Predestination And Free-Will

Where Did These Modern Evangelism Methods Come From?

 
Where did people get their modern-day ideas for presenting the Gospel? Certainly we can learn wrong doctrine when verses are taken out of context and combined with plausible explanations. When error is repeated often enough, it can easily become accepted as fact. But there is a major reason why error goes on being repeated without being corrected. “What is it?” you may be wondering. It has to do with the way that people study the Bible. Most people have not been taught how to properly study the Bible. That includes both pastors and their congregations. Were you, as a member of a local church ever taught how to study the Bible? Probably not, if your experience was similar to mine and that of the majority of Christians. There is a scriptural way to study the Bible and then there is the way that most Pastors and most Christians study the Bible:
 

The scriptural way of studying the Bible:

• Use the Bible itself and its various cross references
• Use concordances such as Young’s and Strong’s
• Use Greek/Hebrew interlinear translations
• Avoid using ‘study’ Bibles which have commentaries on the meanings of verses

The above way of studying the Bible is based on a biblical principle:
 

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” [1 Corinthians 2:13]

“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” [Romans 7:14]

 
The above verses tell us to use scripture (i.e. the law) to interpret scripture. We cannot and must not trust any information outside of the Bible. Only the Bible itself is completely trustworthy. We can be sure that the reason there are so many interpretations of various Bible passages nowadays, is because the above biblical principle is NOT being adhered to.
 

The common way of studying the Bible:

• Use the Bible itself and its various cross references
• Use external commentaries and secular history books
• Use books by popular Christian authors
• Use Bible Dictionaries which may use extra-biblical sources to define and explain things
• Look at various Bible versions to see which one makes the most sense to you
• Use an English dictionary – without corroborating that definition with lexicons and other scriptural references to the same word
• Use concordances such as Young’s and Strong’s
• Use Greek/Hebrew interlinear translations

Based on preaching that I’ve heard on the radio and in churches I’ve visited, the common way of studying the Bible nowadays is primarily by the methods listed above (in bold print). These helps can actually throw us off track when we are trying to find the meaning of a passage of scripture. They should only be consulted after we have done a thorough job of studying the Bible without these materials.
 
Summary: This article is a section of a much larger article on the Bible doctrines of Election and Predestination called “Who accepts Whom?“. You are urged to check out that larger article for many other thought provoking questions pertaining these “Doctrines of Grace”. — RM Kane