In the first part of how to approach the bible we were confronted with the uniqueness and need for God’s word. Approaching the Bible with admiration and great expectation was all about our affections and motivations. Next, we must face ourselves and be honest about our purpose and attitudes.
Approach the Bible Objectively
When we read the Bible our aim must be true, we must approach it objectively or selflessly, uninfluenced by our feelings or prejudice. Do not look for what you want to find but be open to anything God wants to reveal. Prepare yourself with prayer saying,
“Lord, help me to accept what Your Word says even if I do not like what it says, even if what it says makes me feel uncomfortable. May Your word wash over me and create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me”
Understand is a Matter of desiring or being willing to do God’s Will.
You must have such integrity if you are going to understand what the Bible says. Often when we have trouble understanding the Bible it is not because it is difficult to comprehend but it is hard because we lack the will to do God’s Will. Understanding the Bible starts with having the will to do God’s will; our persistent intent and purpose must be to accept God’s will and to do it. Then Proverbs calls us to treasure knowledge, the next step is to value knowing what God wants to reveal in His Word
John 8: 43 – “Why don’t you understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot accept my teaching.”
John 7:17-18 – “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
What God wants us to know He tells us clearly in the Bible.
What God wants to tell us, is He not able to make it clear to every generation and people? What He wants to tell us about the future, is He not able to keep is hidden until the time that it is necessary? The Bible was written to an ancient culture, and we may feel like outsiders trying to look into a very different world. But this sense of remoteness, this disconnect is an illusion that comes from trying to connect with the Bible in the wrong place; the character’s time and culture. The link between them and us is not found there. The link is God Himself, because the God they dealt with is the same God we must deal with today. Knowledge of ancient cultures will add to understanding but it will not change the meaning found in a good translation by 180 degrees or even 90 degrees for that matter.
If someone says you need special knowledge to understand the Bible and they claim that they and other experts have that special knowledge, watch out! It is more likely they are wolves trying to manipulate the Bible for their own ends. They have more faith in man’s ideas than God’s teachings.
The Bible is clear and brings clarity, we are the ones that bring the fog of confusion. Out of prejudice we determine what is right and wrong and even presume to judge what God says. Out of desire we look to justify our own actions and ideas even searching God’s word for some small phrase that would seem to make us right.
Luke 10: 25-29 – 25 And behold, a scholar of the Law stood up and was putting Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered and said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” 29 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Do not be like a lawyer looking for the loopholes when you read the Bible. Do not be a politician using it for your own gain. Do not be a religious person trying to show off your list of accomplishments. Come as lowly as you are, as truly needy as you really must be and find waters that never run dry. Find new wine and bread unlike any other. Find freedom and rest for your soul.
2 Timothy 2:15 – 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
John 8:31-32 “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
How you approach the Bible plays a crucial role in what impact it will have in your life. Many Christians hardly ever seriously spend time reading the Bible and others just look for a few words of encouragement. But God gave us His words in a book intending so much more. We have a book brought to us by the God who speaks and stars form while worlds come into existence. If you want to experience something transforming then you first must start with the right approach.
Approach the Bible with Reverence
Most people don’t pick up a random book and just start reading it. You usually pick up a book because you are atleast either curious about its subject or author, but then you may not have high expectations. You are more likely to choose a book with excitement and great expectation if you admire the author and have an interest in the subject matter. Lets give an introduction here to what the Bible is to hopefully spur you on to love the Bible and seek to read it well.
There is nothing like it in history.
Moses sat down in a tent they had setup outside the camp to meet with God (Ex 33). As on many occassions before (Ex 17,34 & Deut 17) he would write down on papyri what God would tell him to write. He had learned the Hieroglyphics and Hieratic script while growing up in Pharoah’s palace in Avaris. Also, someone had taken 22 of these characters and matched them up with the sounds of the language of his Hebrew people at some point over the 430 years they were staying in Egypt and he had learned this as well (Proto-Sinaitic). God had talked to other people before over the past millennia such as Job and Melchizedek and someone wrote down what Job had gone through and some other ancient texts seem to make similar statements to proverbs but this was the first time God was having a people he had chosen write down what He wanted them to for others to learn from for generations to come (Deut 6).
