"A Book of Bible Study"

          Jesus Christ is called the “Word of God”, and He is also called “Faithful and True” (John 1:1, 14, Revelation 19:11-13). The Bible itself is the word of God revealed to man, and it contains all that God intended to communicate of His plan for the salvation of men through His Son Jesus Christ, and through Him alone. The word of God as revealed to us in the Scriptures is faithful and true, and every prophecy, precept, and promise contained therein will be made to come to pass in the lives of believers, and in God’s creation as a whole.

“A Book of Bible Study” provides answers to many of the most common questions believers have as they seek to understand the Bible. Great care has been taken to provide Scripture references for every teaching that is given, and many direct Scripture quotations are also included to enhance the understanding of each lesson.

The Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy to be diligent in correctly handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). In order to correctly handle God’s word, we must interpret the Bible considering not only the words in the verse or verses under consideration, but we must also consider the context of the passage in which the verses appear. And we must also interpret the verses considering the teachings of all the rest of the Scriptures as a whole. In addition, we must consider who is being addressed in a particular passage. When we interpret the Bible in this way, by letting “Scripture interpret Scripture” in such a way that our interpretation is not contradicted by other teachings in the Bible, then we can have confidence that we have correctly handled the word of God.

Many skeptics, and indeed many believers, will say that there are contradictions in the Bible. However, when the word of God is correctly handled or interpreted by letting the Scriptures themselves interpret the meaning of other Scriptures, we will find that passages in the Bible which once seemed to be contradicted by other passages can be demonstrated to be

in agreement with one another. Within the pages of this book the reader will see a number of these apparent contradictions resolved as we study several difficult biblical doctrines that have given rise to differences of opinion, even among genuine believers endeavoring to understand the truth of God’s word with all diligence and to the best of their ability.

We will consider numerous biblical teachings, including many of God’s promises of mercy, forgiveness, restoration, and help for His people. We will also consider the difficult issue of suffering in the life of a believer. We will grapple with the question of why our loving, sovereign, and omnipotent God, for whom nothing is impossible, would allow suffering to touch the lives of His people, even when we are walking in obedience to His word.

Later in the book we will consider subjects such as predestination and the eternal security of the believer, and we will come to definite conclusions about these doctrines, conclusions based squarely upon the word of God. We will also consider biblical teachings that reveal the sovereignty of God in the events that transpire in the lives of all men. And we will study events in the lives of several of God’s servants as recorded in the Bible, in order to see how He worked in their lives to accomplish His will through them. As we do so, we will gain insight into some of the ways in which God may work in our lives as well, as He fulfills His plan and purpose for each of us.