Think of the Major Topics under which all 
other Bible topics can be placed as subtopics.  Sure, "God" would be a good overall category.  But what if you wanted to organize Bible topics into more categories?

Pick a Level of Detail 
that Suits your Bible-Study Style

You can organize your Bible Study into any level.

1. *Five is a handful-  The Big 5 categories. Easy to remember.  Tell people you study digitally.
2. *The Growing Tree - All Basic 10 categories with only major subtopics branches.  

3. *The Abraham - A multitude of topics. All Basic 10 categories, but with about 1,500 subtopics.   This is the version that is available for download.

Big Five

Growing Tree

Abraham

Here is a More Detailed Explanation 
of the Above Chart 

*THE BIG FIVE METHOD. The simplest method. Uses five categories to organize your notes, research, and devotions.  The five categories you might use to group your Bible study are:        

     The Godhead (God/Jesus/Holy Spirit)        

     Angles        

   Satan        

     Mankind        

Salvation

OK, OK, I know that the Godhead is actually 3 topics in 1 so this method is really not just 5 categories, it's really 7.  But in my defense, I was trying to come up with the fewest topics to capture the interest of those who might say, "Hey, I will start keeping my Bible Study notes under 5 major categories, but I would forget the whole thing if there were as many as 7 categories."    

*THE GROWING TREE METHOD. This uses all ten of the basic categories shown at the very top of the page, but also further categorizes your study into several branches beneath each main topic. The Growing Tree is a more manageable and compact version of an outline than the Abraham Method. Because there are so few subtopic, there are no topic numbers!  

1-3.    The Godhead (God/Jesus/Holy Spirit)        
4.    Angles        5.    Satan       
 6.    Mankind        7.    Salvation 
8. Church     9. Bible      10. Last Things     

Here is first part of the Growing Tree Method:

GOD

        KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

        CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD

        WORKS & DECREES OF GOD

JESUS - CHRISTOLOGY

        KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST

        LIFE

        WORKS, ACTIONS, POWER

See the rest of the Growing Tree.  

Another benefit of the Growing Tree method is that it is essentially the same high level topics in the full-scale method describe below.  Look at the Growing Tree method to give yourself a better understanding of how the full Bible Study Outline (called the Abraham Method because it is so numerous) is organized.   

If you want to use the Growing Tree method, just cut and paste it from the Growing Tree cut screen.

*THE ABRAHAM METHOD. This is the entire list of categories beginning at Bible Study Outline Topics.  

The Abraham Method uses the same 10 categories as the Growing Tree Method, and essentially the same high-level major categories, but also adds many more and then many sub-subtopics, about 1,500. 

Because there are a multitude of topics, each subtopic has a Bible Topic Number so that you can find the topics in the list and for sorting purposes in your word processor, if you want. Of course, the Bible Topic Numbers are just handy numbers and are an arbitrary system to help keep all the topics in order.

1-3    The Godhead (God/Jesus/Holy Spirit)       
 4.    Angles        5.    Satan
6.    Mankind     7.    Salvation 
8. Church     9. Bible    10. Last Things     

Why are the ten topics in that order, shouldn't the Bible be first?

Here is first part of the Abraham Method:

God

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY
             God 1   <---------------------This is a Bible Topic Number
NAMES
             God 10 
      ALPHA & OMEGA
             God 20  <------------------- So is this.
      EL
             God 30  <------------------ And this too.
      EL ELOHE ISRAEL
             God 35  <-------------------Get the idea?  The section on 
                                               Jesus begins with "Jesus 10." 
                                      The section on Salvation begins 
                                                with "Salvation 10."  Prayer is
                                                Salvation 3370.

      EL ELYON
             God 40 
      EL OLAM
            God 45 
      EL ROI
            God 50 
      EL SHADDAI
            God 55 
      ELOHIM
            God 60 

Example of how your own Bible Study notes might look using the illustration of notes placed in the section on the Lord's Prayer which is Salvation 3375. 

See the beginning of the Bible Study Outline Topics.  

Icon of Abraham and Sarah from
Saint Benedict Center

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