p. 800 | Systematic Bible Study

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 30, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 50.

Systematic Bible Study

The first great trial in the public life of the Master was the undergoing of most severe temptations from Satan. Man first sinned by yielding to his appetite, and being persuaded to partake of the forbidden fruit.

The Master began the work where man fell. He was “led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” He “fasted forty days and forty nights,” and no marvel that the text immediately adds, “He was afterward an hungered.”

While He was in this weakened condition, the tempter came to Him with the words, “If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” The devil has power to transform himself into an angel of light; and we may believe that as he came to the Master there, he presented himself as an angel who had come to bring comfort and relief, but he prefaced his remark with a doubt. He began by saying, “If Thou be the Son of God.”

The Master did not argue with him, but placed His dependence wholly upon words that He had inspired Moses to write a millennium and a half before. “It is written,” said the Lord of glory, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Matt. 4:4. This was a quotation from the Old Testament. The words are found in the eighth chapter and the third verse of Deuteronomy; and thus does the Master not merely sanction the writings of the Old Testament, but He emphasizes the fact that “every word” is of value.

The majority of people depend upon what the minister says. If the minister says it, they think that it must be in the Bible, and that it must be true; and a doctrine is held simply because of faith in some mere man. But this is not God’s plan. God’s word says, “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” Ps. 146:3. Each individual is to know the Word for himself. The minister has an important work, but we must not allow our indolence to make him an excuse for our not studying the Bible for ourselves.

We have the authoritative statement of the divine Lord that man can not live by bread only, but that he must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. If due emphasis is placed upon the expression “every word,” we must readily see that each individual Christian is in duty bound to study the Bible for himself from beginning to end, until he knows all its sacred pages, all its wonderful promises, all its great precepts, all its great prophecies, and all the other great things it contains.

Emphasis should be placed upon the fact that it is the duty of the Christian to do this; but it is the experience of every Christian that this duty, which may seem arduous at first, becomes the delight and pleasure of the life.

A great many people wonder why it is that there are so many denominations and so many sects, all claiming to get their doctrines from the same Book. A good explanation lies in the fact that so few people know the Bible for themselves. Some of the most absurd doctrines and the most ridiculous delusions arise. Their advocates quote a few passages of Scripture very glibly; and upon the individual who does not know God’s word for himself, the impression is made that the doctrine taught is in harmony with the Bible, whereas if the individual knew the Bible for himself he would readily see the absurdities and the fallacies of the teaching, and how contrary they were to what the word of God says.

The Bible is fairly vibrant with warnings against delusions that were to arise, particular warning being given against the delusions that will plague the last days. We know that the prophecies all show that we are living now in the closing hours of this earth’s history, and our only safety lies in being familiar with God’s word.

Thousands of professors have their names on the various church books, who have never read the Bible through for themselves. The Bible is not a very large book. Not a great deal of time is required to read it through. And it needs to be read not merely once, but again and again, because in that Word is the infinite expression of divine truth, and we can never fathom its great depths, nor soar beyond its sublime heights. Each time we read its sacred pages, the divine words flash out with new beauty, with new comfort and a new power in the soul.

We are standing on the threshold of a new year. Every one who has not read the Bible through should form at least one New Year’s resolution that he will conscientiously keep, and that is that he will read God’s word through from beginning to end during 1914. And those who have read it through will find help and pleasure in rereading it. Yea, they ought to find the necessity coming into their hearts of forming the determined resolution that they will read it carefully day by day, until each precept, each promise, each word, has been examined anew during 1914, under the guidance of the divine Spirit.