Episode 36: Dr. Kenny Francis, How To Study The Bible, Part 2

 Jacob Paul: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.

Kimberly Faith: Well, welcome back to the Truth in Love podcast. I have with me again, Doctor Kenny Francis, whom I finally refer to as Brother Kenny. I have all my life, at least for the last, what, forty plus years. 

Dr. Kenny Francis: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: Welcome back. And so this is part two of Kenny’s presentation on how to study the Bible or how he studies the Bible, and at the end of part one there was a very good synopsis. You gave a very good synopsis on the idea of studying the concepts of the Bible, what we call the basic Bible concepts at Mission Boulevard, and how that is a great benefit to I think you said set the rails or keep us within the rails as we pursue the other methods of study. And so for those of you who are listening to this, if you’ve not heard the first podcast, I would encourage you to go back and listen to that because it really especially if you had not studied the basic Bible concepts, there’s a really great overview of what that looks like as kind of a way to have, I think, a more fruitful study of the Bible with using the other methods that Brother Kenny’s going to talk about today. Is that a fair synopsis, Kenny?

Dr. Kenny Francis: That sounds very good to me. I think that as we’re getting into what we need to cover today, beginning with the tools for Bible study, that conceptual foundation is absolutely essential to begin with. And I say that because there are so many sources of information about the Bible available to people today. I know back whenever I first started, there were books. That was about it.

You go to the Bible bookstore and there were books. And then on Sunday, you might hear a sermon on the radio, and that was it. There were no Christian radio stations. So there wasn’t that much information available at the fingertips. But today, there’s so much information available, so many teachings, so many ideas that are available on the Internet, probably more than any other place, but as well as, you know, thousands of books that have been written.

You know, Solomon said of making many books, there is no end. But there are so many ideas and teachings out there that one can go off the road. You know, the road of Bible truth and go off into ideas that are just opinions and, you know, just strange ways of thinking contrary to the scripture. It’s really essential as one of the first tools in Bible study to have to understand the faith, to understand the basic truths of the Bible. And that’s what our conceptual studies are. The conceptual just means the main ideas of the scripture. So I actually consider that to be one of the tools for Bible study because that keeps us on the road instead of going over the edge. We need those guardrails to know the basic truths of the scripture.

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. And it kind of reminds me of you know, you mentioned all the resources. Even if you use a resource, which I know you’re going to talk about some of them like the Blue Letter Bible, you know, I mean you’ve got commentaries in there that are maybe written by somebody who tends to be more Calvinistic, but has really great ideas about and great ways of explaining difficult concepts and ideas and passages, but if you have the basic Bible concepts, you’re going to know that Jesus died for everybody.  You know, that He didn’t just pick a few people, and I mean you’re going to know those things, so when you’re reading you can have this great filter through God’s word and the Holy Spirit.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Right. Right. And I know the Blue Letter Bible does have the commentaries, and I think that the place for commentaries is after you studied and come to your conclusions and talked it over with your pastor and your other teachers in the church, then take a look at those and see what they have to say. The first thing is to have a reliable translation. If we’re going to study the Bible, we need a reliable translation. Or here’s the alternative to a reliable translation. Become a Hebrew or Greek scholar.

Kimberly Faith: You know, I listened to a guy who’s an apologist from Canada who studies bible linguistics. He made an interesting comment about what you just said. He said people think that a lot of the translations have been taken from other translations, but good translations come from the original Hebrew or Greek. He said that’s why things like the King James and the New King James are accurate, because they aren’t taken from some other translation, but they go back to the Greek and the Hebrew. Is that accurate?

Dr. Kenny Francis: Yes, that is accurate. Yes. And the King James version is a reliable translation. I know that it’s a translation. It’s a translation of the Greek text that has been preserved for hundreds and now thousands of years.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Dr. Kenny Francis:  And it is a reliable translation of those texts.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I was talking to Brother Brian about this, you know, the head pastor at Mission Boulevard. And, you know, it’s interesting if you go into his study area, in his war room in his house, which I’ve been there many times, he’ll have several translations of the Bible where he tries to dig deep, he has the, I think I saw the Amplified Bible on his desk,  he has several translations that were taken from the Greek and the Hebrew to kind of compare and contrast, know, and I know for myself I like to use the New King James version, especially with new Christians, because the language of old English is harder for them to understand. Of course, we always talk about anything that’s transliterated or interpreted as opposed to just basically translated. So anyway, that’s my two cents on that.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Right. Of course, another factor in that  is that there are two in the New Testament, there are two families or two groups of Greek texts. There’s the traditional text, and then there’s the eclectic text. The eclectic text is actually a compilation of texts that were not in use throughout the centuries. But the traditional text or otherwise known as the textus receptus, the the re which means the received text, have been used, well, since since the time of Christ, since the first or second century.

