[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]
A Book for All Time
Year after year, the Bible is the world’s best-selling book!
Portions of the Bible are available in more than three thousand languages around the world. Chances are that you have one on your coffee table—or stored away in a closet somewhere.
But how many even read the Bible? If you don’t read this book, you could be missing out on the most exciting, mind-expanding information and knowledge the world has ever known!
In the mid-1450s, more than 560 years ago, the German printer Johan Gutenberg gave the world its first printed Bible. A 2021 study by the British and Foreign Bible Society estimated that somewhere between 5 billion and 7 billion Bibles have been printed since then.
And now, in our digital age, hundreds of millions of Bibles have been downloaded to people’s smartphones and computers.
As of 2021, a popular Bible app by YouVersion had been downloaded more than 500 million times, and users have read or listened to more than 64 BILLION individual chapters of the Bible.
The Bible is everywhere, it seems. But does anyone really understand the Bible? Can YOU understand the Bible?
On today’s program, we’ll discuss seven simple but vital keys for studying your Bible.
My friends, we are living in the prophesied “time of the end.” Your Bible reveals the future of the world and your part in it. You need to understand Bible prophecy, and the awesome future of planet earth.
The Bible reveals the way of peace and prosperity. You need to understand the vital revelation that God Almighty wants you to know. On this program, you’ll learn seven keys for bible study. These keys can change your life!
You need this information! Stay tuned!
Forever Relevant—And Never Out of Print!
If you’re a regular viewer of Tomorrow’s World, YOU probably read the Bible often.
But HOW MANY people actually read the Bible?
A 2021 study published by Statista.org found that 11 percent of Americans read their Bible every day. About one-third, 34 percent, read it at least once a week. Another 29 percent said they NEVER read the Bible! (“Frequency of reading the Bible among adults in the United States from 2018 to 2021,” Statista.org, 2022).
My friends, you need to read this book. But can you understand its mysteries? Yes, you can. On today’s program we’ll give you seven keys for effective Bible study.
The Bible is a storehouse of valuable treasure. How can we reap the treasures contained in this book? Proverbs 2:4. Speaking of true knowledge, the Bible states in Proverbs 2:4,
If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding….”
The Bible was once at the center of our Western civilization. It was even a part of public school education. More recently, secularism, evolution, and materialism overwhelmed educational institutions, throwing God, the Bible, and the Ten Commandments out the window. Since then, moral and ethical standards have declined in all sectors of society.
This is no coincidence!
My friends, the Bible reveals an unseen spiritual law that explains major trends and decline in our Western world. If you have your Bible, turn to Galatians 6. Galatians 6:7:
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
Our Western world has been sowing sin, and it will reap disastrous consequences. Galatians 6:8 continues:
For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
Sadly, we have been reaping corruption in our Western world. That’s why you need to be watching world news in the light of Bible prophecy. Perhaps you saw our telecast titled, “Reaping the Whirlwind.” The prophet Hosea stated it this way:
They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7).
Will our nations finally get the message that we need to repent nationally and individually? Will we finally turn to the God of the Bible and heed His warning, and finally obey His commandments? We need to study the Bible, and LIVE by the Bible. As Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4,
It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”
Only obedience to, and a love of, the Scriptures can lead to moral and national prosperity.
About one-third of the American adult population believes the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally word for word. This percentage is slightly lower than several decades ago. The majority of those Americans who don’t believe that the Bible is literally true believe that it is the inspired word of God but that not everything it in should be taken literally. About one in five Americans believe the Bible is an ancient book of “fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man….”
My friends, God will judge unbelievers. Let’s understand!
The Bible is God’s instruction book to all human beings. If you have your Bible, turn to 2 Timothy 3:16,
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The NIV states it this way, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness….”
Yes! ALL scripture is useful!
Key #1 for effective Bible study is: The Bible Is Always Relevant
Some people believe that since the Bible was completed about 1,900 years ago, it CANNOT be RELEVANT for us today.
That belief is wrong.
As we’ve demonstrated in dozens of our programs, not only is the Bible relevant for us today, but its prophecies also reveal humanity’s future, our incredible destiny, and
the good news of tomorrow’s world. The good news is that mankind will not completely destroy itself. Jesus Christ will return at the most dangerous point in human history to SAVE us from ourselves.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is ALWAYS relevant. If you have your Bible, turn to MATTHEW 24:14. Jesus said,
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Yes, we look forward to the END of this “present evil world,” the end of this age and the beginning of a new age, tomorrow’s world!
