What the Bible says about Bible Study as Contact with God
(From Forerunner Commentary)
As God promised, Israel's and Judah's pagan high places were destroyed long ago. Their gods have essentially passed into history, although remnants of their cult still live in holidays like Christmas (which honors Baal, the sun god) and Easter (an Anglicized name for Ishtar/Ashera/Ashtoreth/Astarte). Thus the high places might appear to border on the irrelevant for us today, except that the apostle Paul instructs us that "these things happened to [ancient Israel] as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (I Corinthians 10:11; emphasis ours throughout). Though we will probably never be tempted to burn incense to a pagan god on top of a hill, the high places of old still contain instructions and warnings for us in these end times.
The critical point of the high places is that they facilitated idolatry; they were instruments by which Israel was led away from God. They introduced a belief system and a perspective of life contrary to the abundant life God intended for His people.
Statistically, whenever two options exist—one good and one bad—in time, some people will always choose the bad option. In wanting the best for the Israelites, God commanded them to destroy the bad options (alternatives to Him that were, by definition, supremely inferior) to safeguard their future. They only half-heartedly obeyed, and beginning with Solomon's official sanctioning of the high places, the alternatives to true belief—the proper way to live—became increasingly accepted. The God who redeemed them from Egypt and provided their every need was gradually squeezed from their minds, replaced by gods and ways of worship, thinking, and living that were probably very popular but were also directly opposed to eternal life.
We find ourselves in a parallel circumstance, surrounded by behaviors, beliefs, and cultures opposed to God. We can liken the pagan high places to outposts of the world in our lives. Just as God commanded Israel to destroy the high places upon entering the land, upon our conversion, we, too, became responsible for rooting out those outposts so that the true religion would be unimpeded. Yet, the apostles' repeated warnings about the unrelenting dangers of the world teach us that we probably did not tear down all of our spiritual high places initially or that we allowed some to be rebuilt over time. Resisting the world's influence is a full-time obligation for those God has redeemed!
The Parable of the Sower shows us that "the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches" will tend to "choke the word"—the truth—that sanctifies us (Matthew 13:22; John 17:17-19). Paul exhorts the congregation in Rome, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing [renovation] of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:2). He includes a brief anecdote to Timothy that Demas, a man mentioned in two other epistles as being involved in God's work, "has forsaken me, having loved this present world" (II Timothy 4:10; see Colossians 4:14; Philemon 24). No one is immune! The apostle James defines "pure and undefiled religion" as "to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27), and he strongly warns his audience that "friendship with the world is enmity with God" (James 4:4). John likewise warns us:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (I John 2:15-17)
The Bible does not give a simple definition of "the world," yet we know that it opposes God and His way of life because its source is Satan the Devil. The specific aspects of the world that may draw us away from God can vary from person to person and even throughout a person's life. Regardless of the exact application in our lives, one lesson from the ancient high places is clear: Leaving them intact welcomes spiritual weakness and estrangement from God. Further, if we tolerate these outposts of the world in our individual realms, the lives we risk are not just our own—those who look to us as an example of how to live may be the ones to reap the whirlwind.
For Israel and Judah, the high places led the people away from God and toward Baal, Ashtoreth/Astarte/Easter, Molech, and a host of other gods. For us, the outposts of the world will be more deceptive, and the stakes—eternal life—far higher. If we have spiritual high places in our lives, we probably do not see God as clearly as we could. The noise of this world may drown out His voice. We may not fully trust Him to provide for us or to direct our steps. Our Bible study may have lost its appeal; our interest in the riches of God's Word may be flagging. Our prayer time may become shorter or sporadic—perhaps done out of rote habit rather than a heartfelt desire to know the Father and the Son.
Perhaps we have become embittered with our lot in life or envious of what everyone else seems to have. Perhaps the spiritual riches we already have seem of little immediate value, like Esau selling his birthright or Israel nullifying her covenant with the Most High God. Perhaps our thoughts are anchored in the material and the temporary or focused on the surrounding culture.
All these indicate that the world is encroaching into our lives, changing our attitudes, distracting us, and threatening our high calling. They signify that a high place needs to be torn down.
