Bible Study at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Bridgeport

The Christian faith is not founded upon personal opinion, changing cultural expectations, or religious speculation. It is founded upon the Word God has given through the prophets and apostles, fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Bible Study at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, which is after the Divine Service, provides an opportunity to slow down, open the Scriptures, ask thoughtful questions, and grow in understanding of the faith once delivered to the Church.

We study the Bible because God has chosen to speak through His Word. Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). The Formula of Concord likewise teaches that the preaching and hearing of God’s Word are instruments through which the Holy Spirit works, calling sinners to repentance and creating faith in Christ.

Reading Scripture in Its Full Christian Context

Our Bible studies seek to read individual passages in light of the whole counsel of God. We consider historical setting, literary context, doctrine, and the distinction between Law and Gospel so that Scripture is not reduced to isolated sayings or moral lessons. The goal is always to see how God’s Word reveals our sin, points us to Christ, and forms us for lives of faith and Christian vocation.

The Lutheran Confessions repeatedly affirm that Holy Scripture alone is the final source and norm of Christian doctrine. For that reason, Bible study at St. Paul’s is not an exercise in fitting Scripture into contemporary assumptions. Instead, we place ourselves beneath the Word and allow God to teach, correct, comfort, and strengthen us through what He has actually revealed.

Studying the Book of Concord

Alongside Holy Scripture, participants also have opportunities to study the Lutheran Confessions contained in the Book of Concord. These include the Augsburg Confession, its Apology, the Smalcald Articles, Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms, and the Formula of Concord. We study these writings because they faithfully summarize and confess the doctrine of Scripture, not because they stand alongside the Bible as another source of revelation.

Robert Preus described the Lutheran Confessions as Gospel-centered writings produced for the sake of preserving and articulating the Gospel. He emphasized that confessional Lutheranism necessarily remains under the authority of Holy Scripture, since the Confessions themselves claim to be drawn from and governed by God’s Word. This makes the Book of Concord especially valuable for Christians who want to understand not simply what Lutherans do, but why Lutherans believe and teach as they do.

Come Learn With Us at St. Paul’s

Whether you have studied the Bible for decades or are just beginning, you are welcome to participate. Questions are encouraged, difficult passages are taken seriously, and the goal is not intellectual achievement for its own sake but a deeper knowledge of Christ and His promises. St. Paul’s welcomes adults from Bridgeport, Bayard, Broadwater, Minatare, Scottsbluff, and surrounding western Nebraska communities to join us in the serious and joyful study of God’s Word.