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How to study the Bible using the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible

It can be difficult to know how to study the Bible. As believers, we should be in the Word daily, reading the Bible, and learning what it means. Sometimes, though, we just don’t know where to start or how to understand the meaning behind the text. There are several types of Bible studies that the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible can help with and better equip you for the life the Lord is calling you to live.

Using the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible, we can dive into scripture in a few key ways, including:

• Studying people throughout Bible stories
• Learning additional context to help understand specific verses
• Studying doctrinal truths and learning how it applies nowadays
• Learning more about places written about in the Bible
• Studying apologetics and learning how to answer important life questions biblically
• Learning from a chain of reference verses that relate to other passages or verses

How to use annotations and footnotes in the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible

Annotations and footnotes are commentary that add insight to the text you are reading. There are many notes throughout the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible that associate with specific verses in order to explain context, history, and other doctrinal principles. There are also separate Doctrinal Footnotes that dive deeper into a topic relevant to the story on that page. For instance, in 1 Kings 8:27 talks about the immensity of God and on page 566 of the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible, where 1 Kings 8:27 is found, there is a special footnote in a grey box with green text, accompanied by the symbol of the Trinity. This special footnote teaches further on the immensity of God, and references other passages in scripture as evidence for the lesson.

This type of footnote can be incredibly helpful for understanding concepts that are challenging to process. Using the same example, think about the immensity of God. God is so big we cannot wrap our heads around it. We cannot fathom the vastness of our God. This footnote helps tie together many things the Bible has to say about how big God is, but also where God is and can go. We can learn that God is near and far all at once, cannot be contained in a building, yet He is in us. God is incomparable to literally anything. Through this Doctrinal Footnote, we can read more about each point made through the verse references and study the vastness of God more deeply.

How to study Bible characters with the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible

Another way to study the Bible using the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible is through the Personality profiles. On the first page of the book of Job we see a Personality Profile for Job. This, for example, teaches us that Job was in fact a real person, and gives us scripture verses to back that up. The profile ties together the things we know about Job from around the Bible, and also some of what we can learn from him – such as how he handled his immense suffering and emerged from it with a “deeper perspective of God’s sovereignty, transcendence, and wisdom.”

I personally love to learn all I can about the people God chooses to tell us about through His Word. They are named or described for a reason, and these Personality Profiles help me to better understand those reasons. It also helps to relate to some of the people in scripture, and learn more from their part in God’s story.

How to better understand the geography of the Bible

There are a lot of physical places written about all over the Bible, from cover to cover. Scholars have worked hard for many generations attempting to locate and map out all of the locations named and described in the Bible. Many of them have actually been found, and many prospective locations have been identified. The NKJV Evangelical Study Bible includes a incredible Archeological Sites articles explaining what there is to learn so far about different Bible locations.

For instance, Sodom is a famous city written about in the Bible for being specifically destroyed by God for its wickedness. On page 33 of the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible under Genesis 13 and 14, we find an article about Sodom. Here we get to learn that there is a place that archeologists think may be the destroyed city of Sodom, with historical information to explain why this is speculated.

Not only this, but on page 1812 of the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible we find an article about the city of Trye, from which we get to learn some historical context, as well as a photo of the remains of the present-day city! We can read the verse references where this city is named, and find out more about what the Bible says about it.

Some sites include speculation based on discovery and Biblical stories, others offer us some insight about what these places were like back in Bible times and where they are or might be on our current maps, and occasionally we get a map with some helpful explanations and labels. This can offer us some additional context for studying the stories these places are named in. If we know that Tyre was a major trade and shipping center, then we would have a better understanding of the hustle and bustle of the city, and maybe shed some insight into why Acts 12:20 names Tyre as a city King Herod was angry with. This helps us better understand the details of the story, and to learn why these places are listed. Every detail matters, so knowing what we can about the places in the Bible will broaden our understanding of what the Bible is teaching us.

How to answer life questions according to the Bible

We all have questions we long to find God’s answers to. One of my favorite things about the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible is that it also includes Apologetics Articles to help answer many of these kinds of yearning questions. On page 204 in Exodus 19, we see an example I find extremely important. The question is “is it appropriate for Christians to seek guidance from mediums of psychics?” I saw this and was honestly a little bit wary, as I take spiritual warfare and the spiritual realms insanely seriously. As I read the answer provided in this article, I was relieved to find exactly the answer I would hope any believer would give for such a question. The spiritual realm is important, but attempting to contact the spiritual realm is highly condemned in scripture and no believer should have anything to do with such things other than talking to the Lord Himself.

There are a wide variety of questions to help us find God’s answers for so many of the things we long to better understand, and I am very much looking forward to studying more of these Apologetic Articles in the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible. They will also help me to be better equipped for answering these questions when others ask them. I work with a range of age groups and there are many questions each age group has had. I am confident this will be a valuable resource for me, and that I recommend to others who wish to learn for themselves but also for the sake of helping others learn as well.

Lots of incredible resources in the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible

Not only does the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible have all of these wonderful resources within its pages, but it also has the following additional Bible charts and other Bible study tools to help you in your Bible study:

• Topical Index to Christ and the Gospels
• Tables of monies, weights, and measures
• The Jewish calendar
• Prayers of the Bible
• Concordance
• Tutorial for using references
• About the Bible and How to study the Bible
• God’s answers to our concerns
• Introduction to the Old Testament
• Between the Testaments
• The Jewish Sects
• Bible chronology
• Harmony of the Gospels
• Introduction to the New Testament
• Book Overviews
• Words of Christ in red

Who is the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible for?

The NKJV Evangelical Study Bible is a Bible study tool I highly recommend for anyone wishing to study the Bible, teach the Bible to others, and broaden their library of Bible study resources. This is definitely a study Bible intended for older readers. It includes a lot of information younger readers would likely struggle to understand but that an older reader could use alongside them. Anyone who has been called to evangelize in any way (spoiler alert, all believers are) would benefit from the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible.

Where to get the NKJV Evangelical Bible

You can pick up your own copy of the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible at many places online, including ChurchSource, ChristianBook.com, and Amazon.