God had Moses and more than forty authors write sixty-six books over about 2000 years. Moses records how Adam and Eve fell to temptation from Satan in the form of a serpent and God told Eve (Gen 3) that her offspring would crush this serpent, referring to a coming savior. When God chose Moses ancestor, Abram, He said “Through you all nations of the world will be blessed” (Gen 12&18), once again referring to this coming savior. God said that Abram was righteous because of his faith not his accomplishments just as writers of Hebrews and Romans 1600 years later would talk about faith.
And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:5–6)
Job 19 looked forward to a coming redeemer. Micah 5 writes that this savior would be born in Bethlehem. Both Moses and Isaiah 53 described crucifixion hundreds of years before it was even a thing. All of these forty authors telling one story. The only example in history of a book compiled from many authors over more than a thousand years that comes close are the Vedas in Hinduism and the Daozhang of Taoism. However, all of these texts do not form a coherent story and focus more on methods to achieve immortality or improve your next life and to become like god. In the garden the serpent said “you will be like God”. These and all other religions in the world are about the ascent of man to god only the Bible tells the story of the descent of God to becoming a man. All this so that man could once again have a relationship with God his creator as it used to be at the dawn of creation.
There is nothing so indestructible through-out history?
After Moses judges were called upon to record God’s words and interactions with His people judges such as Joshua and Samuel and later kings such as David and Solomon, poets, prophets, and scribes took up the pen for God. But then civil war split the Kingdom. Evil kings took the throne such as Ahaz, Manasseh and Amon tried to destroy the scrolls of the law and tools in the temple, they even setup idols and sacrificed their own children. But then Josiah became king of Judah and had the Priests repair the temple and they found the scrolls of the law hidden away in a back room. It was not the first time and wouldn’t be the last time someone tried to destroy God’s word.
With His own people struggling against Him God calls Jeremiah and says to him “I put my words in your mouth, I have appointed you this day over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down,… to build and to plant”. Jeremiah was no king with such renown or authority yet what he was given, to tell everyone, were the very words of God. When God gives His word it goes out and it doesn’t come back until it has done what God wants done (Isa 55:11). Jeremiah tells of the fall of nations and the eventual fall of Jerusalem to Babylon all decades before it was to happen; but you see, these were words from God and so once spoken, once written by Jeremiah all of heaven starts moving to make it happen.
In 586 BC Babylon looted and burnt the temple and Jerusalem to the ground. Many were taken into captivity. God had Cyrus of Persia defeat Babylon in 541 BC and a couple years later he allowed the Hebrew people to go home returning what was taken from the temple as prophesied by Daniel decades earlier. Around 458 BC the scribe Ezra converted the Bible into the square Aramaic symbols from the script like ancient Hebrew symbols and the Bible was presented and read before the people (Nehemiah 8). In 332 BC while still under Persian rule Jerusalem surrendered to Alexander the Great. After Alexander died the son of his General Ptolemy had 72 scribes and priests come from Israel to Alexandria Egypt and translate the Bible into Greek about 282 BC. But Israel was under Antiochus and in 168 BC Antiochus IV attacked Jerusalem and destroyed all the books he could find in the Temple. The Greek empire gave way to the Roman empire (as fortold by Daniel). In 70 AD after a revolt Rome destroyed the temple and scattered the Jewish people around the nations. In 303 AD Emporer Diocletion forbid all Christian assemblies and ordered all churches and sacred texts destroyed.
