A trend is growing in the church. There are fewer expository sermons preached and more topical sermons. Sunday School classes were once mainly studies of Biblical books. Increasingly Sunday School materials are limited to 13 week studies of "How to Cope with Anxiety," Christian Parenting," Death and Dying," and "Caring for the Environment," and other good topics that are not studies of the Bible. We affirm that these topics are good, but their use as Sunday School material has diminished our exposure to Scripture. Again, most Bible study books tend to deal with parts of a book rather than the entire text.

In the past, many churches had Sunday evening services and mid-week services. In both of these, a portion of Scripture was taught or preached. In many instances, these are gone or greatly reduced. This too diminishes our awareness of Scripture.

Where daily devotions were once a personal study of a portion of Scripture or a book of the Bible, the trend is now to study a book about the Bible or a devotional thought for the day. This, too, diminishes our exposure to the Scriptures.

The net result of these facts is that there is a creeping Biblical illiteracy, even in some of our more evangelical churches. This is, in part, one of the reasons many people are reluctant to teach Sunday School. No one wants to talk about it, but we are becoming a fellowship of people who are nearly Biblically illiterate. There are places where one cannot use an Old Testament illustration in a sermon because the congregation would not know the story. Thus, it would be a meaningless illustration. I have served such a church. We must encourage Christian people to study the Bible for themselves. Christians must be encouraged to study in greater depth on their own. It is for this reason that this presentation has been written.

We come to this study with very definite views concerning the origin of Scripture. We believe that God inspired the authors to write His message to people everywhere. In doing so, God worked within the framework of the rules for good writing; God spoke through the personality of the writers to convey a special message in a special way; God used the understandings of the people of that culture to disclose specific ideas; God used the strengths of two specific languages - Greek and Hebrew - to convey the divine message in a very precise way.

As one listens to sermons, reads Bible studies or considers theological lectures, it appears that there are some who attempt to interpret Revelation, Romans and the Psalms in exactly the same manner. Still, others attempt to interpret Scripture in such a way as to make it fit their particular theological positions. Each of these directions will create severe problems for the church.

There are several different kinds of literature within the covers of our Bible. We will attempt to describe each kind of literature. It will be important to describe the variances between the different kinds of literature.

As we carefully scrutinize the distinctions within the Scriptures, it will be important to interpret the Bible as one would interpret any well written document.

In this study, we will describe the specific ingredients found in every Biblical passage, to enable us to accurately delve into the precise meanings of a given passage. This will be done through the process called Inductive Bible Study.

It will be necessary to describe the process called observation. There are several levels of observation that will require our attention. We will want to describe each level of observation in depth.

Another facet of the Inductive Bible study process is called interpretation. It is important to describe this step with great care in order to grasp the exact meaning of a passage. It is at this point in the process that many people cease their search. Actually, much more research is necessary.

We will give similar careful attention to the process of application. Unfortunately, this is a step in the process which is often slighted, if not omitted. If it is to be meaningful, it is essential to apply the findings of Scripture study to life as we live it each day. That is one of the goals of the chapter "INTRODUCTION TO APPLICATION".

Unfortunately, it is possible to study a passage up to this point as carefully as possible and still misunderstand the message of the author. It is the job of correlation to help protect us from that error. We will describe this process as carefully as possible in the chapter "INTRODUCTION TO CORRELATION".

In every written document, in every language, a number of literary relationships can be identified. In the chapter "THE DISCOVERY OF LITERARY RELATIONSHIPS", we need to describe some of the most common literary relationships and explain how they can be identified and how they can increase our understanding of the deeper, more precise messages presented in the Scriptures.

Scripture follows the rules of good writing. Each sentence will have a subject and predicate. We will treat the interpretation of Scripture as one would interpret any other document. There are five kinds of literature which characterize whole books of the Bible. We will describe each type carefully. There are two other types of literature - drama and parable - that may appear within the basic types of literature. No book of the Bible is characteristically drama, though there is quite a bit of drama in the historical books. No book of the Bible is exclusively parabolic, though many parables are included in the Gospels and some other books.

There are several ingredients which make up a Biblical passage. We will describe these and illustrate their importance in the process of interpretation.

There are several major steps in the process of Inductive Bible study. In this book we will explain each of them, show how they are used and explain how they enhance the interpretive process.

