Kootenai Church Sunday School

The Bible is trustworthy. But how do you know—and how do you use it rightly? In Lesson 28 of Christian Ethics and the Old Testament, Dave Rich brings the series' extended examination of scriptural authority to a close and turns the corner toward a foundational question: how do we interpret the Bible we've established as God's Word?
Rich opens by tackling the charge of circular reasoning head-on. Is it logically valid to prove the Bible's authority from the Bible itself? He argues yes—and shows why that's the only coherent approach when dealing with any ultimate source of truth. Archaeological evidence and fulfilled prophecy support Scripture's claims, but they don't serve as the foundation. The Bible is its own authority.
From there, Rich moves into hermeneutics—the art and science of biblical interpretation—grounding the class in the literal, grammatical, historical method endorsed by Calvin, Luther, and the church's own statement of faith. The goal is simple: discover the original, natural meaning of the text.
To make that concrete, Rich walks through several interpretive errors that produce ethical errors—beginning with proof texting and then addressing what he calls hyper-literalism. Using the holy kiss, foot washing, and the head covering passage in 1 Corinthians 11, he demonstrates the difference between a timeless biblical principle and its culturally bound expression. Wooden, context-free obedience to the form can actually undermine the principle the text is trying to teach.
Clear thinking about interpretation is inseparable from clear thinking about Christian ethics.

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The Bible we hold is a translation of ancient manuscripts. But does that gap between the original autographs and our English Bibles introduce error we should be worried about? In Lesson 27 of Christian Ethics and the Old Testament, Dave Rich works through the transmission and translation of Scripture—and makes the case that we have every reason for confidence.
Rich opens with the logic: reliable manuscripts plus faithful translation equals God's Word in English. Either piece can fail, and he walks through what happens when it does. From there he examines the manuscript evidence for the Old Testament—the Masoretic Text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Septuagint—showing that agreement across those sources is remarkably stable. The one significant variant, Psalm 22:16, turns out to have strong textual support for "they pierced my hands and feet," consistent with its unmistakably messianic context.
New Testament transmission is even more extensively attested—over 5,800 Greek manuscripts, with 99.5% of the text determinable from existing evidence. Rich walks through the nature of the variants honestly, showing that the most significant ones are well known, clearly marked in modern translations, and doctrinally non-threatening.
The lesson closes with a survey of English translations across a spectrum from highly literal to outright corrupt: the YLT, NASB, LSB, ESV, NIV, New Living, and then the Message, the New World Translation, the Passion Translation, and several others that distort the text to serve a theological agenda.
God had a purpose in giving His Word, Rich argues, and that same providence extends to its transmission and translation into every language.

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How do we know the Bible we hold today actually contains God's words—all of them, and only them? In Lesson 26 of Christian Ethics and the Old Testament, Dave Rich works through the doctrine of canonicity and its direct bearing on Christian ethics. If the whole Bible teaches us which acts, attitudes, and attributes receive God's approval, then it matters enormously whether we have the right books.
Rich opens with three definitions of canon—exclusive, functional, and ontological—and argues that the most important one is often overlooked. Books don't become God's Word because the church recognized them. They are God's Word by virtue of what they are. Church recognition follows divine inspiration; it doesn't create it.
From there, Rich builds a case for confidence in the 66-book canon rooted in God's own stated purpose for His Word. If God speaks to accomplish something through His people, He will providentially ensure those people have access to what He has said. The near-unanimous agreement of the church across centuries on the canon—without any centralized authority enforcing it—is itself remarkable evidence of that providence.
Rich also walks through what doesn't belong: the Apocrypha and Deuterocanonical books added by the Council of Trent in 1546, the Pseudepigrapha, and the Gnostic gospels of Mary and Thomas. Each is examined and found wanting. The session closes with reasons to believe the canon is closed—structurally, historically, and textually. 

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Dave Rich returns for Lesson 25 in the Christian Ethics and the Old Testament series. After establishing Scripture's authority through inspiration last session, this lesson works through the next essential questions: Is the Bible clear enough, necessary enough, and sufficient enough to serve as the foundation for Christian ethics?
Rich opens with the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture—what theologians call perspicuity—grounding it in passages from Deuteronomy, Psalms, and the New Testament epistles. The argument is straightforward: if the Word was given to ordinary Israelites, to children, to simple people across all kinds of circumstances, it is clear enough for Christians to use it for ethics. But Rich is careful to walk through honest qualifications. The unregenerate cannot fully understand Scripture. Clarity grows through study and obedience. No one comprehends all of it perfectly.
From clarity, the lesson moves to necessity. Could a believer do ethics without the Bible? Rich uses a thought experiment to show why the answer is no—conscience and general revelation together are simply not enough. The Bible is the only transcript of God's words and therefore the only source of absolute ethical norms.
The final section addresses sufficiency. Drawing on 2 Timothy 3 and Psalm 119, Rich argues that Scripture contains everything God requires us to know to live rightly—not as a ceiling on learning, but as a complete and binding standard. Nothing may bind the conscience that is not found there. Nothing is sin that Scripture does not call sin.
This lesson lays the groundwork for everything that follows in the series.

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What makes the Bible the right place to go for Christian ethics? Before addressing how source material can be misused in moral reasoning, Dave Rich steps back to answer a more foundational question: why is Scripture authoritative in the first place?
In Lesson 24 of the Christian Ethics and the Old Testament series, Rich grounds the authority of Scripture in the doctrine of verbal inspiration — the biblical teaching that the words of the original autographs are God-breathed. Working through 2 Timothy 3:13–17, 2 Peter 1:16–21, and John 10:34–36, he demonstrates that Scripture claims for itself the status of God's own words. That claim, he argues, is what makes it binding.
Rich also examines what inspiration does and doesn't mean — distinguishing the biblical concept from the common English sense of the word — and surveys how Jesus himself appealed to single words and even verb tenses to settle disputes, showing that verbal inspiration is the only view the Bible's own use of itself supports.
The lesson closes with a brief look at the doctrine of preparation: how God's sovereignty over every detail of an author's life and background ensured that what they wrote was exactly what He intended — fully human, fully divine, and fully authoritative.
For anyone asking why the Bible should govern how we live, this lesson builds the foundation.

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