If there is a right way to study, then obviously there must be a wrong way as well!

Throughout this website we’ll be sharing little things here and little bits there as to the correct method of Bible study. But just now, we are going to let a Bible type tell us something about the importance of how we study.

By now you already know that types will cause us to see things a little differently than simply reading the Bible at face value. There is nothing wrong with taking the Bible just as it reads, and in fact we are counseled to do that, but we are also counseled to dig deep beneath the surface in the mine of truth.

Types do that.

The Test at the Water

In the account of Gideon and his men found in Judges 7, the Bible clearly details a two-step testing process. The first three verses show a rather simple method that produces two classes of men. The army, composed of thirty-two thousand men, are given the freedom to choose whether or not they will go out and fight. Realizing that they are up against an immense force, twenty-two thousand men decide to go home and forgo the fight.

It is interesting to note that it was God Himself that decided that there were too many men in Israel’s army, as He didn’t want them to go out and somehow think that they were capable of defeating such a large and hostile army on their own.

Now they are down to ten-thousand men and God still insists that there are too many men for him to work with. So, he directs them to another test that will reduce their numbers even more.

This time however, God personally sets the rules of the test.

“And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are still too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.

So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.

And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink.

And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.” Judges 7:4-7

He orders Gideon to bring the men down to the water for the purpose of getting a drink before they engage in battle. There each man drinks, the majority of the men kneeling down and putting their face in the water, whereas a few dip their hand in the water and put it to their mouth, all the time keeping their eyes open for the enemy.

All of these men drank out of the same water, but it was how they each drank that determined whether or not they would go on to fight the battle.

In other words, God was looking to see what method each person would use to get the water out of the stream and into their bodies. The water could do them no good as long as it stayed in the stream, but it must somehow be withdrawn, and placed in their mouths and absorbed before it could be of any benefit to them.

Why did it even matter to God how they drank, just so long AS they drank? Wasn’t that good enough?

Making it Personal

By now we should be able to see that the water is a type of the Word of God, the Bible.

We should also realize that it is just as important to us, as it was to them in this matter of how to drink, or in our case, how to study. With both classes of men, it was essential that they have the strengthening, refreshing, vitalizing water before they could go on to the battle. But the fact remains that one group went on to fight, and the other sent home. All because of the method they each used to get a drink out of the same body of water.

Our Pioneers

If you are familiar with our past, just before the Adventist Church was formed, you will recall that there was something different between the Millerites and the rest of the churches of their day.

The difference was primarily in the way that they each studied the Bible.

It was because of the way in which our pioneers studied, that we as Adventists now have a firm platform of truth to stand upon. That platform of truth was given to us as a direct result of the establishment of a method of Bible study.

This platform is composed of truths such as the Three Angels Messages, the Investigative Judgment, the 2300 years, and even controverted points such as the Daily, and the 2520 prophecy.

Each prophecy or doctrine that is unique to us was arrived at by a careful study of the Bible using a specific method of study.

This method of study did not employ the use of Greek and Hebrew, or depend on a historical grammatical system, or a system based on higher criticism, but relied instead on the principles contained in Isaiah 28 where it details the concept of line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little.

Miller’s Rules of Interpretation are simply an expansion of these principles put into a form that we can understand and utilize. They are the way that God has given us that enables us to come to a correct understanding of the truths contained in the Bible. Put in a different way, these rules are the way that God has chosen to let the Bible speak for itself.

No interpreters.

No commentators.

Just 14 simple rules…