This is by no means an exhaustive look at studying the Bible.  One of the most profitable classes I had in Bible College was “Methods of Bible Study.”  Though I obviously can’t include everything I learned there, perhaps I can adapt something that is said to have been told to a reporter about how to do his job:  find the answer to these five words:  who, what, where, when and why.

It’s been claimed by some who don’t believe the Bible that you can prove anything by it.  Others teach that the Bible has to be conformed to a certain confession of faith or catechism.  These documents are the standard of what one believes, not the Bible itself.    A certain church strives for “doctrinal purity.”   There’s nothing wrong with that in itself, yet some of the worst expositions of Scripture ever heard may came from that pulpit; “doctrinally…