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The Bible And Helpful Bible Study Tools

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Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles Tags:

As John was bringing his gospel to a close, he explained his purpose for writing in John 20:30-31-NKJV:

“And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”

In Colossians 4:16-NKJV, Paul wrote:

“Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.”

In 2 Timothy 4:13-NKJV, Paul made a personal request to Timothy:

“Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come — and the books, especially the parchments.”

Paul needed to have certain manuscripts with him during his imprisonment as well as additional material for reading and writing.

All of the above passages stress the importance of the written word in the spread of Christianity.  It was the method chosen by God for its preservation. What a great privilege it is to be able to hold God’s completed written Word in our hands and to be able to read the very words that emanated from His mind (Matthew 4:4-NKJV; John 12:48-50-NKJV).

While the Bible is its own best commentary (Matthew 4:4-ASV; 1 Corinthians 2:1-13-ASV), we must recognize that uninspired sources can also aid us in our understanding of it.

As we study the Bible, do we need to know what a particular word means or a particular passage teaches? Is there a particular Bible subject that we need to know more about? Do we need to know more about the Lord’s church? (Matthew 16:18-NKJV). There’s an abundance of Bible concordances, dictionaries, lexicons, encyclopedias, and commentaries (see under “Study Resources”) on the Internet that will help answer our questions.

One of this author’s favorite Bible study tools is Biblebrowser.com, which contains not only all of the above helps, but provides multiple versions of the Bible with parallel translations as well.

Let’s put the above helpful Bible study tools to work for us so that we might better understand God’s written Word.

One Cautionary Note: As we use the Bible study helps listed in this article, let us compare the information found in these helps with the inspired Scriptures (Acts 17:11-NKJV; 2 Timothy 3:16-NKJV; cf. 1 Corinthians 2:1-13-NKJV; Gal. 1:11-12-NKJV; Ephesians 3:1-3-NKJV; 1 Peter 4:11-NKJV). Any information that is contrary to biblical teaching should be immediately rejected and classified as false teaching (Romans 16:17-NKJV; Gal. 1:9-NKJV).

Additional Bible Study Tool Sources:

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