What Does the Bible Say? Notes Week 1

What does the Bible say about?

We are called to Rightly Divide the Word of Truth –

2 Timothy 2:15

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Voting –

Nothing Explicitly:

Matthew 22:21

"Then give Caesar what is his, and give God what is his."

1 Timothy 2:1-3

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.

Drinking –

Ecclesiastes 9:7

Seize life! Eat bread with gusto,
Drink wine with a robust heart.
Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure!

Amos 9:14

I'll make everything right again for my people Israel:

"They'll rebuild their ruined cities.
They'll plant vineyards and drink good wine.
They'll work their gardens and eat fresh vegetables.

Proverbs 23:29-35

Who are the people who are always crying the blues?
Who do you know who reeks of self-pity?
Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all?
Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot?
It's those who spend the night with a bottle,
for whom drinking is serious business.
Don't judge wine by its label,
or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor.
Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with—
the splitting headache, the queasy stomach.
Do you really prefer seeing double,
with your speech all slurred,
Reeling and seasick,
drunk as a sailor?
"They hit me," you'll say, "but it didn't hurt;
they beat on me, but I didn't feel a thing.
When I'm sober enough to manage it,
bring me another drink!"

1 Corinthians 6:12

Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it's spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I'd be a slave to my whims.

Dating –

Nothing!

2 Corinthians 6:14-15

Don't become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That's not partnership; that's war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands?

Sex Before Marriage –

Nothing!

Ephesians 5:31

And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh."

Patriotism –

Nothing specific, but!

Nehemiah 1:4

When I heard this, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God-of-Heaven.

Philippians 3:20

We're citizens of high heaven! We're waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ

Money –

LOTS!

Luke 16:11

Jesus went on to make these comments:

If you're honest in small things,
you'll be honest in big things;
If you're a crook in small things,
you'll be a crook in big things.
If you're not honest in small jobs,
who will put you in charge of the store?
No worker can serve two bosses:
He'll either hate the first and love the second
Or adore the first and despise the second.
You can't serve both God and the Bank.

2. Proverbs 21:20 "Valuables are safe in a wise person's home;
fools put it all out for yard sales.“

2. Proverbs 21:20 "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has."

Rebellious Children–

Enough

Deuteronomy 21: 18 – 21

When a man has a stubborn son, a real rebel who won't do a thing his mother and father tell him, and even though they discipline him he still won't obey, his father and mother shall forcibly bring him before the leaders at the city gate and say to the city fathers, "This son of ours is a stubborn rebel; he won't listen to a thing we say. He's a glutton and a drunk."

Then all the men of the town are to throw rocks at him until he's dead. You will have purged the evil pollution from among you. All Israel will hear what's happened and be in awe.

Words and The Bible:

• Must look at the entire record to know what God means in all passages.
• There are 700,000 words in Greek, but only 5393 appear in the New Testament.
• There are 14,564 unique English Words in the Bible with English having over 1 Million Words.
• God would have used the words available rather than making up something new.
• Our interpretation has often been limited by our thinking that only the Biblical record could shed light on what is being said. When in fact, the biblical record is a subset of the words that were available – and is in fact, less than 1 percent of the words available to the writers of the Bible.

Original is defined as –

belonging or pertaining to the origin or beginning of something, or to a thing at its beginning.

Natural is defined as –

being such by nature; born such or in conformity with the ordinary course of nature; not unusual or exceptional.

Home work:

Find the use of the Word Nature in Scripture.

Hint look up the Greek word – Physis.

Where does God act Para Physis in the Bible and why?