But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him, 1st John 2:27.
Perhaps one of the greatest stumbling blocks to really understanding the bible is the lie that you need some man to teach you. This statement may seem hypocritical coming from a man who teaches the bible. I think that everyone can agree that the simple basics of the bible should be taught to everyone in their youth or sometime after they first become acquainted with the bible. Such teaching is for beginners or for those who have strayed through carnality. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat, Hebrews 5:12.
At the Black Creek Baptist Church as I am sure many churches do, we use Sunday School to augment the bible instruction for young people who do not get it at home. There we hope to give the students the general body of Christian knowledge concerning the bible itself and important bible stories and principles. We are blessed to have teachers who truly love their students and truly care that they learn the precepts of God.
Where we differ from many churches is our encouragement to the people to study their bibles for themselves. Evangelist Timothy McVey has pointed out that in most revival meetings the emphasis of altar calls is to call the people to greater service. An evangelist gets up and preaches one of his 20 or so stock messages. When he is done, he gets the piano player to play some hymn while he softly asks all of the people who have heads bowed and eyes closed if they are doing enough for God. He then invites them up to the altar to get that right with God.
The result in most of our Fundamental Baptist Churches is a body of members who are worn out as the church shrinks year by year. We have not had to emphasize service here in Black Creek. God has blessed us with a few who are happy to serve. What we emphasize is for them to know God better. They won't do that by hours of prayer. If you think that hours of prayer will help you know God better, go join a cloistered monastery or convent. Prayer is when you talk to God. I'm all for that, but you don't learn about a person by talking to them. You learn about a person by listening to them.
The King James Bible is how to listen to God. The better you know your bible, the more you will know about God. I am not denying that there are times when the Holy Ghost impresses certain thoughts or ideas onto someone's consciousness. I just know that all cults, false teachers, mystics, bible correcters and just about everyone else claims to get special prodding or insight from God. The only way to discern whether or not that prodding is holy and from God is to be in harmony with a King James Bible. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them, Isaiah 8:20. The way false teachers get around that is to search through various versions until they find one that agrees with their inner thoughts. A King James Bible is security against that.
One study that I give my people is the study of the Tabernacle. Once it finally occurs to you that there is no revelation on this earth about the Tabernacle that is not contained in the words of a King James Bible, you can research the Tabernacle for yourself without teaching aides. Get a piece of paper and draw a simple outline of the Tabernacle walls. Make an inch to be a cubit or use some other ratio, but draw an outline of the walls by just using the text of your bible.
Once you have that basic outline, begin to make simple drawings of each piece of the Tabernacle. Keep in mind that everything that God told Moses is written for us in English. We may not know what a horn looked like, or how Bezaleel formed the crown of certain objects, but we can know the exact dimensions of each object. Draw them with what ever skill level you have. I have almost no skill in drawing but with a ruler for a straight edge and with a King James Bible, I was able to draw each piece.
The next step is to locate the place of each piece in the simple drawing you have of the Tabernacle itself. Even these simple things that I have instructed you to do can be vexing. If you wrestle them out and not cheat by looking up other drawings of the Tabernacle, you can eventually get it. There are few greater satisfactions in bible study than to be stymied by something that you just can't seem to see, pray to God to help you find it, and then eventually find the key to that puzzle written in some other place in the bible than where you had been looking.
It is this kind of study that will turn you into a doctrinal bible believer. The King James Bible movement is a big tent. There are many in its ranks who can expound the historical accuracy of our King James Bible and then ignore what it says doctrinally. I teach my people that there are historical bible believers and there are doctrinal bible believers.
It is the King James Bible and the King James Bible alone which will make you into a doctrinal bible believer. I see my role as a pastor and a teacher not as a quarterback calling the plays, but as a blocker in a running play. I give my people the ball and try to use my preaching to block all of the pitfalls that will slow them down or tackle them. It is my joy to see my people run with the word of God and slowly be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God, Ephesians 3:18,19. Learning the breadth, and length, an depth, and height is joy to a bible believer. Start with the Tabernacle.
Trust your King James Bible.