So the newer translations in fact, every translation except the King James version and the New King James. And if you want to go back and use the Geneva Bible or the Tyndale Bible, those are all based on the received text. But all of the newer ones are based on the other text, and they have several scriptures missing, especially relating to the deity of Christ. So that’s why I say that the King James or a new King James is more reliable because it’s based on the older traditional text rather than something that was compiled beginning in the eighteen hundreds by people that said, well, the traditional text is not the best. We’re going to come up with the best text. Well, the problem with that is that particular New Testament that they generated wasn’t around centuries ago. 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Dr. Kenny Francis:  It wasn’t around until the eighteen hundreds. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

Dr. Kenny Francis: So because of that, it just makes more sense to go with the traditional the textus receptus, which is the Greek text that, like I said, the Tyndale Bible, the Geneva Bible, the King James Bible, and the New King James. They’re all based on that one. So that’s why I would say that one of those particularly the King James or New King James is a good reliable translation. And again, the alternative to having a reliable translation is to become fluent in Greek and Hebrew yourself. And that’s, you know, that’s not really an option. We need to be able to sit down and read the Bible with the confidence that this is an accurate reflection of what God inspired those men to write.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Dr. Kenny Francis: But that brings us to another important tool that we need, and one is we need to have an understanding of grammar. We’re going to be studying the Bible, which is a revelation of language, and we need to know how language works. Many of us did not do our best to learn grammar when we were in school. And so for some folks, a little refresher in just the parts of a sentence, the subject, the verb, the different compliments, the different kinds of phrases and clauses and things like that, it would really be worthwhile to go back and brush up on those things because an understanding of those English components will help us understand our translation and keep us from taking a word or a phrase and going off in the wrong direction with it, taking it out of the context of the passage or the sentence that we’re studying.

Kimberly Faith: You know, that just this is an aside, but, you know, a lot of people, for example, along those lines, often use faith as a verb.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: You know what I’m saying? And believe, of course, we know is the verb. And I know that sounds silly, but it’s, no, you have faith because it’s a gift. You exercise faith by believing, you know. And anyway, that’s a silly little aside, but I think it’s important.

I mean, to understand what faith is and understand what believe is and understand how those are used in the text is going to translate into how you put that into practice. Because the whole point of studying the Bible isn’t just to get yourself, you know, gain more knowledge. It’s to change your life and put it to work. Put it to work for you. Put God’s word to work for you in bringing glory to him and really living the most satisfying life you can ever live. That’s the whole goal. 

So we put that extra work into doing lots of things that we want to achieve. Some people build a gym so they can be fit. That’s a lot of work, and I think it may sound rather arduous to go back and do a refresher in grammar, but I think it’s well worth it. Especially if people didn’t have a great grammar teacher like I did in high school.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Well, things are different. I know back in I was just my testimony, 1970 is when I was saved in my senior year, and I had made Cs and Ds in grammar. If it weren’t for literature, I probably would have made Fs in English and maybe not even graduated high school. But whenever I was saved and picked up the King James version, which was what was available, after I got accustomed to understanding what thee and thou means, which is really pretty easy, and what the endings like maketh and doeth and thirsteth and and dust and all that kind of thing. You know, it didn’t take long to get past all of that into the meaning of it.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Dr. Kenny Francis: But it seems like today, people really struggle with that. It’s really a wall that they have trouble getting through, and I think it’s just the fact that folks are struggling today more than what people did fifty or sixty years ago is a reflection on the lower quality of education. So I’m not saying that a person has to take a grammar class in order to study the Bible. I’m just saying that it’s good to learn those things.

Kimberly Faith: Sure. So what are some other tools you use for study that you recommend?

Dr. Kenny Francis: Yeah. The first thing is a good English dictionary. Not just a little paperback desk dictionary, you know, of synonyms or something, but a good college level dictionary like the Random House Dictionary of the English language, I think, is really good because for every word, it goes back and gives you the the root of where that word came from in English. And so that’s very good. Also, let me tell you. That is dictionary.com.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, okay.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Dictionary.com is the Random House Dictionary. It’s an excellent dictionary. The Webster’s Dictionary online is also a good one. I prefer the Random House because it gives you more detailed information on each word.

