It’s been about a month since I said that I was going to begin a survey of the Bible. I promised that the next thing I posted would be about the creation and the fall. One blogger even linked my site, saying how excited he was as this was a topic of interest to him. I offer my sincere apologies, and now once again am announcing that I’m about to start my Biblical survey.
A couple of notes:
1) This will be a survey. A survey sort of maps out the lay of the land. I believe Bible study should be done verse by verse, chapter by chapter through a book of the Bible. To cover the entire Bible in this manner would take years. J. Vernon McGee, on his 30 minute daily radio broadcast, took 5 years going through the Bible verse by verse. I still enjoy listening to McGee, but in my wildest dreams don’t plan on starting such a project. I started a Sunday School class in August on the Gospel of Mark, and we’ve done about 9 chapters in 7 months.
2) My resources. For several years, my most used research tool was the Oxford Annotated Study Bible. That and a good concordance prepared me for many sermons. I now use (and endorse) the ESV Study Bible. (Notice the ESV page.) I will be linking to ESV.org for reading verses, but also use Bible Gateway when searching the scripture and looking up passages in other translations.
3) I would like the Bible survey posts to have their own unique URL. This blog is about a lot of things related to religion and Christianity, and dialog is encouraged. Viewer disagreement is welcome. When I post the first survey lesson on creation week, I will not entertain comments from those who do not believe in creation. What I will probably do is put up each post at the Bible Survey site, and link each one as a post on The Master’s Table. Comments of all sort will be welcome here; the other site will have no links, blogroll, ads, etc., and perhaps no comments. At the most, comments will be restricted to questions, answers, or further explanation of each post.
I looked forward to this survey of scripture. I hope some of you will be with me from day one and stay in for the long haul. Hopefully we will start with a small group and grow over time. The Master’s Table will continue to blog religion, theology and living the Christian life. God will bless the study of his Word. I invite you to do it with us.