By all accounts the Bible you have on your nightstand or smart phone should not exist. It has survived persecution and attempts to destroy it and erase it from history. It has survived the rise and fall of nations; no, it has brought about the rise and fall of nations, for God’s word will go out and nothing can stop it and those that try are the ones that fall. “For, all flesh is like grass, …the grass withers and the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord endures forever” 1 Peter 1:24-25. All other books only have a hand full of copies from five-hundred to a thousand years after they were written to represent them. But the bible has some 25,000 copies a few with-in a hundred years of when the books were written.
There is nothing so necessary!
The words of the Bible have changed everything in history because they are God’s words. In fact in John chapter one he says that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. God goes so far as to pretty much equate Himself with His words many of which are recorded in the Bible. It says in 2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” The bible reveals to us the purposes of God and that He made the world to work in a certain way. It reveals to us who God is so that we can have a relationship with Him. God even commanded in Deuteronomy 6 and 11 “You shall place these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, … you shall teach them to your children, and talk about them when you sit in your house, as you walk along the way, when you lay down and when you rise up. Write them on your door posts and your gates. that your days may be mutliplied”
All that it can do for us if we do what it says but it is so much more. In Dueteronomy 8 it says “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of GOD.” While food sustains life the very life of our soul and spirit can not continue unless it feeds upon the words of God. Its more then just reading the Bible to get a list of thing to try out or things to avoid doing so that you can get some benefit. Approach it with admiration and great expectation. Approach it with such reverence and then you will begin to find something that will turn everything else upside down.
The Bible is not a book for the faint of heart — it is a book full of all the greed and glory and violence and tenderness and sex and betrayal that befits mankind. It is not the collection of pretty little anecdotes mouthed by pious little church mice — it does not so much nibble at our shoe leather as it cuts to the heart and splits the marrow from the bone. It does not give us answers fitted to our small-minded questions, but truth that goes beyond what we even know to ask.
As mentioned in other articles I use a modified method of bible study drawn from Kay Arthurs Inductive Study method, R C Sprouls Knowing Scripture and Bethel Bible College Arcing and Phrasing. Some people will use highlighters and I tend to use a combination of highlighters and pens, but the primary method of marking is using pens. The advantage to pens is they allow you to do more than just color code but to draw attention with symbols and even draw arrows between them to further communicate their relationships. In the last article I reviewed Pens and in this Article we will review highlighters.
Types of Highlighters
Currently there are two types of highlighters you can find online or in stores. These are felt tip highlighters and gel highlighters. Felt tip highlighters are made with either water-based or alcohol-based ink. The water based tend to not bleed unless left in contact with the paper for an extended time where-as alcohol-based ones are prone to bleed. Gel based highlighters use a gel-based ink that dries fast and is less likely to bleed but some of these highlighters leave a waxy residue similar to crayons. This waxy residue can also prevent or inhibit the use of pens to mark over what you have highlighted.
For years now I have used a modified version of Precept Ministries Inductive Bible Study along with other tools and methods. These methods make use of colors and symbols when marking the bible to make the topics in the text of the passage stand out. The desired outcome or hope is that this will help to visualize and see the relationships between these to promote better understanding. Some people will use highlighters and I tend to use a combination of highlighters and pens, but the primary method of marking is using pens. The advantage to pens is they allow you to do more than just color code but to draw attention with symbols and even draw arrows between them to further communicate their relationships.
Decades ago, my mother wrote on the back of a picture with a pen. The picture was one including many family members that have either passed away or moved away and was significant to our family history. The problem was that the pen was “non-archival” which means that it wasn’t fade resistant and it was also acidic. The ink over time ate through the picture from the back to the front causing damage. Recently I purchased a new genuine leather bible and I decided to get a bit more organized in my marking and note taking as well as a little more cautious to avoid damage. Two articles that I referenced as I did my research I found rather helpful and I have inserted them below.
My faith built up over years of pursuing God and the persistent prompting of the Holy Spirit has compelled me to write this letter to Pastors and Church leaders. I am grateful for those that have answered the call to the ministry and realize how difficult it can be to minister to people. It is especially difficult during these last days however I must exhort you; I must challenge you and I fear there must be some criticism of where we are as a church and where our leaders have failed to warn their flocks appropriately. Some pastors and church leaders have challenged their flock well but many have not and I hope these words God has laid on my heart will stir something in you if you are not already stirred.
