The weekly Sabbath is discussed over 130 times in the Bible in at least 23 separate books. It was established at Creation and has its own covenant, separate from what we usually call the "Old" and "New" Testaments.
Judah was exiled from the Promised Land in part because they neglected the Sabbath. It has been a controversial flashpoint between Christians and Jews and between one Christian group and another for almost 2000 years.
There's no getting around the fact that the Sabbath is an important concept in God's communications and interactions with mankind, and so it's important for us to understand it. I want to help you understand the Sabbath and what it means for believers in Jesus today. In the Common Sense Bible Study community, you'll have instant access to these two online courses:
My name is Jay Carper, and I want to help you filter out the noise and focus on building your faith and keeping God's commandments through better Bible study! No pagan police. No Torah terrorists.
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(Or scroll to the bottom of the page to choose from one of the other available plans, including free. Unless they say otherwise, they all provide the same benefits.)
There are literary patterns embedded in the text throughout the Bible, and with a little patience and careful reading, you can find them and add new dimensions to passages that used to seem flat!
You don't need a degree in ancient languages or any other college or seminary degree for that matter. This 5-part course will teach you how to find and connect related statements within a Bible passage to reveal new facets of meaning and make your Bible study more meaningful, more fascinating, and even more fun!
The Chiasm Course is just one of the many benefits of being part of the Common Sense Bible Study community, including...
The Chiasm Course is available to all members of Common Sense Bible Study! Sign up now to get access to that, the live online studies, and other benefits!
Click here to go directly to the $14.99 subscription plan
or scroll down to choose from other available plans, including FREE.
Have you ever been reading the Bible and think to yourself, "Hey! Didn't I just read that a couple of verses up?", again and again in the same passage, like a literary déjà vu? God's Word doesn't waste words, so you can be sure that there's a reason for that repetition.
If you've asked yourself some of these questions while reading your Bible, there's a good chance that you were in the middle of a chiasm!
A chiasm is a literary device used to highlight connections between different events or ideas or to highlight a central point in a story. Many ancient cultures used chiasms in their literature, but they are especially prevalent in the Hebrew Bible.
Since we know that everything in the Bible is there for us to learn something, we can also know that these structures aren't there just by accident. Chiasms are like special gems hidden in a diamond mine, just waiting to be revealed, and I want to help you find and understand them!
The Chiasm Course represents hundreds of hours of study and preparation! You might think that something like this would cost at least two or three hundred dollars, but I'm not trying to get rich from this. The Chiasm Course is just one of the benefits you get as a member of Common Sense Bible Study for only $14.99/month or $149.99/year (or less if you can't afford that)!
Click here to go directly to the $14.99 subscription plan!
(Or scroll down to choose another available plan, including FREE.)
If you're not happy with The Chiasm Course and the other benefits of Common Sense Bible Study, I'll refund up to your last twelve months of membership!
We all have doubts and questions, and nobody has all the answers. Nobody is right about everything.
When you first realize that your church taught you something contrary to Scripture, it’s tempting to reject everything else they taught you too. “If that was a lie, what else have I been lied to about!? So many traditions don’t seem to have any basis in the Bible!”
Be careful! I want to help you work through these troubled times, but not everything you were taught is a lie. Not all traditions are wrong.
Our job isn't to throw out everything we ever learned, but to test each doctrine against Scripture, to hold on to what is true, and reject only those things that aren't compatible.
Bible study doesn't have to be just for the experts!
You don’t have to read Greek and Hebrew. You don’t need to go to seminary or Bible college.
The Bible is a very big book and it can be complicated…but it’s not so complicated that you need an advanced education to understand it. I don't have a theology degree, but I have been reading and studying the Bible for most of my life and learning to keep God's Law for the last 25 years.
We’re all on a journey from who we used to be to who God wants us to become. You’re not alone. I know what it’s like to have questions, and I want to help you find your answers without interference from Torah terrorists and pagan police.
I've published hundreds of articles on my own websites as well as on a few others and almost 200 videos teaching on scriptural topics from both the New and Old Testaments. They're all free, and I'll continue to post new content regularly.
But it's not enough for me anymore just to explain the Scriptures to you. With Common Sense Bible Study, I want to help you understand the Bible for yourself.
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If anything in that last list describe you, no hard feelings. This community just isn't a good fit for you, where you're at right now. Maybe it will work better for you down the road.
No. There are 100+ translations of the Bible available for free on thousands of websites, and I have many hundreds of articles and videos available for free elsewhere.
There are two plain and inescapable facts that make it necessary for me to ask for a voluntary contribution for access to the Common Sense Bible Study community:
I'm not charging an arm and a leg--in fact, I sometimes offer multiple options, including FREE--but I do need to ask for enough to pay for hosting, software, etc., and to ensure that the members of this community are committed to learning and helping each other grow into the people God wants them to be!
Don't miss out on The Chiasm Course, our weekly Bible studies, and all the great projects we have planned for the future!
Come with me and together we’ll discover what the Scriptures are supposed to be, not what some central planning committee wants them to be.
Welcome to our community. We're going to learn a lot together!