On Wednesday 17th January, Bible Society NI and Precept Ireland hosted a special event at the T3 Conference Centre in Lisburn with one intention: to give Christians renewed confidence in God’s Word.
The evening was split into two sessions. During Session 1, Mark Wells (Community Partnership Manager at Bible Society NI) examined the reliability and authenticity of the Bible from an external perspective.
Mark highlighted the fact that the Bible we have today is a reliable copy of what was written originally. Mark discussed the lack of variation in manuscripts alongside the sheer number of manuscripts compared to other ancient texts. The session was full of interesting facts and attendees couldn’t help but feel in awe of how the Bible was crafted together.
“All Prophecies about Jesus: A big picture view of those promised in the Old & fulfilled in the New”
Taken from The Infographic Bible: Visualising the Drama of God’s Word (Zondervan, 2018)
Mark also took time to think about the complexity of the Bible, and how that should encourage our study of it, rather than cause us to discard it.
“Scripture is like a river . . . broad and deep, shallow enough here for the lamb to go wading, but deep enough there for the elephant to swim.”
After a short break where attendees were able to thumb through some of the books and resources that were on display, Dave Wilson (National Director at Precept Ireland) led the second session. As Mark had provided some reasons for why we should read the Bible, Dave then provided a method for how we can read it better.
Reading the Bible is a spiritual discipline that Christians readily admit they should do, but many struggle with how. Dave shared about the three ingredients of inductive Bible study: Observation, Interpretation, and Application. He then led the group through a study of 1 Thessalonians 1 using this method and very quickly the attendees were all discussing what they were learning from the passage and the clear applications that were coming from it.
Overall those who attended felt the two sessions were helpful and worthwhile, though both talks could have benefited from more time in discussion groups if time had permitted.
Thanks go to the House of Vic-Ryn for hosting the event at their T3 Conference Centre, and to Richard at The Book Well for providing some relevant books related to the topics.
For Further Reading & Study:
- “The Bible Course” – Bible Society
- “Why Trust the Bible” – Amy Orr-Ewing (opens link to The Book Well website)
- “Lord, Teach Me To Study the Bible in 28 Days” – Kay Arthur