Herbert W Armstrong

   Bruce Barton referred to it as "the book nobody knows." You need to know this book. To know it, you have to read it. That is taken from the booklet “Read the Book,” by Mr. David John Hill. The Bible, of course, is rather commonplace to us, and yet sometimes those things that are commonplace, we may neglect.

   I'd like to read you a quotation from one of our presidents. In fact, I'm going to quote two of our presidents today. The next one I want to quote is, or the first one I want to quote, rather, is from Abraham Lincoln. And this is a quotation taken from a talk, or whatever it was, that he gave to a colored delegation that came to give him a Bible. And this was in August of 1864. Here are his exact words: “This book is the best gift God has given to man, but for it we could not know right from wrong.” Now, that's what Abraham Lincoln thought of the Bible.

   The Bible says, quoting David in Psalm 119, verse 105,

   Psalm 119:105 “Thy word, [the Bible], is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

   The Bible shows us, of course, the way for us to go, the way that God expects us to go, the right way. It shows us the way that we can go to find the good life and ultimately eternal life. But I wonder, even in the Church of God, if we really have read the Bible, have really studied it so that we can know what it is that God wants us to do, so that we can know the way that God explains to us throughout the words of the Bible.

   Sometimes I'm appalled at the ignorance of some of the people in the Church of God when it comes to basic things about the Bible. And sometimes comments are made to indicate, well, this person hasn't read the Bible, or if they have, they've read very little of it. And I'd like to ask, and I ask this in a positive way; I'm not going to try to embarrass anybody, but I'd like for those of you who qualify in this question to raise your hands.

   I'd like to know how many of you have read the Bible through, you know, from Genesis to Revelation. Would you raise your hands? Now, I'm not trying to embarrass those of you who don't have your hands raised, but I want you to see here there are quite a few people here who have read the Bible through. Now, what I'd like to do is get all the rest of you to do the same thing.

   Now, here we are in the Church of God, and many of us have never read the Bible from cover to cover. Those of you who haven't read the Bible from cover to cover, how do you know what it says somewhere there that you're supposed to stand on your head a half hour a day? Now, if you ask any of the others who have read it through, they'll tell you that it doesn't say that. But how do you know, you know? You haven't proved it for yourself. How do you know that the Bible says the things that we say that it says if you haven't read the book?

   Now, here are some of us who haven't read this book, but I want to quote to you from another president of the United States, the sixth president of the United States, who was president from 1825 to 1829. And those of you who know your histories real well, I guess, would know that that was John Quincy Adams. Now, if you gave me the dates, I wouldn't have known who was the president at that time. But anyway, it was John Quincy Adams. And here's what he says, and he dated this about 15 years before he became president. He says, “I have made it a practice for several years to read the Bible through in the course of every year.” He read the Bible through every year, and some of you haven't yet read it. “I usually devote to this reading the first hour after I arise every morning,” from John Quincy Adams.

   Now, how much time and effort do we in God's church spend or put to studying the Scriptures? And I might ask, why study the Bible anyway? Some may think, oh, well, you know, if I just come to church on the Sabbath day and once in a while crack the book and look at it, that that's about all that's necessary.

   Why study the Bible anyway? I'd like to turn to a scripture, a familiar scripture, I would hope. 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 15. Paul says here, and, of of course, he's writing to a young evangelist, but this is not limited to him.It's not limited to the church of that day. It includes all of God's people. It says:

   2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew [show] thyself [yourself] approved unto God...”

   I’ll study what? Well, obviously to study the Scriptures. And I take that as a command to me personally. Now, I don't know how you take it.

   Maybe some of you might think, oh, well, you know, your writing this to Timothy doesn't apply to me at all. Well, I apply it to me very sincerely. Study to show yourself approved unto God. I think then if you want to show yourself approved to God, you must study the Scriptures.

   2 Timothy 2:15 “...a workman that needeth [needs] not to be ashamed...” And we're all workmen in one way or the other, in one sense or the other.

   God has called us to an occupation. An occupation as saints, an occupation of being his children, and so on. The occupation of preaching the gospel to the world as a witness collectively.

   So God has called us to an occupation, and really that's more important than our full-time occupation in some job. A workman that needs not be ashamed. I think implied in this is if we don't study God's word, we show that we're not approved to him, and we also show that we ought to be ashamed because we have not done what is expected of us.

   2 Timothy 2:15...rightly dividing [or rightly handling] the word of truth.” And that last part gets into another aspect of it. The main thing I want to emphasize there is that there is instruction for you and for me and for all of God's people to study God's word.

   Now, we can study God's word as far as that's concerned and not read the Bible through from end to end. And we can read the Bible through from end to end once, you know; we could have raised our hands a little while ago. And maybe that's all we did. You know, maybe we read it through once, and maybe it's been on our shelf ever since. So I'm not trying to exalt some and abase some others as far as that's concerned. But this is a continuing thing, you know, “study”; continually study God's Word.

   Now, there's a scripture over in Galatians, which we don't need to turn to, but it says in part, “What sayeth the scriptures?” And then he goes on to quote a particular scripture as far as that's concerned. But if I were to ask you, you know, what does the scripture say on such and such? Do you know? Well, if you haven't read the book, you don't know what it says. But even after you read the book, you know, it's easy to forget some things, and you have to go back over them again and again and again so that it becomes a part of you, so that you know it. It's a familiar friend. It's something that you are involved in, something that you have in your mind. It has a great deal to do with what you think about and how you think, and what you do.

