1. Faith on The Father and His Son Jesus Christ by The Holy Spirit.
I'm sorry, but Bible study will not be very fruitful without Faith in The Father through His Son, and being baptized in His Name, and receive The Holy Spirit. Until we literally ask The Father through His Son to open up His Word to us in understanding, study of His Word will be like reading a secular novel leaving one full of doubts. This is the very reason why the modern Textual Critics are constantly revising their later Bible versions like Bibles using Alexandrian manuscripts used by W&H, NU. It's because some scholars on the revision committees are not Bible-believers.
2. Get the minimum Bible study tools and learn to use them.
The minimum is a 1611 King James Version Bible and a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance with the Hebrew and Greek Lexicons in the back that Dr. James Strong provided, preferably a pre-1991 version because some of Christ's enemies have been editing Dr. Strong's work without his approval.
The Strong's Concordance is based on the KJV Bible. Dr. James Strong took every manuscript word translated to English used in the 1611 KJV and assigned a number to it. Then he provided a definition for that manuscript word in the back of his concordance, in the Hebrew/Greek Lexicon section. This means when you have an English term you're not sure about in the KJV, you can find its Strong's no., and then using the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, you can cross-reference that word in the Bible manuscripts the translators used. By that you can discover all... the verses where that word appears in the KJV Bible, and see how it was translated to English. It can help a whole lot in determining just how that word was used in the manuscripts. By this tool you have the ability to take the KJV back to the manuscript languages.
That is one reason for using a 1611 KJV Bible. Another reason is because the KJV New Testament was translated from the Traditional text originating from the Byzantine type, which points back to Antioch, the first place where those in Christ were called Christian. The later Bible versions after 1881 got away from those Traditional Greek texts which still make up the 'majority' of Greek texts that exist today.
And yet another reason, is because many traditional Bible study tools are based on usage of the KJV Bible. One that comes to mind that is very... useful, is The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. What that is, is a verse topic cross-reference tool. With this tool, you can cross-reference a single verse and find more verse examples of the same topic. It's pretty accurate in doing that, not perfect, but often very accurate. God at times spread out pieces of a topic throughout His Word. Unless you find and understand all... of the pieces of a topic throughout His Word, you might be missing an important link that could change your whole interpretation of a matter. It's kind of like He intended us to study ALL... of His Word because of it, don't you think? I know so from experience. That's why Apostle Paul told Timothy to become a "workman" in God's Word, rightly dividing.
3. For a good study Bible, I strongly recommend The Companion Bible, which is a KJV Bible put together by the 19th century British Christian Bible scholar E.W. Bullinger. He put scholar level notes in the side margin next to the KJV text. Those notes are not 'denominational organization' type notes like you see in many modern study Bibles. Today, you can just about buy a study Bible compiled by whatever Christian denominational organization you attend. Its notes are often about the 'religious organization's' influence and doctrines, and not about scholarly accuracy. Bullinger's notes are on more of a scholar's level. And the Appendixes Bullinger put in the back of The Companion Bible contain much scholarly level work, so much so, that just the 198 Appendixes makes it worth having a copy of this study Bible.
Another reason to get a copy of The Companion Bible, is because of the Massorah notes Bullinger put in the side margin from Christian David Ginsburg's 4 volume Massorah work, The Massorah: Compiled From Manuscripts (London, 1880-1905). These notes are Massoretic scribe notes found in the oldest Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts. Ginsburg was able to compile these notes from the best existing Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts of his day, and created his 4 volume work. The Companion Bible is the only... study Bible that contains many of these Massorah notes in the Old Testament side margin. Most often, they strongly influence the reading. These scribe notes were also called 'a fence to the scriptures', because they covered the outside borders of the Hebrew text, and in between the text columns of Hebrew. They not only contained interpretation points, but also a numbering method for the Hebrew characters on that page, like what the first and last Hebrew characters should be, the number of Hebrew characters on the page, etc. If there was an error in any of those things, it told the scribe to scrap the page with the error and start the copy process over for that page. You won't find any other study Bible that contains as many Massorah notes as Bullinger's KJV study Bible.
4. Discipline in Bible Study --
This is about disciplining oneself in Bible study, doing a private Bible study session with The LORD, starting each session with praying to The Father in Christ's Name for understanding. The idea is for The Holy Spirit being present. Since GOD gave holy men to write down His Word by The Holy Spirit, understanding His Word requires the guidance of The Holy Spirit, our Teacher that Lord Jesus Christ promised to send His servants (John 14:26; 1 John 2:27).
The order which our Heavenly Father and His Son setup in the household, is The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of The Church and over the man, and the husband is the spiritual head of the family (1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:21-25). Thus it is especially the husband's duty to be the spiritual leader of the household, in Christ Jesus that is.
5. Bible study discipline means covering all of God's Word, precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little.