We, also, believe that cultural understanding is a useful tool which Biblical authors used to convey a deeper flavor to their message. We also believe that the recipients of the writings or the people involved had a deeper understanding of the message because of their exposure to the cultural understanding. In some instances new and clearer understandings, which had not been previously apparent, come to light when one discovers these cultural qualities. We will try to use several illustrations which demonstrate this concept. We will also suggest ways to discover these uses of customs and cultural data and suggest ways to go about discovering the richness of their meaning.

Earlier, it was indicated that we must discover the precise meaning of terms if we are to grasp the author's intent. Language is a key element which will help to more clearly and dramatically unlock these precise understandings. Unfortunately, however, not everyone who reads the Bible understands the Biblical Greek and Hebrew languages. Until now, preachers and teachers, conversant with the languages, sometimes gave us the clarifying information. People had no other access to this precise information. We will describe, in some detail, some information in this direction. We cannot do justice to that process in this volume. Another volume, being published by Logos Ministries, will describe how persons who do not know Greek or Hebrew can use the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament in spite of their lack of knowledge of these languages. It should be published within the year.

There are several literary relationships which appear in any language. These relationships, though usually quite obvious, are extremely important in identifying the direction of the author's thought. Each type will be identified. The purpose and importance of each one will be explained and illustrated.

In several books of the Bible, it is easy to see that geography plays an important role in our clearer understanding of that portion of Scripture. In the chapter "THE PLACE OF GEOGRAPHY IN BIBLE STUDY" we want to look carefully at this facet of our search of the Scriptures.

According to Hebrews 1:1-4, and other passages, God has chosen to reveal both His will and Himself through the Scriptures. If God is as important as we say, and He is; if His will is as close to our hearts as we say: then it is absolutely essential that we discern, as precisely as possible, what He has revealed both of His will and of Himself. That is the task to which we are committed in Inductive Bible Study. It is also the purpose of this writing.

All too often, people spend all their time trying to discover the meaning of a passage and at the end have no time to compare these findings with the teachings of the rest of Scripture. This is a serious flaw in one's study habits. Scripture must be compared with Scripture in order to determine what the overall teaching of God's Word really is. Our correlation, however, will be no more precise than the study we have made of any given passage of Scripture.

Again, because our time is so limited, we often reach the end of our study having never applied our discoveries to our everyday lives. This is a little bit like preparing a wonderful meal, but being too busy to sit down and eat the wonderful delicacy. Our study is never complete until we look carefully to see how we can allow these discoveries to have a vital, changing impact upon the way we live each day. In this part of the study, we want to point out how such an application can be made. Here too, however, the application can be no better than the precision of one's study of the passage.

The reading of this book and the practice of the principles and processes it advances are not intended to support any particular theological position. Each person who studies must decide for him/herself what are the theological implications of his/her discoveries. Indeed, one of the features of Induction is that persons of several different theological persuasions can pursue a study jointly without unfortunate confrontation because this process offers the tools of understanding which enable each of us to gain sufficient awareness of the author's message to allow us to make a very personal decision.

It must be stressed, at this point, that this study in no way suggests that Induction is the only possible way one can grasp Biblical truth. It is only one way. We further want to affirm that it has been the most effective way we have found to delve into the riches the Scriptures have to offer.

Induction does not purport to be a means to make the Biblical author's message stronger than the author intended it to be. By the same token, it is not a process to make the author's message softer and more palatable than it was intended to be.

Inductive Bible Study is not a short-cut to discover the truth of the Bible. Indeed, it will probably take more effort, but it is our considered opinion that it is worth all the effort we invest.

We purpose to help people find a way to discover for themselves the message the author had in mind when he wrote. We want to establish a foundation upon which people can interpret Scripture and focus Biblical teachings upon their own lives in such a way that they will more carefully reflect the will of God and show His righteousness to others by the way they live.

We should keep in mind, that our findings will be tentative through most of the study. The more we study a passage, the more new insights will be revealed each time we study it. There have been times when I have read a chapter at least 50 times. Then on a subsequent reading, I discover something that had been there all along, but I never saw it before. This is one of the exciting things about Bible study. One can continually discover new understandings almost every time one reads a passage.