   Then another scripture, and I'm just reading, you know, just maybe a clause out of a sentence in some of these. It says, “Do you know what the scripture says?” This is Romans 11:2, and he's talking here about Elijah. And so I might ask you, do you know, well, do you know what the scripture says about Elijah the prophet, such and such an aspect of it? You might say, "Elijah, Elijah, who's Elijah? Now, some of us, I guess, would not be able to say one way or another, you know, about what Elijah did or when he lived or anything, or where we might find out about him in the Bible.

   You know, we might have as much trouble trying to find out where the Bible says anything about Elijah as we would, you know, trying to find the book of Enoch or the book of Hezekiah. Well, now, there is a book of Enoch. We don't have it today. Some people think they do, but it's not in the Bible. The book of Hezekiah is not in the Bible, and I presume all of you realize that, but maybe some of you don't. You know, if you haven't read the book through, how do you know whether there's a book of Hezekiah in there? Then another scripture, John 5:39, says:

   John 5:39 “Search the scriptures...” Now, in this particular case, Christ was telling some of his antagonists, you know, that you need to search the scriptures, but he says, in them you think you have salvation. And, of course, they didn't understand the subject of salvation very well. “Search the scriptures.” Well, I think that's good advice for you. I think that's good advice for me, to “search the scriptures.” That doesn't include, then, or doesn't mean, then, just a casual reading. You know, to search them involves a lot more than just casual reading.

   Now, if we do not study the Bible, if we haven't searched the scriptures, if we don't know the scriptures, we disobey God. And because we do not study the scriptures, haven't searched the scriptures, don't know the scriptures, we may limit our possibility of receiving eternal life, or we may even eliminate ourselves from ultimately receiving eternal life, if we do not study the scriptures. Now, if you've kept your place where we last read of the Bible, turn over to the next page, at least in my Bible it's the next page, the next chapter, chapter 3, verse 16. And I'll make another comment probably later about this same scripture, but it says,

   2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God...”All scripture is given by inspiration of God. And, of course, there is a lot that we might deduce from that.

   But the point I would like to mention now is that the Bible is inspired by God. You know, this book, of course, is in English, and originally it was written in Hebrew, in Aramaic, in Greek. But now we have it translated into English and many different translations. But it is inspired of God. God breathed, you might say.

   And as another scripture tells us, you know, that in time past God has revealed his ways and his truth, his word and so on, in various means, in various ways, you know, it’s the prophets. But as he says, in these last days he's revealed these things through Jesus Christ.

   Well, the scriptures, even though they are written by human beings that have problems, like you, like me, same difficulties, the same trials, the same tests and so on, they were written by human beings but inspired by God; all scripture. So if we want to find out what God has inspired, what God has given for man, so that he might know God's will, God's way, the knowledge and so on, you're going to have to learn it from the scriptures. And I might add here, all scripture, you know, not just limiting it to one little section of the Bible. Some people are inclined that way. Maybe their favorite part of the Bible is one section, and they like that to the exclusion of the other parts of the Bible. And we find some, you know, who will only read the New Testament, or maybe they'll read the New Testament and Psalms, or maybe they'll just read the Psalms, or maybe they'll just read Paul's writings, or whatever. Well, that's like sitting down to a meal where you just have maybe the main course, or maybe you just have the hors d'oeuvres, or you just have the dessert, or whatever it might be. We need to study all the scriptures, you know, Old Testament, New Testament, all of it. And be familiar with all of it. Well, all scripture is inspired of God.

   The Bible, the written Bible, of course, is the Word of God. And there are many, many, many scriptures, and I haven't selected any one to point out necessarily, but there are many of them that speak of the Bible as the Word of God. We even read how that Jesus Christ is the Word, or the Logos. He was the one who inspired these words here, at least in their original writings, and then men have translated them into modern English so that we can understand what was meant there. So it is the written Word of God. And if we want to understand what God would have us understand, then we'd better be reading and studying this book. We'd better be sticking our nose into it and doing quite a bit of that.

   Now, the Bible has been called different things, but Mr. Herbert Armstrong many times has compared the Bible rather, or made a comparison of it being an instruction book — God's instruction book, where God instructs you, where he instructs me, and where he instructs all of his people, and whatever it is he wants us to be instructed in.

   I'd like to read the doctrinal statement from our latest ministerial manual, or whatever this STP, Systematic Theology Project. They give a succinct statement on the doctrines of the Church, and here's what it says in that particular publication about the Bible. The Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God. And of course we've just read that; I just read it to you here in chapter 3:16 of Timothy.

   The repository of his plan of salvation. So it’s then, within his pages, tells us the way to salvation, or the plan of salvation, that God is in the process of carrying out. And the record of his participation in history. The Bible is God's revelation of knowledge. Now it's not all knowledge; it's not a book on science, or on geology, or on paleontology, but it has points in it, you know, on those subjects. The Bible is God's revelation of knowledge that man cannot discover for himself.

   So we, individually, are not able to discover on our own, aside from others or aside from God's Word, just what it is that God is trying to tell us. And we cannot understand his ways, his laws, and so on, except by his Word. Just like Abraham Lincoln said, you know, we wouldn't know the difference between right and wrong except the Bible told us.

