Why the need for such a study Bible?

- cults claiming they must learn their literature before they can understand the Bible

- philosophers interpret the Bible using outside philosophy

- gnostics who claim they are the only ones who have the correct interpretation

- interpretation must be objective, not subjective - context determines meaning of a

word/phrase/sentence

- so many denominations having a different systematic understanding of major and minor doctrines

e.g. JW, Holy Spirit is not a person

Baptist, immersion is the only valid mode of baptism

Women pastors?

- systematic theology must be based on biblical theology

- biblical theology (bottom up approach); systematic theology (top down approach)

Having a study Bible in the form of catechism (q and a) may not give a final answer (given that there
would always be some minute, rather insignificant issues that are not very clear and some verses remain
obscure as to its interpretation)

Instead of having to consult so many opinions from pastors, Bible college lecturers, commentaries,
books, the Internet (not saying these are not useful), consider the Berean Christians' mindset. Tell
yourself for once, you can know the answer!

- is it written? If yes, we must know it and apply it correctly to our current situation. If no, where the
Bible is silent, we keep silent (God has chosen not to reveal that fact, we respect that).

- observation, interpretation, application (no observation, no interpretation and no application)

- Scripture interprets scripture

- context is the most basic (verses before and after must be considered before coming to a conclusion of
the correct interpretation of a verse)

- without knowing how to read and understand, a person cannot understand God's word (the body of
spiritual truths)

- Common grace of God includes knowing how to read, write and understand.

- Special grace of God

Uses of this study Bible

- Bible quiz (have hours of fun and learning with people of all ages testing each other to see how good
each one is) e.g. how many clean animals did Noah take into the ark?

- Convenience in having the key information sifted out without having to read and reread the entire
body of text

- archaic words are defined, so words not so commonly in use nowadays are not misunderstood e.g.
suffer

- difficult vocabulary is defined to negate the need to search the dictionary for words the reader is
unfamiliar with. as a result, the reader gets to learn new vocabulary as well.

- (for better understanding of the Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic meaning to each English word/phrase
translated, the reader is advised to use Bible software, say on their smartphone or computer, that has
Strong's concordance or other good concordances)

- the range of meanings (semantic range) is provided for each word defined. The reader has to examine
the context of the passage to decide which meaning is the contextual meaning.

- the Bible originally had no chapters and verses, so ignore them if this system causes you to have the
habit of interpreting one verse in isolation. Chapters and verses are a great invention to split up the
parts for easier reading and for reference to a specific part.

- the text used is the KJV 1769. The author believes this is based on the perfectly preserved Hebrew and
Greek words (in Scrivener's reconstructed manuscript)

- best used with traditional creeds, confessions of faith, catechisms (that come with scriptural proofs) -
statements of beliefs alone may face the criticism that they are just dogmas based out of tradition