Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: If you want to be a serious student of God's word, there are three absolutely essential reference books that you need. Welcome to Thru the Bible where Dr. J. Vernon McGee tells us about those books as we dive into the second part of this foundational study, which he called guidelines for understanding Scripture.

This is such vital information for our upcoming studies, so I'm glad that you're with us. But first, we're celebrating the beginning of our 12th journey through Scripture here on the Bible Bus, and it's a great time to take a quick tour and celebrate how our study of God's word is changing people's lives, including our own. To start us off, here's Dr. McGee reading one of his favorite letters.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: This party writes, "I will never forget the day, one Saturday about 20 years ago, at our little apartment in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where my bride and I started out housekeeping when I stumbled across your broadcast for the first time. I was an active Christian at the time, but extremely narrow-minded about many things, especially doctrine and who I should fellowship with.

Something about Dr. McGee's voice and message grabbed my attention, and I became a regular listener to your program. That was the beginning of a conversion process that has been going on for years in which I've been learning about how much wider the kingdom of God is than I had thought.

Dr. McGee's kind tolerance and respect for Christians of different factions, along with his absolute faithfulness to the word as he sees it, all has had a great effect on my own thinking and growth. Since that time, I have entered the ministry myself, and at every church I pastored, we have read through the Bible together. I owe this to my acquaintance with your program."

Steve Schwetz: That's a great letter. I know Dr. McGee would say it's the Holy Spirit at work through God's word that changed his heart, not the teacher. Isn't that right, Greg?

Greg Harris: It's absolutely correct, Steve. Theologically, practically, we all believe this. In no way are we disrespecting Dr. McGee when we say what he taught, which is that the Holy Spirit is the teacher and the driver of the Bible Bus, not Dr. McGee. I think we would actually be dishonoring his memory to elevate him more than he wanted to be elevated.

We know we're still close to one of the founding members of Thru the Bible who knew Dr. McGee very well, and he told us that when McGee was about to go to be with the Lord, he thought it would maybe last seven or eight years after his death, not 40. It is so true. The thing that we love the most about these opportunities we have before the teaching to talk with our listeners is to tell of the stories. I hope that you're encouraged as much as we are.

Steve Schwetz: This first one is a great example from Bangladesh. We hear, "My name is Dipti. I am a home group leader. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and wanted to share my faith. However, I was limited in my biblical knowledge. When I got the media kit and started heading the home group, I gradually came to know God's word, and the teaching gave me confidence. Now I've started to share God's word with my neighbors and pray they too will be saved."

Greg Harris: One of the many exciting things about the home group movement is this specific dynamic. We hear this over and over again. The leader says, "I was a Christian, maybe I wasn't even a mature Christian, and now leading this group has deepened my faith and helped me minister more effectively." I think anybody who's taught God's word, whether it's in a Bible study or in front of a larger group, knows that if you've really spent time in Scripture, it impacts your life as much or more than what it is when you ultimately deliver it to the people that are listening. That's evidenced with Dipti.

Steve Schwetz: Now let's go pretty much halfway around the world from Bangladesh to Chile, and a listener named Jorge writes this. "Good morning, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Because of complications from bacterial meningitis and HIV, I am bedridden and unable to move. This also means I can't attend a local church. But even from my bed, I have found great joy from your readings and teaching.

God is using them to strengthen me spiritually and to bless me physically and within my family. Although my health is limited, God's mercy is not. Some of my brothers who do not yet know Christ have begun to open their hearts to Him simply by seeing what the Gospel has done in my life. For that, I give all glory and honor to our great God. I humbly ask you to join me in prayer that the Lord will continue His beautiful work in my family, drawing each one to salvation, and that He will complete the good work He began in me. May God bless you abundantly."

Greg Harris: What a perspective. This is a guy who's suffering from meningitis and HIV, and yet he has that hope. He's bedridden, he can't move, and yet he's rejoicing. Incredible.

Steve Schwetz: Here's a letter I want to make sure we get to. This is a viewer of our Kalaam el Kitab program, Thru the Bible's Arabic television program. This, by the way, is a listener from Saudi Arabia. "My name is Ahmed, and I am a Somali Christian. I speak Arabic and Somali. I first heard the Gospel while working in Saudi Arabia through your TV program and an Egyptian brother who gave me a New Testament. Praise God, that's where I met Jesus. Today, I'm sharing the Gospel with my people, and I'm growing in God's word as I follow your program. Please keep going. You're making a difference."

