Your Study Plan?

[simplejeff]

39 minutes ago, bryan said:

4. Study topics where wrong interpretations of scripture were used to support them.  By learning past methods used to support certain ideas and agendas, one can learn to recognize the same patterns today.

This might fail.  It reminds me of studying counterfeit money.  Don't. 

When the treasury department is training its agents to recognize counterfeit money,  they might put them in a room for three weeks , and all they do is count money all day long, every day. 

At some point,  one counterfeit bill is slipped in to the mix.  (money to be counted).

Immediately (for most kinds of counterfeiting),  the counerfeit is recognized right away - it sticks out like a red swollen thumb.

Same with God's Word - read and read and read ,  even devour God's Word Daily.  Praying constantly for His Revelation/ Understanding all the time, day and night, always SEEKING HIM, HIS PRESENCE.

When a false gospel is encountered, or a false teaching, it will stick out like a red swollen thumb ! (God willing)

Everything depends on God - no prophesy of Scripture was ever open to private interpretation, according to Scripture, God's Word.

[GandalfTheWise]

1 hour ago, bryan said:

Gandalf's summary here is great.  Personally, I like to add one more:

4. Study topics where wrong interpretations of scripture were used to support them.  By learning past methods used to support certain ideas and agendas, one can learn to recognize the same patterns today.

This is an interesting observation.   I read this as not so much being about tracking down and spending our time on every problem but rather making sure we don't adopt the methods and errors that led to many problems.  Off the top of my head, the big ones I've observed are go something like this.   1. God told me (or someone else) this is what this passage means (and the Holy Spirit never misleads me). 2. God has hidden deep secrets in scripture and I am one of the anointed few dedicated and worthy enough to find them.   3. I never use reference books or look to collective wisdom, experience, and understanding in the body of Christ because most of that stuff and those people are under satan's influence and not God's.  4. There is a only small remnant of people faithful to God's Word who can be trusted to explain and proclaim it properly.   

I hadn't thought about it, but I guess I do at times do this type of study.  A few months ago, I did a bit of research on William Miller (who became convinced that the Bible taught that Christ was going to return in 1844).  I skimmed his memoirs (available online various places on the internet). I had expected a Joseph Smith (LDS) or Charles Taze Russell (JW) type of person who was committed to "restoring" "lost" truth.   Much to my surprise, what I found was basically a fairly doctrinally sound and gifted baptist preacher with a solid conversion testimony who spent years in an effective ministry as a preacher and evangelist.   It was that he later went off on his own and became obsessed with a fringe topic of knowing when Christ would return.  He became convinced that God (as part of the end times) had revealed when Christ would return so that the church could prepare for His return.  He was not about starting a new movement or seeking self-glory.  He was about pushing evangelical fervor to bring in the last of the harvest before the end came.  Skimming through his memoirs was sad to me.  Here was a gifted and sincere believer who had become so obsessed with one wrong idea (based in scripture as he read it and thought God was saying) and let it distract him away from his anointed ministry as a preacher and evangelist.  Instead of spending the majority of his efforts on evangelism working in the body of Christ as an evangelist, he spent years of his life trying to enlighten the church about what the Bible "really" taught about Christ's return.  At times, he started expending more efforts trying to convince various church leaders that he was right and they were wrong on this topic than his real gifting and passion which was reaching the lost.  My sense of reading various things is that he simply cut himself off from correction from most of the body of Christ for a time because of this one topic.  He was convinced God had shown him what the Bible said, he believed it, and dedicated years of his life to it.  God sent him many a believer to try to halt the madness, but he was right and they were wrong.  He was zealously and in all sincerity and with good motives encouraging as many people as possible to join the end-time harvest.  Many believers were convinced and joined him.  Some good came of these evangelical efforts and it's likely many people did come to Christ through this fervor and zeal, but much distraction and confusion resulted as well.

Doctrines from outside the church that deny fundamental tenets of faith are easy to see.  However, misdirection and unhealthy obsessions inside the faith are something that Christians often fall for.  It's often easy to see it in other Christians, or congregations, or denominations, but difficult to see in ourselves.

[frienduff thaylorde]

2 hours ago, simplejeff said:

This might fail.  It reminds me of studying counterfeit money.  Don't. 

