"The Bible is not a secret code that we need to decipher. It is God's message to us so we can know about Him, clearly." This was how Academic Dean Dr. Michael Janapin of the Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary in Baguio City introduced Part One of CSM's first-ever training webinar ,"How to Effectively Study the Bible” last June 27.

Limited slots via Zoom for the free webinar were quickly filled a few days after the event was promoted on social media, email, and SMS. This led CSM to livestream the webinar via Facebook Live. Over 1,000 views were recorded. Part One (June 27) tackled Approaching the Bible, while Part Two (July 4) focused on Interpreting the Bible. 

Dr. Janapin emphasized that readers need to know the context of Scripture in order to understand its message better. "Simply adapting your own knowledge to fit the present context will not only lead you to misunderstand the Bible. If you are a teacher or preacher, it can be dangerous," he said. "Our minds can only understand so much. We need God to reveal more of Himself to us, so we need to pray, and read, read, and read the Bible more."

The next webinar, “Mental Health and Covid-19: Dealing with the Challenges” with Mr. Alain Dizon as guest speaker, is scheduled on July 25, 2020 For more details, visit www.csm-publishing.com/events or contact 0908-8937016 or email training@csm-publishing.com.

CSM’s first webinar series on How to Effectively Study the Bible was hosted by CSM Training Officer Ptr. Reuel Alfonso (upper right window) and facilitated by PBTS Academic Dean Dr. Michael Janapin (window below Alfonso)

Books of the Bible slide shared by Dr. Janapin during his talk in Part Two of the webinar series

Dr. Janapin answers questions from participants via Zoom