Years ago (nearly forty as a matter of fact), I visited an adult Bible class in my wife's hometown. The teacher that day was beginning a study of the book of Revelation. He opened with these words: "The Book of Revelation is almost beyond understanding. The only resource I have on this book is John Hinds commentary. Brother Hinds is a great Bible scholar and I can think of no better book on Revelation so that is the book we will be using."
"So," I thought, "we will not be studying Revelation, but John Hinds' thoughts on Revelation." Never mind that John Hinds has been dead for fifty years. Never mind that scholarship has moved appreciably in that half century. Though the book of Revelation is the only book in the Bible that pronounces a blessing on those who read it; we will never get that blessing because we will not be reading Revelation. We'll be reading John T. Hinds."
You are right: I am being tough on the teacher who undoubtedly thought he was doing the best he could. But it was far from his best. He could at least have asked his preacher what books he might recommend on Revelation. But he didn't.
All this brings to mind some suggestions for those who undertake the awesome responsibility of being a Bible teacher.
First, Bible classes deserve to study the Bible. It's true that teachers cannot help but interpret scripture, but interpretation is a "process" that only "includes" consulting resource materials. Not consulting resource materials means you did not fully engage the process. ONLY teaching a resource material means you did not engage the process at all. I will have more to say about resources materials themselves in another post, but I would urge you to at least consult a good Bible student (your preacher for example) to point you in the direction of good material. Unfortunately, lots of folks think they don't need to consult anyone and usually, everyone ends up knowing they didn't.
More next time.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
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