Participants: C A Murray (Host), Lee Gugliotto
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000365
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00:30 Hi, Welcome to Issues and Answers. 00:32 I'm C. A. Murray. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever gotten 00:36 a flyer in the mail or perhaps you've turned on your television 00:39 set or the radio and heard a preacher or a teacher talking 00:43 about a piece of scripture, discussing a piece of scripture, 00:46 that sounded somewhat foreign to you. You've looked at that 00:50 scripture and you've gotten one idea from it but what you're 00:53 hearing sounds totally different than what you got from it? Well 00:57 the issue is how do you discuss or how do you look at the Bible 01:01 and read out of the Bible what it has to say to you. That's our 01:06 topic for today, Bible Study. And here with me to really talk 01:10 about this issue is Dr. Lee Gugliotto. Good doctor, good to 01:14 have you here. It's good to be here. 01:15 Now we could say Gugliotto or we could say Gugliautto or from 01:18 Brooklyn you would say Gugliautta. 01:19 That's true. Probably the easiest thing is just call me 01:23 Lee. Most people are relieved to hear the name Lee. 01:27 The good doctor is Brooklyn born and we were talking about having 01:31 sometime in New York myself. But he's traveled the world and 01:36 his burden has been for the last several years Bible study, how 01:40 to study, what to study, how to study so that you're reading out 01:44 of the Bible what it has to say to you as opposed to reading 01:48 into the Bible your own preconceived notions or what you 01:51 would like the Bible to say. So That's our burden today. That's 01:54 the issue we want to wrestle with-how to study the Bible 01:58 and get what the Bible has to say to us. Yeah, Yeah. I guess 02:02 Lee the easiest question to ask is what is Bible Study? 02:06 Well you know there are a lot of answers to that question and 02:11 many people feel certain that their answer is the best. For me 02:16 I think the Bible should determine what Bible study is. 02:20 So let's take a look at a couple of passages and see if we can't 02:24 understand what Bible study is. We could start by looking at 02:30 1 John chapter 2 and verse 27. That's the first letter of John, 02:36 not the gospel. First letter of John chapter 2 verse 27. 02:40 We'll wait to see when we get there because by the time we get 02:43 there everybody at home should be there. I sure hope they have 02:47 their Bibles out. I sure hope they do. 02:49 And are staying with us. That's important. 02:51 Verse 27 reads: As for you the anointing which you received 02:55 from him abides in you and you have no need for anyone to teach 02:59 you, but as his anointing teaches you about all things 03:03 and is true and is not a lie and just as it has taught you, you 03:07 abide in him. Now there's a couple of startling things in 03:11 that verse. Number one you probably want to know is what is 03:15 this anointing that abides in me and what does John mean when he 03:20 says because of this anointing you don't need anyone to teach 03:24 you because the anointing teaches you. Well, let's start 03:29 by talking about what anointing is. Anointing in the Old 03:33 Testament refers to the idea of oil being poured out on a person 03:39 equipping him with the Holy Spirit for his work; usually for 03:44 priests and kings. Now that sounds very ancient and what 03:48 does that have to do with people today. Well according to 03:52 Revelation 1:5 and 6 Jesus has made us kings and priests both, 03:57 you see, to God as Father. So that means that each one of us 04:02 needs an anointing to equip us for our ministry as kings and 04:07 priests for God. According to Ephesians 4:30 we have been 04:12 sealed, every true believer, has been sealed by God with the 04:18 Spirit until redemption day. So we have this anointing, the Holy 04:24 Spirit has been poured out on us and preparing us for our kingly 04:29 and priestly work. And who is this Holy Spirit that has been 04:35 poured out upon us. Well if you go to John chapter 16 and we 04:42 could pick it up at verse 13: But when he the Spirit of Truth 04:47 comes he will guide you into all truth for he will not speak on 04:52 his own initiative but whatever he hears he will speak and he 04:56 will disclose to you what is to come, so the Spirit that has 05:00 been poured out on us is none other than the Holy Spirit who 05:05 is also our divinely appointed teacher. Get the picture. We've 05:11 been anointed with a Spirit who will be with us until redemption 05:15 day and that Spirit is the Holy Spirit who guides us into all 05:19 truth, God's divinely appointed teacher. 