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New Christian, Do I use a concordance for verses


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#1 Werwer2018

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Posted 24 April 2018 - 04:02 PM

I'm a new Christian and I'm having trouble understanding certain scripture verses such as Mark 16:18. Will a concordance translate this verse for me or what do I use. This verse about the serpent makes no sense to me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Greg



#2 APsit190

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Posted 24 April 2018 - 05:08 PM

I'm a new Christian and I'm having trouble understanding certain scripture verses such as Mark 16:18. Will a concordance translate this verse for me or what do I use. This verse about the serpent makes no sense to me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Greg

Hi Greg,

Great to here that you've recently gotten saved, and really praise God (as in jumping up and down, and dancing with joy) over what happened to you. Believe this or not, I'm wiping my eyes with tears of joy (Woo! Glory to God) over this news. Oh what a wonderful and glorious God we have.

 

Concordances are used primarily as a kind of an index of words for scriptures. Its trying to find a relevant verse of Scripture based on a word or words that you are looking for. Therefore, as such are pretty much useless for the understanding and interpretation of Scripture. However, there are some really good Bible Commentaries that are excellent to help you in understanding the Scriptures.

 

Now, with that said, my recommendation is that you get in with a bunch of other Christians you may know, and have them share with you by asking them a heap of questions  of what you want to know.  Things like fellowship with other believers where you can ask questions to your heart's content, is perhaps the best thing you can do. There you will grow in your life with Christ.

 

I trust this helps you.

 

God love you and bless you heaps as you journey in His divine life.

 

Blessings,

Stephen (Php 1:21).


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#3 Werwer2018

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Posted 24 April 2018 - 07:45 PM

Thank you for taking the time to get back to me. I'll look into getting a Bible commentary. MY wife and I have decided that we will start going to the Salvation Army around us. 

 

Greg

 

God Bless



#4 Tj Higgins

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Posted 24 April 2018 - 07:53 PM

I'm a new Christian and I'm having trouble understanding certain scripture verses such as Mark 16:18. Will a concordance translate this verse for me or what do I use. This verse about the serpent makes no sense to me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Greg

 

I would also recommend comparing some of the different bible translations to see how different verses are translated in different translations. Here is one example comparing Mark 16:18 as found in the King James Version (KJV) and the New International Version (NIV):

KJV:
 

Mar 16:18  They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. 
 

NIV:
 

Mar 16:18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."
 

As you can see the NIV version uses modern English, words phrasing to make the verse easier to understand.



#5 Werwer2018

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 06:41 AM

I would also recommend comparing some of the different bible translations to see how different verses are translated in different translations. Here is one example comparing Mark 16:18 as found in the King James Version (KJV) and the New International Version (NIV):

KJV:
 

Mar 16:18  They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. 
 

NIV:
 

Mar 16:18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."
 

As you can see the NIV version uses modern English, words phrasing to make the verse easier to understand.

Thanks for the reply. I've been trying to use different Bible Translations but I think what it is,is that I'm having trouble understanding what the verse means. Like mar 16:18 in particular. About the serpents and the drink. 

 

Greg



#6 lewiej

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 07:40 AM

Grace and peace to you Greg. Praise the Lord....you have been saved.

Don’t know if you have e-Sword but if not, install it and then install some of the great commentary modules which will help you understand any particular verse or verses. I like The Expository Notes of Dr. Constable commentary module and also Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary. And there are many other great modules available on this site.

Keep asking questions!

Lew

#7 Werwer2018

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 01:31 PM

Grace and peace to you Greg. Praise the Lord....you have been saved.

Don’t know if you have e-Sword but if not, install it and then install some of the great commentary modules which will help you understand any particular verse or verses. I like The Expository Notes of Dr. Constable commentary module and also Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary. And there are many other great modules available on this site.

Keep asking questions!

Lew

Thank you for the kind words. I'll look into the commentary that you mentioned.

 

Greg



#8 Silverhair

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Posted 26 April 2018 - 09:43 AM

I'm a new Christian and I'm having trouble understanding certain scripture verses such as Mark 16:18. Will a concordance translate this verse for me or what do I use. This verse about the serpent makes no sense to me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Greg

 

Hi Greg

Welcome to the family of God. Now starts the journey. I have been a Christian for over fifty years and am still learning each day. The Bible is it's own best commentary. We are to build our theology on the whole word of God not on a few chosen verses that seem to support our views. In other words, do not take verses out of context.

 

I found the following comment a while back and am not sure who wrote it but it does state the case well.

 

The text is supreme

 

When we speak of the text of Scripture, we do not mean an isolated verse from the Bible, but the body of material before us as we read, whether the whole Bible, a whole book or part of a book. Because we respect the Bibles authority, we usually like to quote a chapter and verse to support our beliefs. The desire to have biblical authority is commendable, but we must be careful that it does not cause us to distort the meaning of the text.

