RESPONSIBLE BIBLE STUDY
The spirit of undenominational Christianity begins with a call back to the Bible. God was evidently pleased with the Bereans, because the Scriptures call them “fair-minded” in describing their willingness to “search the Scriptures daily” to see if what they were being told was the truth (Acts 17:11). The modern church needs to recapture that spirit of diligent Bible study. God has entrusted us with His word, and in this free society in which we live, we have ample opportunities to study and learn the Scriptures. Not everyone in the world is permitted the privilege of even owning a copy of God’s word—while the American church is made up of people who own, in many cases, multiple copies of the Sacred Volume. Add to this the various study aids that God’s providence has brought to us and you will see that there is no excuse for the modern church to be as biblically ignorant as she is.
So we must repent and rededicate ourselves to the honest investigation of truth. For too long, we have put confidence in our leaders to study for us, and we have lost the spirit that makes Christian movements great—that of a fiercely independent quest for truth. Perhaps the reason we have had so many religious “superstars” among us is because these have studied and we have been content to sit in the shadows and be spoon-fed the conclusions that our “leading lights” have deduced. We must put forth the effort to learn how to study, to be challenged, to ask questions, to “grow in the...knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). Anything that is important to us, we can learn how to do. When we value responsible Bible study, we will become responsible Bible students.
So away with this timid spirit that turns our faculties of reason off when it comes to our religion. We must be mature-minded believers who are not content to rest upon the findings of our forefathers. Only a childish mentality will be afraid of what we might discover from honest inquiry. Our preaching and our teaching should not be considered sound or scriptural unless it motivates us to think, to reason, and to question everything that we have been told, regardless of how sincere and pious those who taught us may have been. God will judge our forefathers on the knowledge which they possessed based on their study and investigation of His word. But how horrible it would be if we had opportunities to grow and learn beyond what they were permitted to see, opportunities which they never had, yet were content to sit stagnate in our confusion rather than seeking truth irrespective of the personal cost to us. Remember, a mind that is “made up” cannot learn anything new. And there may be many things we need to learn.
Dewayne Dunaway