Kimberly Faith: Okay. That’s good to know.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Webster’s eighteen twenty eight dictionary is available online. I think it just costs a few dollars to actually get the app, but it’s a very good one. In fact, some applications call it the King James dictionary, but it’s actually the Webster’s eighteen twenty eight dictionary. And so it can give you more of an understanding of how the word may have been used closer to King James’ time, but that’s not necessary. The dictionary.com is typically pretty good because if a word has passed out of usage and I like to use the example of the word let.

The word let in the Second Thessalonians chapter two says, quote, he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. Well, we use the word let in our language nowadays to mean to allow someone to do something, to give them permission. But in Elizabethan English, the word let could mean just the opposite of that, to restrain. So in that passage in Second Thessalonians where it says, he who now letteth will let until he is taken out of the way.

The meaning there is actually he who restrains will restrain until he is taken out of the way. But if you get a good English dictionary, if you read the definitions, eventually, you’re going to get down there and see that let means to restrain, and they’ll have a little note there that says obsolete or archaic or something like that. But you’ll find it. So that’s why I say a good English dictionary is really helpful.

Kimberly Faith: You know, as you were talking, was looking at the Blue Letter Bible app, and they have all these dictionaries as well. The King James Dictionary is on there, the Nave’s Topical Bible. So I mean, that’s just another reason. I used it. I liked the Blue Letter Bible app, the BLB app, and I didn’t realize it had the dictionaries on there.Dr. Kenny Francis:  Yes. Yes. And we’ll come to that in just a minute. 

Kimberly Faith: Sure. 

Dr. Kenny Francis: I want to give you four other tools. Well, five. Five. I’m sorry. A concordance, which is a book that contains lists of every word in the Bible and where they’re found. It tells you what scripture where this word is found, what scripture it’s found in. That’s the concordance.

A Topical Bible lists things according to topics. And many times a Topical Bible is like a concordance. It would just give you a list of where that particular word is used. For instance, the word worship. If you look up worship in the Topical Bible, my old Topical Bible has about 10 or 15 pages just listing where the word worship is found.

But the benefit of the Topical Bible is this, in Second Chronicles chapter five around verse 13, there’s a passage. And let me just let me just go there just to illustrate why a Topical Bible is really helpful in doing a Bible study.

Kimberly Faith: Second Chronicles 5:13. Is that what you said?

Dr. Kenny Francis: Second Chronicles five. I think it’s verse 13. It is 13. Yeah. It says, it came to pass as the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the lord. And when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and symbols and instruments of music and praised the Lord saying, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord. Wow. What a great passage. What a clear picture of worship.

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

Dr. Kenny Francis: The word worship isn’t there.

Kimberly Faith: Interesting.

Dr. Kenny Francis: This is where this is the benefit of a Topical Bible. This passage is listed in the Topical Bible under worship even though the word worship isn’t there.

Kimberly Faith: What Topical Bible do you typically use?

Dr. Kenny Francis: Just the Nave’s Topical Bible.

Kimberly Faith: Okay.

Dr. Kenny Francis: That’s the name of it. There may be others. I’m only familiar with that one because that’s all that was available back in the day. But there may be others. But that’s the benefit of a Topical Bible in addition to a concordance.

Kimberly Faith: Okay.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Okay.

Kimberly Faith:  I don’t think I knew that about the Topical Bible. I was just looking again in the app, and it does have under this verse reference works. It has Nave’s as one of the themes, and it does have worship in there, and it has all the verses.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Well, since we’re talking about well, let me just go ahead and I’m going to 

Kimberly Faith: Sorry.

Dr. Kenny Francis:  This is not chasing a rabbit, but this is something that we need to bring up, and that is the Blue Letter Bible. The Blue Letter Bible is fantastic. It’s wonderful. On my shelf over here, I’ve got a whole shelf of goodness. Commentaries. I do have several of those by Ironside, J Vernon McGee, and Spurgeon and some other people. But I also have a whole stack of other Bible versions. And I’ve got a section here. I’m just looking at my books here.

I have the Jacinius Hebrew Lexicon, Thayer’s Greek English. I’ve got the interlinear Greek, interlinear Hebrew, and all of those kinds of things. A whole big shelf full of things here in my office. But whenever it comes time to study now that I’m living in the twenty- first century, when it comes time to study, this is what I use. 

