Welcome to one of the most exciting developments in Biblical study in recent years. The questions included in this collection are intended only as a guide to those who are willing and interested in studying the Bible with the goal of seeing God in a new and greater light.

In these guides it is assumed that the entire Biblical record is true and to be taken seriously. The question of whether the Biblical record is reliable has been dealt with separately under the title You Can Trust The Bible by A. Graham Maxwell. If you are not certain about the reliability of Scripture, this book should be an essential part of your preparation for this type of Biblical study.

Most of this material is derived from the class entitled "Biblical Theology" or "The Picture of God in All 66" taught by A. Graham Maxwell over many years. Many of the questions were first raised by Dr. Maxwell or one of his students during his more than 135 trips through the Bible.

In more recent years I have been teaching similar classes and many of my students have contributed to these materials as well. As you use these materials and become more familiar with all the issues raised by this type of study, you will also find new and challenging questions arising.

Please share them with us and share any suggested answers as well. We all need to help each other to do our best in representing God correctly.

Fortunately for those who are interested in this approach, several of these trips through the Bible have been recorded by "Study Tapes". I would strongly recommend that those who wish to take such a journey through the Scriptures have at least one complete set of these cassette tapes available for ready reference.

The Study Guides and Teacher's Guides are meant only as a reminder of what you have already thought through as a result of being in one of Dr. Maxwell's or Dr. Hart's classes or listening to the tapes.

It is our fervent wish that these Study Guides and Teacher's Guides will serve primarily as an aide to those who are actively participating in such a class themselves.

Please note that the material is copyrighted, not as an attempt to prevent the spread of this method of Bible study, but because we would like to know if and how you are using the guides. We are anxious to support such efforts in whatever way we can. Feel free to contact me at any time at the address or telephone number listed below.

While I am most anxious to attribute any value that you may find in these guides to the real source the truth about God, His character and how He runs His government, and secondarily to A. Graham Maxwell for the thousands of hours he has put into this study through the years if you find any errors or grammatical mistakes, be assured that I take full responsibility for them.

If in using these materials you receive even a small part of the blessing that I have received in reviewing the materials and putting together these Study Guides and Teacher's Guides then my efforts will have been more than adequately rewarded.

Kenneth Hart

* * ASSUMPTIONS * *
Findng God in All 66'

No one class can deal with all the possible issues that one could raise about the Bible. In this class we will not focus on the great philosophical issues that have led to so many "isms" down through the ages. It is not that we don't think there are good answers to these questions, but rather that this class is intended to deal with different issues. Thus we will make certain assumptions at the outset that we blieve are supported by the evidence of Scripture. While we may discuss some of the great philosophical issues briefly as we go along, they are not the primary focus of this class. We will therefore state our assumptions at the beginning so everyone will be clear about our position:

1. There is an all-powerful God who created our world, and still cares about us.
2. God has chosen to reveal Himself to us through the Judeo-Christian Scriptures.
3. The Bible is an "inspired", reliable record of God's revelation of Himself. (See Luke 24:44; John 5:39,40; 2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Corinthians 10:1-4; 2 Peter 1:21)
4. We have the right words, and the right books adequately translated into modern language. There is a complete science, known as textual criticism that backs this up. There are almost no variations of major theological significance among the oldest handwritten texts of the Scriptures that we have. For all practical purposes we have the words of the original writers, preserved, copied and adequately translated into modern English.
5. We can understand the meaning. Despite the period of time that has elapsed since the writing of the books of the Bible, it is possible to understand the setting sufficiently to grasp the intended meaning. God, Himself, takes responsibility for revealing to us enough of the truth about His character and government that we are able to understand, appreciate and love Him here and now. Much more will be revealed to us in the future life, but we have sufficient now to begin our investigation of God and discover the truth. (See John 17:3,4; John 8:32)
6. God is not limited in any way when trying to communicate with us except by the limitations of our humanity. God can know the distant past as well as the distant future without limiting our freedom in any way.
7. Since all God asks of us and all He wants is mutual love, trust and trustworthiness which implies friendship, (Acts 16:31; John 15:15) God chooses to limit Himself rather than violate our freedom in any way. God knows that He cannot establish a free universe of beings who will live together in harmony for eternity without these basic essentials.


