A Survey of Bible Doctrine

Charles C. Ryrie

MOODY PRESS

CHICAGO

(c) 1972 by

THE MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

All rights reserved.

The use of selected references from various versions of the Bible in this publication does not necessarily imply publisher endorsement of the versions in their entirety.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-77958

ISBN: 0-8024-8438-7

Contents

Chapter

An Important Word to Begin With

1 What Is God Like?

2 Is the Bible Inspired?

3 Jesus Christ the Lord

4 The Holy Spirit

5 The World of Angels

6 The Nature of Man

7 Christ’s Salvation

8 What Is the Church?

9 What Does the Future Hold?

Helpful Books on Bible Doctrine

An Important Word to Begin With

This is a book on Bible doctrine. We could be devious and call it by some other name like “Knowledge You Need” or “Truths for Today.” But why? The word doctrine is a perfectly good word that simply means “teaching,” and teaching is not yet in disrepute (though studying sometimes seems to be!). So let’s call this book what it is—a book that will try to help you understand what the Bible teaches.

Some might think it necessary to apologize for such a book. And yet we have books like “The Teaching of Kant” (which is another way of saying “Kant’s Doctrine”) or “The Thought of Charles Darwin” (which is another way of labeling “Darwin’s Doctrine”). Why should we apologize for investigating the teaching, of a Book which was here long before Kant or Darwin, which has had a far greater circulation than any other book, and which will be around when all the others have gone out of print? Our colleges and universities rightly think it important to offer courses in psychology, sociology, and education, for instance, yet all these fields of learning are relatively new in the history of man. Why, then, should anyone be embarrassed to study in the biblical field which has stood the tests which time brings to any area of learning?

Are you about to embark on a study which is or shortly will be out-of-date? The suspicion seems to be abroad that to study the Bible is a waste of time since it is a book that needs considerable updating. A person who believes that needs only to go to Israel and listen to the leaders quoting theBible and showing how it is being fulfilled by the events occuring in that country today. Even the Readers’ Digest in August, 1966, printed an article entitled “The Bible’s Timeless Insights.” It is amazing to discover how frequently and from what unexpected quarters people keep coming back to the teaching of the Bible. A study of the Bible is both contemporary and highly relevant.

The important matter suggested by the title of this chapter is simply this: Everyone has a basis of authority which becomes a base of operations for his thinking and doing. Sometimes that basis of authority is complex, for it is made up of several things; and sometimes people are ignorant of the fact that they have such a thing as a basis of authority. But everyone, without exception, has one. Let’s ...