The Bible is always relevant.
The Gallup Poll discovered that “Sixty-five percent of Americans agree that the Bible ‘answers all or most of the basic question of life.’”
A Complete Work—Unabridged and Interconnected
The Bible is God’s gift to all humanity.
Do we really treasure this book as we should? If we do, we really need to study the Bible regularly. President Abraham Lincoln made this statement about the Bible: “In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man.
All the good the Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this book” (Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 7, 1953, p. 543).
A survey by the American Bible Society found that Bible-reading increased during the COVID pandemic. More than 181 million Americans opened a Bible at least once in 2021, that’s up from 169 million in 2020.
Millions are discovering that the Bible is relevant to their lives. We discussed that key in the last part of our program.
Key #1: The Bible Is Always Relevant.
A second vital key is,
The Bible Is a Complete Book.
Many cannot truly understand the Bible because they throw out its first 39 books, called the Old Testament.
Let’s understand: When Jesus quoted scripture, He quoted the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Old Testament. In His tremendous spiritual battle with Satan the devil, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 when He said,
It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”
You’ll find that in Luke 4:4.
That profound truth is absolutely foundational to anyone’s happiness, and their eternal life!
The Apostle Paul, writing to the young evangelist Timothy, spoke of the genuine faith that was in Timothy’s grandmother Lois and in his mother Eunice.
They had taught Timothy the scriptures from childhood. And what were those scriptures? The first 39 books of the Bible. The New Testament had not yet been written!
Read about that in 2 TIMOTHY 3:15,
… from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Timothy was able to understand salvation through the Old Testament Scriptures, and through His acceptance of Jesus Christ as His Savior.
The Bible is a complete book. It begins in the book of Genesis and ends with the book of Revelation. In fact, God warns us in REVELATION 22:18:
For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Let’s understand: When Jesus taught us the two great commandments, He quoted them from the Old Testament.
The first great commandment, to love God with all our heart, soul and strength, is written in Deuteronomy 6:5!
And Jesus’ second great commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, is from Leviticus 19:18.
These Old Testament verses Jesus quoted are commandments of God.
The point, my friends, is that we cannot understand God’s truth, or His plan, UNLESS we study the WHOLE Bible as the Word of God. To understand the Bible, we must read both the Old Testament AND the New Testament.
Key #2 for effective Bible study is: The Bible Is a Complete Book.
A THIRD key for effective Bible study is:
The Bible Interprets the Bible.
We’ve discussed this principle on previous programs, and it’s an extremely important principle. More than 25% of the Bible is prophecy—and symbolic language is often used. The books of Daniel and Revelation contain much symbolic language. How can you understand it?
In previous programs, we have discussed examples of symbolism in the book of Revelation. In Revelation 1:20, stars symbolize the angels of the seven churches. And the seven lampstands symbolize seven churches. In Revelation 17, the Apostle John sees in vision—a beast ridden by a woman, a harlot. Revelation 17:3. John writes,
And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
She is called in verse 5…
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Verse 6 declares that this woman persecutes true Christians.
The following verses give us the meaning of these symbols. VERSE 12, for example, reveals the meaning of the ten horns of the beast:
The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.
And verse 18 tells us:
And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.
Our third key for effective Bible study is:
The Bible Interprets the Bible.
STUDY to Show Yourself Approved!
But how can you understand what the Bible’s symbols and signs and warnings truly mean? This leads us to our fourth key:
Study All the Scriptures on a Topic.
Teachers who fail to do this often end up teaching false and misleading doctrines. Take, for example, the controversy often called “Law OR Grace.” Does God’s grace mean a Christian can live a life of rampant sin and blatantly DISOBEY his Savior? Of course not! As Jesus said in MATTHEW 19:17,
But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.
Jesus went on to mention several of the Ten Commandments. Let’s understand: The Bible does not contradict itself. Jesus said in JOHN 10:35,
The Scripture cannot be broken….”
God’s Grace does NOT give us permission to transgress God’s law.
Some wrongly take Ephesians 2:15 as doing away with God’s Ten Commandments and the moral law. Ephesians 2:15 states,
… having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances….
