by Don French
Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to introduce this section of the book entitled Background studies. The purpose for these studies is to lay down background information about information that is essential to understanding other studies. For example, one of the studies in this section is The Importance of the Bible in Understanding God’s Will for Mankind. If one does not recognize the Bible’s place in God revealing His Will to Mankind, then there is no use in studying the Bible with that person because they do not accept its place in God’s scheme of Redemption. It is the same to them as if I wanted to study God’s will with them and I pull out the Doctor Seuss’s Book, “The Cat in the Hat.”
While in many cases, some of these studies can be skipped before studying God’s plan of salvation is studied, these are all studies that at one time or another, I needed to cover before the person that I was studying with could even begin to agree to study the gospel plan of salvation. While over the course of my ministry, I averaged about a 50% success rate, many of those that I baptized eventually fell away. For this reason, I have tried to cover more of these studies to make sure that the new-born Christians understand better what God expects from every Christian.
I wish that I could say that I had a hundred percent success rate, both in baptisms and in getting people to continue in their Christian lives, but this would be a lie. The reality is that in recent years around 80% of the people that I have studied with have had alcohol addiction problems or drug addition problems with most of the drug problems being crack related. The time and effort that is required with dealing with the struggles is much higher now days than it was when I first began studying with sinners when I was starting out. The only advantage that I can see is that as I study with people who suffer wit these addictions, they seem to be more receptive in the beginning because many times they are surprised that someone who is a Christian cares for them. The worldly statistics say that only 3% of those who are addicted to crack, ever break the habit. While I have had a slightly higher success rate, it takes much more effort and much more dedication to encouraging people who are addicted to drugs than those who are not.
This has been one of my biggest problems in that as my Parkinson’s has progressed my ability to talk verbally has diminished. I hope that by writing this book, if I can encourage even one person to overcome their addiction to sin, then it will have been worth all of the effort and cost. I do not mean this to sound like a condemnation of the brotherhood, because I have seen much in the way of positive steps in overcoming these problems, but we have done a much better job of turning out men who are good preachers than we have in turning out personal workers and congregational teachers who can help new converts deal with their daily struggles.
Chapter Summary
1. Many of us have fears about studying the Bible with Non-Christians
2. These studies are designed to help make it easier for anyone to attempt to study.
3. If I can study the Bible with my voice almost gone anyone can conduct a Bible study.
4. We just need to speak where the Bible speaks and Be silent where the Bible is silent.
5. I hope this book makes the daunting task of studying with people a little easier.
The Importance of the Bible in Learning God’s Will for Mankind
Chapter Introduction
This chapter and study serves three purposes. All three of these are important and that is why I suggest starting with this study. I have found from experience, that studies that start with this study proceed much smoother than studies that do not. The first purpose is to establish the necessity of studying from the Bible to understand what God wants me to do in order to please Him, both as an individual and as a human being. Many people claim that they believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, but when you begin studying with them you will find what they mean when they say this and what the Bible means are two totally different things. The second purpose of this study is to make sure in my mind where the person is at in their Biblical knowledge, in order that I can tell if there are any additional subjects that I need to cover with them before studying God’s plan of salvation. The third purpose for going through these simpler subjects first is to build a level of trust between the teacher and the student. I have found that if this level of trust is not built up by the time that we start studying the gospel plan of salvation, it will probably never be established. By level of trust, I mean that when I say something, they can see it right there in the Word of God.
The first part of the study that I cover is subtitled, “Why Study the Bible?” If the Bible is not the word of God, we do not need to worry about what it says, let alone have our entire lives guided and shaped by it. It is important to be able to show others why they should accept the Bible as the final arbitrator.