Greg Harris: Whenever I hear someone watching or listening in Saudi Arabia, I am overcome with the power of that. I also just want to point out that as we go on this next journey, Steve and I will have the privilege of telling you the many ways we're trying to get God's word out. The most important strategic element of where we are today is we want anybody, anywhere who speaks any language that we have to get it. Notice, he's from Somalia, and yet he heard it in Saudi Arabia. That's exciting. It sure is.

Steve Schwetz: Greg, would you pray for our listeners that five years from now, or however long it might be until we get through the Bible with us, that we would be dramatically changed in our minds, hearts, and perspectives?

Greg Harris: Yes, Father, You know that's why we're doing this. We want to be changed personally. We want to share Your word with others so that they are changed. I pray that everyone on this upcoming five-year journey will see Your Spirit powerfully at work through Your word and through Your Son. It's in His name we pray, amen.

Steve Schwetz: Here's Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I was talking to you about the Bible. We are giving now guidelines on how to study the Bible. I have been talking last time and then today about the Bible itself. We are very anxious to call it to your attention, probably in a new way.

So as we begin this great venture, going through the Bible, it's a safari through Scripture. I'm inviting you to ride the Bible Bus, and you can get on it at any corner. That is, any day you tune in, you can begin, because when we finish, we'll start right over again. But we're on the way and we'll stop at your corner, and if you want on today, we'll be glad to have you join.

Somebody says, "Well then, what is it that you're asking us to do to make this a meaningful and enjoyable experience to us?" Well, first of all, let me say, listen to the broadcast. Now, I recognize that many are not able to hear it every day. I know a doctor down in San Diego. He makes a point of going from one hospital to another at noon in order to hear it down there. But he says sometimes he has an emergency and he misses it. So he gets the notes and outlines. Down in that area, he has an opportunity to hear it on another station, which he does, he tells me.

Then there's a salesman back in Indianapolis, Indiana. He's a salesman that covers a lot of territory. He says he just drives off the side of the road generally, but sometimes he's with a customer giving him a big order. Well, you don't expect him to run out and tune on his car radio to listen to the broadcast. Well, I don't expect him to. I'll be very frank with you. I want him to get that good order because he's a real friend of this radio ministry.

The second thing that we ask you to do is write in for the notes and outlines which we are supplying. That will enable you to fill in the days that you have to miss. Now, I have letters from people that tell me they never missed a broadcast. I was amazed at that because I thought that no one could hear it every day. You want to know the truth? I missed it some days. I'll tell you how I missed it. I made the tapes, but I wasn't around to listen to them anyplace. I'm sure there are many people like that. So the second thing, write in and ask for the notes and outlines.

Then the third thing, and this is that which is all-important. This is the most important thing for you to do: read the portion of Scripture we shall be studying beforehand if possible. My suggestion is that you read it again after we have finished it. You will recall that last time I read quotations from great men, Daniel Webster, for instance. He read the Bible every day. May I say to you, it's a good habit to get into. This is the word of God.

This is a discipline for you. May I be very candid with you? This is the best discipline I've ever had. A young preacher came to me some time ago and he said, "Dr. McGee, I want to start this Thru the Bible program. It seems to have helped you," and he could see I needed help. He said, "What way do you think that I ought to do this, and what will it do for me and my church?"

I said, "The first thing it'll do for you is it'll give you a discipline because I've been a minister for many years and I've discovered that I can become slovenly and careless also and not study the word of God. But if I have a radio program that every day this radio says to me, 'Boy, you are on and you have to study,' believe me, it's been the most marvelous discipline for this poor preacher that you can imagine. It's a good discipline for you, my Christian friend, in your Christian life, to read the word of God. And if you'll just read it, and it's not much to read each day, we're going to average one chapter when we get underway in our study."

Now, the fourth thing, and this of course is not essential, but to us, it is essential: tell others about the program and encourage them to tune in. We get literally hundreds of letters that tell us the man I work with, or my neighbor, or my school chum told me about your program. We'll appreciate you telling your friends about the program.