   It is the foundation of knowledge. You know, it's the foundation, you might say, or the approach in many fields, including science, including health, including geography, excuse me, I shouldn't say geography, geology, and so on. And also, the guidebook to life.

   The Old and New Testaments comprise God's written Word, which forms the basis of Christianity, as taught by the Church, that is, the Church of God, and as practiced by the individual Christian. So we see there the official statement of the Church and what we believe as a Church concerning the Bible.

   Now I'd like to give you seven benefits of reading and studying the Scriptures.

   And in some cases I'll mention the Scripture or two; in other cases I will not. It should be obvious.

   The seven benefits, and these are not the only ones, surely. The seven benefits of reading and studying Scripture:

   Number one is to learn about Jesus Christ and about the Father. You might say, well, we learn about God and then also his Son, Jesus Christ, from the Father. But actually, when we study the Scriptures carefully, we see that Jesus Christ was the God of the Old Testament. He wasn't called by that name at that particular time, but it was the same personage, the same personality. As later we find in the New Testament, called Jesus Christ.

   And he said himself that he came to reveal the Father. But the Old Testament Scriptures didn't reveal the Father, even though there are some rather brief references to him, obscure references to him in the Old Testament, but rather Jesus Christ came to reveal to us the Father. And so if you want to find out about God, if you want to learn about God the Father or his Son, Jesus Christ, you're going to learn about them in the Bible. That's a place to learn about them.

   Now I know you can learn an awful lot in this new book, “The Real Jesus.” And I think that that will make Jesus seem a lot more real to you. Much, much more real than possibly ever before. But the basic information comes from the Bible. So the first benefit that I've listed here in studying the Bible is to learn about God and about his Son, Jesus Christ. To learn about the ones who have created all things.

   Number two: To learn God's purpose in his creation. Why did God create the physical universe? Why did God create the earth and the sun and the moon and the planets and the stars and so forth? Why did God create the things that we see on this earth? The myriads of life forms, both plant and animal and other types of life. Why did God do all of this? You would never know unless you could read in God's Word and find out why God has done all of this.

   Now three: And this is somewhat related to the last one: to learn God's purpose for man and his potential destiny. And for that, I would like to read the previous verse that we had read here in 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 3 in verse 15. Chapter 3, verse 15. He mentions here how that you:

   2 Timothy 3:15 “...from a child [have] (thou hast) known the holy scriptures...And, of course, at that time, all they had was the Old Testament Scriptures. The New Testament Scriptures were not yet written. Some of them were in the process of being written. And this book, of course, is one of those. He says:

   2 Timothy 3:15 “... [you have] (thou hast) known the holy scriptures, which are able to make [you] (thee) wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” So the Scriptures make us wise or give us the knowledge and the understanding, the wisdom that can lead to salvation through Jesus Christ and also faith in him, faith on him and so forth. So the third point is that we can learn God's purpose. We can learn what salvation is and how we may attain salvation.

   Number four: Another benefit of reading the Bible is that we can learn the essential history from creation to the first century A.D. Now, that doesn't include all history. It has primarily the history of Israel and Judah, and going back even before that to the family of Adam to Noah and then from Noah down to Abraham and his family and so forth. It gives us the essential history.

   From other sources, of course, we can find histories about other nations, other peoples, other families, and so on. And those things may be interesting and may be important as far as that's concerned. But the essential things in history we find, the basic things we find in the Scriptures. And you would not find that information from other sources generally.

   So that is another benefit of reading the Bible, to find the important history, the essential history from the creation, which was way, way, way back before man was created, millions of years before, you might say, probably was at least, down to the creation of Adam, and then from that time on down to the first century. Now it skips over certain parts of history. Even sometimes, you know, a matter of hundreds of years, you don't read very much. Or maybe it's a blank, but that's unimportant as far as the overall picture is concerned.

   Number five: Another benefit from reading and studying the Scriptures is to learn how to live. To learn how to live. Let's go back to this Scripture here in Timothy that I've been commenting about and reading from time to time. I read you in verse 16.

   2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God... Now let's read the last half of that verse.

   2 Timothy 3:16 “...and is profitable for doctrine... I'm trying to tell you here some of the benefits of reading the Bible. And here we see that it is profitable. So we might say that's a benefit. It's profitable for doctrine. Now doctrine is just maybe another word for teaching. You know, to teach on various subjects. ... for reproof... Now that's not quite as pleasant, you know. We may like to know all kinds of things. We may like to know the various doctrines or teachings of the Bible. But it's not so pleasant sometimes to be reproved. But that is a part of this point number five, learning how to live. Because none of us are perfect to start with. And for that matter, we're not perfect now. We won't be perfect until we're in God's kingdom. But we have to be reproved from time to time. Every single one of us. And God's Word reproves us and says, you know, you did wrong here, or you did wrong there, or you didn't do so well there. As we look in the Bible and God says, "Do this" or "Don't do that," and then we compare that to our lives, we see that the Bible reproves us and corrects us, which is the next point for correction. It's ...for reproof, for correction... to correct us when we go wrong, when we do wrong...for instruction in righteousness.” Or it instructs us in right living or going the right way.

