Where to Start?

[mikejody]

Greetings,

This is my first post, and I'm writing to request some direction. I have spent several hours on the biblewheel.com site but everything seems to me to be very fragmented. I know this is not the fault of the design of the site, but rather my newness to this subject and slowness to catch on.

So I am writing to request help as to where a brand newbie would begin to study this subject. What should I do first? Where should I start?

If someone can direct me, I'm interested to begin at the beginning and build up from there.

Thank you.

Mike

[Richard Amiel McGough]

Greetings,

This is my first post, and I'm writing to request some direction. I have spent several hours on the biblewheel.com site but everything seems to me to be very fragmented. I know this is not the fault of the design of the site, but rather my newness to this subject and slowness to catch on.

So I am writing to request help as to where a brand newbie would begin to study this subject. What should I do first? Where should I start?

If someone can direct me, I'm interested to begin at the beginning and build up from there.

Thank you.

Mike

Hi Mike,

Welcome to our forum!

:welcome:

To learn about the Bible Wheel, the best place to start is probably the online version of Chapter 1 (http://www.biblewheel.com/Book/Chapt01.asp) of the Bible Wheel book. Other chapters available online are listed on the sidebar that you will see when you click the Chapter 1 link.

Introductions to the other two areas of study are listed on the home page. They included the Isaiah Bible Correlation (http://www.biblewheel.com/InnerWheels/Isaiah/IsaiahBible.asp) and Biblical Holographs (http://www.biblewheel.com/GR/GR_Intro.asp) (a study of gematria).

If you have any specific questions, please post them here and I will be happy to answer.

Richard

[mikejody]

Thank you, Richard, for the warm welcome. I did notice that the book was available as an e-book so I did get that and will be studying through it as able.

It is very interesting to me to be studying this, as there have been warnings put out (in our circles) about this type of study, stating that it misses the intent of the Scriptures, misses the context and continual flow (logical argument) of the Bible as a whole, etc. But from what I have read so far it has done nothing but point me to Christ and strengthen my faith, and in addition, has opened up a new thought to me that possibly even the chapters and verse numberings are inspired of God as well.

Thanks for your good work here.

[Richard Amiel McGough]

Thank you, Richard, for the warm welcome. I did notice that the book was available as an e-book so I did get that and will be studying through it as able.

It is very interesting to me to be studying this, as there have been warnings put out (in our circles) about this type of study, stating that it misses the intent of the Scriptures, misses the context and continual flow (logical argument) of the Bible as a whole, etc. But from what I have read so far it has done nothing but point me to Christ and strengthen my faith, and in addition, has opened up a new thought to me that possibly even the chapters and verse numberings are inspired of God as well.

Thanks for your good work here.
Hi Mike,

I agree with those warnings whole-heartedly. The world is filled with vain and false theories about the Bible that distract people from its central message. The most obvious is the "Bible Code" based on equidistant letter sequences that folks use to turn the Bible into some sort of ouija board that supposedly predicts everything from the JFK assassination to the date of the Rapture.

The Bible Wheel, on the other hand, is nothing like that. It reveals the divine unity of the Bible as a whole centered on the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified, and so it satisfies the true purpose of all Bible study. The idea that it could miss "the context and continual flow (logical argument) of the Bible as a whole" could not be further from the truth because it is, in fact, built upon the logical flow that God established when He designed the order of the books. For example, all well-informed scholars know that the 12 historical books from Joshua to Esther are divided in the same way as the 12 Minor Prophets, with the division based on the Babylonian exile. Here's a typical explanation by J. Sidlow Baxter:


Moreover, as the last twelve of the seventeen historical books further sub-divide themselves into nine and three, the first nine being pre-exilic, and the remaining three (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther) being post-exilic, so is it with these twelve ‘minor’ prophets, i.e. the first nine are all pre-exilic, while the remaining three (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi) are post-exilic; and these two terminal trios, the last three historical books and the last three prophetical, have a reciprocal correspondence with each other. The perfect symmetry (http://www.biblewheel.com/canon/PerfectSymmetry.asp) is perfectly evident when we display it in a table:

http://www.biblewheel.com/canon/OTSymmetryTable_550.gif

When displayed on the Wheel, all these divisions align on the same sets of Spokes:

http://www.biblewheel.com/Canon/OT_Symmetry.gif



Thus we see that the "continual flow (logical argument) of the Bible as a whole" is the basis of the Bible Wheel.

Don't hesitate to write with any other questions, comments, or criticisms. That's what I'm here for! I love answering questions.

Richard

[David]

Warm welcome, mikejody!

I'd say the material in the website is not linear, but rather like a massive reference manual. Go to the subject that stimulates you most, perhaps using the word search function.

Personally, I found the Isaiah-Bible correlation a great place to dive in. Some of the correlations are just jaw-dropping! :eek: Then I'd say a good second place to explore is the Revelation Inner Wheel since this gets you comfortable with the form of the Bible Wheel - 3 layers of 22 and the concept of "spokes".

I agree with you often the study of numbers has a negative connotation in religion. People I tell about the Bible Wheel are sometimes put off because they think it's Kabalah or mysticism or some other thing. But this site is all about the Gospel. Have fun exploring.

[mikejody]

Thank you Richard and David for your further clarification here, I'm delighted to see your responses, and especially your emphasis on the gospel, and I look forward to further investigation and learning.

