Frequently Asked Questions
How do I use the Bible Study Together program on my phone or tablet?
We have created a mobile-friendly website that allows you to read each day’s text and can track your current day’s position. We have even made it possible to put a link on your home screen that looks and functions like an app. To learn more and get started you can go to the following page: https://staging.biblestudytogether.com/create-your-bible-reading-schedule
Can I use this plan with my printed Bible?
We have made high quality printed booklets that contain our reading plan. You can order your own copy or copies at our cost to produce them from here: https://staging.biblestudytogether.com/order-printed-chronological-cross-reference-bible-reading-plan
How do I get the Bible Study Together App on my phone or tablet?
You won’t find an app for us in either the Apple App Store or the Google Play App Store because technically there isn’t an app, but we can help you create a smart link on the home screen of your tablet or phone that will take you to your current days reading. The link will look just like an app and the web page that it brings you to is mobile friendly, so it looks like an app. To get started putting the smart link on your device you can go here: https://staging.biblestudytogether.com/create-your-bible-reading-schedule/
How to I get the SMART LINK on my phone or tablet?
Every phone and tablet can be a little different and if you are having trouble we have made a video that goes into detail explaining how to get things set up. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf1AMXjCn6M
What do I do if I miss a day?
It is easy to miss a day or two now and then…its really okay. You can either just skip the days or go back and read them. Since this plan keeps the daily reading to less than 10 minutes a day, it can be fairly easy for most people to catch up. If you are tight on time and still want to catch up, you can skip the study journal questions and any other resources at the end of the daily reading. If you have no time to catch up, we encourage you to skip what you missed. Staying on your current scheduled days is a good habit because it keeps you in sync with others who are reading with you and it prevents you from getting bogged down because you feel behind. As a result, if you miss some days and can’t catch up, we give you permission to skip those days and keep going.
How should I read through the genealogies?
We have broken up the genealogies so that you will never get stuck only reading genealogies, but even short genealogies can be intimidating. We encourage you to skim through the genealogies and find names that you may have heard or read from the Bible before and take note of them. If more is written about a person than just their name and parent’s names, take special note because this person played some key role in history. Don’t worry about pronouncing the all the names properly. Truth be told, many of the common pronunciations of these names are not even accurate and so chances are that even if someone corrects you, they are probably wrong too. If there is a day that you are reading the same genealogy from different books of the Bible we encourage you to just skim them and see if you notice any differences that stand out. We strongly encourage you not to get stuck in the genealogies, but to scan over them and use them to help you connect together the stories in the scriptures. The genealogies ultimately help us see that the Bible is not a group of fables, but a historical record of God working in real people’s lives.
What additional resources accompany each day’s reading?
Each day has journal questions and a challenge to go along with the reading. In addition, on days when a new book is being started, there is a video that gives an overview of the book and explains its key points. We have also included maps on each day where the reading makes geographical references and have included more videos and other content to help people understand deeper topics. Every day does not include multimedia content, but when it is relevant we try to make it available to help people of all learning styles.
Is Bible Study Together a non-profit 501c3 organization?
Yes, Bible Study Together is a ministry of Create Disciples Inc. which is a 501c3 non-profit organization and so we can provide you with tax write-offs. If you believe that people need to read and know the word of God, then consider partnering with us because we are converting money into more people reading the Bible (Support this work).
Can I help support Bible Study Together?
Yes, Bible Study Together is a ministry of Create Disciples Inc which is a 501c3 non-profit. You can donate to this ministry online at the non-profit’s website here. The support we receive goes to maintain this website, develop new resources that work with our reading plan, and promotions to get people reading the Bible. We can honestly say that we are converting money directly into more people reading their Bibles. If you want to be a part of this work then we can use your help.
Is this study completely finished and ready to use?
Bible Study Together is ready for both individuals and even whole churches who want to read through the Bible together. We are regularly adding new content online and into our app. Our printed literature can be ordered either from our site or from Amazon.com.
Is Bible Study Together affiliated with a particular denomination or religion?
Bible Study Together is Christian and is not affiliated with any particular denomination. The tools and resources we provide are made so as not to favor any particular denominational beliefs, but rather simply focuses on getting people into the Bible itself and helping people understand core truths that are common to the Christian Faith. If you would like to learn more about what we believe are the core truths of the Christian faith, you can read more here: https://staging.biblestudytogether.com/beliefs
Why is my printed booklet different from the reading plan online?
The Bible Study Together 2 year reading plan has been a work in progress and we have made several changes since our initial launch at the end of 2016. The changes have improved the chronology of the biblical narrative and the cross-referencing in the daily reading. The previous versions of the reading plan are complete and will take people through the whole Bible in two years, but the latest version (which can always be found online) has many improvements. Most of the revision directly pertain to the second year of the study, so if you started using our booklets in the beginning of 2017, we recommend you get the latest version of the booklet before December 2017. Though we may make some more minor changes in the future, we do not plan on making any more major changes to our Chronological Cross-Reference Bible Study Plan.
Does every New Testament passage connect to the Old Testament passage in the daily reading?
No, we have gone to great lengths to connect the New and Old Testament together as much as possible but every single day is not connected. We are unable to connect every day because we are also maintaining chronology in the Old Testament and in the Gospels. Most of the connections are made through the Psalms, Proverbs, and letter of the New Testament, but when we could, we did connect the stories together. When a specific connection exists it is often brought out through the study journal questions.
Where did all the map locations come from that are in the google maps on each day’s reading?
A spreadsheet and kml files of geotagged Bible locations at openbible.info we integral in creating our Bible maps. We created an algorithm to go through their dataset and generated new kml files that matched as close as possible to the locations in each day’s Bible reading. If you want to find this dataset, its available for free here.
