Inductive Bible Study

[jd.morrison]

So I have a friend in who I am talking to who was very shocked that I don't do an Inductive Bible Study. I stated that I try to do my best at Exegeting a segment of Scripture.

Inductive Bible Study, what is it? I read the forum on Kay Arthur. My friend read a "Josh McDowell" thing on it. I have heard mixed messages of it and was wondering if I could get a clearer answer.

 

[moral necessity]

This should help:

Trivium Pursuit: Inductive and Deductive Bible Studies

Blessings!

 

[jwithnell]

You are moving from specifics (details in the scriptures) to generalities (broad principles). If you look for key phrases, repeated concepts, unusual (to the writer) words etc., it can help you reach conclusions about broad themes and applications.

It's not a bad approach, but I would suggest that you also need to keep in mind the broader principles of scriptures as you work. Otherwise, you're likely to end up with a fair amount of proof-texting. In my mind, the critical element to Bible study is to interpret scripture with scripture.

As a baby Christian, I found some study guides that led me through several books of the Bible, and I thought they were extremely helpful. By that time, I was getting solid exegetical preaching and began to combine the principles that my pastor was using with the "techniques" I had learned in the studies.

 

[Jack K]

Inductive Bible study in a group is usually taken to mean studying one particular passage at a time and discussing what it means, and what it means to us, without bringing in other passages or sources. It is useful:

- for forcing you to focus on the text in front of you and examine it carefully for what it says, without immediately imposing your own framework on it.

- for allowing seekers, new Christians and others who may otherwise be intimidated to study the Bible together with more experienced Christians on an equal footing, using just the text in front of them.

- for dealing with biblical know-it-alls who tend to use Bible studies as a platform for showing off all the biblical and theological knowledge they've amassed.

Its popularity in settings like BSF and InterVarsity has led some to think it can't be a good Bible study unless it's an inductive Bible study, and all truly committed Christians really need to be in one. I'd agree that Bible study groups are very helpful for many believers, but I'd also note that the inductive method has serious shortcomings if that's all you do. Most notably, it fails to make use of context (outside of the immediate passage) for biblical interpretation.