The following rules, guiding principles, and definitions will help to explain the methods used to arrive at the conclusions reached in this study, using the Holy Bible as the foundation.
Fourteen Rules for Bible Study
(From Fred Coulter’s Introduction to The Holy Bible in Its Original Order)
- Begin with Scriptures that are easy to understand.
- Let the Bible interpret and prove the Bible. Don’t look for what you want to prove-look for what the Bible actually says.
- Understand the context-the verses before and after, and the chapters before and after. Does your understanding of a particular verse harmonize with the rest of the Bible?
- As much as possible, try to understand the original Hebrew or Greek. But never try to establish doctrine or teachings by using only Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Strong’s can be helpful at times, but is very limited.
- Ask: What does the Scripture clearly say?
- Ask: What does the Scripture NOT say?
- Ask: Who was the book written to?
- Ask: Who wrote it?
- Ask: Who said it?
10) Understand the historical time frame in which the book was written.
11) Base your study on the scriptural knowledge you already have. What do you know up to this point in time?
12) Do not allow personal assumptions or preconceived ideas to influence your understanding and conclusions.
13) Do not form conclusions based on partial facts, insufficient information, or the opinions and speculations of others.
14) Opinions – regardless of how strongly you feel about them – don’t necessarily count. Scripture alone must be your standard and guide.
Guiding Principles
Biblical concepts that show facts, imperatives, the character and/or intent of God, summed up succinctly in one Biblical sentence or phrase, from “here a little, there a little” (Is 28), that should lead us to a holistic conclusion…many of them memory scriptures.
- The scripture cannot be broken (The inspired Word of God can’t contradict itself)
John 10:35…
- Impossible for God to lie
- Impossible to please God without faith
- Here a little, there a little…Is 28
- Cause and Effect…As a man thinketh, so is he; As a man sows, so shall he reap;
- Man shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD which proceeds from the mouth of God…Sometimes, a single word-or even a tiny tense of a word-makes all the difference…properly translated.
- Faithful In little, faithful in much
- Not one jot or tittle will pass from the Law…Mt 5:17
- JC- the same yesterday, today and forever
- Built upon the foundation of the prophets
- In the mouth of two or three witnesses a thing is established.
1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages are coming.
Definitions
Exogesis
Eisegesis
Deductive Reasoning
Inductive Reasoning
Cross-contextual Confirmation (Exogesis)
Cross-Contextual Insertion (Eisegesis)
Extrapolation
Interpolation
Dt/Rv don’t’ add or take away or a curse OT/NT
Preface: Exogesis vs Eisogesis ; judgement…adding to or taking away from Dt/Rv; Deduction vs Induction; Conflation/CCI/Eisogesis…Is 55: 1 reasoning with God…
Definition: feast”…3 misunderstood Hebrew words for ONE English word: “feast” moed, “feasts” moedim….2) feast “chag” can be a specific day that is holy, or can be referring to the whole period of time of the seven days, or in the case of Pentecost, the combined Sabbath and next day, Sunday, Pentecost. 3) “Chachag”…not well understood…by use?