05:22 So when we talk about the anointing then are we talking 05:25 about a sort of formal bestowal of the Spirit? 05:28 We're talking about something that happens to every believer. 05:32 See this is not some kind of special ceremony but this is 05:35 another way Paul uses of describing what happens to each 05:39 one of us at our conversion. So The Holy Spirit has entered our 05:43 lives. He is the Spirit who empowers us for all of this 05:47 wonderful ministry that God has called us to but at the same 05:50 time he's our teacher. And he'll be with us until the day of 05:54 redemption, which is why John says you don't need another 05:58 teacher. You have an anointing that will last forever and so 06:01 you don't need anybody else to teach you. And that's a question 06:06 because you know we talked to a number of people about Bible 06:10 study teaching and it amazes me. I would like to know even myself 06:15 I've heard many answers. Why is it that people would want anyone 06:20 else to teach them other than God's Holy Spirit. We have the 06:25 Spirit that guides us into truth He's an infallible teacher. He 06:30 always leads us into truth and every pupil of his gets an 06:35 education that is divinely inspired and divinely transacted 06:40 So why would anybody want anyone else to teach them? 06:43 It amazes me but a lot of people don't realize what God has done 06:49 and so they want to sit under Chehe ministries or other 06:53 ministries reading books and so on rather than actually get into 06:57 the Bible to study for themselves. 06:59 Now having said that you have a Ph. D. in this so obviously 07:04 there are pitfalls that have to be avoided that one must work 07:08 their way around and through. You know, you start off as a 07:11 babe and then you get your sea legs where you get a little bit 07:15 stronger. So there are some things even when we sit under 07:17 the presence of the Spirit when we're going through word 07:20 ourselves that we need to avoid that we need to look at. 07:22 Well one is first of all one of the great misconceptions about 07:27 Bible study. I want to go back to John 16:13 again. OK. But 07:31 he the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth 07:35 for he will not speak on his own initiative but whatever he hears 07:40 he will speak and he will disclose to you what is to come. 07:44 Verse 14: He will glorify Me for he will take of mine and will 07:48 disclose it to you. Verse 15: All things that the Father has 07:51 are mine, therefore I said that he takes of mine and will 07:55 disclose it to you. Get the picture. The Holy Spirit is not 07:59 original. When he speaks to us he is repeating what he is told. 08:03 And who's telling him these things? Jesus is telling him 08:07 these things. So the first thing we need to understand about 08:10 Bible study is Bible study is not getting in your Bible to 08:15 learn about Jesus. Bible study is getting into your Bible to 08:20 learn from Jesus. Through the Holy Spirit's ministry Jesus is 08:25 our teacher. Jesus is the one who is actually speaking to us. 08:30 Now I think if people understood that more clearly they would not 08:35 elect to take substitutions for Christ as their teacher because 08:39 Bible study is not an academic exercise, it's not a research 08:44 project. It's an experience with Jesus. So that's one of the 08:48 first and most important, I think, misunderstandings about 08:52 Bible study that need to be cleared out. 08:54 Lee, that's an important point. The point I hear you making is 08:58 why would you want to get it second hand? Get it straight 09:01 from the source. You can get it from Jesus, go to the source. 09:04 And if you get it from Christ and getting it from Christ is 09:08 more than just learning facts. Getting it from Christ is an 09:11 experience whereby Jesus is able to transform us and work within 09:16 us and bring us further along in our progress in the Christian 09:20 life. So it's not a matter of, oh I need to look up something 09:24 and find out about it. Every time we open our Bibles we 09:28 ought to consider it an opportunity to be with God. 09:31 In fact, one of our pioneers once said that God's word isn't 09:36 merely written but spoken. The Bible is God's voice speaking to 09:40 us just as surely as though we could hear it with our ears. 09:45 If we realize this that God himself addresses us in our 09:49 Bibles then with what earnestness we would search it's 09:53 precepts, with what determination we would 09:57 open it's pages. Even the reading and contemplation 10:02 of the scriptures would be regarded as an audience with the 10:05 infinite. Powerful, powerful. 