 

Sometimes we study what is called systematic theology. This is a kind of study that links verses from all over the Bible to give us teaching on biblical subjects. We should be careful, however, not to engage extensively in this kind of study till we have first understood the verses in their original setting. In general, we should carry out a proper study of a Bible book before we quote isolated verses from it.

 

The text of Scripture in the form God gave it is supreme. It is this text that is the Word of God, not our reorganization of it. We must be careful not to force the text to fit any scheme of theological interpretation, no matter how useful we may consider that scheme to be.

 

Bottom line we are not to base our theology on a few well chosen verses but on the whole word of God. I like to use this as an illustration when doing Alpha courses. Lookup the quote “there is no God” you will find it 14 times in the NASB bible. So the question is “is there no God?” well this is where context comes in, Psa 14:1 “The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God.". Context matters.

 

When you come across verses, like Mar 16:18, that you do not understand and you will then look for verses on that subject that are clear and compare them. If you still do not understand then set them aside and continue studying and as your knowledge increases you will be better able to understand the difficult verses.


Edited by Silverhair, 26 April 2018 - 09:44 AM.

Gal 2:20

 

I’m willing to compromise about many things, but not the Word of God 

 

There must be conviction before there can be conversion 

 

 


#9 APsit190

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Posted 26 April 2018 - 05:04 PM



Thank you for taking the time to get back to me. I'll look into getting a Bible commentary. MY wife and I have decided that we will start going to the Salvation Army around us. 

 

Greg

 

God Bless

Hi Greg,

Considering that this site has oodles of study resources, such kind of things like Bible commentaries, Dictionaries, and lexicons of which are all free, I recommend you download as many as you would like to have. But that is not all, e-Sword has an incredibly great download manager which you can download for free some or all of the official resources such as different Bible translations, Dictionaries, Commentaries, and etc.

 

But it just doesn't stop there. You also have eStudySource.com, which holds all premium resources for e-Sword, of which you can purchase. The prices there are extremely reasonable.

 

So, as you can see, there is a great deal of wealth of Bible study resources available, of which the overwhelming majority of them are free.

 

Just as a matter of interest, from what I can gather, e-Sword has the largest repository of electronic Bible Study resources of any Bible Study software. Moreover, e-Sword enjoys a massive user support network of which a number of them create new resources almost daily.

 

What we have here could be regarded as the largest worldwide network of Christians creating resources for Bible study, of the quality that can be used in Bible College, University, and Theological Seminaries. I don't think that when Rick Meyers created e-Sword 18 years ago, Glory to God, that he would have dreamed this work would have gone to the extent and growth that it is today. And guess what?! And is still growing.

 

This is amazing, and one can really see God's hand in this work. And so with that, we can really give thanks and praise to God for raising men such as Rick Meyers and Josh Bond for the work they have done. And also Give God the glory, which He richly deserves, for those who tirelessly work in the creation of resources for this program. And I can honestly assert this, that to many this has been of a great cost to them.

 

Blessings,

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Edited by APsit190, 26 April 2018 - 05:05 PM.

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#10 Werwer2018

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Posted 26 April 2018 - 07:35 PM

Hi Greg

Welcome to the family of God. Now starts the journey. I have been a Christian for over fifty years and am still learning each day. The Bible is it's own best commentary. We are to build our theology on the whole word of God not on a few chosen verses that seem to support our views. In other words, do not take verses out of context.

 

I found the following comment a while back and am not sure who wrote it but it does state the case well.

 

The text is supreme

 

When we speak of the text of Scripture, we do not mean an isolated verse from the Bible, but the body of material before us as we read, whether the whole Bible, a whole book or part of a book. Because we respect the Bibles authority, we usually like to quote a chapter and verse to support our beliefs. The desire to have biblical authority is commendable, but we must be careful that it does not cause us to distort the meaning of the text.

 

Sometimes we study what is called systematic theology. This is a kind of study that links verses from all over the Bible to give us teaching on biblical subjects. We should be careful, however, not to engage extensively in this kind of study till we have first understood the verses in their original setting. In general, we should carry out a proper study of a Bible book before we quote isolated verses from it.

 

The text of Scripture in the form God gave it is supreme. It is this text that is the Word of God, not our reorganization of it. We must be careful not to force the text to fit any scheme of theological interpretation, no matter how useful we may consider that scheme to be.

 

Bottom line we are not to base our theology on a few well chosen verses but on the whole word of God. I like to use this as an illustration when doing Alpha courses. Lookup the quote “there is no God” you will find it 14 times in the NASB bible. So the question is “is there no God?” well this is where context comes in, Psa 14:1 “The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God.". Context matters.

 

When you come across verses, like Mar 16:18, that you do not understand and you will then look for verses on that subject that are clear and compare them. If you still do not understand then set them aside and continue studying and as your knowledge increases you will be better able to understand the difficult verses.

 

 

First of Hello from Thorold ON. Thanks for that information I sure appreciate it. The more I Have been reading the Bible and using the different versions available the more certain verses are becoming clearer. Will continue to keep reading and praying for guidance.

 

Greg





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