Understanding the Bible Through Story

By Gustavo M. Karakey

Understand the Bible as Story uses the power of a story to give you a framework by which to understand the whole Bible. This narrative framework will allow you to better understand every book, character and story in the Bible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gustavo Karakey
• Release date: Mar 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386037958

Book preview

UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE THROUGH STORY

How a 20-Minute Story Will Help You Understand Every Book, Character and Event in the Bible

by

Gustavo M. Karakey

Copyright © 2013-2019  by Gustavo M. Karakey. All Right Reserved.

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PUBLISHED BY:

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Understanding the Bible Through Story

Copyright © 2013-2019 by Gustavo Karakey

karakey.com

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my former students at the Methodist Bible Institute in Ñemby, Paraguay (2004-2008).

We studied, prayed and laughed together for four years. Almost everything I know about teaching the Bible, I learned from them.

I will always be indebted to them for the things they taught me about the Lord, his word and his work.

Table of Contents

Why I Wrote This Book

Who Should Read This Book

Chapter 1 – Introduction to the Bible as Story

Chapter 2 – Understanding the Bible as Story (Step #1)

Chapter 3 – The Central Message of the Bible (Step #2)

Chapter 4 – Memorizing the Story of the Bible (Step #3)

Chapter 5 – Tips for Memorizing the Story

Study Break #1

Chapter 6 – Categorizing the Books of the Bible (Step #4)

Chapter 7 – Categories and the Story of the Bible (Step #5)

Chapter 8 – Approaching the Prophetical Books

Study Break #2

Chapter 9 – The Order and Books of the Bible (Step #6)

Chapter 10 – Putting It All Together

Appendix A – Sample Summary of Old Testament Books

About the Author

Why I Wrote This Book

I wrote this book to make the Bible less confusing.

As a Christian, you know you should read your Bible. It’s drilled into you the minute you join a church. But getting a handle on it, well, that’s another thing altogether. 

There are way too many books, lots of stories with weird customs, and those dietary laws that your Aunt Nellie still follows.  Jesus you get even when he says love your enemies, but Paul can be a real stickler sometimes.

I understand your angst.  You want to study your Bible, but it’s hard to make sense of so many moving pieces.

This is why I wrote Understanding the Bible Through Story. It’s because I want to help you navigate through the Bible maze so you can enjoy studying the Bible again.

How will I do this? By teaching you a story that records the Bible’s main events from Genesis to Revelation.  But first, let me tell you how I stumbled upon this method.

The Story Is the Key

In my earlier missionary career, I served as a professor in Paraguay, South America.  I was teaching an Overview of the Bible course at a small Bible Institute outside the capital of Asunción.  The classroom had no doors or windows, but I still had every teacher’s dream: motivated students!

I noticed early on that most of my students knew a lot about the Bible.  Like many Christians, they had picked up bits and stories through devotions, Sunday school classes, studies and sermons. But there was one big problem.  All the information was swimming randomly in their minds.

What was the missing piece?

...A way to organize the information, a way to make sense of all the Bible’s elements.  And that's when I decided to teach the Bible through a story format. 

This was not a novel concept.

Many Bible resources included a brief outline of the Bible story.  But the story was not central. It was one of many topics in the introduction.

I decided to isolate the story, to write it down, and to teach it at the beginning of my class.  I settled on a story length of 20 minutes.  I figured that wouldn’t be too long to overwhelm my students nor too short that important details would be lost.

The Transformation of Understanding

The results were amazing.  First, no one had a problem memorizing the story.  More importantly, my students finally had a way to organize the different Bible stories, figures and events.  The Bible didn’t seem as confusing anymore. The story had connected all the pieces swimming in their minds.

I immediately recognized the power of the Bible as story approach to understanding the Bible. Thus, I felt compelled to write a book to teach these principles to other Christians who were in the same confusing predicament.

And that’s how Understanding the Bible Through Story came about. My hope is that it will inspire you to become a regular and more interested student of the Bible.

From Apprentice to Expert

This book forms part of a larger curriculum that I have been developing for how to study the Bible. Here is a brief outline:

Part 1 – The Bible as Story

The first part, Understanding the Bible Through Story is a pre-Bible study guide. It is what you should read before you jump into any Bible study.

Using the power of a story, this book helps you to understand the outline or big picture of the Bible. Afterward, it teaches you how the different elements of the Bible (books, figures, events, etc.) fit into this larger narrative.

Most Bible study resources ignore this part completely. Instead, they focus on teaching different methods for studying individual passages of the Bible.

This is a HUGE MISTAKE.

You cannot understand the individual parts of the Bible until you understand the whole.

Part 2 – Inductive Bible Study (PLUS)

This volume is currently in development.  It will build upon the Inductive Bible Study method as the entry point into studying the Bible.

It will introduce you to the power of observation in your study of the Bible. It will teach you to ask the right questions of any passage of study. At the same time, you will learn how to use different Bible study resources to help you clarify different portions of the scriptures.

Part 3 – The 7 Rules of Bible Interpretation EVERY Christian Should Know

The third volume is for those who wish to go much deeper in their study and understanding of the Bible.  It is also useful for those who lead Bible studies or Sunday school classes.

This book teaches advanced Bible study techniques that come from the world of the seminary.  This teaching is also available on Kindle as an e-book as well as a video course via Udemy.

Finally, be sure to check out our website Bible Study Blueprint for more information on the free and paid versions of