   2 Timothy 3:17 “That the man of God may be perfect [or become perfect] throughly [or completely] furnished unto all good works.” You see, God wants all of us to be ultimately perfect. He wants to furnish us to do good works.

   So from the Bible we learn how to live. We learn what truth is. We learn about doctrine. We learn reproof and correction and also instruction in a positive way as well as showing us in a negative way the things that are wrong.

   Now let's notice another scripture or two in regard to this point. Back to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4 in verse 4. This now is that great contest between Jesus Christ and Satan the devil.

   Luke 4:4 “And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

   Now it doesn't say there that just certain people should live by every word of God, but that man should live by every word of God or shall live by every word of God. Now, that includes you, that includes me that includes all creation, all mankind, that is.

   Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword...Now this is showing how the word of God can correct and can chastise, how it can separate. It's quick and powerful and sharper than any twoedged sword...piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

   You see, the word of God does correct us, does reprove us when we need that particular correction and that particular instruction and so forth. The word of God, the whole word of God. You know, not just one section of it, but the whole word of God. And for that matter, as we saw back in 2 Timothy 3 verse 16, maybe we should go back there again and look at this from a slightly different point of view.

   2 Timothy 3:16 it says:

   2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine...I don't know if you can follow this to the nth degree necessarily, but I think it's telling us, at least in general, that all the scriptures that are inspired of God are profitable for teaching. So you turn to just about any place in the Bible, and there are certain teachings or certain instructions you might get out of that particular passage.

   And [paraphrased], “All scripture is also profitable for reproof or correction.” Therefore, when you look at any particular passage in the Bible, you will probably find some reproof or some correction or instruction in righteousness. Now, I realize you get into some sections, and you might find it a little difficult to find the reproof or correction. Say, for example, if you're reading the genealogical tables, you know, so-and-so begat so-and-so, and then he begat so-and-so, and he begat so-and-so. Well, how does that correct me? Well, maybe that particular part doesn't correct you, but it certainly can instruct you in regard to things that are important. Now, sometimes we think, oh, well, that isn't very important, or other parts of the Bible aren't very important, but it's all important. We need to have a balanced diet of God's word.

   Now, to the book of James. James, chapter 1. Another aspect of this same thing, of learning how to live, and that the scriptures show us how to live. James 1, in verse 25.

   James 1:25 “But whoso looks (looketh) into the perfect law of liberty...And of course, that's speaking specifically and primarily about the law of God, or you might say the Ten Commandments, but in the wider overall sense, you might say it includes the whole Bible, because the Bible is God's law. ...But whoso looks (looketh) into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein...in other words, you live by it, by what you read there...he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” And so forth.

   So we see from these scriptures, and of course we could go further and have other scriptures that the Bible shows us how to live. To live the way God wants us to. To follow the instruction book that God has given us. The instruction manual. And when we buy a piece of equipment, or some electronic equipment, or mechanical equipment, or whatever it is, usually there is an instruction book that tells you how to operate it. And sometimes you'd be hard put to know how to operate it unless you had the instruction book. Well, life is very complicated.

   And you and I don't know the best way to live, except we look in this particular book and find out how it is that God wants us to live. And if we're not studying it, if we're not reading it, we're not learning how to live.

   Now number six: Another benefit in reading the Bible is to be inspired.

   And by that I mean to be uplifted, to be encouraged, to be cheered, to feel better, you might say, in times of adversity and trouble. And there are certain sections of the Bible that are maybe more helpful in this particular regard. I think of the Psalms. And the Psalms have been so encouraging to people down through the ages. So many of them, you know, are uplifting. Now they all aren't, but many of them are. And encouraging. And bring to us sublime thoughts. Bring to us lofty ideals and ideas. Also, the Bible tells us the examples of many other people and trials and tests that they went through and how they reacted and what they did. In many cases it shows us how that they did well. In other cases, when they did ill or poorly. But we can read these things, and we can be uplifted; we can be encouraged and inspired by the Bible. So when we feel down, as all of us do at some time or another, and some of us more than others as far as that's concerned, we can be inspired. We can be uplifted by studying and by reading the Scriptures.

   Now number seven: And of course we've seen parts of this as we've gone along. The seventh reason that I have given here, or the seventh benefit of studying the Bible, is to learn how to please God. To learn how to please God.

   And if you're learning how to live, as we saw in point five, I guess we're learning how to please God. But also, by studying the Bible, we please God. So what I've been trying to cover so far is why we study the Bible. Now, I hope I've encouraged some of you to do just that, or maybe you have not been studying the Bible like you should have. And I hope that you're resolving that I'm not going to continue in the way that I have, but I am going to change my ways. Next I'd like to ask, how should we study the Bible? And I'm not going to give a lot of the specific details necessarily on how to study the Bible from a technical point of view. As far as that's concerned, you'll find a lot of those in this booklet, “How to Study the Bible,” which is an excellent booklet. I hope all of you have it. If you don't have it, you ought to send away and get it. Also, the one that I referred to earlier, “Read the Book.” But in this, there are many things, and I might just page through here and read some of the headlines to give you some ideas.

   Number one: Study for yourself.

