed them in Scripture, take Paul’s view on marriage for example
      1. He anticipated Christ’s return at any moment, today, tomorrow, next week therefore he felt that the demand of marriage would be a hindrance to the work that needed completion relative to Christ’s return
      2. Paul actually say in 1 Corinthian 1:12, “I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy”
  5. The Meeting Place of God and Man
    1. The Bible is uniquely the meeting place of the Spirit of God and the spirit of man.  That is the first essential basis of any doctrine of revelation and inspiration
  6. The Purpose of the Prophets
    1. Proclamation of the will of God, and announce the consequences if the will of God is not obeyed
    2. A prophet was not so much a foreteller of the future as a forth teller of the will and purpose of God
  7. The Characteristic of the Prophets
    1. The conscience of the nation, the living conscience of the people at a moment when all other voices are silent
    2. He is under the absolute control of God; speaks because he must and has been in the inter council of God
    3. He is not expressing an opinion or making a suggestion, his characteristic saying is not, “I say,” but, “Thus says the Lord.”
  8. Prophets as Men Who Know God
  9. Prophets Love God
  10. Prophets Obey God

Submitted by Brother Vance M. Gorham

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Points to Ponder in Chapter 4 - William Barclay’s “Introducing the Bible”

January 13th, 2007

As we began, ”How to Study the Bible”, Chapter 4, we covered what I
called points to ponder.

1.     Read the Bible with reverence.
2.     Study the Bible within the framework of the church.
3.     Study the Bible honestly.
4.     Study the whole Bible.
5.     Study the Bible wholeheartedly.
6.     Last point to ponder, concerning our attitude toward scripture is, “The study of the Bible Leads to Action .”

Action means movement, happening, doing something.  The effect or  influence of one thing on another.   The study of scripture is meant to lead to Action.  Apply the whole of yourself to the study of scripture and then apply the whole of the results of your study to yourself.  It is not  the regulations of a book with which we are dealing, it is the commands of Jesus Christ.  When we study the word of God in a group, we should not do so just for the sake of discussion or argument, but to find for ourselves the will of God for our lives and having found it, we should not only know, but obey.  Obedience is Action.  The Bible clearly tells us how we should relate to God and to each other through the Ten Commandments.  The first four relate to our relationship with God and the last six relates to our relationship with each other.  The Bible tells us what to eat, how to treat our children and our families.  Everything we do in life,  requires ACTION.  You can stand in front of a door and it will never open unless you take action to turn the knob.  The same with a car, you can sit in it all day and unless you turn on the ignition and press the accelerator, nothing will happen.  It is no different with the study of the scriptures.  The Action is either to do something or not to do something.  It is all up to us.  If we would follow the teachings of the Bible,  the world would be a better place in which to live.

Submitted by Sister Pearl L. Bobson, Noon day Bible study

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