Lesson One - The Word of God, Our Light in Darkness
O Gracious Heavenly Father, by Your Holy Spirit, draw us to You. Give us a desire to read and study our Bibles and learn of You and the salvation You have provided for us in Your Son. Open up our hearts and minds to understand Your Holy Word. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
My Dear Children,
Imagine yourselves being outside in the wilderness on a totally dark night, with no moonlight and no other lights in sight. You are trying to find your way back home, but which way do you go? Where is the path upon which you need to walk in order to reach your destination safely? This happened to me once on a foggy night in December. I was only about a mile from my car but couldn’t see any lights from town or nearby houses to show me which way to go. Everything was dark! Fortunately, I had a flashlight with me and could find a path and some familiar landmarks to get me safely back to my car. Without that light, I could have only gropped in the darkness and would not have made it home.
Though God created mankind with a natural knowledge of Him and His will for our lives, all of us, since the fall into sin (Genesis 3), come into this world lost and in darkness. We don’t know our way back home to God, and we don’t know how to live our lives. That is why so many people wander aimlessly through life, trying to find happiness and fulfillment in one thing, and then another, but always coming up empty and hurt and broken! Even those who appear to be successful and prosperous must finally admit emptiness and failure without God.
But, even though all of us have turned away from God and His commandments, trying to please ourselves and do our own thing, God did not leave us here in darkness to wander aimlessly, to stumble and fall, and finally to die. He gave us a light! Psalm 119:105 says: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." God has given us His Word so that we can see where we are walking through life, and so that we can see and walk on the pathway that leads back home to God!
If you wish to walk in the light and know the truth, truth upon which you can build and live your lives, then you will need become a reader and student of the Bible; for it is God’s Word to you. In its pages, you will learn the truth about your creation, your sin, and the salvation God has graciously provided for you in His Son, Jesus Christ. That is why the Bible will be our text book for this course of study. May God the Holy Spirit open up your hearts and minds to understand His Word, and may He bless you as you read and study the Bible!
1. Looking at your Bible (especially the table of contents in the front of your Bible), into what two parts is your Bible divided?
Note: A testament is a covenant or agreement. In the Old Testament, God made a covenant with His people in which He promised to send His Son to be their Messiah and Savior. The Old Testament laws and worship pointed ahead to the fulfillment of this promise. In the New Testament, we learn of the fulfillment of these Old Testament promises. God promised forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation to all who believe on His Son, Jesus Christ.
2. How many books are there in the Old Testament? How many are there in the New Testament?
Read through and memorize the books of the Bible in order. This will help you find the books of the Bible and Bible references without continually referring to the table of contents.
2 Peter 1:20,21 says that "no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
3. When the prophets wrote the Old Testament books and the apostles and evangelists wrote the books of the New Testament, who moved and directed them to write?
When the Apostle
Paul wrote to the church in
4. Who guided and directed those who wrote the Bible in choosing the words which they used?
In 2 Samuel
23:1,2, "David the son of Jesse...the sweet
psalmist of
5. When David wrote the Psalms (which we have in our Bible), who was speaking through David? Whose word was on David’s tongue?
In Paul’s second
letter to Timothy (2 Timothy
6. "Inspiration" means "to breath into." When we speak, by whose breath do our words come? But by whose breath do the words of Scripture come? How much of the Bible (the Scripture) was "given by inspiration of God"?
7. If all of the Bible is inspired by God (Plenary Inspiration) and each word of the Bible is inspired by God (Verbal Inspiration), whose Word, then, is each word of the Bible and all of the Bible?
In Jesus’ prayer
for those who believe in Him, spoken just before His sufferings and death, He
said: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth"
(John
8. What does Jesus say about God’s Word? Is it all true, or does it have errors and mistakes? Why is this important to us?
Read Isaiah 40:6-8. In this section of Scripture, God compares people to the grass of the field which withers and dies when the hot winds blow. In verse 8, God says: "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." Read also 1 Peter 1:22-25. Here, the Apostle Peter writes: "But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." (verse 25). Jesus also says: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35).
9. Will God’s Word be lost or pass away? Will it become corrupted, or has God promised to preserve His Word as a witness to the nations (cf. Matthew 24:14)?
10. Does God want us to change His Word by adding to it or taking away from it? Read the following passages of God’s Word and give your answer.
Deuteronomy 4:2 "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you."
Jeremiah
11. Read also Matthew 5:18-19 & Revelation 22:18-19. What do these passages warn will happen to the one who adds to or takes away from God’s Word?
12. The Bible was originally written in the Hebrew and Greek Languages (the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek). If all of the Bible and every word of the Bible is God’s inspired Word, what kind of Bible translation will we want to use?
a.) One that is the easiest to read. b.) One that sounds the most majestic. c.) A translation which says things the way we want to hear them. d.) A translation which is faithful to the best Hebrew and Greek texts and manuscripts. e.) A translation which adds to or takes away from the Word of God.
We Believe
We believe that
all of the Bible, and each and every word of the Bible (the 39 Old Testament
and 27 New Testament canonical books), was given by inspiration of God and is
therefore the true and unerring Word of God (II Peter 1:21; II Timothy 3:16; I
Corinthians 2:13; John
Please Memorize: 2 Peter 1:21; 2 Timothy 3:16; Isaiah 40:8