Final Study: Where did the Bible Come From?
So this past Tuesday we had our final study on the theme Where did the Bible come from?.
When I talked about this study at home, Nathanael would get quite frustrated. "It came from GOD!!" he kept saying. In other words – what a silly question! 🙂
Well, of course I agree with Nathanael. But this study did get into a little more detail about how God brought us the Bible here in Mexico City in 2011. 🙂
The topic for the last study was What is the Word of God? So, we talked about inspiration and what that really means for us.
We also spent time reviewing, and that included a little quiz. I asked questions about the early church, the copying of biblical manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, translations, and even the Council of Nicea (which doesn’t relate much to my topic – but that’s the point!).
The quiz was also an excuse to get some resources into people’s hands. So I was able to give away some prizes (thanks to many of you who have given to this ministry!) such as Bibles, a book on our theme, and even some Bible study software.
We ended by talking about 9 important things to remember as you study God’s Word, and then by reading John 1:1-14.
In the end, I’m happy we did this study, although I think it will need some work before we do it again. There were some things that went really well, other things that didn’t!
The fact of the matter is, we as a church need to discuss these things. We do deal with people, here in Mexico as well as in other countries, that attack the Bible in many different ways. Quite often those people don’t know a lot either – they’re just repeating what they’ve heard.
But what if, when our kids went off to college and university, they already had a good idea where the Bible came from. They had talked about the Gospel of Thomas, church councils, textual variants and the place of the Resurrection in history. I hope that studies like this will not only help us deal with attacks on the Bible – they will also help us understand the Bible better. They will help us breath the air of the early church, hear Jesus’ words in a new way, and take seriously those who died for a belief in the death and resurrection of a Middle Eastern Teacher.
We’ve been talking here about how we can continue to integrate this kind of teaching into the life of the church in this part of Mexico City. Maybe there are ways you can use these ideas in your church too…
Read previous posts about this study – Where did the Bible Come From?
13 March 2011 @ 9:33 pm
Congratulations to you on completing this study in your second language!
I agree with you that children need to be given more information on this subject in order to be prepared for what they’ll hear when they go to college or university. We all need it to arm us with good solid answers for others who, for whatever reason, dismiss the Bible and its good news as irrelevant and/or full of myths.
Creationism vs. evolution is another area (though related to this) that kids and adults need more good information on in the home and the local church.