David C. Grabbe
The High Places (Part Six)Related Topics: Baal Worship | Bible Study as Contact with God | Burning Incense on the High Places | Burning Incense to Baals | Cares of the World | Christmas | Deceitfulness of Riches | Demas | Friendship with the World | Idolatry | Lust of the Eyes | Lust of the Flesh | Materialism | Prayer | Renewing of Mind | Resisting Babylon's Influence | The High Places | Transformed into Image of God
It is almost tangible—the feeling that a hammer-blow is about to fall. It is reinforced constantly—by news reports, images from the media, and direct personal experience—that the nation is coming apart at the seams and lurching wildly out of control.
We witness the political demagoguery of leaders seeking their own ends rather than the good of those they claim to serve. We see the rich and powerful grow richer and more powerful, unconcerned with the plight of the common man except where it threatens to inconvenience them. We watch as national borders dissolve and cultures collide with tremendous friction rather than smooth melding, as we are continually assured is possible. We cringe as the various topics of the day are debated nationally, ones that were unthinkable just a few decades ago. That these and many other national and personal travesties continue unabated cause many, we hope, to cry out, even if only in their minds, "How much longer can this madness continue?"
Instinctively, we know the answer: not long. Something has to give. The questions that remain are: How long do we have? How bad is it going to get? What will our nation look like afterward?
Scholars have long been aware that the history of a given people tends to repeat itself in predictable cycles. Of particular interest is the work of authors William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book, The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy. In it, Strauss and Howe chronicle nearly 600 years of Anglo-American history that has a definitive, repeated pattern. It begins with a High (a time of civic order, purpose, and peace, such as the post-WWII 40s and 50s), followed by an Awakening (when the human spirit grows restless and calls the present order into question, which was seen during the 60s and 70s), an Unraveling (when the culture and institutions break down, as they did during the 80s and 90s), and finally a Crisis (when the nation flounders in chaos and faces an existential threat). Each of these "turnings" of the cycle lasts an average of about 20 years. Once the Crisis is resolved, the nation enters another High, and the cycle repeats itself.
Strauss and Howe follow this cycle through the history of the British and American peoples. We are now at the tail end of the seventh iteration of this cycle, poised to enter what they term—interestingly enough— the "Millennial Crisis." Will there be an eighth cycle? Will the Anglo-American peoples find a way to refocus their energies and resources and emerge intact on the other side of this seventh crisis?
Historically, Crises have involved massive economic hardship and total war—a chilling thought, considering the weapons systems now in the hands of various international players. Six times in this identified history, the Anglo-American peoples have rallied, sacrificed, and applied themselves to overcome enemies and other hardships to ensure national and cultural survival.
But this seventh crisis has a major difference that urgently begs the question of whether there will be a victorious new beginning or the end of our national existence as we know it. By all accounts, during this seventh crisis, God is not welcome on the Anglo-American side.
The United States began systematically barring God from public mention during the 1960s, and we are already reaping the whirlwind. The Creator, who has blessed this nation beyond any people in history because of His promises to Abraham, has been shunned, and those who trust in Him have been scorned. Christianity has given way to churchianity, where the focus is on packed stadiums of spectators, impressive incomes, and political outreach and activism. There is plenty of activity, but little biblical depth.
This is not to suggest that all previous generations of Americans were upright and moral. Clearly, they were not. But compared to the present, there was at least a common understanding that there was a God, that the Bible was His Word, and that the role of churches was to teach from the Bible and point the people to God. There was a common understanding of morality, even if it was not righteously adhered to. But this very basic foundation is now gone.
The picture is grim and getting worse. Even a national religious revival at this point—were it ever to come to pass—would be in name only. The national character is simply too soft. Barring God's intervention and direction, it would be easier to nail Jell-O to a tree than to turn these nations back to the Bible (see Jeremiah 13:23).
Nationally, without God on our side, our chances of coming through this crisis intact are slim indeed—especially if we as a nation are viewing Him as an adversary! However, individually, there is much that we can—and should—do. We may not be able to effect a national change, yet we can certainly put our own houses in order. We can strive to invite God into every area of our lives, seeking Him at all times and submitting to His will. We can apply ourselves to prayer and Bible study so that through this daily contact with God, we learn how He thinks and how He operates. This will not guarantee immunity from hardship, but it will at least keep us in contact and alignment with the One who writes history and determines our place within in it (see Psalm 62:11; Isaiah 57:15).
