ABC's of Scripture

This summer I'm interning at an Evangelical Free Church and this coming Tuesday we're beginning a Bible Study group for teens looking to learn more from the Bible. Thus we're going to start by looking at what Scripture has to say about itself. We're going to due an overview of Psalm 119, which has the most verses in the Bible (176) and all 176 verses are on the attributes Scripture.

For a little background, I'm going to remind everyone what Mr. Branscombe taught us. The 176 verses can be grouped int passages of 8 verses and beginning with verse each group of 8 verses is a letter in the Hebrew alphabet. We can go through the Hebrew alphabet from Aleph to Taw.

To prepare for the Bible Study I went through the 176 verses and found as many references I could find that ascribe an attribute to Scripture. After I listed them I found some commonality in them so I plotted them into a spread sheet such as that of below:

How 2 Live	Morality	Encouragement	Knowledge
Advice	Purity	Inspiration for the reader	Understanding
Direction	Righteous	Comfort	Make Wise
Instruction	Just/Fair	Hope	Discernment
Guidance	Perfect	Promises
Teaching	Trustworthy
Discipline

Reality	Greatness	Experience
Right	Sustaining & Life Giving	Pleasing
Truth	Awesome/Wonderful	Treasure
	Eternal	Happiness
		My Delight

I was surprised how easily these grouped together and also noticed some commonalities Psalm 176 has with II Timothy 3:16, which reads: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The Uneducated Church

When churches abandon or de-emphasize theology, they give up the intellectual tools by which the Christian message can be articulated and defended.
-Peter Berger

I am becoming increasingly concerned with state of the Church. It seems in an attempt to maintain unity we have opted for ignorance. For many of our brothers and sisters their theological education doesn't go beyond "Jesus loves me this I know the Bible tells me so". Yes the Gospel is simple enough for a child to grasp (at the age of accountability), and yes, Karl Barth did once say that was the deepest theological truth he knew of. Yet, what makes this such a deep theological truth is an understanding of all the implications involved in the making such an assertion. Human Depravity, God's Holiness, Redemption and Grace just begin to scratch the surface of the doctrines that are involved in making such a statement.

Don't misunderstand me; I do not think everyone needs a doctorate in theology. My concern is that we become content to suck on the theological milk suitable for infants rather than chew on the meat that causes us to grow into adulthood. My primary motivation for pursuing my Masters is to help reduce the "graduating out of Christianity". When they leave the safety of youth group they are forced to give a reason for what they believe, but find they have never been equipped to do so. This is not unique to teens, we as the Church seem petrified to admit our allegiance, not out of a lack of love, but because we have no idea how to respond to questions or objections. We as the Church need to begin to grow our theological roots. How can we worship a God to whom we are estranged?