ARME 10: Angwin, CA - July 2012

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ARME Bible Camp

Christopher Kramp

Teach a Man to Fish, Part 1

And for these next 4 sessions that we have with you, our goal is very simple.

We would like to share with you some practical tips for Bible study.

I want to say first off that during these next 4 sessions that we present, don't worry so much about taking notes.

We have a lot of information, but everything is being recorded.

I would encourage you to make an attempt, above all else, to understand these principles that we're sharing.

During the breaks and if you see us at meal times, please feel free to ask questions.

I can't say that we will be able to answer everything, but we hope to be able to give you some practical tips from what we do know.

The title of this presentation or this series was taken from a Chinese proverb that reads like this.

It says, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

So if you had a choice, which would you rather have, the fish or to know how to fish?

Well, if we would adapt this for the Bible study, it would be like this.

If you give a person a sermon, you feed him for a day.

But if you teach him to study, then you feed him for a lifetime.

I want you to think for a moment, just think practically, if you walked into the cafeteria, and you saw a 70-year-old woman that was spoon-feeding her 40-year-old son, Would you think that was odd?

You know, like, that would, you would be wondering, like, who does that, right?

But spiritually speaking, this is happening even today.

I mean, spiritually speaking, there are people that are full, mature adults, and yet they depend week by week upon being spoon-fed Bible truth from God's Word.

So it's our endeavor and it's our hope that we can share with you some practical tips on how to study the Bible for yourself.

My name is Christopher, as has been said.

I'm from Germany, so I hope you will understand me.

I want to make it very clear what the Bible has to say and what the spirit of prophecy has to say in this quotation.

Many a portion of scripture which learned men pronounce a mystery or Passover as unimportant is full of comfort and instruction to him who has been taught in the school of Christ.

1 reason why many theologians have no clearer understanding of God's word is they close their eyes to truth which they do not wish to practice.

An understanding of Bible truth depends not so much on the power of intellect brought to the search as on the singleness of purpose, the earnest longing after righteousness.

My question this afternoon is, is it your willingness, is it your desire to come with earnest longing after righteousness to the Bible?

All the techniques, and we will be very practical, intensely practical in the next minutes, avail nothing if you don't have this earnest longing after righteousness.

Now, if you read 2 Timothy 2.15, please notice that the Bible tells us that we should study to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.

Now, I want you to think, common sense says that if we are to study to rightly divide the word of truth, that must imply that there must also be a what?

So, it's not that everything goes when it comes to Bible study.

I want to say that there are rules of studying the Bible.

By the way, the New American Standard Version says this, it says, be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, and I like this explanation, this is accurately handling the word of truth.

So what we hope to share with you are principles, these are not unique to us, These are universal principles that are found in the Bible.

And as we share this, as I said, I hope that more than just, you know, scribbling down the information or taking notes, I'm happy to share the PowerPoint at the end of the series.

Everything will be recorded by video or audio.

I'm hoping the most important thing is that you will understand the principle and be able to apply it in your own study of the Bible.

There's 1 question in the Bible which is very practical for our lives.

In Acts 8.30, 1 of the deacons asks a Bible study contact, understandest thou what thou readest?

We as Seventh-day Adventists are pretty good in knowing what we believe.

So, if I would make a quiz right now and ask you, what's the mark of the beast?

And several other things, you would know the correct answer.

But at the same time, I have seen that often, as lay people, we are not so good in really studying the Bible for ourselves.

I mean, by a show of hands, who has been growing up in the Seventh-day Adventist church?

And all of those who have been really taught how to study the Bible so that you can have every day a meaningful devotion?

See, I think that's 1 of the major problems in our church, because all of the theological problems and disputes basically point back to the fact that often we read the Bible and we're not really sure how to interpret it.

And what I want to share with you is a personal testimony here, a verse that helped me a lot.

By the way, Who of you is excited to be at Army Bible Camp?

Let me ask you a question Who of you came to be as good as Ivor Myers?

Dig as deep as Ivor Myers Who of you came to be a preacher as good as Doug Batchelor or as good as John Bradshaw?

See, sometimes we have this star preachers, you know?

But my Bible tells me I have more understanding than all my teachers.

I hope your goal today is not to become as good as Emmanuel Beck or as Christopher Crump, but even better, to go even deeper, so that you will be able to go back and teach others, which will then become even better than you.

And this is a good therapy against selfishness and pride.

So I hope today you have the faith in Christ that He is able to teach you, even if you don't have the chance to go to PUC or to any other college or seminary that he is able to teach you right doctrine and right Bible study methods because his word is enough for us, okay?

So what we're actually talking about without saying it in these terms is we're talking, in our 4 sessions, we're talking about hermeneutics.

This is kind of a theological term, but really, very simply, hermeneutics is the science and art by which the meaning of a Bible text is determined.

Now, we're not going to use these theological terms much during these presentations, but I want you to be aware of what we're talking about.

And while we're talking about this, I need to also talk about the Adventist method of interpretation.

Adventists have subscribed, or they should subscribe, to what's called the historical grammatical method.

And what that school of interpretation says is that when we want to understand what the Bible says, we look at a passage and we try to understand what it means by doing 2 things.

Number 1, we look at how it's composed or how the literary structure of the passage, what meaning is clearly being indicated through the arrangement and use of words.

And we always check to see in its historical context what did this mean to help us shed light on what it means today by an application of the principle or even maybe the exact meaning is still relevant today.

So again, what we're doing here during these next 4 sessions, we're talking about hermeneutics, maybe and not using those terms, and our goal is to do exegesis.

We want to understand what is the Bible really saying instead of trying to find what we believe in reading the Bible.

Here is John Calvin in his introduction to the book of Romans, or his commentary on Romans, he says, it is the first business of an interpreter to let his author say what he does say instead of attributing to him what we think he ought to say.

How often have I heard Protestant Christians, I'm an evangelist and I travel around doing evangelistic meetings, and as I interview my guests, what I hear so often is, well, you can make the Bible say whatever you want.

And that's true if you twist it, but if you let the Bible say what it's supposed to say, then you cannot find anything that you want.

So this is our job, this is what we want to do.

We want to find out what did the author intend, what was the original intent of the author and what is the meaning for us.

Ellen White also says, the student of the Bible should be taught to approach it in the spirit of a learner.

We are to search its pages not for proof to sustain our opinions, but in order to know what God says.

You know, have you ever wondered, have you ever wondered why is it that other Protestants besides Adventists, they read the same Bible that we do, and yet why can't they see these obvious truths like the Sabbath or man's condition and death and all of these truths that we hold as dear and true to ourselves?

It's because when they read the Bible, They read what they want, they read the Bible, they read into the Bible what they believe.

So as they read it, they are looking for what they already believe.

But what we should be doing is the exact opposite.

We should be believing exactly what we read.

So there's a big difference there, and we want to avoid the mistake that others make as they approach the Bible.

Now, this is a statement from a noted author who has a huge, voluminous tome on how to study the Bible, but this is what Thomas Hartwell Horne says.

Teach a Man to Fish, Part 1

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