Why Study The Bible

“The Bible warns us that false teachers will increase in the last days, who will cause many to fall into error.”

After a conference where I was speaking, a woman came up to me and said:

“I am so confused!” she said to me. This was after I had shared the Word at their Bible study group.

“And why are you confused?” I questioned.

“You see, we have many speakers coming to our city to hold special meetings. One says something, and another contradicts what the first one has said! They all quote the Bible to prove what they are saying is true! Whom can I believe? What should I believe? I am so confused,” she said again helplessly.

I laid my hand on her shoulder and said: “That is why God has given us the Bible so that we can know the truth from the false! Study it. Then you will know what to believe!”

With tears in her eyes, she confessed, “I do not know how to study the Bible!”

Know how to study the Bible

I have never forgotten that woman, even though many others like her have confessed the same thing over the years. Her words still haunt me.

God has put within each one of us, a deep hunger to know God in our inner being. We can do this best only through His word. Many therefore seek to satisfy this hunger for God, by listening to speakers who come in the Name of the Lord. The Bible warns us that false teachers will increase in the last days, who will cause many to fall into error. We are therefore exhorted to check and test everything we hear in the light of the Truth God has given there.

Through these articles we hope to encourage every layperson – man and woman, young and old – who wants to know God, to be able to study the Bible.

The purpose, however, is not primarily to gain knowledge of the Truth, but also to impress the importance of applying and obeying that Truth in our daily lives, bringing transformation to our thinking, attitude and relationships – to every aspect of our whole life.

A personal experience

Let me share a challenging experience that changed my whole perspective of suffering. Years ago,in my usual personal Bible Study, I had tended to leave out any study on the last book of the Bible called Revelation – because I could not understand most of it – till I realized the truth of 2 Tim 3:16,17, which says:

All scripture is God – breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correct in and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I took up the challenge to seek to know what God was saying to us about future events in this Book. “Revelation” actually means “unveiling”. Through its pages, it is as though God slowly draws aside the curtain that hides the future from us. I became excited as I got engrossed in the unfolding of the ages as the end approached when God will destroy all evil forces. But it is not really “an end” because it is actually the glorious beginning of the New Heavens and the New Earth, where there will be no more tears, suffering and sorrow.

I discovered that the primary message of Revelation was to provide pastoral encouragement to persecuted Christians by comforting, challenging, and proclaiming the sure and certain Christian hope, together with the assurance that in Christ they were sharing the sovereign God’s method of totally overcoming the forces of evil in all its manifestations. The central message of Revelation is that the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Revelation 9:6

I remember a time soon after, when I was greatly discouraged and depressed over certain situations in my own life. Then one day in Church as I bowed in prayer, suddenly the Holy Spirit swept through me opening my eyes to understand the great Truth of what I had been studying! The Lord God Omnipotent reigns indeed! God is good and He is the sovereign Lord! He is constantly working out ALL things ALWAYS for my good and His glory! Praise God! I may not have had the answers to serious questions about life and suffering, but I can trust in God who knows all! He will strengthen me and guide me through! And how wonderfully He did! Since then,this deep conviction of God’s sovereignty has always gripped and held me through all trials and suffering, with joy and faith. How true: “All books inform; The Bible alone can transform us.”

These are the end times! Christ is coming soon! May we prepare our hearts to meet Him with joy because we have been faithful in prayer and studying His precious Word and learning to obey Him, so that we begin to understand the character of our sovereign God, Jesus Christ, and thus learn to become more and more Christ-like.

A prayer

Let me pray with you this prayer that the apostle Paul prayed for the Colossian Church in Colossians: 1:9-11, 

That God may fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding

That you may live a life worthy of the Lord

And you may please Him in every good work

Growing in the knowledge of the Lord

Being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might

So that you may have great endurance and patience

Joyfully giving thanks to the Father. Amen.

Juliet Thomas