“Teaching the Word – Systematically”

“Teaching the Word – Systematically” was the byline of the church I grew up in, back in Nebraska. In the marketing lingo of today you’d say it was their Unique Selling Proposition. Stephen Covey would say it was their mission.

That phrase was printed on every bulletin, it was on the Yellow Pages ad, it was on a sign in the church bookstore. It was the church’s defining value.

We were dead serious about it, too.

So what does this mean?

It means if we’re teaching the book of Matthew, the pastor starts at chapter 1 verse 1 and explores EVERY statement one word or phrase at a time.

So Matthew 1:1 says, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Most churches would just skip over that verse on their way to the ‘important stuff’. Slow down now, Jack — there’s a whole bunch of meaning there. If you’re serious about scripture, you don’t want to miss anything.

What does “son of David” mean? After all that phrase appears nine different times in the Old Testament alone. Not to mention the sixteen times it appears in the New Testament.

In my way of thinking, every one of those references is a hyperlink.

Most people think hyperlinks were invented in 1993 or something, when the Internet started to happen.

Nah – Bible scholars have had hyperlinks in their heads, linking all kinds of Greek and Hebrew words all over the place, for millenia. The hyperlink wasn’t invented by Tim Berners-Lee. It wasn’t even invented by Al Gore. It was invented by a studious bunch of Jewish guys who wrote the first concordance. Probably 2500 years ago.

So anyway we’d spend about 20 minutes on “son of David.”

Then we’d spend 20 more minutes on “son of Abraham.” That appears four different times. We’d go look at all those verses.

Then we’d spend the last 20 minutes exploring the fact that these two are connected. What does it mean to be a son of David (a king) and a son of Abraham (a patriarch)? And what does it mean about Christ’s humanity?

An hour has now gone by and it’s time to dismiss everyone until next week.

Using this method of Bible exposition – including Christmas and Easter sermons and tangents and rabbit trails on other unrelated topics – it took our pastor FIVE YEARS to get through Romans.

You could say I learned Matthew and Romans really, really well.

I’ll get one thing off my conscience before I go any further – we believed that this was THE way to teach the Bible. The only way to go, really, if you were any kind of real serious Christian. We were a little snotty about this, seeing as how we believed we had the best Bible teaching of any church in town.

BTW you would not get caught dead in that place without a handsome study Bible in your hand. That church didn’t um, supply them free in the pews. No siree Bob, you bring your own. BYOB, baby. With pencil or pen in hand.

So the confession here is, our little church clan gave a whole new meaning to the word ‘Bible thumper.’ It kind of turned it into a hammer you could use against other people. And that was bad. Very bad, sometimes.

I confess that sin and I don’t say so lightly. Because it’s not how the Bible is meant to be used.

But that said…. I wouldn’t trade that education for anything. If there’s anybody out there who would say that Perry is a guy who takes a systematic approach to things, this is why. It’s not from my Electrical Engineering courses, it’s from this. Which came much, much earlier.

I also believe that this sort of intellectual rigor is the very foundation of scholarship and learning in the Western world. Secular or otherwise. When I got into college, difficult literature classes were a breeze.

And indeed, when you know the Bible that well, you tend to not have a lot of patience for people who have never taken the time to study it very closely and boldly proclaim that it’s riddled with contradictions and superstitious nonsense.

One last thought before I go:

The obscure book of Micah in the Old Testament speaks of harsh judgment followed by a rebirth and a new season of peace everywhere in the world. The very thing that mankind most yearns for. The statement on the United Nations building that says, They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore comes from Micah 4:3.

But my favorite verse in Micah is not that one, it’s the verse that comes before it – because it describes the scene in which this is possible:

People from many nations will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of Jacob's God.
There he will teach us his ways,
and we will walk in his paths."
For the Lord's teaching will go out from Zion;
his word will go out from Jerusalem.

His word will go out from Jerusalem… God Himself will teach the word – very systematically I’m sure, at least on some days – and peace on earth will finally be possible.

Why? Because men and women are filled with the knowledge of God.

May it someday be.

Perry Marshall