   Don't let somebody else do your studying for you. I know in some families, maybe the wife does all the study of the Bible and the husband neglects it, or the other way around. You can't get into God's kingdom on somebody else's coattails. You'll have to get in on your own feet with God's help. And somebody else isn't going to be able to do it for you. Don't take your wife's word, don't take your husband's word, don't take my word, don't take the word of Mr. Armstrong. Study for yourself. Pray for guidance. If you're going to study the Bible, you ought to ask God. God, help me to derive benefit, or the greatest benefit, from my study. Formal education is not necessary. Some of us may not have very much education. We think, oh, well, I don't have much education, so there's no use for me to do that. Well, there is. You know, there have been a lot of people that have learned to read by going through the Bible.

   I remember very well a man in the Big Sandy Church some years ago. I had known this man for years. And he always seemed so jolly, he always seemed so friendly, so warm and concerned, outgoing, and so forth. And he came to counsel with me one time, and he told me, he says, I am illiterate. I don't know how to read. Well, I do read a little bit, I guess. He could read a few words and so forth, and he knew how to write his name. And here I had known the man for years and didn't even realize that. And so we got for that man a Bible in Basic English. There is such a translation. It has a very small vocabulary. But it translates the Bible into English that's able to be understood by someone who doesn't understand English very well. I don't know if any of you would fit in that particular category, but that man did. And now he was better able to read the Bible because he didn't understand some of those big, what, four-bit words.

   The attitude must be for self-correction. You know, some people read the Bible so that they can correct others. Don't read the Bible with that in mind. Read it to find out what you're supposed to do.

   Prove all things is the next point. The Bible never contradicts itself with another. What does the Bible say? You know, sometimes you'll read a passage in the Bible and you'll say, Well, now, I don't understand that. What does it mean? Well, there are ways to find out what it does mean. Another thing, check the context. Get all the scriptures on a particular subject. Let the Bible interpret the Bible. Don't put vague scriptures first, and some people make that mistake. They'll get some obscure scripture, and they'll come up with a whole host of doctrines relating to that, when maybe other plain scriptures show that their conclusion was wrong.

   Use several translations. There's another section. Don't establish doctrine with Bible helps. And I may comment about that a little bit later. Developing a Bible marking system — a whole chapter on that — and I'll skip over that.

   Now, there is also some other little inserts, or maybe I shouldn't call them inserts, but little pages that deal with other subjects. Which Bible do we recommend? Now, some people think that maybe we recommend one translation and don't recommend other translations. Well, this answers that particular question.

   Then another section here: what were the words on Jesus' cross? You know, you read in the Bible, it looks like there's great contradiction. One, the gospel writer says one thing, another gospel writer says something else, and the fourth gospel writer says something else again. And how can we reconcile these things?

   Another one is the Living Bible paraphrase. Some of you might wonder about the Living Bible, and I'll comment briefly about that a little bit later. What it is and what we might say about that. Who divided the Bible into chapters and verses? Maybe you think that the Bible writers were quoting some of these authors and they spoke in verses. Well, they didn't. What do Bible italics signify? Some people don't know that, and therefore they may come to wrong conclusions because of it. How to use a Bible concordance — another little help here. An example of Bible marking. And Bible study aids. I'll comment about that a little bit later as well. Maybe that'll cause you to get this particular booklet if you don't already have it: “How to Study the Bible.” Very great help, I'm sure, especially to someone who has not done very much study of the Bible, and even for some of those who have, they'll learn some new things there. So, if you don't have that particular booklet, read it. Get it and read it.

   Now, I might ask again, how should we study the Bible? Let me just give you some brief things here. I think we ought to study the Bible prayerfully. We ought to study the Bible with respect, with awe, and with reverence, realizing, you know, that this is the Word of God. It's not just the Word of Moses or the Word of Paul or somebody else, but it says, “Thus saith the Eternal.” We should read the Bible with fear to disobey. And, in other words, to do what we see in the Bible. And to fear to do otherwise. You know, the Bible says, Do this, then we'd better do that. And if the Bible says, Don't do this, then don't do it.

   All right. Now, there are different ways that we can study the Bible. One way is just to read it like a book. And I asked you at the beginning, how many of you have read the Bible through from cover to cover? And many of you didn't. Well, let me encourage you to read it from cover to cover. If you've never done that before, do so. Maybe you've read various parts of the Bible. Maybe you haven't read all of it. Or maybe you haven't read it all from beginning to end. When you start at the beginning, chapter 1, which is normally what you do with most books anyway, and read it right to the end, you'll get an overview that you won't get if you just read a chapter here and a chapter there or read a book here and a book somewhere else. Read it like a book. Start at the beginning. If you haven't done that, I would encourage all of you to do that. And even if you have done so in the past, it might be good to do it again. Like John Quincy Adams. He said that he read the Bible through every year. And if he could do it every year, I think we ought to be able to read it through several times in a lifetime.

   Now secondly, we can study the Bible like we might study some textbook. Now if you're going to read some story, like Gone with the Wind, I don't suppose you're going to study it, you know, and minutely examine certain aspects of it. You just read it through quickly. But if you have a textbook on geography, for example, maybe you would study certain parts of it very carefully. And that's another way to study the Bible. Studying it very carefully. And you can start at the beginning and go right through it as far as that's concerned, and you start out in Genesis 1-1. You can spend maybe quite a bit of time right on that first verse, because there's an awful lot in it that very often is overlooked. So study it like you would study a textbook.

