Friday, May 15
Read Ellen G. White, “John Wycliffe”, pp. 79-96; “Luther Before the Diet”, pp. 145-170 in The Great Controversy; Also read section 4.a. — j. from the document “Methods of Bible Study”, which can be found at the following link: www.adventistbiblicalresearch.org/materials/bible-interpretation-hermeneutics/methods-bible-study.
“In His word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the revealer of doctrines, and the test of experience. … Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His word, has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, the Spirit was promised by our Saviour, to open the word to His servants, to illuminate and apply its teachings. And since it was the Spirit of God that inspired the Bible, it is impossible that the teaching of the Spirit should ever be contrary to that of the word.” Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 9
Discussion Questions:
Regardless of how many translations of the Bible exist in your language, what can you do to make the most of what you have? How can you learn to cherish the Bible as the Word of God and to seek, by faith, to obey what it teaches?
Think about the difference between what the Word of God teaches about human origins (that we were created by God on the sixth day of Creation), and what humanity itself, under the name of “science”, teaches, which is that we evolved over billions of years. What should this vast contrast between the two tell us about how important it is to stick to what the Bible teaches, and how far off humanity can get when it veers away from the Word of God and what it plainly teaches?
What Bible tools, if any, are available to you that can help you better understand the Bible? And even if you don’t have any extra tools, how can you learn to apply some of the lessons learned this week about how to interpret the Bible?
The children of Israel were told to teach their own children the great truths committed to them and to retell the stories about God’s leading in their lives (Deuteronomy 4:9). Putting aside the obvious benefit of passing the faith on, what is it about the teaching and the telling of stories about God’s leading in our lives that tends to increase our own faith? That is, why is sharing biblical truth with others beneficial to ourselves, as well?
