Documents can be very important. Former President Trump is learning that after the FBI conducted an authorized search of his Florida home and retrieved classified documents that never should have been taken to Mar-a-Lago and should have been returned to the National Archives when requested.

The most important document for Protestant Christians is the Bible, although it was never intended to be classified or Top Secret. Rather, early Reformers like Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, as well as pre-Protestants like John Wycliffe, considered the Bible to be authoritative for the Christian faith. Hence, one of the pillars of the Protestant Reformation was “sola scriptura,” meaning “by Scripture alone.” Rejecting the authority of the pope and many of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, Luther and his followers turned to the Bible to discern what the Christian faith is all about.

When the first Baptists came along almost a century later, they embraced “sola scriptura” even more, rejecting infant baptism because it was not in the Bible. They became a part of the “radical Reformation” which placed the Bible over other church traditions. That’s why, in most Baptist churches, sermons are based on passages of scripture. That’s why we read the Bible and study the Bible and interpret the Bible for ourselves.

That conviction that the Bible is our most important document is the basis for my series of Bible study books, Spelunking Scripture. Four books in the series have been published thus far, each with the subtitle, “Exploring Important Passages of the Bible.”

One key to biblical interpretation is understanding that not all passages of scripture are of equal value. Some passages of the Bible are more important than others. In the four books in the series, I attempt to identify what some of those most important passages are, and then to explore them.

The goal is move beneath what the passages say to discover what the passages mean. In the Introduction to Spelunking Scripture: Acts and the General Epistles of the New Testament, I describe this process as moving from “what” to “so what.” We move from “what” does the scripture passage say to “so what” does it mean for us.

Looking back, I now recognize that I’ve been reading and studying the Bible my entire life. I was placed on the cradle roll of my parent’s church shortly after I was born, and I began attending Sunday School as a toddler. Even before I learned to read, I was told stories from the Bible. As I became more literate, I began reading the Bible for myself. In high school I became so interested in the Bible that I began to wonder if perhaps God was calling me into the ministry.

In college I took some courses based on an academic study of the Bible. By the middle of my sophomore year at Baylor, I began to sense that Bible study would be more than an academic pursuit; it would become a way of life. I was advised by the pastor of my church in Waco not to major in religion, because I would get plenty of that once I entered seminary after college. Instead, I majored in English, in part so that I could become more adept at interpreting and explaining the Bible. After seminary, reading and studying and interpreting and explaining the Bible became a part of my career.

The Bible has been and continues to be the most important document in my life. I am “spelunking scripture” to explore some of the most important passages of the Bible because “sola scriptura” is the way to “sola fide” (by faith alone) and “sola gratia” (by grace alone) and “solo Christo” (by Christ alone) and “soli Deo gloria” (glory to God alone).