Bible Study Techniques Review
For seasoned students of the Scriptures, this may seem like elementary school, but I was reminded of an important Bible study tip which is worth reviewing. Sometimes the Bible can seem overwhelming. You look At a chapter with more than 50 verses. It can feel daunting to some students who might not be sure on what they should focus. You love God's word, you want to respect it. You want to obey it successfully but how can you be sure that you don't miss the key points. Here are the must-do's::1. Ask God to send the Holy Spirit to help you learn His Word and obey it successfully.
2. Read the whole chapter through before you start studying. It is tempting to skip this step if you are a more seasoned Bible student, because we tend to want to get to where were going as fast as we can, but I don't recommend skipping this step because the Holy Spirit might want to speak to us and show us things we have not seen before, so we should still read the chapter before focusing in on our key passage. It also helps to ensure that you are less likely to take the passage out of context.
3. Focus on God first. Before you get into the details of your study, remember to focus on God first. What I mean is when you are reading a Bible chapter, look for those things that identify God and Jesus Christ before anything else. Look for the verses and words that describe who He is, what He desires and what He requires, before looking for other details.
For example, we know that in Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23-24 are your key verses in the entire chapter, because those specific verses give us specific details about things in which God says He delights, and becoming a person of character in whom God delights is the whole point of studying Scripture:
"Thus says the LORD: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the LORD; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the LORD." Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NRSV)
For another example, we know that in Micah chapter 6, verse 8 is your key verse because it describes what God requires:
"He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 (NRSV)
4. As we have mentioned before, the next step is to find the commands, promises, and guiding principles. If you look for and apply all of these things, then your Bible study will be far more fruitful.
In today's blog we will continue looking at various aspects of worship that God does except and bless.
A Review of the Key Principles of Biblical Worship
Remember What Is Worship: Biblically speaking, worship literally means "to bend or prostrate oneself toward." In the English language it comes from the words worth-ship. So in the most literal sense, whatever we give or attribute the most value, importance or worth to, and whatever we obey most closely, that is what we truly worship. That's because of course whatever we obey most closely is what we consider most important or what we most truly value. Just to give one example, if I follow my own opinions or the opinions of my friends more closely than I follow the word of God, then in reality I'm really worshiping myself or my friends instead of God in that particular area of my life. That's because I would be caring more about what they said, or caring more about what I wanted then what God said.
Remember what is Idolatry: Idolatry is the worship of; (the bending or prostrating oneself toward in order to obey); any person, supernatural entity, place, thing, philosophy or ideology which is NOT in fact the Almighty God described in the Scriptures; Who is perfect Love (1 John 4:8), and Who created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1-31). The One True God created us (Psalm 100:3), and revealed Himself to Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the prophets, and the apostles, among others. By definition, anyone who believes and follows the Almighty God as He is revealed in the Scriptures is called a God worshiper. Anyone who does not worship the Almighty God as He is revealed in the Testament (Genesis-Revelation), is in fact an idolater, (one who practices and commits idolatry, or the worship of false gods). It must be noted that all idolatry, in all its forms and functions is expressly forbidden by Almighty God throughout the entire Testament of the Scriptures. In fact, Scripture clearly points out that all those who follow and worship false gods, are in reality following demons (1 Corinthians 10:14-23), which are fallen Angels who seek to steal the worship that rightly belongs to Almighty God.
Throughout the entire Testament of Scripture, people are directed to repent; to turn away from any worship of false gods and to learn how to worship the One, Only True, Almighty Creator God, as He deserves and desires to be worshiped. Those who do this will be forgiven and accepted by God (Isaiah 55:6-9; Psalm 15; Ezekiel 18:19-23; John 4:24).
It must also be noted that while God's mercy and forgiveness are incredibly lavish upon all those who repent, who turn away from what God says is evil, and who turn to do what is good; the penalty is equally lavish for those who refuse to turn away from idolatry. Those who choose to retain idolatry, who choose to continue worshiping false gods (which are really demons pretending to be gods), such idolaters will in fact go to hell (where all demons and up cf. Matthew 25:36-44). They will be in torment and agony without mercy forever (1 Corinthians 5:11, 6:9; Ephesians 5:5; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:15). Therefore, any person who would be a successful God follower must be diligent to get rid of all forms of idolatry with extremely forceful prejudice. Nothing short of your eternal life hangs in the balance.
