Online Bible Class
This is where we will be posting Bible book outlines and other resources to help you read your Bible more “interactively.” After forty-years of Christian experience, most of that spent teaching adults or young adults, I’ve observed, sadly, that the vast majority of Christians know far less about what the Bible says than they know about what people tell them it says.
Don’t be alarmed by my plea for you to study the Bible on your own. It will not force you to reject core tenets of your faith, unless someone has been leading you down the “garden path.” Every key doctrine of the Christian faith is supported by multiple - in many cases - hundreds of scriptural passage. But intentional bible study will build Godly faith and wisdom in you. It also builds a Godly skepticism toward people who want you to accept everything they tell you at face value.
Studying through one book of the Bible, or even all the books of the Bible once won’t solve all your problems overnight. But it will make you a lot smarter about God’s will for your life, more sensitive to the Spirit’s leading on day-to-day manners, and more aware of spiritual dangers from people and situations that look wholesome on the surface. And the more of God’s Word you learn, the more the last bit you studied makes sense and the deeper the meanings you can get out of the next bit you study.
Our outlines are not intended to reveal hidden mysteries or “deep truths” other than those that are spelled out right in the books we outline. They don’t even “connect the dots” between one scripture and another - something I like to do in the classroom, and something the Holy Spirit will start to do in your heart, once you’ve stored up enough “dots” to start connecting.
Though the outlines have some open-ended discussion questions, most of the “fill-in-the” blank sentences can be done simply carefully reading the verse(s) it summarizes. If you have two or three different translations in the room while you’re doing this, the word that goes in the blank may vary. But the important thing isn’t to get everything “right;” it’s make certain that - if nothing else - you’ve paid attention to what the Bible - not our outline - is saying.
Our first outline will be Galatians - Paul’s first epistle and a must-read for anyone who questions whether we are saved by God’s grace toward us or whether we need to supplement grace with some sacrament or other action as well.
In the meantime, our “Things to Think About” section has one brief article about ways to study the Bible that you may find useful:
I wish we had the outline for every book of the Bible ready to post, but A: even posting the outline for a short book like Galatians is quite time-consuming and B: We’ve only kept a fraction of the outlines we’ve made over the years. We’ll try to keep posting outlines here as we have time. But hopefully, you’ll get ahead of us quickly - and take what you’ve learned about verse-by-verse Bible study to carry on by yourself.
God bless you and profit your study of His word,
Paul Race
To go to the Galatians Index Page, click HERE.
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