   The third way is to study the Bible by topic. And I think some of us do it that way, and we take a particular subject, and then we'll try to find all the places in the Bible that speak on that particular subject. That's another way to do that. We ought to do it at various times, all of these. And another way is to study it by sections. You know, maybe take the Pentateuch, or maybe take the Law, or maybe take the Psalms or the Writings, and read them, you know, and make a special study of that particular section of the Bible, or maybe the Gospels. You might like to study the Gospels with a harmony, where they have in parallel columns all of the various four Gospels, where each one are apparently parallel. I'll show you these right side by side, and I'll give you the names of some of those a little bit later. So, we can study by sections. We can study all of these things with or without other helps. And we have to be careful with other helps. Sometimes they are helpful, and sometimes they do the opposite and cause problems.

   Now, I want to tell you about some Bible helps. Now, first of all, of course, if you're going to study the Bible, you have to have a Bible. Generally, I think the people in the Church of God, at least in the most part, have as a basic Bible the King James Version, which was translated in 1611 or thereabouts. But English has changed a lot in the last 350 or more years. And some of the words, not many, but some of the words that were used back then at that particular time are not used any longer, or maybe they have changed in meaning. And therefore, unless you are very familiar with Elizabethan English, you know, it might be that you need another translation.

   In fact, I think we all ought to have another translation besides the King James Version. And in some of the modern versions, the modern translations, you'll find that some of these words that have changed in meaning will be listed for you, and it will tell you what they mean. But I think specifically of the Revised Standard Version; the introduction of that will tell you about most of those words that have changed in meaning or that maybe are no longer used, tell you what those particular words mean.

   And so, in addition to having the King James Translation, or whatever is your mainstay, you ought to have at least one other translation. And I would just suggest, this is a personal thing, that if you have the King James Translation, that you have a second translation, the Revised Standard Version.

   But there are many other translations. For the Old Testament, probably the most accurate is the one that the Jews have preserved and they've translated into English. It's called “The Holy Scriptures.” It's put out by The Jewish Publication Society. And it's probably more accurate, as far as accuracy is concerned, than any of the other translations of the Old Testament.

   Now, there are many, many translations, and I can recall when we first came into the Church back in the early 1950s, that Mr. Armstrong emphasized a great deal the Moffat Translation, the translation by James Moffat. And so we rushed out and we bought a Moffat Translation, and I started reading through Moffat's translation, and he's an Englishman, I guess, and he translated mostly for English, and I'm speaking about English English, I'm not speaking about American English, translated more from their point of view, and I found that there were more words that I couldn't understand in that than I couldn't understand in the King James Translation.

   But I suppose someone who lived in England would find it otherwise. And so then we went out and we bought the Goodspeed Translation. It had the Apocrypha in it, and I wanted to find out about the Apocrypha. So I read the Apocrypha and found out all I wanted to find out about that. And anyway, the translation, the Goodspeed Translation, was a good translation, as was Moffat Translation. And then there was a revised or American Standard version of about 1901 to 1902, something like that. And other than that, there weren't very many translations. That was about it in English, at least as far as I knew. But in the last 20 years, it seemed like every month on the month, they'd come out with some new translation. I'm exaggerating, of course. But today it just seems like there's a lot of translations. And I have many, but not all of those translations, and I have in my study at home, on one shelf, about that long, and every single one of those is a different translation. Probably most of you don't have all of those. I wouldn't expect you would.

   But the thing I would like to encourage is that you have at least two translations and then compare one with the other, especially having one that's a modern translation as well as maybe the King James. Let me comment, though, about the Living Bible. Now, some people think, and I've heard people tell me this, they thought that the Living Bible was a translation. You know, where you translate Hebrew into English, Aramaic into English, or Greek into English, or whatever. But it is not a translation. It is a paraphrase. And in a paraphrase, you don't try to transfer word for word, and of course none of them literally do that, because it's impossible to translate literally word for word from one language to another. Languages are more complicated than that. You have to consider context and many other things in regard to that. And if you've studied a second language, you would understand what I mean by that. If you haven't, it's probably rather difficult to understand. But the Living Bible is a paraphrase.

   And what this man did, Mr. Taylor, I believe his name is, what he did was to read the Bible, you know, a sentence at a time or whatever, and then put it in his own words, trying to take the meaning that he derived from that and put it in his own words. And he oftentimes did an excellent job. And as you read through that, it makes things rather exciting, interesting, and rather modern, you know, rather than archaic. And sometimes I say he did a good job, and sometimes he did a horrible job. You know, he talked about people going to heaven. The Bible didn't say anything about that. You know, it talks about the kingdom of heaven, inheriting the kingdom of heaven. He talks about going to heaven. Well, there are a lot of others similar to that as far as that's concerned.

   So the Living Bible is a paraphrase. It's not a translation. And just keep that in mind. It's one man's understanding of what the Scriptures say. It can be very useful, very nice to read from time to time, especially for a change. You know, it's nice if you've been reading one translation to change sometimes, then read a different translation for a while, and it sort of spices things up a little bit. But if you want to establish exactly what the Bible says in a verse, I wouldn't go to the Living Bible. All you'll find out is what Mr. Taylor, what he thought it meant.

   Now, while we're on the subject of translations, let me also mention harmonies.

