Study of John - Introduction

I used various reference materials for the purpose of this study of John. Here they are:

Books and Commentaries:
The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel
The Daily Study Bible Series - The Gospel of John, William Barclay
Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell
Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

Bibles:
Ryrie Study Bible - NIV, Moody
New Defenders Study Bible, KJV, Dr. Henry Morris
Archeological Study Bible, NIV, Zondervan
HCSB Study Bible, Holman

Additional Resources:
http://biblos.com/

I chose these books because they are chiefly concerned with the facts of the Bible and have been widely accepted in the Christian world. I am familiar with these books and they met the “gut check” test with me and I feel like the writers were in keeping with what is actually written in the Bible. In other words, I don’t think that they have taken any liberties and changed things or omitted things to suit some agenda. With that, the Bible is sufficient on its own and I will try to stick to it as much as possible. Since I am not a trained Bible scholar, these books help me with things that I might not be privy to, such as the Greek or Hebrew and references. They also give an additional viewpoint and commentary that we can draw from as a class. I have also used several different study bibles and translations to see what additional insight we can gain from these.

I also thought that for anyone who is interested, I could post the material on a blog. I will post the study material there and have it available in class. If you miss a week of class, you can get it off of the blog. You can go to the blog at http://mmumcsundayschool.blogspot.com/. I will review the material on Sunday night and post any additional information that I can come up with on the blog, so that is fresh for each lesson. I will also post the reading schedule for the next week at the end of the post, so you can make sure you are in the right spot for Sunday morning. I will do my best, although I am not much of a blog expert or anything. Also, where I say “the author”, I am talking about John who is the writer of the Gospel of John and not some other author of one of the books mentioned.

I have added my own thoughts and interpretations – mostly how I feel that it applies to my life, how I can apply it to my life, and how it has impacted my life. I ask that you go through this class with the mind set of how it applies to you personally and not as some additional facts that you can store in your mind in case you ever need them. Please fact check any of this stuff. That is what we are supposed to do (see how the Bereans did it to Paul in Acts 17:11). Lastly, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, challenge anything I say, and check things out for yourself. As you study, ask God to reveal Himself to you and He will.