Bible Study

Our Bible studies are informal - but we do take them very seriously! The group is ecumenical in the truest sense and has been running for many years. We meet at various homes - which change monthly - on a very flexible rota to accommodate the needs of the members.

The format of our studies is very - unformatted! The group is not leader led, although the host will take overall responsibility for the evening. The study usually begins with general chat, quickly develops into opening prayers, and then into the study. The evening ends with a period of more 'specific' prayer followed by the ubiquitous refreshments.

Over the years we have covered most of the 'major books' of the Old Covenant, many of the 'minor'; walked through the Gospels, letters and missives of the New Covenant, and eventually plucked up the courage, 'girded up our loins' and tackled The Revelation of John. And what a joy it proved to be.

And now, we've gone back to the beginning and are reading Genesis, otherwise known as the Origin of the Species. Or is the title already taken?

So, if you're in the area, and would like to know more, please contact Fiona or Bible

For 2010

Your Bible - where did it come from?

Below is part of a teaching I gave some years ago. I thought it worth repeating because i would love to see 2010 as the year of the Word in
Kinross Christian fellowship

In the year of our LORD, 1428, the bones and remains of a man were disinterred, dug up, removed from consecrated ground and – with the primate of England looking on – were burned until there remained only ashes. Thirteen years earlier he had been condemned as a heretic by one of the most imposing councils ever called by the Catholic Church.
The Archbishop of Canterbury was quoted as saying of him, ‘That wretched and pestilent fellow, son of the antichrist, son of the serpent, herald and child of the antichrist, John Wycliffe, filled up the measure of his malice by divining the expedient of a new translation of Scripture in the mother tongue!’
Two years earlier, he – the Archbishop – had ordered all of Wycliffe’s works to be burned. All this took place between the years 1412 and 1428. Yet Wycliffe died in 1384! What could inspire such post mortem hatred from the church?
Because Wycliffe and his colleagues saw the day to day church, the laziness and the corruption, and also believed that the Bible should be available to all and in the language of the people. Not kept by priests who thought it was too precious for the ordinary folk: the same priests who often read it silently and had a bell ring to inform the folk when they reached important bits. It wasn’t enough that it was in Latin and therefore unintelligible to the vast majority of folk. But Wycliffe did have a love of the Vulgate, the Latin Bible, and his work reflects his awe of it. His translation was literate so much so that because of the different word orders some sentences were very awkward. But it was in English!
 (Incidentally, when the Bishop of Gloucester tested three hundred and eleven deacons, archdeacons and priests in his diocese he discovered that one hundred and sixty-eight were unable to repeat the Ten Commandments, thirty-one didn’t know where they occurred and forty could not repeat the Lord’s Prayer.)
Wycliffe and his like thought this state of affairs totally unacceptable and so Oxford – not the place of today of dreaming spires and Inspector Morse – but a hotbed of passionate and rebellious scholars eager to get an English Bible to the people. And they did – at risk of life and often of forfeit of life.
Their Bibles were delivered and preached from by their followers who were named as Christian Brethren but were nicknamed, Lollards. They were on fire driven by Wycliffe’s zeal and they travelled the land dressed identically in russet coloured woollen robes. They preached the gospel and read the Bible in English. But most alarmingly, they cut out the priests. Hundreds died martyrs.  (Amazingly over one hundred and seventy copies of Wycliffe’s two translations exist today even though the church tried to burn every copy. It just shows the commitment and industry of Wycliffe and his colleagues.)
When eventually they’d branded him a heretic, disinterred him, burned him, they threw his ashes into the River Swift which is a tributary of the Avon. A Lollards prophecy of the time – in English, appeared.
     The Avon to the Severn runs
     The Severn to the sea
     And Wycliffe’s dust shall spread abroad
     Wide as the waters be.
Around a hundred years later in the reign of Henry the eighth, 1517 to be exact and while the king was still great friends with the pope, Cardinal Wolsey decided to have a bonfire. The combustibles were all the untrue translations his spies could find. That is, English translations of the Bible. The fire raged for two days – a tribute to the work of Wycliffe and his gang of rebels a century before.