In Isaiah 28, God is mocking the leaders of Jerusalem because they treat study of His Word line upon line as if that method is for little children that don't know anything. In the Hebrew, God's Words He uses is of their own mocking, and it sounds like a rhyme in the Hebrew:
Isa 28:13
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
KJV
Because 'to them', His Word is like that, "precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little," it means His Word became a 'stumbling stone' to them. And for that reason they would "fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken", pointing to deception.
And today, you may actually find that some 'wrongly' interpret that Isaiah 28 mocking by God, as if we are NOT to study His Word like that "... precept upon precept..., line upon line..." method. Yes we are!
So if you really, truly want to come to a working understanding of God's Word, then precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, and there a little, is GOD's WAY to do it.
This is why doing only topic study before discipline in line upon line Bible study in ALL of God's Word will not get it done. Topic study is good, but it is not a replacement for the flow and accuracy of line upon line, chapter by chapter, book by book Bible study. Genesis 1 thru to the end of Revelation 22 is the goal.
6. How much time should be spent on in-depth Bible study?
That depends on your hunger by The Holy Spirit and where you place the importance of God's Word. It's dependent on your duty in Christ Jesus of what He has called you for.
7. Check out your Bible teachers by study of God's Word.
I can't emphasize this enough. Apostle Paul commended those at Berea for comparing God's Word with what Paul was preaching. That's our model today too. Don't fall in the trap of just going to Church and believing whatever the preacher says, and not cracking open your Bible. You won't have anyone else to blame but yourself for the deceptions you may fall into. If you can read, and have had enough education to where you can do Bible study, then you have no excuse. God has especially provided the western nations with free public education so every person will eventually be able to open up His Word in Bible study. And Christ's ambassadors by The Holy Spirit urge to go to poorer nations and educate their children, is also so they can eventually read and study God's Word. So the matter of each believer doing Bible study is not something to be slack about. It is especially a basic privilege for the majority of peoples in the free Christian nations of history.
This also means, be careful of listening to all the floating winds of men's doctrines. What is often most popular does not always mean Biblically accurate. Until you have gotten a 'working' understanding in God's Word, you will be in danger of deception by men's doctrines. This is the reason for so much confusion and denomination splits in Christ's Church today. If no one was Biblically illiterate, then the false churches would not fill up with deceived followers. And God allows the false prophets to work; it's often how He does pruning of the dead branches in Christ's Church. He wants to find out if we will listen to Him, or to men. And how... do we listen to GOD through His Son Jesus Christ? By study of His Word.
I'm sorry, but Bible study will not be very fruitful without Faith in The Father through His Son, and being baptized in His Name, and receive The Holy Spirit. Until we literally ask The Father through His Son to open up His Word to us in understanding, study of His Word will be like reading a secular novel leaving one full of doubts. This is the very reason why the modern Textual Critics are constantly revising their later Bible versions like Bibles using Alexandrian manuscripts used by W&H, NU. It's because some scholars on the revision committees are not Bible-believers.
2. Get the minimum Bible study tools and learn to use them.
The minimum is a 1611 King James Version Bible and a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance with the Hebrew and Greek Lexicons in the back that Dr. James Strong provided, preferably a pre-1991 version because some of Christ's enemies have been editing Dr. Strong's work without his approval.
The Strong's Concordance is based on the KJV Bible. Dr. James Strong took every manuscript word translated to English used in the 1611 KJV and assigned a number to it. Then he provided a definition for that manuscript word in the back of his concordance, in the Hebrew/Greek Lexicon section. This means when you have an English term you're not sure about in the KJV, you can find its Strong's no., and then using the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, you can cross-reference that word in the Bible manuscripts the translators used. By that you can discover all... the verses where that word appears in the KJV Bible, and see how it was translated to English. It can help a whole lot in determining just how that word was used in the manuscripts. By this tool you have the ability to take the KJV back to the manuscript languages.
That is one reason for using a 1611 KJV Bible. Another reason is because the KJV New Testament was translated from the Traditional text originating from the Byzantine type, which points back to Antioch, the first place where those in Christ were called Christian. The later Bible versions after 1881 got away from those Traditional Greek texts which still make up the 'majority' of Greek texts that exist today.
And yet another reason, is because many traditional Bible study tools are based on usage of the KJV Bible. One that comes to mind that is very... useful, is The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. What that is, is a verse topic cross-reference tool. With this tool, you can cross-reference a single verse and find more verse examples of the same topic. It's pretty accurate in doing that, not perfect, but often very accurate. God at times spread out pieces of a topic throughout His Word. Unless you find and understand all... of the pieces of a topic throughout His Word, you might be missing an important link that could change your whole interpretation of a matter. It's kind of like He intended us to study ALL... of His Word because of it, don't you think? I know so from experience. That's why Apostle Paul told Timothy to become a "workman" in God's Word, rightly dividing.