Kimberly Faith: Your phone.

Dr. Kenny Francis:  I use my phone because the Blue Letter Bible has all of those things. 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Dr. Kenny Francis:  It has all of those things. But in learning how to study, we need to take a look at each one of those so that we’ll know how to use those particular resources that are listed in the Blue Letter Bible.

Kimberly Faith: Well, I really like the idea of a Topical Bible too because the Blue Letter Bible doesn’t really have a Topical Bible. I mean, it doesn’t really do justice to what you’re what the way you’re talking about it. Well, it has the Nave’s reference. It looks like it’s just the verses, not a discussion of the topic.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Right. It’s just a list of the references.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Right. And then you’ll go down the references, and then you can find what you’re looking for. But I am a great proponent of the Blue Letter Bible. It’s wonderful. It has everything. Really, it has everything that you need right there, even the different translations. 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Dr. Kenny Francis: And while we’re talking about concordance and Topical Bible, in reference to the Blue Letter Bible, whenever you look up a particular passage, one of the options there is called the TSK. TSK. And the TSK is actually a reference book.

The reference stands for the treasury of scriptural knowledge. And that’s a list of scriptures that go along with a particular passage. It’s not as exhaustive as a Topical Bible would be, but it’s very beneficial. It’s the treasury of scriptural knowledge that replaces the center column reference in your Bible.

You know, if you’ve got a paper Bible, you know, like this, No. You open it up and in the center there, there’s your column that takes you to different it it it’llhave a little letter there by a particular word, and then it will take you to two or three other verses that use that word.

Kimberly Faith: I love that. I didn’t know that. And you know what? I’ve been using the BLB for a while, and I just clicked on that TSK on the Second Chronicles 5:14. And, yeah, this is amazing.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Thank you. I’m learning. Yay.

Dr. Kenny Francis:  Right. Yes. It’s very, very good. So I really, really appreciate the Blue Letter Bible and really recommend that to everybody. And then we have to sit down and talk about how we use all of this.

Kimberly Faith:  Right.

Dr. Kenny Francis: We use all of it. So in fact, I’ve got some three guys at church that have asked me if we can just sit down sometime and talk about how to use the Blue Letter Bible. In the Blue Letter Bible, they do have an introduction to it, but it’s very short, very short and gives you some basic ideas, but there’s just so much there. Anyway, the concordance, the Topical Bible, and if you’re using the blue letter bible, the treasury of scriptural knowledge. The other thing is a Bible dictionary.

With a Bible dictionary, you can look up well, anything. You can look up anything, but it’s particularly beneficial for looking up places, people, ways of doing things, and it gives you a lot of background and a good Bible dictionary will tell you about the archaeology of a place. For instance, if you want to if you’re learning about Capernaum and learning that Capernaum is at the, you know, is on the Sea Of Galilee and the a Bible dictionary will give you all the history of Capernaum and and talk to you about the how the synagogue at Capernaum was the remnants of it are still there, you know, things of that nature.

Kimberly Faith: So Yeah. I’ve seen it. It’s pretty cool.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: And I noticed you have on your outline Unger’s. I think Unger’s is the best one of the best books I own that Unger’s Bible dictionary. It’s the best.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Yes. And, again, in Bible dictionaries, there are several Bible dictionaries that are listed in the Blue Letter Bible. So whenever I’m studying, I’ll look at two or three of the Bible dictionaries in the Blue Letter Bible because each one of them will have a little bit different information. There is a warning though on Bible dictionaries, sometimes you can get into some interpretations of the scriptures. I don’t remember which one it was. I know it was published by Zondervan. But they had a Bible dictionary that talked about the Red Sea. And talked about how it was and what they said was the Red Sea was the sea of reeds. And whenever Moses and the children of Israel walked across, that the wind was blowing and it actually caused the water to ripple to where it appeared that the wind was blowing the water back and they were walking through the mud to get to the other side of the Sea Of Reeds. 

Well, that’s an interesting liberal interpretation of a passage that wants to leave out the miraculous events in the Bible. And yet that’s there, it is right there in a bible dictionary. And, of course, it contradicts the scripture. The scripture says that they walked through on dry ground. They didn’t walk through the mud. So watch out for Bible dictionaries. You may come across some interpretations of verses that are actually contrary to the plain statements in the picture.

