Visit our new blog. It lists all the new things that we are doing and what new material has been added to our site. We even list new missionaries who sign up with us for technical support so you can pray for them. FCM News
Method Four - The Thematic Method
of Bible Study ~ Chart: HTML /PDF
In the thematic method of Bible study you will approach a theme within
the Bible and perform a basic study of it. It is shorter than the Topical
Method of Bible study, which comes later in these notes, and is much less
exhaustive in its scope. In a topical study you would examine each possible
verse that relates to your topic of study, including each sub-them; in
a thematic study you will study only those verses that apply directly
to a single theme
4.1 - Tools
4.1.1 - Study Bible
4.1.2 - Exhaustive concordance
4.1.3 - Topical Bible or cross references
4.2 - Hints
4.2.1 - Stay narrowly focused on your theme since each associated idea
can lead to hundreds of additional cross references causing your simple
thematic study to grow quickly into a study requiring a great deal more
time and effort than you have allocated.
4.2.2 - Keep your list of questions short as some themes may have one
or two hundred references associated with them which, if you have too
many questions, would cause you to tire of your study even before it is
complete
4.3 - Steps
Step 1 - Choose a theme to study, for your first thematic study you may
wish to choose a theme that is relatively simple
Step 2 - Make a list of all the verses you intend to study using the tools
described above and select from this list the verses that are most applicable,
or important, to your theme
Step 3 - Decide on, and make a list of, the questions you will ask of
each verse. If you have written more than five you may wish to choose
from this list as five questions is generally more than sufficient for
the study
Step 4 - Ask these questions of each verse in your list of step two. You
may not be able to obtain an answer for each question in each verse, some
verses may only answer one or two of your questions but this does not
mean that your verses have been improperly chosen
Step 5 - Draw some conclusions from your study. This would include collating
the notes you have made and summarizing the details of the study
Step 6 - Write out a personal application and remember to evaluate your
progress.
