Though we may have been taught Bible stories from our earliest age and learned about it in school, as Christians we should be able to read the Bible and study it in such a way, that would make us understand the truth for ourselves, in our own experience. The apostle Paul counsels us that we are to study to show ourselves approved by rightly dividing the Word of truth so that we would not be ashamed.
There are certain rules of interpretation, commonly known as “Miller’s rules”, which we would do good to put into practice if we learned what the system of the Bible is and how it operates. We need to point out that those rules did not originate with Miller but they were in existence long before him. Those are the principles that guided the study of the Scriptures back in the days of the early Reformers, bringing truth forward and dispelling the darkness of superstition and error.
When the Word of God was restored to the common people at the close of the medieval period, the Lord gave principles of study to those who were advancing the Protestant Reformation. Therefore, all that Miller did was to distill those principles that had brought the believers forward in regard to the truth. He took these principles and prepared a set of rules that he used in his personal study.
What Wm. Miller would do before he would preach an evangelistic series in some town on the books of Daniel and Revelation, the very first thing he would do was to summarize the principles of study. Because not everything that comes and claims to be spiritual is necessarily of God. This is why we have to test everything that is proposed to us and try it by the Sacred Scriptures. Here is where Miller’s rules come to our help. They help us test any given proposition of what sort it is.
With this in mind, we are going to study Rule No. 14, the most important rule of all – that we must have faith because if we don’t have faith we can’t hear the voice of God to us through the Word. Rule No. 14 states:
“The most important rule of all is, that you must have faith. It must be a faith that requires a sacrifice, and, if tried, would give up the dearest object on earth, the world, and all its desires, character, living, occupation, friends, home, comforts, and worldly honors. If any of these should hinder our believing any part of God’s word, it would show our faith to be vain. Nor can we ever believe so long as one of these motives lies lurking in our hearts.”
Therefore, if anything in the world would tend to make our faith in the Word grow cold, it would put set whole Christian experience to naught. Therefore we must give the Bible the first place in our lives, and seek first the kingdom of God and not of this world.
“We must believe that God will never forfeit His word. And we can have confidence that He that takes notice of the sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our head, will guard the translation of His own word, and throw a barrier around it, and prevent those who sincerely trust in God, and put implicit confidence in His word, from erring far from the truth, though they may not understand Hebrew or Greek.”
Therefore, God’s sincere children will be shielded and brought into the truth even if they are not scholars and they don’t understand ancient languages. Thus the Bible will prove itself to be the book of all knowledge, containing all that is essential for our salvation. Therefore there is no need for us to rely on some teacher to give us understanding but we must go to the Bible for ourselves, with prayer and it will be opened wide up for us in our individual study.
The Scripture sustains the mind in adversity and teaches us to be humble in prosperity. It prepares us to love others and do good to them, and to realize the value of the human soul. It makes us courageous and bold for the truth’s sake and strengthens us to oppose error. It enables us to break down infidelity and makes known the only antidote for sin. The Word informs us on how death shall be conquered. It tells us about the events of the future and instructs us of the preparation that is necessary for us to meet our Lord with joy.
Moreover, the Holy Word reveals the best code of law that the world has ever known. It gives us the privilege to converse with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There is no need for anyone else to mediate for a communication between us – we can communicate with him directly by partaking of the Word.
All these conclusions give us only a faint view of the value of the Bible. Yet there are so many people perishing in the world who treat the Word with neglect, and – even worse – deem it as a mystery that can never be understood. This is a serious problem!
It is a sad thing that we have been taught that we can not know the Bible for ourselves, that we are not competent enough and we need the instruction of someone else in order to understand it. There cannot be anything further from the truth. And indeed, knowing the Word for ourselves shall set us free. We are told:
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32.
So let us make the Holy Word our chief study and let us try it for ourselves. The Scriptures are the detector of all errors. A free mind will never be satisfied with the views of others. Here we need to point out that the view of another may be the same as our own, but we want to own our own views, don’t we? And we should want to own them and have a personal understanding of the truth.
Even if we are told the truth by others, we should not want to go by someone else’s truth but to know the truth for ourselves and appropriate it. The situation is the same as when David went out to meet Goliath. Saul had equipment that he had been accustomed to using in order to fight in battles. He proposed to David to use his equipment and go to the battle. He put it on, he tried it and he said that he could not fight with it. He knew what worked for him best. Thus the instruments of warfare that Saul used were not fit for David. Trusting in God, David was able to use simple means that were not considered sufficient for such an important battle as this one. God is able to use simple things and accomplish mighty victories through us, if only we allow him to steer the wheel, as a Captain of our salvation.
The same is true in the spiritual realm. The Lord speaks to each of us individually and no man is given all the truth. Thus several people can bring out different perspectives by the study of the Word of God and these perspectives can be true at the same time, though it’s the same truth. This is a beautiful idea that can come to reality for us if we study the way we are supposed to. Miller talks about what he would do if he would teach a Bible class at university and he says:
“I would first learn their capacities of mind. If these were good, I would make them study the Bible for themselves and send them out free to do the world good.”
Thus our young ministers would be free from the ideas of other men, free to open up the Bible and study it with people.
Time is running out. Right now the lives of people are weighed in the balances, especially those of the leaders who are teaching others, and also of those people who accept their ideas. Lives are weighed in the balances.
We are told in the Bible that angels are gathering people into bundles for the heavenly garner or for destruction. This separation between the righteous and the unjust comes through the messages of the ministers – the ideas they teach. So if a preacher is giving us a false idea and we accept it without going to the Word to see if that particular idea is true or not, we are being bound together in a bundle with the disobedient.
In view of the most important of all the rules of study, Rule No. 14, from this point forward in our studies we will begin to go through these rules one by one. Using these principles, we shall be able to know how to answer difficult questions and give a reason for our faith to anyone who should ask us. For we are admonished:
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear…” 1 Peter 3:15.
Principles on How to Study the Bible
