A good confession or catechism can be a useful tool for understanding how the Bible teaches regarding specific subjects. I hope it's ok to post a link to one. If not, mods please remove this. Realize that most are denominational specific, so there will be some things that others will disagree with. But most things should be universally believed among Christians. The main things are the plain things in most cases.
https://founders.org/library-book/1689-confession/the Bible doesn't teach anything it says what it says believe what it says.
and if u use the inductive method that gomer referred to the context of the verse will tell you what the passage means.
you wont need some man made systematic calvinistic confession of 1689.
dont pigeon hole yourself into a man made systematic theology such as calvinism cause then you will approach every verse and try ti make it say calvinism.you will be reading your system into the text.
I really don’t want to derail this thread because it was a good and honest question that the OP asked. I just tried to suggest something to read as he requested. I agree 100% with understanding the context of scripture as the main way to understand scripture itself. That’s is Chapter 1, article 9 of the confession I recommended. But I disagree with your statement about the Bible not teaching anything. All it does is teach about my sin, my need for a savior, the salvation found in Christ. I think you meant that it doesn’t teach a system of theology or beliefs. But even you have to admit that you believe things not explicitly stated in scripture, but rather inferred. For instance, you claim that the KJV is the only authentic English version of the Bible (you might do this jokingly) but where in the KJV does it name the 66 books that make up the KJV as each being the word of God compared to other books. I’m not talking about 2 Tim 3:16 where it says all scripture is God-breathed or inspired by God. And I know Jesus referred to Moses, the Law, the prophets, and the Psalms as scripture. But I’m talking about naming Revelation or Acts or Ephesians as God’s word, but 2 Enoch isn’t. It doesn’t name them. But you trust that the early church and the men who met at the council of Hippo obeyed God and got the canon of scripture right. Why then is it impossible to believe that men could honestly try to compile their beliefs about scripture into a text that helps people understand His word better? Not to replace or supercede His word, but to help someone learn it better, like Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. Please pm me if you would like to discuss this further because I don’t want to detract from the his original question.
BowtechDan, please don’t let the fact that people disagree about things regarding Jesus and the Bible deter you in any way from your desire to know more. We are called to child-like faith (totally dependent), but not to childish faith (satisfied that we won’t go to hell with no desire for spiritual growth). We are called to spiritual maturity. A disagreement among believers doesn’t mean that we don’t respect and love one another. We are commanded to love the Lord with all of our mind. It’s something often overlooked and undervalued. Read and listen to as much as you can, but test everything against scripture.