Now, I would suggest those of you who want to make a serious study that you'll not only want the notes and outlines that we supply, but you'll need three books that are essential. I formerly taught in a Bible institute, and in the classes, I had a question that I asked. The question was, "If you were wrecked on a South Pacific island, what three books would you want?"

I got some very interesting answers. One wag in the class, and I'll have to admit I had to pass him, he put down the three books that he would want would be the Bible and two copies of my book on Ruth, one to read and one to sell to the natives. Believe me, I had to pass that fellow for that answer, you can see. But that was not the answer I wanted.

Actually, I asked the question like that because I'd said there are three books that are almost imperative and certainly essential for the study of the word of God. One of them is a concordance. A concordance is invaluable. Then the second, a Bible dictionary.

Now, I want to be practical here at the beginning. Somebody says, "What concordance should you have?" Well, there are three that are very good: Young's Concordance, Strong's Concordance, and Cruden's Concordance. All three are good. As a teacher of mine said, "Young's Concordance is for the young, and Strong's Concordance is for the strong, and Cruden's Concordance is for the crude." Well, you take your pick, friends, but you do need a concordance and you'll find it helpful.

A Bible dictionary. What Bible dictionary do you recommend? Somebody says. Well, the Davis Bible Dictionary is a good Bible dictionary provided you don't get one that came out a few years ago. The old Davis Bible Dictionary is a good one. Then they came out, a group of liberal editors got ahold of it, and believe me, it just didn't work out many reasons. It wasn't as scholarly as it should be. I get a little weary today about the liberal telling me how intellectual he is and that we are an intellectual obscurantist, whatever that is. I don't think I'm that.

Nevertheless, the Davis Bible Dictionary at one edition, don't get it. The last edition I'm told is good. I do not have the last one; I use the old one. Then Unger's Bible Dictionary is one that you can recommend without any reservation at all. So these are your Bible dictionaries and these are your concordances.

I would recommend that you have someone who said, "Well, what is the third book?" Well, I don't mean to mention the third book now. This was number one. I hope you understood it was the Bible. Somebody said, "Well, what Bible do you recommend?" Well, now I'm going to be talking about that probably next time and the Bible that we do recommend, that is, the version that we recommend.

But now today, I would like to talk to you about the Bible and the type of book that it is. The Bible is in many ways a most unusual book. It's a most unusual book in that it has a dual authorship. In other words, God is the author of the Bible and, in another sense, men are the authors of the Bible.

The Bible was written actually by about 40 authors over a period of approximately 1,500 years. Some of these men never even heard of the others, and there was no collusion of the 40. Two or three of them could have gotten together, but the others could never have. And yet they have presented a book that has the most marvelous continuity of any book that has ever been written.

There is a collusion here and that's the collusion of the Holy Spirit. When you say dual authorship, somebody says, "You mean to tell me that a Holy Spirit is the author and that these men are the authors also?" I mean exactly that. I mean that the Bible is a God-human book, a God-man book. In many senses, the Bible is very much like the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

You see, He came to this earth and became incarnate. He was both God and man. John put it in this simple way: "The word became flesh and dwelt among us." Do you know you can almost say that about the Bible? The Bible became flesh and dwelt among us.

It on the divine side is a book, and I hope I can get my foot in the door. There are four things on the divine side, on God's side. It's a God book and that is revelation, inspiration, illumination, and interpretation. I want to talk about those four. By the way, somebody's saying, "This is getting to be rather complicated." May I say, the notes that we have on guidelines for studying the Bible are available and they are the first ones that are being sent out. If you'd like to have the full copy now of these messages I'm giving, they are in print and will be sent out to those today that are listening if you'd like to have them.

Now on the divine side, we want to talk about revelation, inspiration, illumination, and interpretation. Now on the other side, the human side, it's a very human book. May I say, it was written by men from all walks of life. There was the prince and the pauper. There was the very highly intellectual and then very simple man.

Actually, Dr. Luke writes almost classical Greek in a period when the Koine Greek was popular. Did you know that his Greek is marvelous? But I have news for you. Simon Peter wrote some Greek also. It's not so good, if you want to know the truth. But did you know that God used both of them? God the Holy Spirit used both of these men.