David C. Grabbe
The Coming Anglo-American Crisis
Our calling, our life in Christ, begins when the Father directly interfaces with our mind for the purpose of revealing Himself, His ways, His purpose, His plan, His mind, His attitude, His perspective, His character, His love, His power, His mercy, His forgiveness, and on and on, that we might use our life and free-moral agency to choose life
But most important is that the Father Himself does this. God miraculously joins His own mind to ours! There is nothing mysterious about this at all. He begins to transfer His thoughts, His attitudes, His character—the Spirit of His mind—into our minds. When it tells us, "Grieve not the Spirit of God," he means, "Don't grieve the Father by resisting Him." He is transferring the invisible essence of His mind through the access that we have to Him by means of the death of Jesus Christ. He is by no means kidding about the importance of this process. He is helping us to understand that, even as we are influenced by those around us, unless we are in the presence of God, we will not be influenced by Him. This is why it is so vital for us to share life with Him.
This is where prayer and Bible study become important because we are literally in His presence and He can transfer the essence of His mind into ours. Nobody sees it. When we obey, we are giving Him permission to do this. We submit, using our free moral agency. There is nothing magical about this at all. It occurs when we respond to the influence of the interface that He creates between us when we believe His Word and submit, and when we strengthen the relationship through prayer, Bible study, and meditation.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Holy Spirit and the Trinity (Part One)Related Topics: Bible Study | Bible Study as Contact with God | Bible Study, Daily | Calling | Calling, Rejection of | Fellowship with Christ | Fellowship with God | Free Moral Agency | Grieving the Holy Spirit | Holy Spirit "in" us | Holy Spirit Aids our Prayers | Holy Spirit as God's Mind | Meditation | Meditation as Contact with God | Mind of Christ | Mind of God | Prayer | Prayer as Contact with God | Prayer as Conversation | Prayer as Fellowship | Relationship with Christ | Relationship with God
The word of Christ is what brought us out of the world and that to which we were converted. When we drift away from it, we become confused, and we begin dividing, bickering and fighting among ourselves. The solution is given elsewhere in the Bible: Get back to what brought us together in the first place—the combination of the word of Christ and devotion to Him, to the love that we had at the beginning (Revelation 2:4-5).
Genuine ignorance may be a defense before God, but neglect never is. We need to remember Hebrews 2:3, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" God can forgive ignorance because we cannot believe what we did not know, and even though we may be punished in our ignorance, it is far different from being punished when we know better. Yet, "to whom much is given, from him much will be required" (Luke 12:48). We are not in ignorance. If we are slipping away, it is because of neglect.
One way we can be unworthy at Passover time (I Corinthians 11:27) is by neglecting or forgetting what we are now. We need to evaluate faith in light of the Passover and the state of our minds and our hearts as we approach it. Moffatt translates Romans 10:17 as, "Faith must come from what is heard, and what is heard comes from the word of Christ." We are saved by grace through faith, and faith comes from knowledge of God and His Word, so the importance of studying His Word, meditating on it, seeking practical applications for our life, cannot be overstated.
Along with obedience, practical application of God's Word is a must if we want to have saving faith. We must check ourselves before Passover to see whether we have passed up or neglected opportunities to make practical use of our faith. This means so much to our attitude, the way we approach life on a daily basis.
John W. Ritenbaugh
A Pre-Passover LookRelated Topics: Bible Study | Bible Study as Contact with God | Bible Study, Daily | Drifting Spiritually | Faith | Faith and Hearing | Hearing | Hearing and Faith | Hearing God's Word | Hearing the Gospel | Ignorance | Ignorance of God | Ignorance, Willful | Knowledge of God | Knowledge of God, Rejecting | Meditation | Meditation as Contact with God | Neglect | Passover | Passover, Taking Unworthily | Salvation by Grace through Faith | Saving Faith | Truth | Truth, Guarding
Let us draw near - God always encourages us to draw close to Him in prayer. Here Paul instructs us to do so with unwavering confidence, fullness of faith, without any doubt, because the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has cleared our conscience and paved the way into God's presence.
Today, some no longer feel the need to pray and study daily. They make the excuse that they do not have enough time. There is not enough time NOT to pray and study! The Day is approaching! Paul writes in Romans 13:11-14:
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly. . . . But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
If we fail to use these very vital tools of prayer and study—which will help us "walk properly" and "put on the Lord Jesus Christ"—we will find ourselves separated from God. That is the last thing we want as the Great Tribulation approaches!