10:06 Every time you open your Bible you may not see it because 10:10 you're still in your surroundings but you've been 10:12 transported into the throne room of grace with God and you have 10:17 a personal interview with God and his undivided attention and 10:21 the Infinite One, the God who knows everything, is prepared 10:24 to instruct you about anything and everything you want to know. 10:28 That's Bible study. 10:31 All right, then let's move around because the question 10:32 as we prioritize then we need to wrestle with what then is the 10:39 most important aspect of Bible study? Where do we start? 10:43 Well it's actually now where we start. You have to have a goal 10:47 and that determines where you start. The most important aspect 10:51 of Bible study is clearly application because what does it 10:54 matter if you've been very careful about analyzing the text 10:58 and allowing it to speak to you and authenticating what you're 11:02 getting from the Bible by looking up words and places and 11:06 people and things. What good is all of that if it doesn't change 11:10 your life? I mean James makes it very clear. We're not supposed 11:14 to be just hearers of the word. We're supposed to be doers of 11:19 the word. So all Bible study must be geared in the direction 11:24 that will enable us to go from the scriptures to real life and 11:29 to allow the Bible to have the full impact on us that it really 11:33 should. So before we open the pages I 11:35 think you're saying we have to be prepared in mind and heart to 11:38 say whatever I find here, whatever the Spirit shows me, 11:41 I'm going to do. 11:43 Absolutely. Yeah, you have to come to the Bible prepared for 11:47 change, always come prepared for change. Another thing about 11:52 Bible study-there are two approaches to Bible study. Some 11:56 people study the Bible... I'm sure the audience at home has 12:00 heard these words... Inductively and others study deductively and 12:05 then some blend the two. But let's differentiate between the 12:09 two. The deductive student of the Bible comes with an agenda. 12:13 The deductive student of the Bible has something in mind and 12:17 comes to the Bible looking for support for what that person 12:22 already thinks and is governed by preconceived notions and 12:26 these preconceived notions have an effect on what the person 12:31 gets out of the Bible. Because they're trying to deduce from 12:35 the scriptures what they can that fits with what they already 12:39 know. Now inductive Bible students are different. 12:42 Inductive students of the Bible don't come with any particular 12:46 agenda other than to learn. So when they come to the Bible 12:50 instead of saying you know I need to see if I can find such 12:54 and such in the scriptures or does this back up what I already 12:58 know. You come to the Bible just with the idea I want to learn 13:03 and so I'm willing to just gather information. I'm going to 13:08 hold myself back from drawing conclusions. I'm just going to 13:12 study and I'm going to gather information and then when the 13:16 Holy Spirit convinces me that there's nothing else left to 13:20 collect, then it seems to me I have enough finally to start 13:25 drawing conclusions from the text and without a set agenda 13:30 you can learn virtually anything from the Bible. 13:33 Yeah, Praise God. I think you'll agree with me, the Bible is such 13:38 a broad book, such a comprehensive book that 13:40 if you come with a preconception you will find things to support 13:45 your preconception. You know, whatever it is you come with 13:48 you'll find enough stuff in there to sort of build a little 13:51 platform on. Yeah, that's very true and I 13:53 find that that is the case. You know, we've talked with a lot of 13:56 people; we've been teaching Bible study now for many years. 13:59 Ever since we won that gold medallion for the handbook, 14:02 we found ourselves in the midst of discussions on hermeneutics. 14:08 People at home are probably going Herman who? Hermeneutics. 14:13 Hermeneutics refers to the principles of Bible study. It's 14:17 the machinery, the methodology and the techniques you use for 14:21 Bible study as opposed to interpretation itself, what we 14:26 would call exegesis. That's another fancy word. 14:29 Yeah. I was going to ask you to just take a little left term and 14:33 deal with those two terms: exegesis and eisegesis, what they 14:36 are and what mistakes attend from them both. 14:38 Yeah, you see exegesis is leading out of scripture, you're 14:42 not manufacturing, you're not reading into it. Eisegesis is 14:46 read into scripture what you're hoping to find there, what you 14:50 think you see there. Exegesis is reading it out, so that is the 14:54 actual practice of Bible study. But hermeneutics is the basis. 