Kimberly Faith: I’m glad that you brought up the Red Sea example because I think one of the things that coming across this example like the Sea Of Reeds is what it did for me was it provoked me to figure out where did they cross, because if you look at the geography of the Sinai Peninsula and you start studying, you know, I’ve done it’s so funny you bring this up because I have just done some extensive studying on where is the mountain of God. And I’m pretty convinced it’s in Saudi Arabia. You know, after studying, and again, this is good. It goes back to if we have the basic concepts in our heart, you know, that we’ve learned these things, and we’re going to learn that, you know, when God says something, it’s true. And if there’s some interpretation that steals the miracle of God’s power, who He is, right, His omnipotence, for example, then we need to figure out where the truth lies, and it’s kind of like a treasure hunt, really.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: Anyway, that’s just a little rabbit.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Well I Think that little rabbit brings up a couple of big ideas. One is this regarding the miracles. If you can accept Genesis 1:1, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, that nothing existed except God, and then God, by an act of his will, generated all of the physical universe, then everything else is small potatoes. Opening the Red Sea, raising someone from the dead, whatever it may be. So the most amazing miracle in the scripture is the creation of the universe, and the God that could do that can do anything.

Another point is that, okay, we may have two people, and I’m not saying that you and I disagree, but there may be two people that one of them says Mount Sinai was on the on the Sinai Peninsula, and someone else says, well, it’s actually just across the Jordan River in Saudi Arabia. Okay. There’s no need to part fellowship on that.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right.

Dr. Kenny Francis: There’s some areas there where we can have some different persuasions on some things like that. 

Kimberly Faith: And you bring up a really good point because I think, you know, the point, if we have if we it’s like anything from politics to religion. Everybody says, don’t talk about politics or religion. Well, if we can learn to have civil discourse, you know, about where we differ and push each other and be that iron sharpens iron, then we’re all going to be better for it because we’ll be able to glorify God better and be able to defend our position. And really it’s not our position, it’s God’s position. You know, when we take a position on something, if our heart reflects the fruit of the spirit, it’s going to be God’s position. 

We can’t have a position that’s contrary to God and be ugly. I mean, if we do have a position that’s contrary to God’s position, then that will not be something that is provoking or producing the fruit of the spirit in us. Does that make sense?  This is my thought about we can talk about our differences without being uncivil or unkind because if we both believe, you know, in the foundational truths, then these other things are, oh, we’ll know for sure one day.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Right. Right. Well, going back to tools for study, a good conceptual foundation, a reliable translation, a good English dictionary, concordance, topical Bible, treasury of scripture knowledge that’s available on the Blue Letter Bible. We also need to have a Bible dictionary and we need to if we want to go on into the Greek and Hebrew, then we’re going to need a Greek New Testament, an interlinear Greek New Testament has the has the Greek text, and then right below it is the an English verbatim translation of that. But in order to really understand what that Greek word means, we need to have a Greek dictionary or a Greek lexicon to tell us that.

And then for the Old Testament, Hebrew interlinear and a Hebrew lexicon. And if we have those, then we can look up a particular passage or a particular word and then look at the lexicon and see all the different ways that it’s used and the definitions for those words. And again, these are in the Blue Letter Bible. Right there. So the lexicon is there for the Greek lexicon and the Hebrew lexicon. So those again, these are the tools. And again, these are available on the Blue Letter Bible, which is so wonderful because we’re talking about hundreds of dollars worth of books that a person can access for free now.

Kimberly Faith: I have a question about that. I haven’t checked this out, but does the Blue Letter Bible also have the Aramaic? Because some of the old testament was written in Aramaic, or is it all the Hebrew? Do you know?

Dr. Kenny Francis: It has the Aramaic or Chaldean. Yes, it has those two. It’s just that most of it is Hebrew, so the word Hebrew is out there just in a general sense to refer to the whole Old Testament.

Kimberly Faith: Okay. All right. Excellent. Excellent. So tell us what you want us to know next about how to study the Bible. This is great. 

Dr. Kenny Francis: Okay. Verse by verse or a book study and then a verse by verse study.

Kimberly Faith: Okay.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Whenever God gave us the Bible, he gave us a series of books. And studying the books of the Bible is, well, it’s just an excellent way to study the Bible, to take each book and study each book. How do we do that? Well, first of all, we’ve got to get familiar with the whole book. So just read the book.