[mikejody]

Greetings all,

Well I just started reading the PDF version of the Bible Wheel and can't say enough good about it. I am literally thrilled with what I am seeing so far, especially the emphasis as it is placed where Scripture places it, on the cross. I am enjoying this so much that I can't hardly put it down, and just today I ordered the print version as I want to be able to review it myself and give it to others. Very well done, Richard!

I also have a few general questions, which might be answered as I progress into the book but thought I would ask them here as I am eager to get the answers.

1. With all the study you have done, have you been able to come to any conclusions regarding versions? I am very familiar with the KJV only debate and I am not wanting to start that up, I just want to know your views as to versions.

2. Similarly, do you believe that inspiration is limited to the Bible as it was originally given, in its original languages, or do you believe it extends to translations.

3. I'd like to know if you are officially stating that you believe chapters and verses to be inspired, just as the text itself is.

4. Do you state anywhere what denomination (or non) you are? Or what kind of church you presently attend? Not that it matters, but it is just curiosity.

5. I'd like to make a request, I'm sure you've already had these requests before but I for one would love to see these: a children's version and a leader's guide for small group study.

Thank you again for this excellent work you have done, and I eagerly look forward to additional study.

grace and truth,

Mike Cleveland

[Richard Amiel McGough]

Greetings all,

Well I just started reading the PDF version of the Bible Wheel and can't say enough good about it. I am literally thrilled with what I am seeing so far, especially the emphasis as it is placed where Scripture places it, on the cross. I am enjoying this so much that I can't hardly put it down, and just today I ordered the print version as I want to be able to review it myself and give it to others. Very well done, Richard!
Thanks for the encouraging words, Mike!


I also have a few general questions, which might be answered as I progress into the book but thought I would ask them here as I am eager to get the answers.
I absolutely love answering questions about the Bible Wheel, so don't ever hesitate to post them. That's really the primary reason for this forum.


1. With all the study you have done, have you been able to come to any conclusions regarding versions? I am very familiar with the KJV only debate and I am not wanting to start that up, I just want to know your views as to versions.
Yes, I have come to some conclusions. While I am not "King James Only" by any means, I do see evidence that God in His foreknowledge knew the KJV would be the dominant planetary textform and so exercised His special providential guidence in its production for His purposes and glory. It is a special translation used of God in a special way, but it is still just a translation and it has its flaws. But despite its flaws, I am not aware of a superiour English translation. And as for those who would argue that the KJV is the only acceptible translation, I think false and that they are causing a lamentable division in the body of Christ.


2. Similarly, do you believe that inspiration is limited to the Bible as it was originally given, in its original languages, or do you believe it extends to translations.
That depends on what we mean by "inspiration." I believe the Bible is precisely what God wanted it to be, warts and all. It is a kind of analog to Christ as the Incarnate Word. Like Christ, the Written Word is both human and divine. We discusse this in the thread called Analogies between the Living and the Written Word (http://www.biblewheel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25).

But I do, of course, believe that the "inspiration" continued beyond the mere production of the individual documents to include how they were put together. This is, after all, the fundamental thesis of the Bible Wheel which asserts that the pattern of the books was designed by God and prophetically anticipated and confirmed in the pattern of the Alphabetic Verses like Psalm 119, etc.


3. I'd like to know if you are officially stating that you believe chapters and verses to be inspired, just as the text itself is.
I would not say "just as the text itself is." There is a difference. First of all, the versification does not carry the same kind of meaning that words carry, so it can not be "inspired" in the same way. Its more like the product of the "hidden hand of God." The chapters and verses do exhibit a divine design, but there are a few nuances to consider. Most of the versification follows the innate structure of the text, so in as much as God designed the text, so the versification reveals that design. But some of the versification appears to be "arbitrary" so we are left wondering how much was designed by God, or what He intended us to understand, if anything. For example, most the 22 chapters of Revelation follow a pattern intrinsic to the text, but some were divided apparently because of size considerations, such as chapters 2 and 3. But that division was necessary to accomplish the correlation with the 22 letters - so though it was "arbitrary" by human standards, it looks like it was planned by God. The only way to settle that question is to look at the correlations with the 22 letters to determine if they are such as to demand intelligent design as an explanation.

So my "official statement" is this: The pattern of chapters and verses reveal a design by God, but they are not inspired in the same way as the text itself.


4. Do you state anywhere what denomination (or non) you are? Or what kind of church you presently attend? Not that it matters, but it is just curiosity.
Here is how I answer that question on my "FAQ (http://www.biblewheel.com/FAQ/FAQ.asp)" page:


Praise God, I am a man saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesian 2:8). I am a non-denominational blood-bought Bible-believing Trinitarian Christian. I believe that the true "faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3) is well stated in the early creeds of the church that Christ founded, as explained in my Statement of Faith (http://www.biblewheel.com/About/Credo.asp).
During the last four years, I attended a local Covenant Church here in Yakima, but never adopted its denominational distinctives. Before that I attended a Wayne Taylor's Calvary Fellowship in Seattle.


5. I'd like to make a request, I'm sure you've already had these requests before but I for one would love to see these: a children's version and a leader's guide for small group study.
That's something I started but never finished. The problem is that the book itself was designed to be a "study guide" so I always feel like I'm just rewriting the book when I try to put together the guide. Any suggestions would be appreciated. As for the children's version, that's something that my wife Rose has begun. She's got a knack for simplifying things.


Thank you again for this excellent work you have done, and I eagerly look forward to additional study.

grace and truth,

Mike Cleveland
Thanks for writing, and please post any suggestions that might help make this study easier for others to understand.

God bless,

Richard