[First in a series of posts on how to read the Bible] Encore Post: For most Christians, the first rule for understanding the Bible seems obvious. The Bible is God’s Word. Yet believing that God speaks to us in his own words and is the author of the Bible affects the way we look at the Scriptures, how we approach it, what we expect from it and the assumptions that we make about what it says.
Because the Bible is God’s message to us, we believe that it is not fiction, a myth made up by people to explain the world, or something that it just very well written words to inspire us or make us feel good — like a great movie, a catchy song, or an absorbing novel written by our favorite author. After they make us feel good and escape the world for a while, nothing changes and life goes on. The Word of God, however, comes with the power of God to change our lives, brought to us by God’s own Holy Spirit. (see Romans 1:16-17, 2 Peter 1:16-21) It creates faith in hearts which do not believe and strengthens faith where it exists.
So, the clear teachings of the Bible are the final authority on everything it speaks about. When it says that all people are evil, not good, at heart, we believe that, even though our mind and culture tells us, everyone is basically good. When it tells us God made the world in six days, we believe that, too, even if the world’s myth tells us the universe has always existed and developed over millions of years into what we now see. When the Bible tells us both that God decided to save us before he made the world, but if we reject him, we can lose our faith, we believe that too, even though it doesn’t make sense to us.
So, this rule is that we assume that what the Bible teaches is true and use those things which are perfectly clear in it to understand things that are not so clear.
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I always thought rule #1 was praying for wisdom and discernment before starting to read.
Technically speaking, hearing comes first, or you have no faith with which to pray. 😉 God always gets the first move. Having said that, prayer is good, but it is not a rule of interpretation, but a response to God’s grace.
I agree
Thank you for posting these. I haven’t been reading all of them, but I would like to go back and read them all. Thank God for your talent and willingness to share.
Thanks! That’s what we write them for.
We just changed our link structure to something more enduring. For the moment, if you go to the home page whatdoesthismean.blog, the search box will get you there. Just search for rule and you’ll get the new links for all of them.
Well done!!!!
Thanks!