Just go ahead and just read it in our English translation. Read it at least a few times to get familiar with the flow of it, whether we’re talking about a longer book like Genesis or Isaiah or a shorter book like Obadiah or the book of Romans or something like that. First of all, just get really familiar with the book and then break it down into an outline. Certain sections will become obvious to us that this is dealing if we’re studying one of the history books, it’ll be obvious that this particular portion of the book is dealing with this era or this story, this particular dealing with this story or or whatever it is. The outline of it will become obvious to us as we’re more familiar with the book.

So the first thing is to get familiar with it, make an outline of it, and even as we’re doing that, to look up words that we’re not sure about.  To help us to understand it. And then look for the logical flow of the book as a whole. And then within each section, look for the logical flow. You know,  just get familiar with what’s there. A resource that I use to help me understand the outline of a book is a is a book called Explore the Book written by the author’s name is Sidlow Baxter And that that particular book is very beneficial because he gives an outline of the book and then and and he deals with with some of the issues, historical issues that people bring up about, well, who actually wrote this book?

For instance, you know, there’s a lot of controversy in some scholarly circles about how many authors were there in the book of Genesis, especially the opening chapters there. He deals with all of those kinds of things.

Kimberly Faith: Is that Baxter, b a x t e r?

Dr. Kenny Francis: Baxter. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: Okay. Thank you.

Dr. Kenny Francis: So that’s just a very helpful book for getting an overview of the Bible as a whole and and for each book. So that’s very beneficial. So study the book as a whole, number one. Number two, then study each section. Each section might have one chapter, might have five or six chapters. For instance, in the book of Romans, when we come to the book of Romans, Paul introduces himself and his message, the gospel in the first first eighteen chapters excuse me.

First eighteen verses of chapter one. And then after he tells how he’s dedicated to the gospel, then he begins to explain the gospel. And so in the first few chapters, he talks about why people need the gospel. Then he goes into explaining exactly what the gospel is, how the gospel answers that need, and then he talks about how people that have accepted the gospel, what is their standing before God? And then he comes to discuss how all of this relates to the nation of Israel.

After he talks about how the gospel relates to the nation of Israel, then he talks about how the gospel should affect the Christian life. 

Kimberly Faith: That’s Interesting.

Dr. Kenny Francis: And then he then ends the book with a very personal explanation of where he plans to go, who he plans to see, and he greets people and sends salutations from the people that are with him. So that’s what we have in the book of Romans. But you can take each one of those sections and say, okay, what’s the flow of thought here? What’s the truth that he’s that he’s revealing here? What should my thinking be in light of what God is teaching us in this book? So study each section, outline each section. Again, look up the words of interest, make sure that I’m understanding the words, and then look for the logical flow. That’s two.

Number three is now that we’ve got the sections down, let’s look at each sentence. Okay. Sometimes the chapter and verse will be right on with the sentences. Sometimes they won’t. But looking for the sentences is really more important than just breaking things up by the verses. Because in the sentences, you get the whole thought that that goes together there.

And then again, identify the sentence parts. Look up the words to verify that we understand. I keep saying that. Look up the words.  And then restate the passage in my own words. Make my own translations, so to speak, to make sure that I have understood the meaning of this particular passage. Now, of course, when you’re talking about Old Testament stories, like with the story of David and Goliath or whatever it may be, you know, that kind of detail of, you know, stating in a mild words may is not as important. But in the New Testament letters and in the study of what Jesus taught, it’s really essential to have a thorough grasp on what’s being said there and putting it in my own words.

Kimberly Faith: You know, I kind of did that with the beatitudes. Because I had been reading and I’d read something, I don’t remember, it may have been when I went to where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, and was just so struck by, you know, first of all, that he’d been there. I mean,  in person, you know. Then I read something that said that in the early church that the Sermon on the Mount, the things that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount were based. It was like the first century basic Bible concepts. 

Like this is how you’re supposed to live, and so it kind of precipitated a deep dive into the beatitudes, and I wrote a whole study called the attitudes of Christ based on that. So as part of that, was like, when I thought about blessed are they who mourn, they shall be comforted. I hadn’t really thought about that in context of what are we mourning. You know? Well, you know, in studying it, it was mourning sin, the effects of sin, you know, and that when we learn to mourn sin, then we are in a place where we’ll love righteousness, which is one of the other attitudes of Christ.

