Bible Study
Studies to anchor your faith across the whole witness of Scripture — from the Holy Bible, the New World Translation, and the books of the Ethiopian canon.
Holy Bible Studies
Foundational studies from the Berean Standard Bible
God's Timeline of Creation
In the beginning, God spoke — and time itself began
Before there was a sun to mark a day or a mind to count a year, God was. Creation is not a story of something coming from nothing by accident; it is the deliberate, orderly work of a God who speaks and it is. The seven days of Genesis are not a scramble — they are a symphony, each movement setting the stage for the next.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
— Genesis 1:1
Day 1 — Light. Into a formless, dark world God speaks light into being. Before the sun exists, light already is — because light belongs first to God, not to the luminaries. He separates light from darkness and names them Day and Night.
Day 2 — The Expanse. God divides the waters, stretching out the sky like a tent. The stage for life is prepared: a world with atmosphere, with air to breathe.
Day 3 — Land, Sea, and Vegetation. The waters gather to their place, dry ground appears, and the earth bursts into green. The first living thing on the planet is a plant — fed by the voice of God before any sun warms it.
Day 4 — Sun, Moon, and Stars. Now God sets lights in the expanse — not to create light (He already did that on Day 1), but to govern it. Time is given its rhythm: days, seasons, years.
Day 5 — Sea and Sky Creatures. The waters swarm with life; birds fill the sky. God blesses them and commands them to be fruitful and multiply.
Day 6 — Land Animals and Mankind. Livestock, beasts, and creeping things fill the earth. Then, as the crown of all creation, God makes man and woman in His own image — male and female He created them — and gives them dominion over the whole earth.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
— Genesis 1:27
Day 7 — Rest. God finishes His work and rests — not from weariness, but to establish a pattern. The seventh day is set apart as holy, teaching us that life is not only about making and doing, but about delighting in the One who made us.
And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.
— Genesis 2:2–3
Notice the order: God forms the home before He fills it, prepares the provision before He places the creature. He is a Father who sets the table before He seats the child. The same God who framed the world in seven days still orders your life with that same care.
The Birth of Jesus
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us
Long before the manger stood in Bethlehem, the prophets of Israel were already pointing to it. The birth of Jesus was not an afterthought in the heart of God — it was the hinge upon which all of history turns: the moment the eternal Word entered the world He had made, as one of us.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
— Isaiah 7:14
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
— Micah 5:2
The sign was a virgin. The place was a village too small to matter. This is the pattern of God's kingdom: He chooses the lowly to reveal the highest glory. The King of kings was not born in a palace but laid in a feeding trough, because from the very first breath of His humanity, Jesus identified with the least of us.
And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
— Luke 2:6–7
The apostle John gives us the meaning beneath the story: the child in the manger is none other than the Creator Himself, taking on flesh. The birth of Jesus is the meeting place of divine majesty and human frailty — God with us, God for us, God one of us.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
— John 1:14
He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). Every detail of His birth was the first step of a road that would lead to Calvary. The manger and the cross are bound together from the beginning: He was born to die, so that we might be born to live.
The Fear of God
If we truly understood what happens when we sin, we would tremble to do it
We have made the word "fear" uncomfortable. But the fear of the Lord is not terror that drives us away from God — it is a holy reverence that draws us near in trembling. It is the beginning of wisdom precisely because it is the end of our pride. To fear God is to finally see Him as He is, and ourselves in light of Him.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
— Proverbs 9:10
Solomon, who had wisdom poured into him, concluded his entire search for meaning with one charge: fear God and keep His commandments. Why? Because God will bring every deed into judgment — the hidden and the open, the secret and the seen. Nothing escapes Him.
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
— Ecclesiastes 12:13–14
This is the part we have forgotten. Sin is not a small thing. Every sin is a rejection of God's right to rule, a handshake with death. When we sin, we do not merely break a rule — we wound a relationship, we grieve the Spirit, and we earn a wage. The fear of the Lord returns when we remember what that wage actually is.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
— Romans 6:23
If we truly understood what happens when we sin, we would not toy with it. We would not schedule it, justify it, or rename it. We would run from it. To fear God is to love Him enough to hate what kills us. It is the guardrail on the narrow road.