3. For a good study Bible, I strongly recommend The Companion Bible, which is a KJV Bible put together by the 19th century British Christian Bible scholar E.W. Bullinger. He put scholar level notes in the side margin next to the KJV text. Those notes are not 'denominational organization' type notes like you see in many modern study Bibles. Today, you can just about buy a study Bible compiled by whatever Christian denominational organization you attend. Its notes are often about the 'religious organization's' influence and doctrines, and not about scholarly accuracy. Bullinger's notes are on more of a scholar's level. And the Appendixes Bullinger put in the back of The Companion Bible contain much scholarly level work, so much so, that just the 198 Appendixes makes it worth having a copy of this study Bible.
Another reason to get a copy of The Companion Bible, is because of the Massorah notes Bullinger put in the side margin from Christian David Ginsburg's 4 volume Massorah work, The Massorah: Compiled From Manuscripts (London, 1880-1905). These notes are Massoretic scribe notes found in the oldest Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts. Ginsburg was able to compile these notes from the best existing Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts of his day, and created his 4 volume work. The Companion Bible is the only... study Bible that contains many of these Massorah notes in the Old Testament side margin. Most often, they strongly influence the reading. These scribe notes were also called 'a fence to the scriptures', because they covered the outside borders of the Hebrew text, and in between the text columns of Hebrew. They not only contained interpretation points, but also a numbering method for the Hebrew characters on that page, like what the first and last Hebrew characters should be, the number of Hebrew characters on the page, etc. If there was an error in any of those things, it told the scribe to scrap the page with the error and start the copy process over for that page. You won't find any other study Bible that contains as many Massorah notes as Bullinger's KJV study Bible.
4. Discipline in Bible Study --
This is about disciplining oneself in Bible study, doing a private Bible study session with The LORD, starting each session with praying to The Father in Christ's Name for understanding. The idea is for The Holy Spirit being present. Since GOD gave holy men to write down His Word by The Holy Spirit, understanding His Word requires the guidance of The Holy Spirit, our Teacher that Lord Jesus Christ promised to send His servants (John 14:26; 1 John 2:27).
The order which our Heavenly Father and His Son setup in the household, is The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of The Church and over the man, and the husband is the spiritual head of the family (1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:21-25). Thus it is especially the husband's duty to be the spiritual leader of the household, in Christ Jesus that is.
5. Bible study discipline means covering all of God's Word, precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little.
In Isaiah 28, God is mocking the leaders of Jerusalem because they treat study of His Word line upon line as if that method is for little children that don't know anything. In the Hebrew, God's Words He uses is of their own mocking, and it sounds like a rhyme in the Hebrew:
Isa 28:13
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
KJV
Because 'to them', His Word is like that, "precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little," it means His Word became a 'stumbling stone' to them. And for that reason they would "fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken", pointing to deception.
And today, you may actually find that some 'wrongly' interpret that Isaiah 28 mocking by God, as if we are NOT to study His Word like that "... precept upon precept..., line upon line..." method. Yes we are!
So if you really, truly want to come to a working understanding of God's Word, then precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, and there a little, is GOD's WAY to do it.
This is why doing only topic study before discipline in line upon line Bible study in ALL of God's Word will not get it done. Topic study is good, but it is not a replacement for the flow and accuracy of line upon line, chapter by chapter, book by book Bible study. Genesis 1 thru to the end of Revelation 22 is the goal.
6. How much time should be spent on in-depth Bible study?
That depends on your hunger by The Holy Spirit and where you place the importance of God's Word. It's dependent on your duty in Christ Jesus of what He has called you for.
7. Check out your Bible teachers by study of God's Word.
I can't emphasize this enough. Apostle Paul commended those at Berea for comparing God's Word with what Paul was preaching. That's our model today too. Don't fall in the trap of just going to Church and believing whatever the preacher says, and not cracking open your Bible. You won't have anyone else to blame but yourself for the deceptions you may fall into. If you can read, and have had enough education to where you can do Bible study, then you have no excuse. God has especially provided the western nations with free public education so every person will eventually be able to open up His Word in Bible study. And Christ's ambassadors by The Holy Spirit urge to go to poorer nations and educate their children, is also so they can eventually read and study God's Word. So the matter of each believer doing Bible study is not something to be slack about. It is especially a basic privilege for the majority of peoples in the free Christian nations of history.
This also means, be careful of listening to all the floating winds of men's doctrines. What is often most popular does not always mean Biblically accurate. Until you have gotten a 'working' understanding in God's Word, you will be in danger of deception by men's doctrines. This is the reason for so much confusion and denomination splits in Christ's Church today. If no one was Biblically illiterate, then the false churches would not fill up with deceived followers. And God allows the false prophets to work; it's often how He does pruning of the dead branches in Christ's Church. He wants to find out if we will listen to Him, or to men. And how... do we listen to GOD through His Son Jesus Christ? By study of His Word.
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