And these attitudes so that was one of the you’re talking about this, you know, reading the book as a whole. This is just an example. You’re saying read the New Testament with a thought towards restating it in your own words. That’s so beneficial because I just know that from doing it myself, and it’s been pretty transformational for me. That’s just one example.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Right. We have to come to a good understanding of it before we can be transformed by it. Otherwise, as the old saying goes, what did he say? I don’t know. It was Greek to me.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

Dr. Kenny Francis: So if you don’t mind, I’d like to take a quick explanation here.

Kimberly Faith: Okay.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Of the importance of getting the context of the scripture. Because what we’ve been talking about whenever we’ve gotten past the tools and actually getting into the verse by verse or studying the book as a whole. What we’re really doing is getting a good grasp of the context of the book before we dive into the particulars. 

Now I’d like to give just a quick example of that. Probably one of the more controversial passages in the New Testament is the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 6:6. And we’re going to just take a look at what that means based on the context. Based on the text here. 

Hebrews 6:6 says, if they shall fall away, it is impossible. That’s what it says in verse four. If they shall fall away, it’s impossible to renew them again to repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. There are several different interpretations about what in the world that is talking about anywhere from losing salvation to 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

Dr. Kenny Francis: To who knows what. But the context of this book is that the apostle Paul is writing to people who have been saved and who according to the book of Acts, the people, Jewish believers came under persecution led by Saul of Tarsus. And as a result, in Acts 8:1, it tells us that the church at Jerusalem was scattered. So the Jews were scattered, and those that remained were under persecution. And it tells us here in Hebrews chapter 10, he tells them, call to remembrance the former days. This is Hebrews 10:32 and 33. And I’m just doing this to give us an idea of what kind of people he’s talking to. He says, call to remembrance the forther days in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst you were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions, and you became companions of them that were so used. So he’s talking to people here that believed in Christ, people that were persecuted for their faith.

Here we are. Hebrews chapter five. Their problem is that they have begun to drift away from Christ. So he tells them, if we go to chapter five, what we see that Paul is doing here in the book of Hebrews is he’s pointing out that these Jewish believers who are being persecuted and who are under under pressure, internal pressure, and external pressure to return to Judaism, return to your roots, return to your upbringing, return to your culture. He’s writing to them to tell them, Jesus is better. Jesus is better. He mediated a better covenant. He’s better than Moses. He’s better than the angels. So he’s pointing out that he’s better than the sacrifices of the temple. His sacrifice is better. 

So here we come to chapter five, and he’s writing to these folks that are discouraged and have started to drift away, and he tells them in verse five I’m sorry. Chapter five. We’ll put it here at verse 12. He says, when for the time you ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. 

So he’s going along here and he’s telling these people that he’s writing to that by this time, they should be teaching others. But instead, they have become babes. They have become immature.

Strong meat belongs to those that are of full age. Therefore, chapter six verse one, this is a place where it would be nice to just remove that chapter break. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. Now this word perfection here, this is where a good examination of the specific words is helpful. The word that’s translated perfection here is exactly the same word that’s translated full age in chapter five verse 14. So his exhortation here is let’s go on to maturity. Let’s go on to full age. You become babes. Let’s go on from being babes to being mature. 

He says, let’s go on. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God, issues of how to be saved, doctrine of baptism is laying on of hands, issues related to church, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment, the future. This will we do if God permit. So he’s bringing up an important idea there, and that is we will grow if God will allow us to grow. There may be certain situations where people may not be allowed to go on to perfection. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, tasted the good word of God and powers of the world to come. If they shall fall away to renew them to repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. He’s explaining why some people may not be permitted to go on to perfection. They’re going to be stunted in their growth.

Kimberly Faith: So perfection meaning full growth and maturity, not eternal life.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Correct.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. That’s really interesting.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Yeah. So the context of this passage unlocks what he’s talking about there. It is a very serious warning that as a believer in Christ, I need to live in a way, and I need to have such a love and respect for the Lord Jesus that I would not want to shame him. 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Dr. Kenny Francis:  So there is a very serious warning there, but the warning is not that you’re going to lose your salvation. The warning is not that you will never be saved. The warning is you will not have the privilege to go on and grow if you earn away from the Lord. So that’s an example of interpreting a scripture based on keeping it in context rather than just lifting a passage out to try to prove something.

Kimberly Faith: Right. That’s really powerful. I mean, because I know for myself, I’ve had a lot of I mean, I had a minister of a church who used that passage to show a person could lose their salvation. The question he put to me was, well, are you saying this person was never saved? And I didn’t have the exclamation you just gave. So I was kind of like, well, I think this is written to Christians, but now you’ve kind of inspired me to go back and really think that through and do some more studying using these tools you’re talking about, because that totally makes sense, and using the words and the logical flow of the book of Hebrews by maybe just doing a whole Hebrew study for myself.

