Inductive Bible Study??

I have not used their materials, but I have seen
enough of it to know that their grasp of the Bible
is faulty, with many assumptions rather than
actual study, and some misunderstandings of
texts.

 

I've read some of Kay Arthur's stuff and find it is solid.

Inductive Bible study has been around a long time.

Rob

 

If I'm not mistaken, I've seen that befoe. I believe I once had a new testamant with the built in instructions on inductive bible study. Thye don't tell you what to beleive, but teach you how to study so as to find the main topic, of a chapter and book, it was pretty good. Starting out learninghow it is color coded, you use colored penciles, and the instructions might say, color in every reference to God the Father in yellow, adn to Jesus in blue, and so on, Holy Spirit another color, manin topic another color, learning to spot lists when they aren't so obvious. Actually I still use some of what I learned, but I never finished the the whole New Testament with the study, now I wish I had. I don't now what Kay Arthur's ministry teaches, I've never read any of her books, but the learning to study was good. And I don't think the idea is original to her, she just teaches it.

 

My husband and I have completed quite a few of these...and have attended the leader's training. We have also led one for the youth. They are solid studies based on the person studying God's word by finding key words,key phrases,Greek and Hebrew meanings,and the learning to live out what God's Word teaches. I think it is solid,biblically...I think it is good for someone who desires to learn more about God's Word.

It is just a tool,though...a way to study.

Molly

 

I do not believe these statements to be true. What I have seen and studied of Kay's has been very biblical.

Molly

 

8o)

 

No need to worry. Kaye Arthur did not invent inductive Bible study. It is simply a technique to study the Bible. It involves reading Scripture and looking for key words and asking, who, why, what, where, when and how type of questions. It forces a person to really slow down and really think about what the Bible is saying. I have used inductive Bible Study and it really works. I have gained new insight of the Scriptures. But remember, true understanding of Scripture comes from guidance from the Holy Spirit. The goal IS NOT to ask oneself what does a particular passage say to me or mean to me? This is an incorrect approach to Scripture. The goal is to ask oneself what is God saying in this passage. Even though the Bible was written by men, God is the true author.

As an aside:

One of my pet peeves is when Christians "find" new meaning of revelation from the Word. God's Word was written by specific men for a specific audience for a specific purpose to teach specific truths about God. To gain better insight into Scritpute one must ask oneself what is the author is try say? Who is the author's audience? What kind of culture does the audience live in? What major historical events happened when the Scripture was written? What type of Genre is the Scripture? Is it historical? Peotry, A Gospel? etc...We cannot allow our 21st century mindset to "interpret" Scripture for us. I hope this helps!

God Bless

[ May 25, 2003, 10:48 PM: Message edited by: ChurchBoy ]

 

Inductive Bible study simply means letting the scripture interpret itself, taking the whole of scripture into account before forming a conclusion about what any particular passage says.

The idea is to minimize the subjective preconceptions we bring to a text (a very difficult task- to say the least) to see what God meant, and for whom, under what circumstances.

If you're going to do it, be prepared to have your mind changed on some things. It is not the way most Christians have been taught to read the Bible.

In Christ,

Tim

 

Inductive Bible study, as has already been pointed out, is letting the Bible speak for itself and teach what it naturally teaches. It is not the exclusive method of Kay Arthur. Any solid expositor or teacher will approach and handle the Bible in this way. It is advocated by the major proponents of sound Bible study materials. Living By the Book, by Hendricks (Moody) would be a good introduction, and there are other works accessible to all levels that can introduce one to the inductive methodology and practice.

 

My wife and I are doing a study with our Adult Bible Fellowship right now from Precept ministries, the videos are pretty good on the Marriage without regrets material we are working on, the Bible study workbook is not exactly the way we prefer to study, it is a system that should work, and the Bible study portion of it is decent, although, I would say that at times, they are asking people with little skill in word studies, language studies, etc, to make educated guesses about the text, I prefer to go right to the tools, Bible dictionary, Concordance, Greek Commentaries, Regular Commentaries, I find it works better for me. Also, Kay Arthur asks some questions that IMHO can be way outside of the scope of the text, ie. taking certain passages way out of context, but that It really isn't on the main points, some of the peripheral issues. Inductive study is OK, just not my preferred method. Plus it can be a little overwhelming to finish the lessons together, with 2 kids, a Job, plenty of Church ministries, and the usual other activities of life. The study has given us a few interesting questions to discuss, but we talk alot anyway about all kinds of issues, so most of the ground in this particular study we have covered before.

Bottom Line, I would not give Precept an overwhelming endorsment, neither would I discourage you from using it.

Just don't view Kay as the expert, and get a second opinion if there is a question and you'll be OK, I have seen very little in her studies to indicate a whole lot of Biblical Language ability on her part, and that I think is the place where most of her offshoots occur

 

I sent you a link to some exposes on Kay Arthur by private message.

Diane

 

dianetavegia,

Would you mind sending me the same link via private message?

Pastork