Remember That God Does Not Automatically Accept All Worship Offered in His Name: Even the worship of Almighty God must be done correctly and in a manner that God approves. In other words, not all worship of Almighty God is automatically approved by Almighty God, simply because we offered it to Him, instead of offering it to a demon pretending to be god. On the March 31, 2011 entry of this blog, we gave no less than eight concrete Scriptural examples of worship that was offered to the real God, but it was not accepted, because it was not done as God required.
Remember to Avoid Syncretism: One such example of the types of worship that is offered to God, but that is not done in a manner in which God approves is called syncretism. Some people incorrectly believe that just as long as we don't carve out a statue, as long as we don't call it a god, as long as we don't light candles to the statue, as long as we don't bow down toward or pray to a statue that we carve, then we are not committing idolatry. While it is true that all these things described are overt forms of idolatry, there are also subversive forms and practices of idolatry which we are instructed to avoid throughout the entire Testament of Scripture. In the blog entry dated April 3, 2011, we gave a detailed explanation of syncretism, and why God forbids it. To summarize and review: Syncretism is the blending, the mixing and the combining of idolatrous beliefs, ideologies, mythologies and practices of various religions and combining or homogenizing them together into a new faith and practice in order to try to worship the real God. Let's say for example that I took various aspects of Biblical Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Islam, I mixed it all together and tried to bring it into my philosophy and worship of Almighty God and His Son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. That would be syncretism.
It is critical to remember that both in the Hebrew and Christian fulfillment Scriptures, the practice of syncretism is completely forbidden.
Remember that all Scripture is anointed by the Holy Spirit of God. It tells us how God wants us to live. It tells us what God will accept and what he will not accept (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Remember that all the Scriptures God caused to be written in the past were written for our instruction, (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11), this would include what is commonly called the Old Testament. The Messiah said the same thing (Matthew 5:17-20). So if we do not follow the instructions and principles that God gave us throughout the entire Testament of Scripture, then we are in fact being disobedient and it is not acceptable worship. It's that simple.
So in what places and examples does God demonstrate to us in Scripture that He does not want or accept syncretism?
· Israel had been in captivity in Egypt for more than 400 years. When God delivered them from their captivity and brought them safely out, they adapted Egyptian cow worship into their worship of Almighty God. They created a golden calf. They gave it Almighty God's name. Basically they were saying that worshiping the golden calf which they created was the same as worshiping the real God as long as they gave it Almighty God's name, and as long as they gave it credit for what Almighty God did. Then they created a feast and celebration of their own design and called it a feast and a celebration unto YHWH, Almighty God. It's critical to note God's reaction here. Almighty God, who revealed Himself to Moses, was most definitely not honored or pleased with that practice. He did not accept it as honorable worship of Him, even though they did put His Name on it. In fact Almighty God was so completely incensed and angry that He was actually prepared to destroy the entire population of Israel and start over with Moses. Moses acted as a type and shadow of the coming Messiah and intervened, so God minimized the punishment on the people because of Moses' intercession (Exodus 32:1-18).
· When God's people were about ready to enter the land which God had promised to their forefather Abraham, Almighty God restated His laws and principles to the people. Within this retelling of the Law, Almighty God gave instructions so that the people could avoid repeating the horrible sins of idolatry that they had committed in the wilderness. His specific instructions were included in Deuteronomy chapter 12. It is worth noting that during his ministry, Jesus Christ the Messiah quoted out of Deuteronomy more than any other portion of Scripture. Here God gives another example that the way to avoid falling into idolatry is to avoid applying the principles of syncretism altogether.
o First, as long as God's people are living where God placed them they are to utterly destroy and obliterate anything and everything that was used in the worship of false gods (Deuteronomy 12:1-4). They were to make sure that even the name of those false gods were never brought to memory again
o They were to make sure that they never copied any of the ideologies, philosophies or behaviors toward Almighty God which the pagans did before their gods (Deuteronomy 12:4, 13).
o Some people believed that as long as they are thinking and meditating about God and Jesus Christ that they can use pagan practices and bring it into the worship of God and Jesus Christ because they are not meditating on ungodly things while they are offering their worship. God's word rejects that assertion (Deuteronomy 12:8, 30-32).
o God restates and summarizes the whole principle again in Deuteronomy 12:28-32.