Dr. Kenny Francis: Right. Right. The book of Hebrews is one great encouragement. That’s what it’s all about. So whenever we study that particular passage, study the individual sentences, then we want to explore the topics that are in this passage. For instance, in this one, in this one, a big topic is spiritual growth. These people should have been mature by now, but they had become babes. So they had not grown the way that they should have grown. So what is Christian growth all about? You know, so based on this particular passage now, I’ve got a topic that I want to investigate.

And this is where my concordance and Topical Bible and understanding of what the other books of the Bible are about can all come together so that I can get a more full picture of what it means to grow as a Christian and to have some guidelines and warnings in my life. But again, as we’re exploring these different passages, we need to keep in mind that the Bible is the best commentary on the Bible.

Kimberly Faith: So that’s really I’m just going to say I’m learning so much just in this section about this book and verse by verse study. I’ve got some things I really want to start doing differently. I know we talked about, you know, we’re going to try to do this all in one podcast, but it looks like to me we’re going to need to do a third podcast on how to study the Bible, which is fantastic because I want to be better at studying God’s word. So why don’t we do this? Would you like to finish up this section and then we’ll end this podcast with your conclusion under this area of the book and verse by verse study?

Dr. Kenny Francis: Yes, that sounds really good. That sounds very good. One of the most important things to keep in mind is that in order to verify that I’ve understood this passage correctly, I need to compare it with other scriptures that talk about the same thing. And that’s because the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible.

Kimberly Faith: That’s great.

Dr. Kenny Francis: That’s the best way to verify that I’ve gotten a correct understanding. But after that, then it’s time to make application. So is there a truth here that I need to know? Do I need to change my understanding of what’s true? Is there a promise to believe? Has God made a promise here that I can apply to my life and have, well, have increased faith? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god. Or is there a commandment for me to obey?

When we’re studying the history books of the Old Testament or the New Testament, is there an example that I need to follow here, or is there an example that I should avoid? So and then, you know, literally, maybe even write down what actions do I need to take? What are the ways of thinking that I need to change? And then what are the things that I should do differently in my life? Of course, in our very first podcast, we pointed out that the whole purpose of Bible study is to be doers of the word and not hearers only. So we have to go back to that.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Well, I think that, you know, this making application with regard to the book and verse study is such a discipline, at least in my life. I’ve asked the Lord to help me make it a discipline, and for me, that was what started as writing down what the Lord was teaching me every morning in my daily quiet time. And this is just an idea for if somebody may think this is a good idea, may want to do it themselves, but I started to because I wanted to make it a discipline, because I wanted to grow in my relationship with the Lord, I kind of started sending a little synopsis by text message to my kids. Hey, this is what the Lord showed me this morning in my devotional.

And because back when I did a big 180 in my life about twelve years ago, I recognized I had not really gotten to know God for who He was. I instead was worshiping a God that I had created in my own mind, and it was a much lesser God than the God who created everything. And so to build that accountability, I started doing that with my children, and that kind of morphed into their friends and other friends. And then a year or two down the road, people were saying, okay, could you put these in a book? And then now we have a website, and so no pressure.

But it’s been such a good discipline, and that’s one of the reasons I really wanted to have you as a guest on this podcast, because of course you preached a series of sermons about how to study the Bible, and I was talking to my dad, we were like, yeah, we need to have him on the podcast to explain all this. 

So I really appreciate you sharing your secrets with us, the secrets of how you study God’s word. I’m learning a lot, and so I really appreciate that. Is there anything else you want to say to wind up this section? Because we are going to come back and talk about the other parts you have to share with us about how to study the Bible.Dr. Kenny Francis: No, I think that at this point we’ve given enough to conclude this portion. We look forward to getting into studying topics.

Kimberly Faith: Okay, great. Well, thank you for joining us on the Truth in Love podcast with Doctor. Kenny Francis and sharing with us the way he studies the Bible. This has been a great study. Thank you so much, Kenny.

Dr. Kenny Francis: You’re welcome. It’s my privilege. May the Lord bless it.

Kimberly Faith: Amen.

Jacob Paul: You’ve been listening to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. To discover more answers to the big questions in life, visit us at GoFaithStrong.com.