When the treasury department is training its agents to recognize counterfeit money,  they might put them in a room for three weeks , and all they do is count money all day long, every day. 

At some point,  one counterfeit bill is slipped in to the mix.  (money to be counted).

Immediately (for most kinds of counterfeiting),  the counerfeit is recognized right away - it sticks out like a red swollen thumb.

Same with God's Word - read and read and read ,  even devour God's Word Daily.  Praying constantly for His Revelation/ Understanding all the time, day and night, always SEEKING HIM, HIS PRESENCE.

When a false gospel is encountered, or a false teaching, it will stick out like a red swollen thumb ! (God willing)

Everything depends on God - no prophesy of Scripture was ever open to private interpretation, according to Scripture, God's Word.

To the Lord be the glory,  to the Lord be the praise .  praise the Lord peoples.

This is precisely accurate .    To know and be able to overcome any falsehood or evil.   All one has to do is learn from the One who defeated that source of all evil.

TRUTH alone , In Christ alone , and reading that bible with aid of the HOLY GHOST .

Many have been lured into a snare by believing to be able to overcome an enemy you must know your enemy.   NO,   KNOW JESUS the one who conquered that enemy

Feast on the truth ,  Follow the lamb ,   and overcome all evil BY HIS POWER we shall and do .

A deceiver satan is .   And I have seen some who try and teach the other way , and man I seen what happened.   They became so pride filled.

I KNOW this ,  etc , and how satan has such and such generals and such and such legions and that THEY KNOW EVERY lil detail about Him.

But this knowledge is not only often dead wrong ,   man this type knowledge has filled them to the full with pride .

Another tatic to also deceive people bad.    IS saying things like you have to read the Koran to be able to know how to witness to muslims and etc.

LIES.    and that is one way to slip and fall  .   We don't need to learn a thing from any other religion.  LEARN from the SOURCE,  

And you shall indeed overcome all evil.  THEIR is only one who overcame it all.  CHRIST the KING .   THUS learn from HIM

and this is all we need .  Feast on the pages of the bible.   And by all means by on guard against the wiles of men gone wrong who twist so much.

[simplejeff]

1 hour ago, GandalfTheWise said:

Doctrines from outside the church that deny fundamental tenets of faith are easy to see.  However, misdirection and unhealthy obsessions inside the faith are something that Christians often fall for.  It's often easy to see it in other Christians, or congregations, or denominations, but difficult to see in ourselves.

What did Jesus say about doctrines outside of the faithful ekklesia ?  Nothing, really.  Simply never look for them, never study them,  don't have anything to do with them.

The danger, Jesus says,  is within - as in He said "Beware the leaven of the teachers" ....   Do listen when they teach TORAH, but do not live like they live,  because they are hypocrites flagrantly disobeying YHVH...  They will cross an ocean or a desert to make one convert,  but won't lift a finger to help anyone, and then their convert will be twice the son of the devil as they are !

[ayin jade]

2 hours ago, simplejeff said:

What did Jesus say about doctrines outside of the faithful ekklesia ?  Nothing, really.  Simply never look for them, never study them,  don't have anything to do with them.

The danger, Jesus says,  is within - as in He said "Beware the leaven of the teachers" ....   Do listen when they teach TORAH, but do not live like they live,  because they are hypocrites flagrantly disobeying YHVH...  They will cross an ocean or a desert to make one convert,  but won't lift a finger to help anyone, and then their convert will be twice the son of the devil as they are !

Is this teaching?

[existential mabel]

hey what a brilliant question! for me i keep going through the bible start to finish and along the way i go off on different trails which makes it very informative- being mindful and to the best that i can be sure to get facts and not a rabbit hole!

each time i go through i think of a different focus i.e initially it was the geneology and then listing the Kings those are just two areas i really enjoy doing this. i have had no formal study background.

 i dont adhere to any study tools as these slow me down. maybe in the future i might but not at the mo.

i am also tying scriptures together to give me an overview which makes it very interesting loving the computer for this. doing the bible on line has opened things up for me dunno if it makes it easier for the dyslexia as before i found it hard to read a few verses now i can read many chapters!

who  knows i might even start a house group one day.