14:58 It's the principles by which we study the Bible. So a lot 15:02 depends on your hermeneutic and across Christendom there are a 15:07 great deal of things that we all agree on. When we wrote the 15:12 handbook, what we did was we dwelt on these sound principles 15:17 of interpretation that just about everybody agrees with 15:20 and we got a gold medallion from the Evangelical Christian 15:24 Publishers Association because scholars of many different 15:27 denominations looked at the book and said you know I can agree 15:31 with that because the principles were sound. It's when we attempt 15:36 to do the actually interpretation of the Bible some of us have 15:40 extra principles that we use. Some people come to the Bible 15:45 for example and have a very strong literal bent when they 15:49 come to the Bible. Others are a little more open and are willing 15:54 to take each text as it comes and ask God to help them to see 15:58 what is the sense they should take that passage in. And it 16:03 does make a difference because I can remember, this is a true 16:07 story, back in 1958 the Braves were playing the Yankees for the 16:11 world series and I remember it was the last game, ninth inning, 16:15 and Warren Spawn is on the mound for the Braves and Leo Durocher 16:20 is the manager of the Braves. Elston Howard comes to the plate 16:23 for the Yankees, power hitting catcher for the Yankees. There's 16:27 a couple of guys on base and Durocher is a little frightened 16:31 so Durocher calls time, comes running out, comes up to Warren 16:35 and says Warren you know we've studied some movies of this guy. 16:39 You know you've faced him before so whatever you do don't give 16:42 this guy a high inside fast ball that's the last thing you want 16:46 to do. He leaves, runs back into the dugout and Warren goes into 16:49 his major league windup, if you remember Warren Spawn, that big 16:53 windup and fires in a high inside fast ball which Elston 16:57 Howard creams for a three-run homer. Now you'll probably say 17:01 Durocher is probably saying didn't I just tell you not to do 17:05 that. Well the problem is the last thing on our mind is what 17:10 we actually enact, the next thing we do. And so if you come 17:15 to the Bible with preconceived notions, those preconceived 17:19 notions are going to govern the way you view scripture and as 17:24 much as people love the Lord and really want the Bible to speak 17:28 to them, I mean after all, God speaks to us through his word. 17:31 So you want to listen for that still small voice. As much as 17:35 you want to do that you find that your preconceived notions 17:39 do color the way you approach the scriptures and they actually 17:43 taint the results you get. So that is another difficulty you 17:48 you have to get past. 17:49 All right. Before our time slips away I want you to wrestle with 17:52 for me, then given this foundation that we set, how do 17:57 we actually study the Bible? And, if you will, because you've 18:00 spent a lifetime doing this and teaching this, what are some of 18:03 the major mistakes that you see people committing in Bible 18:06 study? How do we do it and what are the pitfalls we need to sort 18:09 of dance around as we try to study? 18:11 Well one of the first things you don't want to do is just rush in 18:14 to study a text. You may assume I've heard things about this 18:18 text, I've been told about this book, this passage, and you rush 18:23 right in to look at that passage The probability is that you're 18:28 going to isolate that passage from its context. The context is 18:33 the world the writer created for the words, people, places and 18:37 things in his book. You cannot understand them unless you see 18:41 them against the backdrop of that world. If you disconnect 18:46 them from the writer's reasons for writing, or the time in 18:51 which he writes or the location he's dealing with and the 18:55 circumstances of the people in the book and the situations and 18:59 so on. If you detach it from those things you can make the 19:02 Bible say just about anything you want it to say. And so 19:07 context is key. You must get the context. To start with you 19:12 should get a big picture of the whole book. Do not rush into a 19:16 passage but get a big picture of the whole book. 19:19 This is important Lee and I want to stay with this just a second. 