This page will grow with Bible studies under different topic headings.

Rightly Dividing the Word of God

EARLY AMERICAN IDEAS ABOUT THE BIBLE AND EDUCATION

PARENTS TRAIN UP YOUR CHILDREN

BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT EDUCATION

Compiled by Larry Rice. Please copy and distribute.

The psalmist declared we can have more understanding than all our instructors when the word of God is our meditation.

A wonderful expression of our learning process is stated in Isaiah 41:20.

"...see, know, consider, and understand altogether."

To see the engine is required to know (recognize) what it is.

Then it must be considered, taken apart, analyzed, see its many parts and how they co-ordinate.

Then it can be understood, reconstructed, and used.

The most perfect explanation of how to teach is found in the way Jesus was raised up. Isaiah 7:15 He was raised up on butter and honey that He might know to accept the good and refuse the evil. This means to show the good and true and help of God, all else which is countless will be easily recognized and refused. Show a child order and he will be orderly. Show him chaos and he will be chaotic.

The most perfect method of teaching is shown to be layer by layer repeating the same subject much as a baby is formed in the womb. Isaiah 28:9,10 We can teach complex ideas from the top of the mountain down to the root. Start with a summary understanding and let it grow and develop each year.

That patience is required is shown by Isaiah 28:16. A little at a time, proving each stone laid in the process.

That stillness and quietness is required for strength of learning is shown in Isa 30:15.

In times past this has been called 'profound' learning' as contrasted to shallow learning. Main differences being the extent of understanding, the number of relationships established in the understanding. It is good to relate the new thing being studied to the old things already learned. It is good to see order and pattern, as the seed produces the root, stem, leaves, and fruit which repeats itself again.

"By faith we understand..." is found in Hebrews 11:3. Faith towards God is the requirement to understand the things of nature (God's creation). See Hebrews 6:1-3 for the idea of faith towards God.

That a repetition is helpful is shown by Isaiah's reference to God's doctrine distilling as the dew on the grass. It is good to give consistent watering of that which is growing in the understanding.

Like a potter shaping the clay, layer by layer, the teacher gives what is needed. The womb gives what is needed to the growing babe as its many parts are formed, strengthened, and perfected. But do not miss the significance of the fact that the toenails are not present when the toes are first formed. Just as the impregnated egg is the germ of all that will form, so we teach from the simplest expression of the idea to its most developed form. And we develop the same idea for years, layer upon layer. Like the babe is formed in the womb so is understanding.

BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT EDUCATION

The Bible teaches us (for those who are willing to hear) that the word of God is our highest authority. The word of God is "of most worth". Learning it gives us the ability to learn all things. The truth revealed in God's holy scripture is the key of knowledge which unlocks all things.

All things include not only the realm of nature in the universe created by God, but also that which man has devised. Scripture is the highest truth and it tells us that the things of God which can be known are clearly seen from that which He has created. Another words, the art reveals the artist, the creation reveals the Creator. (Romans 1:20) And when one understands the things of God, he is enabled to understand all else.

Scripture teaches us these things about God. He is what He is. He does not change. His word is constant. It endures to all generations. From Him proceed all things that were created. When man devises a robot, he is only making an imperfect copy of the human body created by God.

There is nothing new under the sun. Man can only imperfectly imitate that which God has done. Whether it be a plane, God made the birds; or a rocket, God made the meteors; in all man's work, he is only trying to find out and repeat some version of the creation done by God.

The law we recognize in nature, For every action there is an equal an opposite reaction, is but an imperfect expression of the higher law , the spiritual law that explains, What a man sows, that shall he also reap.

The natural laws of God's creation are the source of government law in communities. Natural law is unchanging. Government law made by man should also be constant and applied equally. The "modern" court system denies this principle and embraces the evolution of law to help mold "an evolving human society".

A page of history is worth a volume of logic. History shows the intent and purpose of our founding fathers. Contemporary logic is wrong whenever it contradicts the clear explanations of those men who wrote the Constitution.

97% of the founding fathers were practicing Christians and exercised their faith in public office, at work, at home, and had it taught to their children in their schools. 187 of the first 200 colleges in America were Christian, Bible teaching institutions. Entrance to Harvard required strong knowledge of the Bible. The money was printed, "One Nation Under God." Noah Webster wrote the dictionary with Bible verses explained so children could understand the words of God and know the truth of Jesus Christ. Webster even wrote a translation of the Bible for the American speaking people.

During the next hundred years humanism grew bolder in its attack against the founding fathers ideas of education and more and more schools omitted the Bible. Fewer and fewer remembered the exhortations of those men who established this nation to follow Christ and give Christian teaching in the schools, as the backbone and main course of our schools.

The book of Job explains that where there is order there is life, but where disorder (chaos) is, there is death and even the light is as darkness. O that our teachers and parents would take heed to the wonderful truth of life found in the holy scripture. God's covenant with us is perfect and ordered in all things. He commands that we should study diligently the scripture so we can rightly divide it and not be ashamed. Different things have different weights. Jesus made this clear when He explained that faith and discernment of good and evil , and mercy are weightier matters of the law than tithing. Unless a man can rightly divide the scripture, he will not have all the order in His life God has provided. Jesus has come to give order into our lives. This is clear from Isaiah 9:6-8 where it says He is come to order and to establish ... He has preserved His word to all generations that they might live and not die.

PARENTS TRAIN UP YOUR CHILDREN

Remember how the psalmist declared he had more understanding than all his teachers because he meditated in the truth of God's word night and day. Then connect that back to the realization of our founding fathers when they wrote that the Bible is the basis of all true and good education. Why else would the early Congress have officially distributed 20,000 copies of the Bible? Let us get back to the basics of God and quit whitewashing the things so many want to skip over and ignore. Trust God, and do what He says, the song says, that is the only way to gain life. If need be, let God be true, and every man a liar who contradicts God. His word is true and worthy of our trust. As we trust we will do.

To read another selection, just select another menu item. You can also scroll back up to the top of this document.

Scripture for Living menu of life studies from the holy scripture.