Read for This Week’s Study: 2 Pet. 1:19-21; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17; Deut. 18:18; Exod. 17:14; John 1:14; Heb. 11:3, 6.
Memory Text: “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13, NKJV).
The way we see and understand the origin and nature of Scripture greatly impacts the role that the Bible plays in our lives and in the church at large. How we interpret the Bible is significantly shaped and influenced by our understanding of the process of revelation and inspiration. When we want to understand Scripture correctly, we first of all need to allow the Bible to determine the basic parameters of how it should be treated. We cannot study mathematics with the empirical methods employed in biology or sociology. We cannot study physics with the same tools used to study history. In a similar manner, the spiritual truths of the Bible will not be known and understood correctly by atheistic methods that approach the Bible as if God did not exist. Instead, our interpretation of Scripture needs to take seriously the divine-human dimension of God’s Word. Hence what is needed for a proper interpretation of Scripture is that we approach the Bible in faith rather than with methodological skepticism or doubt.
This week we will look at some foundational aspects of the origin and nature of the Bible that should impact our interpretation and understanding of it.