Nations including our own over the past century have come to a point where they have redefined what is evil as good and what is good is being called evil and bigotry. Today criminals go free and victims live in fear. Perversion is rampant, children are victimized, and infants sacrificed. Our leaders are trampling on moral ground and most churches are content to step back under the false pretense that they don’t want to seem political. These are moral issues and if they are not the jurisdiction of the church then what is?
It was 30 years ago I remember participating in the Hike for Life; many churches banded together across the country to oppose abortion. Now we no longer hike for life and when Roe vs Wade was overturned not many church celebrated it by name and at best watered it down by saying we are for all life and left it at that. When the Defense of Marriage act was over-turned merely a whimper could be heard from the church.
This article is a response to the video blog Allen Parr did on the same question. That video can be found here:
Before I address some of the points made in this video I would like to lay some groundwork. First lets cover some terminology. The OSAS (once saved always saved) view is formally or theologically known as the doctrine of Eternal Security and falls under the doctrinal discipline or category of Soteriology. It is very much rooted in some Reformed Systematic Theology, particularly Calvinism’s views on predestination and its, TULIP, core principles. Many good Christians have quite different views on Eternal Security and while it shouldn’t be a dividing point it often does cause robust disagreement and at times division and can affect how one views the Christian faith and life circumstances. So, while it is not something that should divide the church it is not an unimportant doctrine.
There is a disturbing trend in churches and Christian circles to denounce the celebration of Easter and Christmas as pagan. The video shared here is an example.
These topics were first introduced by Alexander Hislop’s The Two Babylon’s and Ralph Woodrow’s Babylon Mystery Religion. However Woodrow has changed his position on many of these conclusions in his new book The Babylon Connection. Woodrow recognized the flaw in logic used by Hislop and himself and illustrated it in this statement
“By this method, one could take virtually anything and do the same—even the “golden arches” at McDonald’s! The Encyclopedia Americana (article: “Arch”) says the use of arches was known in Babylon as early as 2020 B.C. Since Babylon was called “the golden city” (Isa. 14:4), can there be any doubt about the origin of the golden arches? As silly as this is, this is the type of proof that has been offered over and over about pagan origins.”
Woodrow, The Babylon Connection
We can see here the logic is flawed. Further there are variations on these ancient mythologies and looking for similarities you may find something But that doesn’t prove that there is any connection. For example the story of Nimrod is found in Josephus history and a majority of others as Nimrod rebelling against God and promoting other gods. However there are a couple ancient versions of the story which say the opposite, that he fought the other gods. In fact his name translated in the Septuagint means giant hunter and the bible says he was a mighty hunter before the Lord which seems to suggest that the later minority accounts could be closer to the truth.
While some Sunday schools still use the old flannel boards most have updated to newer methods and curriculum. One of the most prominent is Think Orange’s curriculum, Orange 252. A large number of churches have started using it across the country. There are some great advantages, ideas, and tools that come along with the curriculum. The Parent queues application is a mobile app that is synchronized with the current place in the curriculum and gives parents ideas regarding things to talk about after church and during the week to help reinforce what is being taught. The curriculum focuses on an application per month so anyone new can come in at any point and not feel like they are missing something because they are not joining in the middle of a story. Finally when you pick up your child they have a handout which goes over what they talked about in Sunday school and which gives ideas for questions to ask your kids around the dinner table Sunday night or some activity you might do during the week.
