The Three Steps of Bible Study

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

I’d say the cornerstone to that in one word “Humanism”

Pretty close, if not exactly right. And I've seen entire churches succumbing as a body.

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

The elders are all there when the pastor teaches and preaches so if the pastor is messing up then they will jump in to correct and if need be to take over. This is not the pope like the the First Fundamentalist Baptist of Smalltown USA. It’s totally under control. Now if you don’t understand something the board of elders and /or the Pastor will work with you till it’s clear. You then pass it on to your family. All in the church and all in the family.

And how would the elders know, if they are not involved in Bible study? Does the pastor tell them? The point is that there must be men involved in Bible study, not just the pastor.

And there must be more than just the pastor and the elders involved in Bible study, or else there will never be more pastors or elders. Are you training everyone in the assembly to be an elder and a pastor?

And you are also describing Bible study apart from the assembly, namely in the family. Are the elders and pastor there for that? I’m not knocking your strategy, just pointing out that in practice it is far different than “just the pastor teaching.”

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

And how would the elders know, if they are not involved in Bible study? Does the pastor tell them? The point is that there must be men involved in Bible study, not just the pastor.

And there must be more than just the pastor and the elders involved in Bible study, or else there will never be more pastors or elders. Are you training everyone in the assembly to be an elder and a pastor?

And you are also describing Bible study apart from the assembly, namely in the family. Are the elders and pastor there for that? I’m not knocking your strategy, just pointing out that in practice it is far different than “just the pastor teaching.”

13. Why is it that Primitive Baptists do not have Sunday Schools?

• Answer: This ties in very closely with the previous question. The Lord put gifts in the church, and so the church has no more right to appoint someone to teach than they do to call a man to preach. We believe that "pastors and teachers" are one office. Children ought to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6: 4), but this is the responsibility of the parents in the home. The church cannot possibly do for a child in one hour a week what his parents should have been doing all week long. The Sunday School is another of man's inventions which is generally used as a "soul-saving" agency But it must be emphasized that Jesus the Saviour is the only soul winner and that man never has been able to do that work (Heb. 8 :11). Furthermore, we are taught that women are to keep silence in the churches (1 Cor. 14: 34), and this is ignored in most Sunday Schools and Bible Schools. The church should be taught by the pastor, who is to be a God-called man and who must be apt to teach even before being recognized by the church as an elder (1 Tim. 3: 2).

 

[Deacon]

Rob, I ask this only with respect for you. Why do you do the Bible studies rather than the pastor? I will qualify this by saying that in my own religious society we emphasize that the pastor does all the teaching and the family all listen to the sermon, teaching time etc

Pastors are leaders. Their job is to teach their flock to do the work of our Lord.
My churches motto is Equip, Send, Serve.
Pastors that do all the work, that lead every meeting, that monopolize the position of leadership are not doing their job. They are doing the job of a tyrant.
The Great Commission was to make disciples. Pastor should be working to put themselves out of their job by equipping others to grow into service.

1 Tim 3 states a qualification for elder is “able/apt to teach”. How might one know if another qualifies for the position if the is no opportunity to teach others?

Rob

 

[Deacon]

• Answer: This ties in very closely with the previous question. The Lord put gifts in the church, and so the church has no more right to appoint someone to teach than they do to call a man to preach. We believe that "pastors and teachers" are one office. Children ought to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6: 4), but this is the responsibility of the parents in the home. The church cannot possibly do for a child in one hour a week what his parents should have been doing all week long. The Sunday School is another of man's inventions which is generally used as a "soul-saving" agency But it must be emphasized that Jesus the Saviour is the only soul winner and that man never has been able to do that work (Heb. 8 :11). Furthermore, we are taught that women are to keep silence in the churches (1 Cor. 14: 34), and this is ignored in most Sunday Schools and Bible Schools. The church should be taught by the pastor, who is to be a God-called man and who must be apt to teach even before being recognized by the church as an elder (1 Tim. 3: 2).

My concern about this answer is that there is some confusion between what a church really is. The answer seems to be confusing the word church with a structure, a building. The church is a people, a congregation, a group of believers. “Wherever 2 or 3 gather together...”

Rob

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Pastors are leaders. Their job is to teach their flock to do the work of our Lord.
My churches motto is Equip, Send, Serve.
Pastors that do all the work, that lead every meeting, that monopolize the position of leadership are not doing their job. They are doing the job of a tyrant.
The Great Commission was to make disciples. Pastor should be working to put themselves out of their job by equipping others to grow into service.

1 Tim 3 states a qualification for elder is “able/apt to teach”. How might one know if another qualifies for the position if the is no opportunity to teach others?

Rob

I fail to see how they are tyrants Lol

 

[Van]

I think we need to rewrite scripture, according to some it should read "For established Pastors only, study to show yourself approved...

Lets address the real issue, there are those that teach bible study is for others but not for ourselves. This is a destructive heresy, in my opinion. Consider all the places where Jesus taught we should know God's word.

Ezr 7:10
For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.

Mat 16:11
“How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

 

[Van]

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

2Timothy 2:15
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

 

[Van]

Mark 7:13
thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

1Peter 2:2
like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

 

[Van]

In a cult like church, the Pastor/Teacher teaches that what they hear from his pulpit is God's truth, and that differing views are Satanic or misguided. Indoctrination rather than illumination. So independent bible study would be discouraged, and reading materials chosen by the Pastor/Teacher would be encouraged.

Of course this approach is the antithesis of the Soul Liberty Baptist Distinctive.

 

[Van]

Deuteronomy 8:3 NASB
"He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.

Matthew 4:4 NASB
But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'"

Matthew 7:24-27
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26 Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Matthew 9:13 NASB
13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 

[Van]

I think it would be rather hard to teach all that Christ commanded, unless we studied Christ's teachings using the three steps of bible study. How many who have not studied Matthew 9:13 would teach that command?