John O. Reid
Contend EarnestlyRelated Topics: Bible Study | Bible Study as Contact with God | Bible Study, Daily | Confidence | Confidence in God | Contend Earnestly | Drawing Near to God | Prayer | Prayer as Contact with God | Putting on Christ | Putting on Godly Characteristics | Walk with God | Walking with God | Walking Worthily
We are responsible for maintaining our fellowship with Him by doing the works that He has appointed for us to do. For instance, there must be continuous exercise of prayer, study into His Word, and seeking to be like Him. We seek Him because we grow to admire—indeed respect—His love and character, appreciate the purpose He has brought into our lives, desire His merciful forgiveness, and realize He is our Benefactor in every aspect of life. However, we must do all of these things in faith.
Notice Paul's counsel in II Corinthians 5:7: "For we walk by faith, not by sight." Like life, walking is a continuous process. Thus, when Hebrews 11:6 says, "He who comes to Him must believe that He is," it means far more than just assenting to a vague idea of a "First Cause." Under the New Covenant, we are dealing with a living Personality working within His creation.
To walk by faith is a practical responsibility. It results from believing in His character and His works as revealed in His Word to the extent that we trust Him and submit to His commands in every area of life. His character is a major reason why we must continue to seek Him: so that our knowledge of Him is continually sharpened and refined to inform our imitation of Him in our lives. Otherwise, we will be pursuing a phantom designed by our own imaginations. We need to grasp as much of His transcendent holiness, supreme sovereignty, almighty power, and perfect justice, as well as His abundant mercy and wonderful grace.
Hebrews 11:6 emphasizes that He is a Rewarder, a Benefactor to those who come to Him and consistently walk with Him by faith. He rewards those who, as a way of life, seek Him in anticipation of His treating them with patient, respectful kindness, even abundance, as He works to create us in the image of Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 11:5-7 balances reward with duty. Together, these verses show that, to be rewarded, we must walk with Him and seek Him. Walking and seeking are where "works" come into play, troubling those who believe in the incomplete Eternal Security doctrine.
In summary, walking with God and seeking Him by faith require keeping God in mind combined with making the efforts of obedience and any sacrifices of time, energy, and rejection by worldly family, friends, and business associates. Nevertheless, these result in being rewarded by God.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Christian Fight (Part Five)Related Topics: Bible Study | Bible Study as Contact with God | Bible Study, Daily | Duty | Fellowship with Christ | Fellowship with God | Imitating Christ | Imitating God | Living by Faith | Prayer | Prayer as Contact with God | Relationship with Christ | Relationship with God | Reward, Promises of | Seeking God | Submission to God | Submission to God's Will | Walk as Codeword for Living | Walk with God | Walking as a Metaphor for Agreement | Walking by Faith | Walking with Christ | Walking with God
Consider what these verses say from the standpoint of the prophets who were looking into these things. How did they look into these things? How did they seek God? How did they search Him out?
An actual example appears in Daniel 9:1-3:
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD [given] through Jeremiah the prophet, . . .
What was Daniel looking into? He was looking into the Bible, specifically the writings of Jeremiah the prophet.
. . . that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
How did he seek God? By prayer, fasting, and study—the same things that we teach Christians to do. Looking into His Word is a major portion of seeking God. It is not the end of it because, as Amos 5:4, 6-7, 14-15 relates, "seek" in the biblical sense does not just mean "gaining an intellectual knowledge of God" but "turning to become like God." The knowledge of God is of absolutely no use unless we become like God, which is why he says, "Seek God and live!" (Amos 5:4, 6). What good is it if we have the knowledge but do not repent, do not turn to act and become like He is? None. If we only gain knowledge, we will not live.
Prayer plays a major role in this process. Daniel was seeking God's mind for the purpose of imitating, obeying, pleasing, being like Him, and doing His will. If we would continue in the prophet's book, we would find in chapter 10 that another occasion came up in which he fasted for three weeks. A person must be very serious and fervent to fast that long! The angel that is sent to him tells him that God heard Daniel's words from the very first day—that God would hear and answer was never a question. He spent three weeks fasting and praying to understand the will of God.
It is in this way that we come to know God in the sense of perceiving things as He does. If we are doing these things, we have every opportunity to pray according to His will because we will be praying His Word right back to Him—maybe not the exact words, but words that have the same sense. We will be on the same wavelength, as it were, with God.
John W. Ritenbaugh
What Is Prayer?