Do you know of good Inductive Study guides?
Question:
Does anyone know a good Inductive Study Guide for study on how to learn the Scripture? I know there are items out there, but I was trying to locate one that members of the Church of Christ have reviewed and found to be of sound teaching. So many folks really do not know how to begin studying God's Word, how to see how Old Testament passages come forward into the New Testament, and the verses. In my listening, some teachers read over Scripture, but don't take time to note, for example, "those men", who are they, what passage earlier in Scripture can help you know the answers, and how to take notes so you know what verse to go back to.
Thanks, and appreciate any help.
Answer:
My wife and I use the Inductive Study Bible by Precept Ministries, also a book by the same author called How to Study Your Bible (inductive method) by Kay Author is a good resource. Before I go on, her methods are correct overall on how to study, but the outcome of her conclusions can be way off. Many things we use are by false teachers or people who are misled: the current translations we have of the Bible, lexicons, commentaries, studies, songbooks, etc. My advice is to use caution. Understand there could be bias when the writer inserts his opinion.
Overall the New Inductive Study Bible helps you study and creates techniques to do in-depth Bible study on your own and find themes through books, keywords, who is talking, and who is being addressed. It also has charts to fill out, keywords the author suggests, and you can add your own keywords, of course, as you mark who is talking most of the time and what groups are being referred to. If you stay away from the commentary of the author (which sometimes is right and other times wrong) the New Inductive Study Bible overall is a wonderful setup for any serious student who cares to truly study God's Word.
The charts and the outlines are mostly blank, meaning you have to fill them in, so the majority of the time it is no one's opinion about Scripture but your own. I must warn you, though, that there are no chapter headings. It is left up to you to decide what each chapter is about and to fill it in, which is wonderful to me because then I determine what is truly being said instead of the company that printed the Bible. The only comments in the Bible are the introductions to each book of the Bible beyond that there is not much to influence you. It is left up to you with wide page margins to make notes and cross-references. It has room left to draw a picture or references to other Scripture, etc. My wife and I will at times draw pictures to mark something important, or to remember where a passage is at. We also have a set of about 20 Bible highlighters and pencils to aid us in our study, so it doesn't just have to stay in our memory. We can easily turn back and remember what we learned. If you don't feel like getting a new Bible (even though this is the best way I would suggest because it is all in one), you can buy the book How to Study Your Bible. It uses the same methods; however, there are more of the author's views in the book.
I have put some pictures below to give examples of the charts, keywords with them being highlighted in the chapter, pictures, etc. from my wife's Bible as she is a much better artist and her handwriting is readable.
Also, there are some of the same methods of study used on the lavistachurchofchrist.org: Liberty! A Study of Galatians and Paul's Letter to the Romans.
Hopefully, this helps gets you started in the right direction. God tells us to learn the harder things in Scripture I am happy that you are heading in that direction and encourage you to keep going (II Peter 3:15-18).