In that same year a young man, an Oxford scholar, tutor to a large family of rich sheep farmers, began preaching outside. The family he worked for were Christian Brethren. It is evident from the work this young man accomplished that they supported him in his mission.
Three years later he left these shores, never to return, to escape the massive and repressive spy network of Henry and Wolsey, the king and the cardinal. Within two year he translated, from the original languages, the New Testament and had six thousand copies printed. His full translations are among the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful ever written. In fact, around another hundred years down the road when there were in existence in this country around fifty-four English translations and the King – James – decided we needed just one authorised work, the many scholars involved in the task finished up with much of their words identical to this lovely book. The man of course was William Tyndale, a hero, a genuine hero in every sense of the word.
This man had the navy of England and its armies patrolling the English coast to stop the influx of his Bibles. On one occasion the Bishop of London purchased the entire print run to burn it. Tyndale learnt of this and approved. It will accomplish two things, he said. One I have will have money to print an even greater number, and, two; the world will rise against this burning of the Bible. He was correct.
The entire might of the Catholic Church chased him, he spent his life on the run and eventually two men befriended him – they were hired assassins and took him to jail where after a period of imprisonment he met his death by strangulation. His last words were, ‘Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.’ 
Why did he do it, this young man who died a young man? ‘I had perceived by experience,’ he said, ‘that it was impossible to stabilise lay people in any truth unless the Scripture were to be plainly set before their eyes in their mother tongue so that they might see the process, order and meaning of the text.’ 
The fight for the Bible was a battle for salvation through the Scriptures. To a priest who challenged him, Tyndale replied, ‘Ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost.’
Sheila and I had our eyes really opened during this present Alpha course. It became very apparent that in the wrong hands and dealing with people that had next to no knowledge of Scripture, leaders could literally lead them anywhere. We heard questions like this example from a man who is well respected and been a Christian for many years. They had been talking about the way the Holy Spirit came on different people for specific tasks at specific times in the Old Testament. The Bible relates these incidents to us. But the question was, ‘Is this a popular viewpoint.’ And that question is what inspired my message today.
You see where we are? Everything is a viewpoint! And unless we know the Bible and speak only what the Bible tells us, unless we use just this book as our benchmark, then everything is just a viewpoint. It is so sad to see so many lovely people, Christians, who have never seen the need, or been taught the need to read the Bible, to learn the Bible, and to ask God for the desire to spend time, regular time, in His Word.
What Tyndale said to the priests applies equally to us, that it was impossible to stabilise lay people in any truth unless the Scripture were to be plainly set before their eyes in their mother tongue so that they might see the process, order and meaning of the text.’
We need to have the text in front of us as often as we can afford, that we also might be stabilised in the truth.

Now, for a few minutes, we’ll do some stabilising in the word. The Old Testament is full of occasions when the importance of the law, the word, the Scriptures is emphasised. I just want to briefly visit two or three – not to emphasise its importance but to see the reaction of people coming once more into the truth.
The first example precedes the exile and looks briefly at the last righteous king before the enslavement. Please turn to 2 Kings 22, beginning at verse 1.

Read verses 1-20

Josiah was the King of Judah at a time when Assyria was its overlord although. However, Assyria was weakening and during Josiah’s rule he claimed back control and turned his country once more into a Theocracy. And it all happened because of the Book; the Book of the Law.  Note that the priests – honourable people as we have seen – operated without the written words for how long? But because there was no written law, no truth to turn to, the people of Judah had alters to pagan gods and worshipped foreign idols.
But on the basis of the Book, Josiah obliterated paganism, destroyed the alter at Bethel and got rid of false priests. He also instigated a Passover feast the like of which had not been seen since the days of Samuel.
Why? Because when the Book was discovered and read to him, the truth was stabilised in him, he recognised the truth and his eyes were opened to the sins of his subjects so he wept and tore his clothes. But he didn’t just moan and cry and despair. He acted – on the word! He turned the country back to God and the results even flowed over into his neighbour Israel.
Verse 2 reads, ‘He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD.’
Yet even he, without the book, was handicapped and unable to accomplish what he eventually did.

My second example is post exile.

 Please turn to Nehemiah Chapter 8, verse 1-15.
Remember Ezra from the book of Ezra, a priest and a prophet, the one who was brought in to judge the people who had broken the law by marrying foreigners. And the people who led them had done the same. And while he was weeping and confessing the sins of the people he uses this sentence – in Chapter 3.  O Lord God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.
And now we have him here, reading the Word and look at the reaction of the people. They had to be told not to weep; commanded to celebrate. They heard the words of God and it made them weep. Read verses 9.
I could weep because of the time I’ve wasted – but I will celebrate instead because I have this word, at my disposal at any time of day or night, and because God has instilled in my heart yet again the desire to read; to stabilise the truth.

One more scripture – one well-known Scripture from 2 Timothy 3-16, 17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man – and woman – may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God-breathed – training in righteousness; it is impossible to stabilise people in any truth unless the Scripture is plainly set before our eyes in English so that we might see the process, order and meaning of the text.’

We have the text before our eyes any time we need it, so let’s make it a mission as a church and as individuals to stabilise ourselves in the truth, by reading and meditating on the Holy Scriptures as often as the Holy Spirit leads. And to ask God our Father in the name of the lord Jesus Christ to instil that desire in our hearts.