How do I search for the Biblical answer to a theological question with Logos?

Kelli Bunner said:

I am a fairly new Christian so I have many questions about certain issues where there are different opinions in different denominations.  I want to study what the Bible says about these issues (for example, Sabbath-keeping, female pastors, once-saved-always-saved versus backsliding, etc).  Please do not give your opinion on those things here, because that's not what the forum is for!  I just want to know how to best use Logos for researching these types of questions.

I am not new to the Bible - I have a degree in Religious Studies, and I have read the Bible through more than once and I know some Hebrew.  (I used to believe in and practice Judaism).  I have attended different churches and of course, they have different views on these subjects, and I can understand why there are differences of opinions, but before I form my own opinion, I want to really know all that the Bible has to say about it, you know what I mean?

Hi Kelli

Welcome to the forums! Like you, enjoy helping each other put Logos to good use to search out all kinds of things.

You probably realise there is no one-size-fits-all answer to your question, since the kinds of things we want to know vary so much. But here are some suggestions on how you might conduct your searches.

Firstly, to search the Bible, think of the words/phrases that could occur in your preferred translations, and to a Bible search:

This assumes you have prioritised your translations.

Next, you might want to search your Bible dictionaries for the topic. You can open a Bible dictionary and see if it has the topic, or you can make a collection of Bible dictionaries using a rule like this:
(type:(dictionary,encyclop) OR title:dictionary) ANDNOT (title:(Lexicon,Greek,Hebrew,Aramaic,Coptic,Cascadia,Latin,"Tense","Alten","Quotations","and women of the Bible","Morpho-Syntactic","theologians","A Manual of councils", "Who's who") OR type:media)
and then to a Basic search on that collection:

If you are searching for a theological topic, you could make a theology collection defined with a rule like this:
(title:("systematic theology",dogma,doctrine) OR subject:("theology doctrinal")) ANDNOT (pastoral OR (subject:periodicals) OR title:("30 days","Richard Lord Bishop","Ryrie's Practical"))

In some cases, you will need to know the jargon for the topic. For your example of "once-saved-always-saved", you might hit that phrase if you do a Basic search in your Entire Library, but it would be good to search on:
"eternal security" OR perseverence

You probaby already found the wiki for Detailed Search Help.

You may be aware of Hebrew, so might also like to use a Morphological search. The simplest way to do this is to right-click a word in an Interlinear, choose Lemma, and Search This Resource.

As I say, there's no simple answer to your question. In fact, the answers we get are only as good as the questions we ask.

Good question, Kelli! And welcome to the Logos forums.

Kelli, GREAT question!! Previous posts have given excellent suggestions. As you process these questions and seek to find answers, could I gently encourage you to search for these answers within community? Just as this forum gives multiple suggestions, by reading widely and being in dialogue with those with whom you agree (and peaceably disagree) you will come to find orthodox answers. I also appreciate "the Mosaic of Christian Belief" by Roger Olsen published by IVP (don't believe it is available in Logos) which will help you sort through historical understandings within the Body of Christ. I love that Olsen reminds us that the same Holy Spirit who indwells believers today has been communicating through the Body of Christ for centuries.