That has to do with inspiration. Now, that means that God was able to use these men without destroying their personality, and He let them express exactly their thoughts, their feelings. You find they all did. And yet through that method, the Spirit of God was able to overrule in such a way that God said exactly what He wanted to say. That's the wonder of this book, the Bible.

That's the reason that it's a human book. It's like my Lord that walked down here and grew weary and sat down at a well and He talked with people down here and communicated with them. This is a book that communicates.

I want to talk a little about that too, by the way, next time. I hear today that you've got to come down to the level of the hippie or the level of the group today that are immoral and that you have to enter into that. I don't agree with that at all.

This is a book that talks to men in all walks of life. The thing that has thrilled us about this Thru the Bible program is this: that there is a professor in the university over in Ohio that never misses one of these programs. There is another professor in a university in the south that encourages all of his faculty to listen to the program.

Did you know that there are men that are working right here in Los Angeles, right down here on the wharf? They don't speak very good English. In fact, there's some of them barely speak it; they understand it. And they listen to the program.

One man has written in. He said, "I don't write very well. I just don't quite not able to express myself." All you'd have to do would be to read his letter to agree with him. May I say to you, the college professor and the man that is not even having an eighth-grade education, they all get the message when this book speaks.

Then they talk about the generation gap. I'm amazed today that there are young people that are listening right south of us down at San Diego at a college. There's a group down there that meet every day to listen to the program. Some argue about it, some disagree, but they listen.

The word of God communicates, friends. It'll get through to you. We have children that listen to it. we hear from them. Then we have retired people. May I say to you friends, the Bible knows nothing about a generation gap. It speaks to mankind today, the Bible as it is for men as they are.

How important that is. It's a God book. I hold in my hand right now a book that's supernatural. In this book, God says 2,500 times "God said," "the Lord has said," "thus saith the Lord." He's made it very clear that He's speaking through this book. If you have a blood-tipped ear, you'll hear Him, my friend. May I say to you, this is a God book.

But it's a man book, a human book. The book I have before me here, it's pretty well worn to begin with. It's a very human book, if you want to know. I've got it marked up here and it's a translation. It's not really the original at all; if it was the original, I couldn't read it. It's put in a language that I can understand. We're going to talk about some of these versions, I suppose we'll get around to that next time.

The point I'm trying to make today, friends, is that this is a book that on one side is our God book. This is a book that can communicate a life to you, and that today that you can even become a child of God, begotten, not by corruptible seed, but by incorruptible, the word of God that liveth and abideth forever.

And then on other side, it's a very human book. It talks to you about your aches and pains and your groanings. Paul says, "We that are in this body, we do groan." I'm at the age right now where I find out I do groan, friends, and I'm for being scriptural. I do a lot of groaning. My wife tells me sometimes, "You ought not to groan." I said, "I'm being scriptural. The Bible says that we groan in these bodies, and I'm going to groan."

This is a human book, friends, but it's a God book. There's no book to compare to it. Now why in the world do you read these little old paperbacks, these silly things? I watched the other day a person over in the Hawaiian Islands sitting on a hotel reading one of these dirty little filthy paperback books, and out before it was the gorgeous tropical scenery. Why read these books when you've got the Bible, friends? And it's a thriller. It's a thrilling story.

By the way, if you're not on the Bible Bus, get on right now. Write in and ask for the notes and outlines. Let us hear from you. We'd like to take you along because right now, in a few days, we'll be beginning in the book of Genesis. Until next time, may God bless you.

Steve Schwetz: Dr. McGee just mentioned his notes and outlines, and they're available anytime in our app or at ttb.org. Just look for Briefing the Bible, that's our free digital download that contains them all, or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE and we'll put a paperback version in the mail to you. We continue Dr. McGee's introductory lessons of guidelines for understanding Scripture next time. So as Dr. McGee said, hop aboard and I'd add invite a friend to come along with you. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll be here saving a seat on the Bible Bus just for you.

We're grateful for our committed listening family who faithfully pray and invest in Thru the Bible as we together take the whole word to the whole world.