The Bible is God's wonderful gift to us, but for many people, it's size and ancient age is a barrier to understanding it. To help all of us know and understand God's message to us, we've gone through the Bible looking for the "key chapters" that are necessary to know and understand so that we can see how God's message unfolds.
This principle was presented to me when I was in seminary. We had a class that required us to memorize all kinds of biblical facts and figures. One of the most helpful requirements was having to memorize the outline of every book of the Bible. We also had to memorize the chapter contents of about 100 key chapters of the Bible. The power of both of those assignments was that we ended with a fairly comprehensive understanding of the thought and flow of the Bible. This podcast has taken the core material from that class and built it into a daily podcast that goes through about 310 key chapters of the Bible.
So, what makes for a "Key Chapter"? That's a good question because there are times when the podcast seems to skip some of our most beloved passages in scripture. Thus, we need to recognize that for the purposes of this podcast, a "Key Chapter" is not necessarily going to be the most beloved or inspiring chapter. That being said, if you listen to all 300+ episodes, you'll find that most of these beloved passages are mentioned and taught from in other podcasts.
As for determining what makes a Key Chapter, there are a few criteria that we've used.
First and most importantly, a Key Chapter is one that is necessary to know in order to understand the scope and message of scripture. God's Word has several key themes (kingdom, salvation, grace, sin, etc). Thus, a key lens that I have used is to find and explain the chapters that help us understand the key themes of God's Word. For instance, the principle of atonement is a key truth we need to understand in order to understand the means of our salvation. The best place to learn about atonement is Leviticus 16. The thing is, we tend to not read the Book of Leviticus very much; and even when we do, we have a hard time appreciating the gem of Leviticus 16. Thus, this podcast seeks to explain the profound truths of Leviticus 16, but since the principles of Leviticus 16 are rooted in the sacrificial system, we go all the way back to Leviticus 1 to 5 to understand the foundation of sacrficies (and those studies end up being profoundly edfying).
Another lens for determining Key Chapters is based upon passages that provide key truths for the Christian life. For instance, every Christian needs to know the spiritual principles of abiding in Christ, so John 15 is a Key Chapter. This is often why we'll go through the entire book of Romans or most of the Book of 1st Corinthians.
Another way that Key Chapters are chosen is rooted in their explanation of what's to come, specifically end times prophecy and eschatology. Thus, we spend alot of time in the Book of Daniel or Matthew 24, etc. One point to make note of is that since these passages are some of the most difficult and controversial places in scripture, not every one of these key chapters has a podcast and new ones are still being added.
Finally, there are a small handful of passages that are in the "We just need to know that" kind of category. These would be passages like Psalm 23 or the Book of Philippians.
So, hopefully you're ready to join in a profound and edifying study of God's Word. If you want to read ahead, the list of the key chapters is here: Key Chapters Reading Plan (and each chapter links to an online Bible source so you can read it right now). Also, although this list is from 2021, and the actual calendar date is off from today, it still gives you the progression for which chapters to read; of course, you can always just read all the chapters and drop into the podcasts for the Key Chapters.
I hope you're blessed with this podcast and that it deepens your understanding of God's Word and ultimately your faith in Him and His glorious plan for you and all of mankind!
God Bless
