New Tribes Mission, a missionary network sponsoring evangelists in countries all over the world, has pioneered a new kind of missionary teaching. Rather than starting with the concept of Jesus and his crucifixion, they begin at the beginning. Starting with Genesis, the New Tribes Mission method teaches chronologically through the Bible culminating in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Christiananswers.net describes the importance of the process:
“Unfortunately, most people only hear bits and pieces of the Bible, and never really understand how it all goes together. No wonder so many are confused about what the Bible and the Gospel is about and what it all means. They have simply never had the whole story clearly explained from the beginning, in correct order. Too many Sunday school teachers skip around throughout the Bible and fail to give students the true flow of history to provide context and clear understanding.”
Paul Humphreys of GoodSeed says:
"There is a lot of talk today in 'church' circles about how little people know about the Bible… Biblical illiteracy is not a new trend. It has been around a long time. The underlying cause is explained by the Apostle Paul (Romans 1:18-32)… It seems almost impossible to have an accurate concept of God apart from the knowledge of certain foundational biblical stories.
The biblically illiterate need to begin with an understanding of who God is, and where they are in relationship to their Creator-Owner--truths set forth in the pages of the Old Testament. They need to know these things before we can expect an accurate response to what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross." (GoodSeed Gleanings, No. 6, Sept. 2000)
Charles Clough agrees. Founder, speaker, and writer of the Bible Framework series, Clough has traveled the country speaking on his material.
What is Bible Framework? It is a mostly audio course of teachings that takes the listener through the Bible, cover to cover explaining the important historical, cultural, and doctrinal events that culminate in Christ Jesus, his death, his resurrection, and his eventual return.
Bibleframework.com describes the course this way:
“The course sequence covers each major component of God’s historic “show-and-tell” program recorded in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. You will discover—perhaps for the first time—the powerful implications of this revelation for every area of your life.”
In his letter to the young pastor Timothy, the Apostle Paul says, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
This statement is made in reference to the persecution that Paul has endured and that he assures Timothy that he, too, will endure for the sake of the gospel. He says that Timothy’s familiarity with the scriptures, and his efforts in studying and understanding them, will equip Timothy to face these hardships.
In this day and age, any individual has access to staggering amounts of information and material on any given subject. Some Christians do not take advantage of this, remaining dilettante in their commitment to their faith. Others, however, are overwhelmed with the amount of competing ideas on what the Bible says and what Christians should be.
In the Bible Framework series, not only does Clough take the listener through an integrated view of the Bible as a whole, but he also teaches the listener how to think and discern their way through scripture to ensure that they are not misled by duplicitous doctrine when they are confronted with it.
Clough’s Framework has gained international acumen, being used for personal study, Sunday school and small group lessons, academic supplementation, and even as a basis for missionary work in Haiti. This series takes some fairly complex ideas and trains the listener in how to think about and comprehend them. As a result, this series has a broad appeal to the theologically trained and the novice alike.
Charles Clough worked for nearly thirty years as a meteorologist for the Department of the Army where he did complex atmospheric modeling. Clough also studied and obtained his Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary. It was this rare combination of scientific insight married with theological depth that led Clough to apply the philosophical application of the scientific method of forensics to the scriptures with the result that he was able to determine that there is no inherent contradiction between what the Bible says and the historical evidence available to the modern thinker. It is rather the preconceptions with which one approaches the text that determines their acceptance or rejection of the evidence.
It was this insight, and the subsequent study into these texts that formed the foundation of what would later become the Framework series.
Now retired from meteorology, Clough works full time promoting and speaking worldwide on his Framework series. He has supplemented the audio lessons of the Framework series with study and workbook material that assists in those looking to turn this into a class. All of the Framework material is free to download, order, and use.
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