   Now, a harmony, as I've already referred to a harmony, is a book that shows in parallel columns various parts of the Bible that are on that subject, and specifically I'm speaking of the Gospels and also some of the Old Testament books. But there is a harmony called the Harmony of the Gospels by A.T. Robertson, which we have used in Ambassador College since before I ever went there in 1955. I guess it was used there since the college was established in 1947. And Mr. Ted Armstrong has recently mentioned that he wants to go through a series on the Gospels, where he'll go, you know, verse by verse almost through the Gospels, and I presume he will use that particular harmony by A.T. Robertson. So you might find that very helpful, because there you'll have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in parallel columns, except where maybe a particular Gospel does not speak on the subject as discussed by the other Gospels. Then there's also a harmony of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles by Crockett. If you like to study the history of ancient Israel, I think you might find that very interesting and very profitable.

   Next, I'd like to mention briefly Bible dictionaries. Now, there are many, many Bible dictionaries, of course, and I think for the use of lay members in the Church, a one-volume dictionary would be very adequate. There are others that are several volumes, some of them that are pretty large works. But a Bible dictionary like Palubits or Ungers are fine one-volume Bible dictionaries, and there are other one-volume dictionaries, but those two come to mind.

   Concordances: now a concordance, of course, just lists the various words of the Bible alphabetically. So you look under A's and you find where all the words starting with “A” are listed and where you'll find them in the Bible. Now, that's sort of a generalized statement, because except for one that I know of, you won't find all of the words listed in one of these concordances.

   Take, for example, Cruden's Complete Concordance. Well, Cruden's Complete Concordance isn't complete. You know It doesn't have all the words in the Bible, and he doesn't claim that it does. But if you want a concordance which just tells you where to find a particular passage, Cruden's Concordance will probably serve your purpose. And there are various editions of that, some that are pretty thick volumes and some that are very, very thin and handy to carry around. But that's just sort of a word finder, is all Cruden's Concordance is, and that might be very helpful.

   Then there are other concordances that are considered to be exhaustive. Now, one, Young's Concordance isn't totally exhaustive. It doesn't have every A and every Z in the Bible. But then you take such works as Strong's Concordance; he does have all of those words listed. And many of the words, like "A" and "Z" and "and," wouldn't be very helpful to know where every place is in the Bible, but they're listed there anyway. Well, of those particular concordances, Strong's Concordance would be the one that would be recommended, because it's a little more complete. It's a little more popular among the church members.

   Young's will give you much the same information, but maybe not presented in quite as easy-to-understand fashion. Or maybe from some people's point of view, maybe it's a little easier. I don't know. Anyway, Strong's Concordance is a little more the favorite in the church. But both Strong's and Young's Concordance are quite expensive. I don't know what they cost now, but I presume in the neighborhood of $20, $25. They're a big, thick book. Now, these concordances, Strong's and Young's, are not only a listing of the words, but they also will explain briefly what those words mean, the literal meaning of those words.

   And also, you'll find, if you check carefully, what other words that specific Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek word is translated into in English in the King James Version. Now, there's one caution that I'd like to mention in regard to this, because some people in the church think that, for example, Strong's Concordance, when they explain a word, that is the last, the final word on that specific Greek, Aramaic, or Hebrew word, and that it is true and accurate. Well, it's one man's opinion in some cases.

   In some cases, it's Strong's, the author, his opinion of that particular word and what it means. And there are huge books, you know, and actually sometimes more than one book, that will just explain this one thing, what the meaning is of a particular word, Greek or Hebrew, whatever it might be, and also will explain to you how it was used at various times down through history. And there are some people who make a whole study, a lifelong study, on the meaning of those words.

   So when you look in Strong's, and he says, Well, such and such, a word means such and such, that isn't the final word, you know. That just gives you a very brief, a very concise, maybe a limited meaning of that particular word. And don't think that that means that, you know, and it can't mean something else.

   I'd like to comment next about commentaries. And also, first, I might give you a caution concerning commentaries. There are a lot of fine commentaries, but I hope you realize that so far, the Worldwide Church of God has not published a commentary. And when you read some of these commentaries, you'll find, you know, that they've been written by people of various faiths and denominations, or spiritual persuasion, you might say. Sometimes they can be very helpful in one place and very misleading in another. So you have to consider the source.

   You have to consider what they say and compare that with the rest of the Bible before you accept a particular statement. So use the commentary with caution. If you want a one-volume commentary, a good one, the New Bible Commentary is a modern commentary, very recent, which I think is good.

   If you want a larger six-volume commentary, we've used traditionally in the Church Adam Clark's commentary, which is now, what, 150 years old? The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary, they're all good commentaries, when you realize that you have to read them with a grain of salt and to consider the source and also compare that with the rest of the Bible. But oftentimes they're very, very helpful. In the last few years, they've come out with new one-volume commentaries, which are somewhat abridged of both Clark and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown. So if you want them, you have those, but it's still based on commentaries that are quite old.

   Another kind of a commentary that are called commentaries, but sort of a brief commentary, are the handbooks. Halley's Bible Handbook is one such. Unger's Bible Handbook is another, and they're both very helpful. They're a little different from each other but about the same size, rather a handy size, where you take the other books, you know, are quite large.

   Now for Bible atlases. There are two that I have in my library that I like quite well. Baker's is a rather brief, comprehensive Bible atlas. Macmillan Bible Atlas gives great detail about every movement of people or of a person in the Bible.

