My name isn't important and we will not use it because I don't want to distract from the message. The bottom line is that we believe our understanding is from God's word, the bible and it stands or falls to his glory, or our shame. Since we believe it will stand to his glory, then our name isn't important and all glory should go to him. if not, then let us go into nameless obscurity, where we belong. Fair enough? Then let's go on.
So who, or what are the Bible Students? First of all that name was applied to a movement of Christians who believed that Charles Taze Russell had been given an uncommon insight into God's and that his publication, Zion's Watch Tower, proclaimed the truth from God's word to distinguish them from others professing belief in Jesus Christ and salvation through him. Russell was uncomfortable with that at first because he firmly believed that the only proper name for Christians is the one one first used by divine appointment of God, Christians. We tend to agree and when asked about who we are we will first Identify ourselves with that name. things being what they are, however, with the body of Christ divided in Christendom and some sort of label expected the name of Bible Student stuck and that is what we are still known by today, rumors of our death as a movement spread by the Jehovah's Witnesses notwithstanding. We still publish the Studies In the Scriptures authored by the late Brother Russell because we believe they do expound sound basic truth nd where they do fall short it is simply a matter of a mistake on Brother Russell's part as to the timing of how things are playing out in this time of the last days which were foretold millenia ago. People don't realize because of the way folks use the failure of his prediction regarding the end of the world being complete by 1914 that so many other things he predicted either came true, or are playing out right before our very eyes. But we see that there is still much good in those volumes and keep them in publication.
So, have basically address the question of who the bible Students were and still are to an extent we no apply ourselves to the question of what a Bible Student is. Back in 2012 a Bible Student by the name of Bob Carnegie tried to tackle that question at a convention in Grand Rapids, Michigan with the discourse Are We Really Bible Students? For years we didn't care for this discourse because it was a lead into promoting a teaching in another discourse the same day which we consider dead wrong. However, it was a timely discourse and one which should set my fellow brethren thinking. And, no, I'm not him.
Basically a Bible Student is part of a movement of Christians who believe firmly in Sola Scriptura, that is, the principle that the bible is the only reliable source for truth, period. Oh, we may see much good in guides written by mature and understanding Christian men, however, all such guides are flawed in some way and should be measured and tested against the Bible. That is because we believe the admonition of Paul to Timothy that "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (2Ti 3:16-17[unless otherwise stated all verse quotations will come from the King James Bible, KJV]). At the time he wrote that there were only the Tanakh, or Old Testament, and parts of the New Testament such as Matthew's Gospel and some of Paul's letters, though we doubt Paul saw it that way. So the bible is inspired, that is "God breathed," as the meaning of the Greek behind the phrase really means and evokes the picture from Genesis of man's creation and receiving life (Gen. 2:7). God preserved the bible in the form he wanted it through the centuries, however, he is making manuscripts of great age of it available in this time of the end as part of the fulfillment of his prophecy given to Daniel that "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (Dan 12:4) and these give more insight into his word for the wise. So it is the source for truth, period.
Sola Sciptura also means something else, shedding preconceptions formed by theological teaching with the wrong foundation. Now what do we mean by that? We are also students of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, the languages of the Bible as a whole, and several of the early languages into which it was first translated and will freely refer to them in the future since we work from the text of the Bible itself. From years of study we concluded that the bible is a Semitic, or Middle Eastern and can only be properly understood from that perspective. Western theology is based on Pagan Greek philosophy, a good chunk of it the philosophy of Socrates and Plato. As this philosophy came to infect the church the bible was more and more seen through a lens of Grecian thinking and pagan beliefs imposed on it rather than the other way around. Viewing God's word with the use of Western Theology is a big mistake which will not really lead to understanding it and it's message in our opinion. So to understand the truth of God's word one must shed that lens and take a fresh look at God's word. That is the second part of what Sola Scriptura really means.
But how does one do that and how do Bible Students do that? Well, the easiest way, though it is still hard work, is two part. One must go to the text, and study the bible topically.
Not everybody is inclined to learn the bible's languages, that's just a given. But in this day of of advanced technology there are wonderful aids available, many of them free, to get around that problem and start looking at the real message of God's word, the truth, without having to do that. Programs such as E-Sword which can give easy access to the text of the bible and valuable aids for study such as lexicons to help one out. And that one is free! But the point is to go to the text of the bible itself instead of relying on translations, all of which contain their biases based on whatever theology the translator follows. This is what the early Adventists did using concordances and lexicons while shedding preconceived notions of what God's Word taught in there quest fr truth. It is also what led to early advances in understanding of God's word at the time, though with time most started renouncing those truths in favor of gaining some sort of approval of the nominal churches. A true Bible Student goes to the text of God's word for enlightenment.
The second part of the method is to study the bible Topically. We are not here saying that sequential reading of God's word or study of individual books is useless, quite the contrary that gives a person a great overview of things and a basis for making sure they don't take verses out of context to formulate some sort of teaching not really biblical. However, it did please God to hide the truth in plan sight so that one has to go hunting for it and that is done through topical study. By that we mean one takes a subject, for instance the soul. Then one looks up key words, in this case really just two words, nephesh and psyche, and not only looking them up in a lexicon, but using a concordance or the search function of a computer program to follow them throughout the bible and see what their usage reveals. What really makes things easier is that at the end of the 19th century a scholar, Dr. Strong, assigned each word of the original languages in the text a number and most lexicons, concordances, and computer programs are keyed to those Strong's numbers, as they are called today. Try that with the word "soul" and one discovers some things about the soul theologians try to hide, obscure, or explain away. But it leads to understanding God's word and what it really says.
So that is what Bible Students are and how we arrive at our beliefs. We look to God's word and for acceptance any other aid must be based on God's word and use the same basic methodology. We are a firm believer here that if one cannot explain what they believe without using God's word only and must constantly cite the works of men other then lexicons, etc, and that includes the Studies In The Scriptures and Zion's Watchtower as some among us are wont to do, then one is either a babe in Christ, or a follower of some man. As a matter of course that leaves out Jehovah's Witnesses, who claim to be us.
That, in a nutshell, is What the Bible Students are. We are simply Christians who believe in the inspiration and primacy of the Bible over any other work. We study it diligently for insight and take it's word over any other, one such matter being where historians agree that Israel was in exile to Babylon for fifty years, but the eyewitness account of Daniel the prophet says seventy. Our study using the methodology outline has convinced us that in the important matters Charles Taze Russell had insight into God's word, though as individuals we reserve the right to disagree with hm or anyone else if our personal study leads us to other conclusions. So we do recommend the Studies, as we call the volumes her wrote, As reliable guides to those new to the christian faith and we do use them as a standard framework for studies together as congregations. We are a movement, meaning the focus in one's liberty in Christ, therefore there is no master organization controlling belief or actions. Each congregation is independent and its leaders, the elders and deacons, elected by the members periodically and responsible to them as a church. We, this individual Bible Student using the third person since this is formal writing, invite you to follow along with us as we lay out what our study of God's word has led us to conclude. The next post will be on the Gospel, or Good news, in brief.
