Here are some discussion questions for this week’s session:

• Why is it important to your Christian life to know which writings are God’s words and which are not?
  

• How would your Christian life be different if you had to look for God’s words that were scattered among all the writings of Christians throughout church history?
  

• Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and members of other cults have books that they consider as “inspired” by God which they add to their canon. Why shouldn’t those additional books be considered canonical? In practice, do these people treat the Bible as an ultimate authority equal to these other “revelations”?

Here are some discussion questions for this week’s session:

• Because authority can be abused, isn’t it dangerous to talk about biblical authority?

• What about when Christians feel that God speaks to them directly apart from the Bible? Is this to be considered as authoritative? Is this consistent with the doctrine of ‘Sola Scriptura’?

• What about other religions that claim their books are authoritative? Is it possible that both the Bible and some other books can be Divinely authoritative?

• How does your life practically show that you really believe in the inspiration and authority of the Bible? What are some ways that this doctrine impacts the way you live your life and shapes your beliefs?

Here are some discussion questions for this week’s session:

• Do you know of anyone who ever became a Christian without either reading or hearing someone tell them what the Bible said? What then is the primary task of an evangelistic missionary?

• Do God’s principles in Scripture and the apparent guidance we receive from feelings, conscience, advice, circumstances, human reasoning, or society ever seem to conflict? How should we seek to resolve the conflict?

• Considering the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture, what relative emphasis should we put on reading Scripture itself and on reading other Christian books?

• Have you ever wished that the Bible would say more than it does about a certain subject? Or less? Why? How is God’s wisdom shown in the fact that He chose not to make the Bible as long/short as it actually is?

• In the light of this chapter, how would you find God’s “perfect” will for your life? Is it possible that there would be more than one “perfect” choice in many decisions we make? (Consider Ps. 1:3 and 1 Cor. 7:39 in seeking an answer.)

Here are some discussion questions for this week’s session:

• Observing the diversity of interpretations of Scripture, some conclude, “People can make the Bible say anything they want.” How do you think Jesus would respond to this statement?

• What would happen to the church if most believers gave up reading the Bible for themselves and only listened to Bible teachers or read books about the Bible?

• If even seminary professors disagree about some Bible teaching, can other Christians ever hope to come to a correct decision on that teaching? (Give reasons for your answer.)

• In your own words, explain what the steps of interpreting the Bible are (Observe, Interpret, Apply) and why is the order important?

Here are some discussion questions for this week’s session:

• Why do you think the debate about inerrancy has become such a large issue in this century? Why do people on both sides of the question think it to be important?

• If you thought there were some small errors affirmed by Scripture, how do you think that would affect the way you read Scripture?

• Do you know of any Scripture texts that seem to contain errors? What are they? Have you tried to resolve the difficulties in those texts?

• As Christians go through life learning to know their Bibles better and growing in Christian maturity, do they tend to trust the Bible more or less?

• Does belief in inerrancy guarantee sound doctrine and a sound Christian life? How can Jehovah’s Witnesses say that the Bible is inerrant while they themselves have so many false teachings?