   Someone says, you know, that Abraham went from this place to that place to the other place. It'll show you the travels of Abraham and show the arrows. You know, he went from one place to the other, and in most cases that would be reasonably accurate. In some cases it might be a little off.

   And then when you read in the Bible about the campaigns of Israel, their wars, or of Judah, or you read about the fall of Jerusalem or the fall of Israel, and it'll show you the basic roots of the opposing armies, their armies, and so on, and brings you on down even past the time of the Bible up until, what, I think the beginning of the second century.

   Now other excellent sources of information about the Bible are such works as the books, the Book of Josephus; the complete works of Josephus. He was a Jewish historian, a priest who lived in the time of Paul, you might say, in the first century, and he wrote rather important history from his point of view, expanding and explaining from his understanding and his point of view many things relating to the Bible.

   All right, now, I'd like to close by giving you what I think are the essentials, and I've placed them in what I think are the proper order. In other words, I realize that some people do not have the scholarly interest that others have. Some do not have the financial ability that others have, but there are certain basic things that you ought to have, and I'm listing them in the order, and you can go down as far on this list as you're able to afford or as you have interest.

   And first would be a basic translation, preferably a King James. That would be number one.

   Number two, I think you ought to have is a second translation.

   And number three, and I hesitate to call this number three; maybe this would be after number one. Probably it should be number two, right after number one, before a second translation. That is a good dictionary, because so many of us do not understand the English language. And even when we understand the English language, there are so many words and so many nuances and aspects of a particular word that maybe we forget. So you ought to have a good dictionary. I would say a collegiate dictionary or an unabridged dictionary or a large dictionary, not a cheap dictionary, not one that's a pocketbook type of a dictionary, but one that's much more complete, preferably a collegiate-type dictionary, and there are several. So a good dictionary, because you read in the Bible certain words and you don't know what those words mean. For example, if you take the word “grace,” a lot of people that talk about grace don't know what the word “grace” means. And there are many other words, but that's just one example.

   Now, say there are some words like the word sin. You might wonder, well, what is sin? You get out one of your Bible dictionaries, and you look there in vain. They don't list the word. I guess that's not very important for a Bible dictionary to have. Some of these that I've recommended to you don't even list the word sin. But you look in a dictionary, it'll probably tell you what sin is, and chances are it might be basically right. So you need an English dictionary, a good dictionary.

   The next thing, number four, would be a concordance. And depending on the kind of research you're going to do, you might be satisfied with Cruden's concordance, which just gives you a listing of the words, or maybe with Strong's concordance, which also will tell you what those words literally mean and how they're translated elsewhere in the Bible.

   Number five is a good Bible dictionary. Now, maybe all you can afford is a Bible and a dictionary, and I'm speaking now of an English dictionary. But you ought to have at least those two items. Then, if you can afford it, as I said, a second translation. Then after that, a concordance, so you can find various things in the Bible.

   Number five, a Bible dictionary.

   Number six, maybe a handbook or a commentary. Maybe Holly's handbook, Unger's handbook, or one of the commentaries that I mentioned.

   And number seven, a Bible atlas.

   Now, obviously, there are many other things that you can have, and I suppose that many of you do have. But these are basic things that I would encourage you to have, depending on the funds you have and your particular interest in how deeply you want to go into these things. So buy what you can afford and what you would use.

   But along with that, read these booklets that I have recommended to you that we’ve published: “Read the Book” and “How to Study the Bible.”

   Also, let me encourage you to subscribe to the “Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course.” Some of you say, Well, I took that years ago. You know, I had 40 lessons, 50 lessons, 60 lessons, whatever it was. Or I had 12 lessons. And very recently, even the 12-lesson series has been changed. At least three of them are totally changed.

   But you might say, How much should I study the Bible? I hope that I've convinced you that you shouldn't say none. Should you study five minutes a day? Should you study an hour a day? I'm not going to tell you how much to study. That's up to you. Bible study is sort of like mining gold. There's a lot of gold in the Bible. And the more you study the Bible, the more of that gold you are going to find. And it's sort of up to you, you know. You can be a pauper, or you can be rich with gold that you have dug out of the Bible.

   Let me encourage you to develop the habit of regular Bible study. And by that I mean every day as a routine. Now, maybe sometimes circumstances prohibit it. But as a routine, just like you eat every day. Or, presumably, you do, unless you do an awful lot of fasting. And you ought to read the Bible in a like manner, because there you are taking in spiritual food. And you need that spiritual food just as much as you need the physical food.

   Now, maybe to start with, you'll have to start out and read just a short period. You know, you can't expect that people are going to start out and they're going to read two hours a day or study two hours a day. Maybe you need to study five minutes a day for a while, then increase it to ten minutes a day. Maybe you'll have to use a clock there to remind you of how much you have actually spent. Or maybe you won't. Maybe you'll start in the Bible, and you can't stop.

   Now most of us read, say, 200 words a minute or more. That's not considered very fast to read about 200 words a minute. Do you realize that if you read at that rate for ten minutes a day, you could read the whole Bible in one year? Now we ought to spend a lot more time than that each day, I believe, learning what our Creator wants us to know.

   Now, brethren, the Bible contains the words of life from our Creator. And we need desperately to learn what those words are and to make them a part of our very being. But we won't be able to do that unless we are studying diligently God's Word.