You may have noticed that the tools focus on encouraging parents to get involved with what their kids are learning. They even encourage the leadership of children’s ministries to invite parents once or twice during the year to a meeting to encourage them to be involved with what their children are learning. These strategy meetings with parents make a good point; parents have much more time with their children. The strategy documents states that Parents have about 3000 hours with their children while the church on average only has about 40 hours. It is true that we have more time with our kids and it is also true many parents may be a little too hands off leaving everything up to their church on Sunday morning. Much can be learned from this but we must be careful to not overstate it. As children grow up they start questioning and look outside the family away from their parents for confirmation of truth and direction. Also children should be attending mid-week youth bible study groups. Parents should also consider summer bible camps which increases the time to over 250 hours. Still much less time than parents have which is why parents still need to be engaged which is rightly pointed out by Think Orange.
Well, I’m not really color blind but I do see some point of concern here with what Orange focuses on. The first thing that I noticed was a focus on application instead of a focus on the bible passages. The orange curriculum does have bible passages and a key verse for each week but the focus is on the application as demonstrated by the curriculum plan in the comparison below. Further you will notice that some of the applications are not necessarily terms you will directly find in the bible though you may find the concept. For example Integrity and Initiative aren’t terms you would find if you ran a search on the bible. But if you want to talk about these topics you can find verses that have something to say about these topics or applications. In a sense you are being given fish but not necessarily learning how to fish or how to read the bible and explore what it is saying and how it applies to you. Also the bible is an iterative story, God reveals Himself progressively through the history of God’s interaction with His people recounted in the bible.
My friend’s daughter said “dad why are they closing churches, no one gets sick in church” a simple child’s faith but it gave me pause so I can’t judge a pastor that has decided to keep their Church’s doors open during the Covid-19 Wuhan Flu outbreak in opposition to state orders. I don’t know if the Spirit called him to stay open or not. God will judge and we may be able to infer something from the results. If a word is from God one should expect the results to bear fruit.
I believe that the church is a miraculous place that God made for us. Yes God is everywhere and you can meet Him at home but the church is set apart and sometimes home for many can seem much less so, hence God created houses of prayer for all people (Isaiah 56:7, Matthew 21:13, Psalm 122:1, John 4:21, 1 Tim 2:8).
In the beginning while the world was getting a handle on this outbreak of the Wuhan Flu suspending some ministries and moving to online services makes sense. However I don’t know if the church should have completely shut its doors with the staff doing web streams from home. Jesus said “My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations” This is a command which seems hard to fulfill if the doors are locked to everyone no matter the circumstance. Scripture also command in Hebrews 10:25, “Do not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing.” As part of our Christian witness and neighborly duty we need to be flexible to meet requests of those in authority to fulfill Roman’s 13. But at some point and some degree we also have to follow what Peter said “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide”. There is a tension between Romans 13 and Acts 4. Now after the recovery rate has been determined to be 99.6% and the at risk groups are more clear there should be ways the church could open up a bit more with safety measures while at risk groups watch from home or from cars in parking lot services.
This may be the first post where I don’t really draw a conclusion nor state a strong opinion. That is because it is one thing I have been struggling to get my arms and head around for years. I’m hoping this post may be useful to start some dialogues toward a better understanding. The issue is this. The bible talks about behaviors and also addresses why we misbehave. It even addresses extreme behaviors identifying spiritual and demonic causes. On the other hand psychology studies behaviors, mental and emotional states and also proposes reasons and solutions. This to me seems to be a large overlapping grey area.
Many churches and Christians now defer to psychology placing more faith in its “scientific approach”. But many fail to realize that as a science it lacks many of the rigors of physics, chemistry and even biology. For example in those struggling with depression they find a chemical imbalance in the brain. One would think, “Oh well there is the cause”, but it is really an assumption of cause. It could very well be the effect of something else. Because emotional states cannot be measured; they must be communicated. Therefore cause and effect relationships cannot be rigorously established.
In modern psychology the naturalistic paradigm assumes that all behaviors must have physical experiential causes and therefore physical solutions. From personal experience dealing with my own children struggling with ADHD, after years of denial and mistakes I had to accept the reality of such a mental disability having behavioral consequences.
Glory to be Revealed 