How to Study the Bible Intentionally: Methods and Conditions for Effective Bible Study

How to Study the Bible Intentionally

Methods and Conditions for Effective Bible Study

Reuben A. Torrey

Contents

Preface

Ch. 1: Introduction to Methods of Bible Study

Ch. 2: The Study of Individual Books

Ch. 3: Topical Study

Ch. 4: Biographical Study

Ch. 5: Study of Types

Ch. 6: Study the Books of the Bible in Order

Ch. 7: Studying the Bible for Practical Usefulness in Dealing with People

Ch. 8: The Fundamental Conditions of the Most Profitable Bible Study

Ch. 9: Final Suggestions

Reuben A. Torrey – A Brief Biography

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Preface

This book has been written for two reasons: first, because it seemed to be needed; second, to save the writer time and labor. Letters are constantly coming in from all over the world asking how to study the Bible. It is impossible to refuse to answer a question so important as that, but it takes much time to answer it as it should be answered. This book is written as an answer to those who have asked the question, and to those who may want to ask it. Nothing is more important for our own mental, moral, and spiritual development, or for our increase in usefulness, than Bible study. But not all Bible study is equally profitable. Some Bible study is absolutely profitless. How to study the Bible so as to get the most profit from it is a topic of immeasurable importance. The answer to the question, found in this book, has been for the most part given in addresses by me at the Chicago Bible Institute, at ministerial conferences and YMCA conventions before the summer gatherings of college students. Many people, especially ministers, who have heard these addresses have asked that they would be written down. I have promised for two years to comply with this request, but have never found time to do so until now.

Chapter 1

Introduction to Methods of Bible Study

We will first consider the most profitable methods of Bible study, and then we will look at the fundamental conditions of profitable Bible study. Many readers of this book will probably be frightened, at first, at the seeming elaborateness and difficulty of some of the methods of study suggested, but they are not as difficult as they appear.

Their practicality and effectiveness have been tested in the classroom, and not with classes made up completely of college graduates, but largely composed of people of very simple education – in some cases of almost no education. The methods do, though, require time and hard work. It must be remembered, however, that the Bible contains gold, and almost anyone is willing to dig for gold, especially if it is certain that he will find it. It is certain that one will find gold in the Bible – if he digs. As you use the methods recommended in this book, you will find your ability to do the work rapidly increasing by exercise, until you can soon do more in fifteen minutes than you could do in an hour when you started.

The first method of study suggested is exceptionally good mental training. When you have pursued this method of study for a while, your powers of observation will have been so enlivened that you will see at first glance what you previously saw only upon much study and reflection.

This method of study will also train the logical powers of your mind, cultivating habits of order, system, and classification in your intellectual processes. The power of clear, concise, and strong expression will be developed, as well. No book other than the Bible provides the opportunity for intellectual development by its study. No other book, and no other subject, will so abundantly repay careful and sincere study. The Bible is read much, but is studied very little in comparison.

It will probably be noticed by some that the first method of study suggested is practically the method now pursued in the study of nature. First you carefully analyze and study facts, and then you classify those facts. But what you will learn and discover from the Bible goes far beyond and above that of nature in excellence, beauty, thought, helpfulness, and practical use. The Bible is also far more accessible.

We cannot all be profound students of nature, but we can all be profound students of Scripture. Many otherwise uneducated people have a marvelous grasp of Bible truth. It was acquired by study. There are people who have studied little else, but who have studied the Scriptures by the hour, daily, and their resulting wisdom is the astonishment, and sometimes the dismay, of scholars and theologians.

Chapter 2

The Study of Individual Books

The first method of Bible study that we will consider is the study of the Bible by individual books. This method of study is the most thorough, the most difficult, and the one that yields the best and most permanent results. We take it up first because, in my opinion, it should take up the greatest part of our time.

The first work to do is to select the book to study.

This is a very important matter. If you make an unfortunate selection, you may become discouraged and give up a method of study that could have been most fruitful.

A few points will be helpful to the beginner:

For your first book study, choose a short book. The choice of a long book to begin with will lead to discouragement in anyone but a person of rare perseverance. It will be so long before one reaches the final results, which far more than pay for all the labor expended, that the ordinary student will give it up.

Choose a comparatively easy book. Some books of the Bible present weighty difficulties not to be found in other books. One will want to meet and overcome these later, but it is not a work for a beginner to set out upon. When his powers have become trained by reason of use, then he can do this successfully and satisfactorily, but if he attempts it, as so many rashly do, at the outset, he will soon find himself struggling. First Peter is a very precious book, but a few of the most difficult passages in the Bible are in it. If it were not for these difficult passages, it would be a good book to recommend to the beginner, but in view of these difficulties, it is not wise to try to make it a subject of exhaustive study until later.

Choose a book that is rich enough in its teaching to demonstrate the advantages of this method of study,