19:23 Because having taken your course having sat under you, you stress 19:27 context quite a lot. You do not rip a text out of its context. 19:32 So you're saying rather than just dive into that one text 19:34 look at the whole book, look at the milieu that it sits in 19:37 before you go to that text and don't just go there because 19:40 you're going to go sort of off. 19:42 Well you can make a passage say anything you want. So when you 19:46 come to the text you should come to it gradually starting with 19:50 the big picture of the whole book: Who wrote it, when did he 19:53 write it, where did he write, who was he writing to, who does 19:57 he write about to that audience? Why does he write the book? 20:00 And so on. And you want to get an outline of the book so you 20:04 can start to see how parts of the book fit together. If you 20:07 have a particular passage you want to study, you can move in 20:11 on that passage now because you can see where it fits in the 20:14 book. One of the things that people should remember is try to 20:18 study the book a passage at a time. Even if you want to just 20:22 learn what one verse means, don't tackle that verse by 20:26 itself. Look in your Bible, almost any Bible, whether it's 20:29 just a reading Bible or a study Bible like this one, when you 20:33 look in your Bible, you'll notice that there are 20:36 subheadings throughout the Bible Those subheadings are dividing 20:41 the book into passages, that is units of thought, collections of 20:46 verses that are all dealing with one subject or one topic, one 20:50 main character, one event, or so on. So it pays to study those 20:55 verses together as a unit because they're all dealing with 20:58 that topic. Even the verse you want to learn about is part of 21:02 this collection that works together as a single unit. 21:06 So you want to study the Bible a passage at a time. Find out 21:10 what the passage before has to say and the simplest way to do 21:14 that is to see what does the passage before have in common 21:18 with the passage 21:19 that you want to study. Just look at what they have in common 21:24 So for example if I'm studying Psalm 23 and I look at Psalm 22 21:27 which is... You know the book of Psalms breaks up into various 21:31 psalms. Each psalm is a passage. So Psalm 22 is the passage 21:36 before Psalm 23. When I look at Psalm 22, Psalm 22 is about a 21:40 life and death struggle for David. He is under attack. He 21:45 expects to die. His enemies are closing in, they're about to 21:49 destroy him. We see his faith take a hit and then bounce back, 21:54 take another hit and bounce back and finally out of nowhere 21:59 he just suddenly says I will let the whole congregation of the 22:04 righteous know how you delivered me from death. 22:06 It's like whoa, faith finally just triumphs there and then 22:10 he talks about that and then he talks about how he's going to 22:14 let the congregation know, the uttermost parts of the earth are 22:17 going to know about this. He even says that he's going to 22:20 throw a tremendous banquet, a feast that he's going to 22:24 celebrate God rescuing him from this certain death situation and 22:28 everybody's going to come and eat. Even the poor are going to 22:32 come and eat and be satisfied. Well you read all that. Then you 22:37 get to Psalm 23 and Psalm 23 David talks about yea though I 22:41 walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no 22:45 evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and they staff they comfort 22:49 me and in the next verse, thou preparest a table before me in 22:53 the presence of mine enemies. There's a connection between 22:57 these two Psalms. Psalm 23 seems to be reflecting on the 23:02 circumstances of Psalm 22 where David was going through the 23:06 valley of certain death. Death was hanging over him like a 23:11 specter and he was fearless about it and by faith he claims 23:16 victory, promises God he will celebrate with everyone and 23:20 there'll be a table and he'll let everyone know that God set 23:23 the table for him because it's God's victory they're 23:26 celebrating. So you see the connection. And then you could 23:30 do the same thing when you look at Psalm 23 and Psalm 24. You 23:34 start looking for what do they have in common. Because these 23:37 passages before and after are going to help you to understand 23:41 basically the context of that little part you want to 23:46 understand. So I mean we could go into