This book is written for church laypersons with the purpose of aiding those who wish to become at least beginning novice of learned biblical knowledge and interpretation on their own, in order not to be primarily dependent upon others to disclose the biblical message to them.
For too long, ministers have allowed the laity to rely primarily on Sunday school curriculum materials alone, or other canned (preprinted Bible study programs) to enable the biblical message to come alive in their lives. This is not a criticism of the curriculum materials in question, but the dependency upon them which result in a form of stunted biblical growth in the word of God.
When the Bible admonishes us to "study to show thyself approved unto God...RIGHTLY dividing the Word of truth" (2Timothy 2:15), how do we respond without a method of study as individuals on our own? If Christian education functions as it should, we need to produce people who are growing in the knowledge and wisdom of the word, moving from being BABES of the word fed with milk, to becoming adults in the word, being able to digest the meat of sound doctrine, as the apostle Paul admonishes us to become.
This should enable us to become at least semi-dependent learners and critical biblical thinkers, and not merely receptacles of information fed to us about the word of God!
