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The first graduate course test I took was from the author of “The Magic of Thinking Big,” Dr. David Schwartz was a disaster. The exam had five questions: The first question was, “What is your professor’s name”? The second and third questions came from material in the preface, and the fourth question had to do with the information the Introduction. The final question dealt with a footnote on page 3 of the first chapter of the class book.
I knew this wasn’t a good start. I misspelled the professor’s name and, up to then, I had never read a Preface, Introduction or, looked at a footnote.
Over the past fifty-plus years, I have taught several Sunday school classes. My first lesson begins with a question: “When was the last time you looked at the maps in your Bible? The answers are always the same. Most Bible students don’t know maps are in the back of their Bible. Those that do can’t remember the last time they looked at or referenced the maps.
Many people use the Bible’s Table of Contents when they need to reference a particular Book. Many Bible Table of Contents are arranged in the order the book appears in the Bible. A few Bibles organize the Books in alphabet order. I suppose that is to help those with little or no Bible knowledge.
The best personal spiritual growth results from knowing the Author, reading and learning the material in the 66 Books, studying the maps to understand better where events happened, and learning the names and order of the sixty-six books.
For the sake of the church, we can only hope more of its members open their Bible. The growing Christian is a Bible student.