Lets get straight to it... Study 1 - The Book of Books!
So what did I learn in this Chapter?
Most importantly, I learned what the Bible is, what it claims about itself, the Bible's message, and lastly, the main divisions (old & new testament).
At the start of each study there is a section "Before you begin..." asking a question before looking into the study...
For Study 1 it was 'What is your favourite book of the Bible'? asking me what I would say and why...
My answer was the book of Daniel... Before I was baptized, I met up with a guy from church regularly who helped me a lot. He used to take me through different books of the Bible, the 1st one we went through was Daniel. They guy I met up with said he could see a lot of similarities between myself and Daniel so not only is it a book I know a lot about but it's also a book I can relate to a lot.
After some reading of the study I came across some research questions... This involved reading through Jeremiah 1:1-12 before answering the questions. The questions were as follows:
1. Why did God call Jeremiah to be a prophet?
2. Why was Jeremiah able to speak with authority?
3. How did Jeremiah know that his words would come true?
My answers...
1. God called Jeremiah to be a prophet because he knew Jeremiah in the womb before he formed him and also set him apart before he was born.
2. Jeremiah was able to speak with authority because the Lord was with him and would rescue him.
3. The Lord reached out his hand, touched Jeremiahs mouth and said, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth".
Then I came across the exercise questions! They were as follows...
1. Carefully re-read the section of this study summarising the Old Testament. Why did God continue to deal with the Israelites when they proved to be so unfaithful?
2. Carefully re-read the section of this study on the Bible's claim about itself. In what ways is the Bible a unique book?
3. Read the article 'Bible' in the New Bible Dictionary (NBD) and note down anything extra that is relevant for Study 1. If your interest for extra research is still strong, read 'Canon of the Old Testament' and 'Canon of the New Testament'.
My answers were as follows...
1. God continued to deal with the Israelites when they proved to be so unfaithful because God is faithful and he fulfilled his promise.
2. The Bible is a unique book because it was inspired and spoken by God. It is a book used for reference against non-believers and teaching about God. The story's all link in despite the diversity of them (unity). It's authority makes it unique.
3. Extra from NBD relevant to study:
- Books and apostles declare that church existed from beginning.
- Term synonymous with Bible is 'writings' or 'scriptures' frequently used in NT to denote OT documents in whole or in part.
- OT and NT acknowledged in Qur'an as earlier divine revelations.
- OT in Hebrew is Jewish Bible. Pentateuch in Hebrew is the Samaritan Bible.
In short, it asked what parts of the Bible I am familiar with and what parts I'm not so familiar with! My answer... I'm familiar with the structure of the OT but not so familiar with anything in depth (hence why I'm doing this course!).
So there we have that! That's the whole of Study 1 in a nutshell... hope you found it interesting and next time I'll move onto study 2! :)
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