· God restates the same principle again through the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 10:1-2).
· One of the common misconceptions in modern-day Christendom is that God only rejected syncretism in the Old Testament. In truth, the same principle is restated in the so-called New Testament:
o Jesus said that we were not to imitate the way that idolaters or pagans pray. We were not to implement their methods and practices of praying into our prayer life with Almighty God (Matthew 6:7-8).
o Jesus said that we are not to focus on and worry about things or think about things in a manner that pagans and idolaters think and worry (Matthew 6:31-33; cf. Romans 12:1-2).
· Was the same principle restated again by the apostles who witnessed the resurrected Messiah? Yes it was.
o For example, many of the apostolic letters were written with warnings to the churches not to implement the pagan and worldly philosophies of Gnosticism into the worship of Almighty God and Jesus Christ, because combining Gnostic beliefs with their worship of God and Jesus Christ would eventually cause believers to deny the truth of God's word and the gospel. Colossians, Philippians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, and 1st John were all written with the expressed purpose of refuting Gnosticism or other pagan philosophies, and exhorting believers to instead maintain true faith and allegiance to Almighty God and Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
o In 1 Corinthians 10:1-22, the apostle Paul clearly restates the principle discussed in Exodus and in Deuteronomy. He even repeats some of the exact language used. Clearly he was saying God followers are not to implement any ungodly practices into our worship of Almighty God, primarily because it could confuse the unbeliever and prevent him from turning away and being saved from his idolatry. So out of concern for unbelievers we should make extra effort to separate ourselves and all Christian worship from any manner of idolatry so that the unbelievers can see a clear difference (1 Corinthians 10:14, 21-22).
o In 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, the apostle Paul restates the exact same principle of avoiding syncretism, only he does so even more clearly than he did in the first instance.
o In 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, the apostle Paul overtly states that we must scrutinize and test everything, (in effect carefully compare everything with Scripture). We are to hold fast to that which Scripture says is good, and to strictly abstain from that which Scripture says is evil. The apostle Paul goes one step further. Believers are not only to abstain from those things which are overtly evil, but true God followers and worshipers are to also abstain even from every form of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). Now that's an interesting distinction which Christians often neglect in our modern day. In Biblical terms, it is not enough merely to avoid the actual substance of all evil and wickedness. This we should certainly do, but Scripture also tells us to avoid and abstain from even the forms of evil.
o Even the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, makes a veiled reference to avoiding syncretism. Now this particular reference is not as blatant of an example is all the others in Scripture, but if you do some digging you will discover that it is there. Remember in the book of Revelation Jesus Christ told John to write a letter to the church at Ephesus? He said that one of the things that search had in its favor was that they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus declared that He also hated. Now, if Jesus said that they were doing certain deeds which he hated, those are definitely needs and actions we want to avoid. It takes a little digging, but through various commentaries and encyclopedias I discovered that among other things the deeds of the Nicolaitans included compromising the faith by incorporating ungodly worship practices and combining it with the worship of Almighty God and Jesus Christ. We know for example that at least the sins committed by these people included eating food sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality. It was equated to the sin described in Numbers 2:1-2 which was worship of Balaam (the worship of various Sun god in the region, while trying to worship God at the same time (Harper's Bible dictionary).
The point is that from Exodus to Revelation, God makes it incredibly clear that we cannot incorporate any of the practices, methods, and festivals used that were routinely used to worship pagan gods and bring them into the worship of Yahweh, or the Messiah Jesus Christ. From the beginning to the end of the Whole Testament God emphatically abhors every such practice.
In the next blog, we will discuss what it means to worship God in spirit and truth. Hope to see you there. God be with you.
Brother Michel
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