Answer
StudyLight.org is an internet resource founded in 2001 to aid Bible study, research, and preaching. According to the website, it is “the largest collection of online Bible study tools and resources . . . . StudyLight has more Bible commentaries, encyclopedias, dictionaries, lexicons and original language tools than any other website on the internet!” (accessed 5/10/20).
StudyLight.org is not a ministry of any one church group or denomination. The following is their statement of faith:
• “We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible authoritative Word of God.
• “We believe the Triune Godhead exists in One Eternal, Transcendent, Omnipotent, personal God, manifested in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• “The substitutionary and redemptive sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sin of the world, through His literal physical death, burial, and bodily resurrection followed by His ascension into heaven.
• “We believe in the regeneration by the Holy Spirit as absolutely essential for the salvation of lost and sinful men.
• “We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit, by Whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live the Godly life.
• “We believe in personal salvation from the eternal penalty of sin, provided exclusively by the grace of God on the basis of the atoning death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, to be received only through individual faith in His Person and redemptive work on the cross, and to be followed with a life characterized by the empowering grace of the Holy Spirit, giving evidence in loving service and adherence to the principles and practices of the Christian Faith as set forth in the New Testament.
• “We believe in the future personal, bodily return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth to judge and establish His eternal kingdom and to consummate and fulfill all His purposes, the works of creation, and redemption, with eternal reward for believers and eternal punishments for the unsaved.
• “We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in Christ, and the evidence of that unity being shown by how we love one another and conduct our ministry.”
This statement of faith is thoroughly evangelical, although a number of the resources included on the site are Roman Catholic. This is not necessarily a problem, as it may be helpful for an evangelical to understand the Roman Catholic position on any given biblical passage.
StudyLight.org provides the following resources:
• Bible Study Tools (includes searchable commentaries, of which most are in the public domain; concordances; dictionaries; and encyclopedias)
• Original Language Tools (includes interlinear versions and lexicons)
• Historical Writings (includes ancient and modern sources)
• Pastoral Resources (includes illustrations and quotations for sermon use)
• Personal resources (includes devotionals and Bible reading plans)
StudyLight.org is truly a multimedia site; it includes audio programs from various teaching ministries and professionally narrated sermons from preachers of a bygone era. These audios are also available as podcasts.
StudyLight.org has many resources freely available online. One difficulty with this site (and many other similar online Bible study sites) is that many of the best evangelical commentaries and reference works of the last 100 years are not available because they are not in the public domain—they must be purchased. While one cannot go wrong by reading Spurgeon or Calvin, there have been tremendous advances in biblical scholarship in recent years. Our understanding of biblical languages, customs, and archeology is greater than ever before. Likewise, modern commentators and reference works will orient their material to interact with current questions and challenges to the faith. (For instance, a commentary on Romans 1 from the mid-seventeenth century will address the subject of homosexuality differently than a modern commentary. Both can affirm the sinfulness of homosexuality, but the modern work will address the subject in a way that interacts with the spirit of the age, which can be helpful to the contemporary reader.) This is not to say that new is better, and it would likewise be incorrect to assume that older is better.
StudyLight.org is a valuable resource; in using it, one can glean much wisdom from gifted men of the past, study the meaning of words in Biblical Hebrew and Greek, and find inspiration for communicating God’s Word to modern audiences.