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
— Hebrews 10:26–27
Yet the fear of the Lord does not leave us in dread — it drives us to the cross. The same God who is holy enough to judge is merciful enough to save. The fear that breaks our pride is the door that opens to grace. We fear Him, and we are forgiven; we tremble, and we are loved.
But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
— Psalm 130:4
The fear of God is needed more than ever because sin has never been cheap — and grace has never been light. Let the fear of the Lord keep you today: not in bondage, but in awe; not far off, but near to the One who is both your Judge and your Savior.
Ex-Jehovah's Witness Studies
The New World Translation examined in light of Scripture
Is Jesus God? — What the New World Translation Says
The most important question, examined in the text Jehovah's Witnesses trust most
Of all the questions a person can ask, none matters more than this: who is Jesus? The New World Translation — the Bible that Jehovah's Witnesses use and trust — is the very text we will let speak. We do not need to argue; we only need to read what it says, and let the Word testify about the Word.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.
— John 1:1 (NWT)
Notice the smaller word — "a god." The New World Translation renders the final phrase this way to teach that the Word is not God Himself, but a created being, a lesser god. But the rest of Scripture will not let that reading stand. The question is not what one verse can be made to say, but what the whole witness of God's Word confirms.
In answer Thomas said to him: "My Lord and my God!"
— John 20:28 (NWT)
Thomas does not call Jesus "a god." He calls Him "my God" — and Jesus does not correct him. If Jesus were a created being, He would have done what the angels do throughout Scripture: refuse worship and direct it to God alone. Instead, He receives it.
And let all of God's angels do obeisance to him.
— Hebrews 1:6 (NWT)
When God brings His firstborn Son into the world, He commands the angels to do obeisance — to worship — the Son. No created being receives worship in Scripture; worship belongs to God alone. Yet the Son receives it by the Father's own command.
For a child has been born to us, a son has been given to us; and the government will rest on his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
— Isaiah 9:6 (NWT)
The child born in Bethlehem is named "Mighty God" — the very title Isaiah gives to Jehovah elsewhere in the same book. The prophecy leaves no room for a created Christ: the Son is God with us.
If Jesus is who the Scriptures say He is — the Lord, the Mighty God, the one angels worship — then He is not one among many gods. He is the Creator who became flesh, the Savior who bore our sins, the Lord before whom every knee will bow. To know Him is eternal life. To trust Him is to be reconciled to the Father He came to reveal.
Ethiopian Bible Studies
Studies from the books preserved in the Ethiopic canon
The Book of Enoch — The Watchers and the Nephilim
A book preserved in the Ethiopic canon, quoted by the apostles
Among the distinctive books of the Ethiopian Orthodox canon is the Book of Enoch — a writing nearly lost to the Western church, but preserved entire in the Ge'ez language for nearly two thousand years. It is one of the oldest texts to describe the rebellion of the angels, the corruption of the earth, and the coming judgment of God.
It was about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness."
— Jude 14–15
The apostle Jude does not merely mention Enoch — he quotes him as a prophet. These words come directly from the Book of Enoch (1 Enoch 1:9). For the early church, Enoch was a voice worth hearing, a witness to the reality of the spiritual realm and the certainty of God's judgment.
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
— Genesis 6:1–2
The Book of Enoch takes this cryptic passage and gives it a name: the Watchers. According to Enoch, a host of angels left their proper dwelling, came to the daughters of men, and taught them forbidden knowledge — sorcery, enchantments, the cutting of roots. From their union came the Nephilim, the giants, whose violence filled the earth and moved God to the flood.
You have made all things, and all things are subject to you; you see all things, and nothing is hidden from you.
— 1 Enoch 9:6
Even Enoch, with its strange visions, keeps returning to the same center: God is sovereign, God sees all, and God will judge. The Watchers learned this — bound and imprisoned for their rebellion, awaiting the great day. The lesson is ancient but urgent: the spiritual world is real, rebellion has a cost, and no created being escapes the justice of the Most High.
The Ethiopian church kept Enoch while much of the church set it aside. Reading it today does not replace the Holy Bible — it opens a window onto the world of the early believers, who knew these writings and quoted them, and who saw in them the same hope we hold: that the Lord is coming with His holy ones, and every hidden thing will be brought to light.
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