Actually, this is speaking of ordinances, or in the Greek, “dogma”---in this case, man-made laws that caused division between Jews and Gentiles. Remember, the principle here is to study ALL THE REFERENCES on one topic. If we read Ephesians 2:15 apart from the rest of the Bible, we could come to a wrong conclusion.
Listen to this plain comment about Ephesians 2:15 from the NIV Study Bible: “Since Mt. 5:17 and Ro. 3:31 teach that GOD’S MORAL STANDARD expressed in the OT law IS NOT CHANGED by the coming of CHRIST, what is abolished here is probably the EFFECT of the specific ‘commandments and regulations’ in separating Jews from Gentiles, whose nonobservance of the Jewish law renders them RITUALLY unclean.”
In other words, when you are consistent and honest with the scriptures, as in this commentary, the truth is “GOD’S MORAL STANDARD expressed in the Old Testament law IS NOT CHANGED by the coming of CHRIST.” This is consistent with the second principle we discussed,
The Bible Is a Complete Book.
Study the scriptures in BOTH the Old and New Testaments of your Bible. To have a true understanding of Bible truths, apply the fourth key:
Study All the Scriptures on a Topic.
When you honestly do that, you will see that, as in this example, Grace does NOT do away with the moral authority of God’s law.
A fifth key for effective Bible study is:
Understand the Context.
When you study all the scriptures on a topic, go a little further. Read all the scriptures AROUND a verse you are studying. For example, some wrongly say that the Jerusalem Conference in Acts 15 abolished the Ten Commandments for the Gentiles.
But notice the Apostle James’ decision in Acts 15:19,
Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.
When the Apostles specified these four prohibitions, did that free the Gentiles to sin in other ways? To transgress the commandment that says “You shall not murder”? “You shall not have other gods before the true God”? Of course not! The Apostles in NO WAY repealed the moral law of God. To understand this, we need to READ THE CONTEXT. What was the main question?
Read VERSE ONE of Acts 15.
And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
The issue was circumcision. The conference decided that Gentiles DID NOT have to be circumcised in order to be saved. The Apostle Paul later wrote to the Corinthian Gentiles in 1 Corinthians 7:19, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.”
Be careful to read all the scriptures around the verse you are studying. Remember our fifth key for effective Bible study:
Understand the Context.
Don’t Leave God Out
A sixth important key for effective Bible study is,
Prove All Things.
Turn to 1 Thessalonians 5:21. We often challenge our viewers to check in the Bible for themselves. Don’t take FOR GRANTED what we say on this program. Read it in your own Bible. 1 Thessalonians 5:21,
Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Or as the King James Version states, “PROVE all things; hold fast that which is good.”
Notice the attitude of the Bereans in Acts 17. Acts 17:11. The author, Luke, commends the Bereans for their positive, investigative attitude in reading the scriptures. Acts 17:11, “These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”
Key number 6 is,
Prove All Things.
A seventh key for effective Bible study is foundational. That principle is:
Pray for Understanding.
The Bible emphasizes that we need a teachable attitude. Ancient King David was a man after God’s own heart as it tells us in Acts 13:22. Notice David’s teachable attitude in praying for understanding. Psalm 25:4,
Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day.
My friends, pray for understanding as you read and study your Bible. Pray for guidance.
God blesses those who respect the scriptures and reverence His holy word.
Turn in your Bible to Isaiah 66:2. Almighty God states,
But on THIS ONE will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My WORD.
The seventh key for effective Bible study is:
Pray for Understanding.
The Bible is the most important book in the world. My friends, if you’ve neglected reading the Bible, now is the time to change. Read it daily. If your attitude is right, you’ll be greatly blessed and your life will be changed.
As Jesus said in John 6:63, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
THE SEVENTH KEY for effective Bible Study is:
Pray for Understanding.
The Bible is not only a book for TODAY, but it’s also the book of the FUTURE.
As Jesus said in LUKE 21:33,
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Thank God, that He’s shared with us His awesome spiritual truth, and the very purpose of life.
Thank you for watching! My friends, we are living in the prophesied “time of the end.” Your Bible reveals the future of the world and your part in it. If you would like an inspiring free Bible Study Course that can change your life and give you understanding that billions of human beings around the world do not have, just click the link in the description.
And remember to subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss another Tomorrow’s World video. See you next time!
