Generally people see "faith" and "science" as being opposed to one another, particularly scientists.  I personally think it takes a lot more faith to accept some "scientific" ideas or "knowledge" than it takes to accept the veracity of the Bible.  However, scientists have given us a very useful tool that can use to improve our Bible Study and help us make sense of what we read there.  It is called: "The Scientific Method."  What this means is that we make careful observation of all the data available in scripture and organize it in a systematic manner in order to understand the stories and the instructions given. This also implies that we develop and use certain principles or rules for our study. This allows others to follow our study and test it for accuracy and repeatability.

   To me, life is a great science experiment. By that I mean we experience and observe events that happen to us, our friends and to others. This is information in the form of data we can record and keep track of. The Bible is a similar record; only it is of the earliest written experiences of mankind, up to around 1900 years ago. We use this data to form our beliefs and it gives us the structure upon which we base the decisions and actions we take in life.  This data, and how we interpret it, determines whether we believe in a God or not and what we believe about that God.

   I think God wants us, His children, to understand what He is doing and why. Jesus own words testify to this:  John 15:14, 15  "You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."

   The following are important concepts, or principles, to consider when opening the Scriptures and this methodology will be used in these studies.
 
They are:

• The Bible was given of God through His inspired human spokespersons. The assumption here is that the generally accepted 66 Books of the Bible, what is called The Canon, is the basis for our beliefs.

• When we study a topic in the Bible, ALL that the Bible has to say on that topic has to be considered. If there are a hundred verses that say one thing and one verse that seemingly says something different we cannot throw it out or ignore it just because it doesn't seem to fit. Everything written on a subject has to be included in any "model" or "picture" we wish to build or formulation of beliefs on any subject. We may not be able to always come to an immediate conclusion in our study; but that's O.K. too.

• We interpret and understand all the stories in the Bible, especially the difficult ones, based on how Jesus treated people. We do this because we believe Jesus when He said, "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father." In other words, "The whole purpose of My life on this earth was to reveal the Father."

• The Bible is full of Symbols.  We are too quick to overlook the use of symbols. We can see that Jesus used symbols in the parables and we can see the use of symbols in the visions of Daniel and John; the Psalms too, are full of symbols. But we are inclined to forget that words are symbols too and have the same inherent problems of any symbol. Symbols always have a pointing function; they point to some larger issue, some greater truth than the symbol itself.


   A useful exercise some time would be to read the original Preface to the King James Bible.  The authors hoped that the reader would not get hung up in which words were used, but would look for the meaning in each passage. We also have to be aware that the meaning of words changes over time. We encourage the use of multiple versions of the Bible as each set of authors presents a different perspective while remaining intellectually honest. Since none of us are Biblical language experts, it is our best interests to read as many versions as possible.

   In our studies we will attempt to stay on topic, but we may need to draw information and relevance from other topics without adequately providing all the evidence and proofs available.  Hopefully we will be able to provide additional studies to cross-reference for your inquiring mind as we develop this site. We may also offer a number of studies on the same topic, presented by different authors as each of the authors may have a different aspect they wish to emphasize. 

   Caution: As a person studies the Bible, (s)he soon discovers that you cannot just study one topic. You cannot look at "The Law" for instance, without that study eventually involving: The Cross, Gods Love, How God worked in Bible times, Justice, Righteousness, Humanity's Freedom, and Humanity's Obedience, as a start. 

   We encourage your feedback and any concerns you may find with our work.  We believe that Revelation is progressive and we are open to your criticism for we are looking for enlightenment too; you may have a perspective we had not yet considered or even seen.

Haydnk