* * GENERAL PRINCIPLES * *
The Message About God in All 66'




There are many ways one can study the Scriptures. No doubt God will be leading us to a greater understanding of the important truths of the Bible throughout eternity, but for now we need to do our best to understand Him on the basis of what has been revealed in Scripture. To do this it is our belief that we need to keep certain central ideas, concepts and questions prominently in our thoughts as we read:

8. The Focus should always be: What does this story or section of Scripture say to you about God? If the Bible is God's book or letter to us then we should be primarily concerned about what it says to us about Him. If God is the wonderful God of love (1 John 4:8) that the Scriptures collectively seem to portray, then we should expect each part of the Scripture to speak well of Him.
9. Always remember that it is the context that determines the meaning of every passage in Scripture. This context includes the textual context (including an understanding as far as possible of what the original language meant to the original writers) in the local passage; the larger historical context of the times during which the books of the Bible were written; and the ultimate context which is the entire history of the great controversy between good and evil, God and Satan, since rebellion first entered, and which involves all the beings of the universe.
10. When reading the Old Testament, remember that it is the same Jesus Christ who came and lived as a human being in the New Testament who was the God of the Old Testament. (John 5:39; Luke 24:44; 1 Corinthians 10:4) For a very clear picture of what this Jesus Christ is like as a Person read the Gospel of John.
11. When faced with what appears to be a contradiction, or a passage which is very difficult to understand, always read on! Sometimes the local context will help. Sometimes it seems to get worse as you read on! When you really can't seem to understand why God does something in a certain situation, make a note of it and the questions that you have. Consult a commentary (they often ignore some of the most difficult problems), talk to someone else about it or look for other similar places in other parts of the Scripture. Often, seeing the problem in several different settings will lead one to an understanding of such problems throughout all of the Bible.
12. It is often useful to have a Bible with cross-references in the footnotes, or the margin, to see where similar situations have occurred or other passages have dealt with the same issue. This is particularly important for group leaders.
13. No part of the Bible is useless or should be overlooked or ignored. Some of the most important principles have been discovered by careful study of passages that are usually overlooked or ignored! (For example: John 15:15; 16:26).
14. God has many reasons for doing what He does. Our feeble, finite minds can only discover and comprehend a small fraction of these reasons. We may struggle to find even one rational explanation for an event in the Bible, but we need to remember that God has many reasons we can't possibly understand or grasp in this life. But if we can think of at least one explanation that makes sense, we shouldn't have any trouble accepting the idea that God has many more explanations.
15. The Bible is written in man's language and not in God's language. If God wants to communicate with us He has to act in ways and speak in a language we can understand. Often this has caused God to "reach lower and lower" to communicate with us on our level. It clearly was not God's plan ever to have sin, the flood, slavery, the killing, the monarchy, or idolatry, but He had to deal with people who were involved in all of these things and much worse. We should not therefore assume that because God appears to act in a certain way, in a certain situation, that this is His ideal!
16. The central question or theme of the Bible is not about whether God has greater authority or power than the Devil. The Devil admits that God has infinite power and it scares him. (James 2:19) The central theme of the Bible is about who is telling the truth and who can be trusted in the great controversy over God's character and government. This controversy involves all the intelligent beings of the universe and not just the people living on this planet. (Genesis 3:1-5; Job 1&2,38; Ephesians 1:9,10; 3:7-10; Colossians 1:19,20; 1 Corinthians 4:9; Revelation 12:7-12)
17. In some ways the Bible is like a final examination where we are given the answers but not the questions! In order to understand why God has given the answers that He has given we must figure out the questions!
18. While our human minds cannot possibly comprehend all there is to know about God, our minds are nevertheless the only instruments we have for thinking about Him. For this reason, God always seeks to speak to us in ways that make sense to us. "God never asks us to believe, without giving sufficient evidence upon which to base our faith. His existence, His character, the truthfulness of His Word, are all established by testimony that appeals to our reason; and this testimony is abundant. Yet God has never removed the possibility of doubt. Our faith must rest upon evidence, not demonstration. Those who wish to doubt will have opportunity; while those who really desire to know the truth, will find plenty of evidence on which to rest their faith." Steps to Christ 105 (1892).
19. When you think you have understood a given story pretty well, try to imagine what you would have done if you were God in that situation. Also try to imagine what you would have done if you were the Devil in that situation. It is often easy to sit back and criticize what God apparently did until you try to think of some better way to handle things!

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