I’m passionate about studying the Word of God. I love to teach the Bible and study it. Through the Word of God, we can know Christ better. Our faith will increase. The protective nature of the knowledge of the Word will help you in the Church or in the world.
I came across a classic book, published in 1891. The author, George Washington Cable, describes the man or woman who knows the Bible for themselves. He essentially tells his readers that they will be changed.
The book is called “The Busy Mans Bible: how to study and teach It.” You can get a copy for free when you subscribe to Ministry At Zero Degrees.
When we know the Bible intimately, we discover that some things we have come to believe are not as we were taught.
"Like, what?” you might ask.
I attended a conservative Baptist church in Arizona a few times. They were fantastic folks, solid believers. They were friendly and generous. They held to the idea that boys and girls, men and women, should never go to the swimming pool together unless they were married. It was considered immoral. So was playing a card game, even “Old Maid” or “Go Fish.”
Why do some churches use real wine at communion? Why do some believe God is done with Israel and the Church has replaced Israel? Why do some believe in a pre-tribulation rapture of the church, and some believe there’s no rapture?
If a person studies the Bible for themselves, they will find themselves labeled as contentious, divisive, heterodox, or some other pugilistic misnomer.
George Washington Cable spoke of those who meditate on and study God’s Word. They are likely to come under suspicion because the popular teachers of today and commentaries of the past do not always agree with the Bible.
I think GW Cable spoke of his own experience when he said…
“It pains many to know that he is not beyond a suspicion of being unorthodox. They have not proved the matter yet, either yea or nay; for he shows no pride either of orthodoxy or heterodoxy. And they are rather afraid to try; for they might succeed, and then they would not know what to do with him next.”
In one of the final chapters he reminds us that “
the end of all Bible teaching is …the development of a better likeness of Christ in…conduct and character”
The end of all true Bible teaching, we all know it; the only trouble is to remember it, and not the ultimate end alone, but the immediate end every time we sit down to it is the development of a better likeness of Christ in the pupil's conduct and character.