SEMESTER 1
401 – An Introduction to the English Bible
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: BIBLE SURVEY I LESSON # 1
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH BIBLE
I. WHY BIBLE SURVEY?
1. Systematic Bible study is a must.
2. All of God’s works are systematized.
3. The “rightly dividing” of that truth (systematizing) is essentially the work of men.
4. Thus, to insure against voids in teaching, we do well to study Scripture verse by verse.
5. That is to say, we should “rightly divide” and yet search daily to assure that nothing has been disregarded.
III: My experience in co-ordination of Scripture, compared to reading commentaries.
6. If we will learn to remember and assemble the Bible knowledge we have, we will find we are fortified against many mistakes.
II. WHAT CONSTITUTES THE BIBLE?
1. When I say Bible, I mean the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament as found in the K.J.V.
2. In connection with this tape you will receive a tract called “The Translation Trap.” Read it carefully, in correspondence with this lesson.
3. I want to establish the existence and identity of the books of the Bible so that we survey it as the Word of God.
III. WHY THESE PARTICULAR SIXTY-SIX BOOKS?
1. Let it be noted that Christ accepted the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and not the Apocrypha. (Read notes in A SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF BIBLE DOCTINE by T. P. Simmons, p. 33)
IV. WHY THEN THE OLD AND NEW?
1. Do they have different themes? (Heb. 10:7
)
2. What is the basic theme of the “law and the prophets?” (Gal. 3:19, Rev. 19:10)
3. The Old Testament showed hopelessness.
4. The New Testament showed a hope steadfast and sure in the person of Christ.
5. Show this by expounding Heb. 10:1-14.
6. As we survey the Bible, we survey the cross.
7. Let us see Christ on every page, let us seek Him in each line.
8. The Bible starts with man’s creation and closes with his final redemption and restoration.
9. Thus, let the sincere student know that from the beginning (Gen. 1:1 and Jn. 1:1-4) to the end (Rev. 22:21) Jesus Christ is the theme for us.