Why am I receiving this email?
I'll bet questions have entered your mind with the receipt of this email, those being ... "Why am I receiving this email?” and "What’s it all about?” The answers are simple as is the remedy.
As I began putting together this program, I put my name out front so you all will recognize it is not spam. The real name for these writings is "Bible Basics" and I will shortly drop my name from the title. And I will be working to find an acceptable length for each offering.
Next, I needed to compile an initial list of subscribers so what better place to find names than by using my old, and in some cases, my very old email contacts list. It's an old standard. I hope when you're comfortable with our format you will invite your family and friends to join us here at Bible Basics.
Next, unlike most of these types of projects, there is no charge. If you want to support me, that's great. We'll look at how at another time, but for now and the near future, you're free to stay on.
Next, and important to some of you, Buttondown, our host, makes it easy to opt out. Note the bottom of the page, the lifesaver for the uninterested. You just poke "unsubscribe," boom ... you're gone.
Okay, so where are we going with this? "Bible studies," which may or may not be a proper title, are a dime a dozen these days. These “new studies” are made possible by all the “new versions” of the Bible, most of which studies and Bibles are nothing more than opinion based on personal interest. And, for the most part, the only truly "new information" is the title and copyright date.
I don’t want this to be “just another Bible study” though the label will fit in many instances. When you read the coming pages, I want every one of you to look in the Bible and compare it to what is said by folks, me included, and think. Disagree with my position if you choose, but you can't do that logically based on your opinion or what someone said. You have to look in the Book for yourself.
I am a fundamentalist, a "fundie" as it were, when it comes to the Bible. The fundamentalist approach used to be the standard for Bible study, that meant the use of a King James Bible and the basic contextual meaning found there. But the word has become a "dirty" and "scorned" label, as has the KJV, in many circles as neither leaves room for man's opinions to be equal to God's words.
I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior in 1973 in a fundamental, independent church. Over the years, none of my studies or the writings of others has changed my position. We'll be looking at this often as man's words have and greatly continue to encroach on God's words in so many ways.
As to Bible study itself, one should never accept another's position on an issue without personal study. This includes anything you read here in these pages. Neither I nor those other folks "have all the answers to what God really means." But more important, no one will be standing there next to you to help out when you face Jesus in judgement. You are obligated to know what God has said, not what somebody told you He said. Galatians 6:5 points right at this issue with the rest of that chapter supporting it directly. We are responsible for ourselves and our actions. (How many just poked unsubscribe?)
Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of Christianity. The Bible is the (academic) foundation. No doctrine may ever be found valid if it is averse to Jesus Christ or the Bible. No tradition should ever be used as the foundation for setting of a doctrine. We are free to develop theories and postulates based on proper studies regarding certain of the mysteries of scripture, but our conclusions are but glorified opinions and should not be used as foundational truths.
Theories and postulates may be developed if supported by scripture and, to a certain degree, may shed light on some of God's mysteries. But they are theory which is actually just opinion. You will find this style in the writings of the old masters such as in the Matthew Henry's commentaries. But again, they remain theory and opinion. We'll look at this more as we move along.
We can be sure of this though. The main goal of God in His Word is to bring salvation to the individual. God is quite clear in His wording as given to us regarding the way of salvation, John 3:16. There is no mystery. And the Apostles were equally clear in their follow up writings, Acts 4:12; Romans 10:13; Ephesians 2:8-9. We could say John sums it up well in 1 John 5:5-13.