more detail about that 23:48 but I mean that's a pretty good idea. 23:51 I'm sort of pausing here a little bit. It's a little 23:54 counterintuitive but it's also very, very important because 23:58 you're saying if I want to really understand the 23rd 24:01 psalm I don't start with the 23rd psalm. I start with Psalm 24:05 22 or maybe even 21, but I get a whole context with that. So 24:09 long before I get Psalm 23 I've done serious study in the verses 24:13 that precede it and maybe even those that come after it so I 24:16 can understand the one that I'm really keying on. 24:18 Absolutely. In fact, if you look at an outline of the book of 24:21 Psalms you know the book of Psalms breaks up into five books 24:24 The first book seems to deal with law and kingship, the 24:29 foundations of the Jewish experience. Then the next part 24:34 deals with the temple. Then you start trying to understand that. 24:38 Why would the temple follow on kingship. Well the problem is 24:42 that not everybody can keep the law, not everybody is perfect 24:46 all the time and not everybody obeys the king, disobeys and so 24:49 on. So what do you want to do with it. If you want to go to 24:52 with it? You want to go to the temple where you find 24:55 forgiveness for sin and you can reconcile with God and reconcile 24:59 with those you've hurt and so on. And so you can see... 25:02 And then Psalm 23 is right in that first section, law and 25:05 kingship that prepares us for the temple. So I mean, you want 25:09 to understand Psalm 23 see it in a bigger picture, see it in the 25:13 bigger picture, so context is very important. The second thing 25:16 that you really need to do is you need to do some analysis. 25:20 One of the things that we show people to do is look for 25:23 repetition. Writers repeat what's important to them the 25:27 more they repeat them the more important it is. So if you look 25:30 for repetition what you're going to see is the way the writer's 25:33 thoughts flow through the passage. What you do is every 25:37 time you see something that's the same, similar or related 25:41 mark it with one color. You find something else. Look at that 25:44 thing. What's the same, similar or related to it. Mark it with 25:48 another color. Pretty soon you have all these different colors 25:51 and you can see how the book breaks up and without being a 25:56 scholar of Hebrew or Greek or an expert in exegesis you can 26:00 see insights into what's happening just be using a simple 26:04 technique. Then you want to look up things. Find out what these 26:08 words meant in the original language. Use a Strong's 26:11 Concordance. You want to see the people, places and things in the 26:14 original setting so look them up in a Bible dictionary and get 26:18 some insights into who they are. Then you can lay out all your 26:22 research in front of you and then you can go verse by verse 26:25 and start pulling things together trying to understand. 26:28 And the way people learn is they ask questions. You know people 26:33 don't just look at the Bible and yep I understand, I understand 26:36 that. As they're going through their mind is trying to 26:39 understand everything. There are certain laws of thinking. What 26:44 we try to do is we try to get what we see to fit what we 26:47 already know. But when we don't understand, we ask questions. 26:50 That's what those definitions and descriptions are for and as 26:53 you start to pull things together it all starts to come 26:56 together. Before you know it, the Holy Spirit has put you in 27:00 touch with the writer and you understand the book and you 27:03 understand the passage and it's been a tremendous blessing and 27:06 and a journey. Praise God, praise God. You know 27:08 we have just begun to scratch the surface of this weighty and 27:13 important subject. Weighty and important because our eternal 27:18 destinies depend upon it. It's dependent upon the fact that we 27:22 have read and studied and know what to do before we attempt to. 27:26 Bible study is as much a Christian life principle without 27:30 which you can't life normal Christianity as prayer. So you 27:34 got to be able to study the Bible for yourself or how can 27:37 you live the normal Christian life? 27:39 Good Doctor thank you so very much. 27:40 It's been great to be here. 27:42 This is just the beginning of a series of programs that our good 27:47 doctor is going to be out guest. Join us again here on 27:50 Issues and Answers as we talk more about these things that 27:53 affect not only today but tomorrow and forever. 27:56 God bless you. |
Revised 2015-07-21