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How To Study The Bible Via The Internet
Copyright John Edmiston 2002
Online theological study is a flexible training solution for the busy
Christian. A quick search of Yahoo or Google will find many sites
offering free bible courses and bible studies online and many well-
accredited seminaries that charge fees for B.Th and M.Div courses.
Online study works well for people who want to study the Bible
without having to leave their home or office and without having to
fight traffic on their way to college. Many ministers need to update
and to do their in-service training at their own time and pace, in-
between counselling calls.
What you should study will depend on your needs. You can find these
courses easily by searching on Google or at one of the Christian
search engines such as www.crosswalk.com a list of various sites
useful to ministry can be found at:
http://www.aibi.ph/aibi/bibleresources.htm
Do you want accreditation from a particular denomination? Then find a
seminary from that denomination that offers online courses. Go to
Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) then find your denomination then check for its
seminary online. The Church Leader's Internet Portal put out by major
publisher Zondervan is another great resource for finding Christian
education online and it can be found at:
http://www.zondervanchurchsource.com/CLIP/
There are hundreds of sites offering free daily devotionals and bible
studies, try http://eternity.injesus.com for a free Eternity daily
bible study by email.
Do you want material on a particular topic such as cults or
Christian apologetics? Then find a Christian mega-site on that area
and work through its articles at your own pace. Gospelcom's
Apologetics Index www.apologeticsindex.org is a highly informative
site.
For those interested in being a missionary the well-known
Perspectives course is online at http://www.perspectives.org/. The
Virtual Seminary is a huge resource site organized like a theological
library you can find it at: http://www.virtualseminary.net/index.html
and the Blue Letter Bible at http://www.blueletterbible.org/ is a
massive site dedicated to searching and studying the Scriptures.
If you are in Asia the Asian Internet Bible Institute (
http://www.aibi.ph) is an online training avenue for Asian pastors,
missionaries and church workers. It is focussed on "grass-roots"
workers who cannot afford a conventional theological education so
everything is offered for free. The AIBI offers twelve online courses
for Asian pastors including a two-year Harvestime church-planters
course. Other courses include prayer, urban ministry, Christian
sexuality and a course on the life and ministry of Jesus.
The disadvantage of online study is its loneliness. The web-based
student needs to be well-motivated and disciplined to keep plugging
away at the lessons. One useful strategy is form a small group that
studies the material together, prays together and encourages each
other.
There are many small groups on the Internet as well. You can find
these at places like Yahoogroups (http://www.groups.yahoo.com) and at
Injesus.com - (http://www.injesus.com) these can be very encouraging
and useful. Some of them discuss Christian books together, others
offer prayer support while others discuss theological and ministry
issues. There are literally thousands of these online egroups so be
sure to use the "search" feature on these websites to pinpoint the
ones you wish to join.
Ok..you can study just about anything online - including theology,
church history, cults, missions and of course the bible. Just a few
closing comments - always check the aims and beliefs of the site
first to make sure you are studying material consistent with your
main beliefs and try and have a clear idea of what you want to get
from your study - that will aid you immensely as you search for the
right course for you.
by John Edmiston
John Edmiston is an Australian missionary with Frontier Servants
based in Manila, Philippines. John Edmiston can be contacted on:
johned@yahoo.com
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