The Bible
is still one of the most popular books in the entire world. It is God's gift to
mankind. God gave us a book that we can read, understand, and follow. God would
not be so cruel as to provide us a book, command us to read it, and then make
it so difficult that people could not understand it.
However, I believe
that the church has done a poor job in teaching people how to read the Bible.
It is important for the church to teach people what the Bible says. Yet, it is
equally important for people to know how to read the Bible for themselves. The
world is full of false teachers that abuse the Bible. In order to make sure
that we do not follow false teachers we need to make sure that we are studying
the Bible personally at home as well as collectively when we are at church.
As with any
activity, it is important to know what not to do as well as what to do in order
to be productive. In this article, we will look at some mistakes people make
when reading the Bible that causes confusion.
1. Understand the Divisions in the Bible. Your car engine is a
complicated piece of machinery. In order to understand it properly, you need to
understand how the individual parts work, their purpose in the engine, and the
placement in the engine. The Bible is very similar. The Bible is made up of 66
different books. Each book takes place in 2 major divisions (Old and New
Testament). Each division has smaller divisions (Books of Law, History,
Prophecy, etc.). This means that different books of the Bible actually have a
different purpose. For example, the book of Leviticus is written under the Old
Testament. Its audience is to the Jewish people before the time of Jesus
Christ. Leviticus is part of the books of the Law, which taught the Jews what
God commanded concerning their morality, behavior, and religion. The book of
Romans, on the other hand, was written after the time of Jesus Christ. It is
written to Christians about their faith, religion, morality, and church
conduct. The mistake that many make is assuming that each book serves the same
function in the Bible. The ultimate purpose of all 66 books is to lead one to
salvation in Jesus Christ. However, each book has its own function in the
Bible. Many misunderstand the biblical text because they fail to understand the
purpose and function of the book they are reading. I will be writing another
article describing each section of the Bible and its overall purpose in the
Bible.
2. Context. One of the biggest mistakes of the Bible is taking an
individual verse out of context. Chapters and verses were not an original part
of the Bible. Each verse was designed to be read as a part of the section it
belonged to. The mistake that many make is to take an isolated text and
determine its meaning without the passage before and after it. Two of the most
famous quotes of the Bible is "an eye for an eye" and "judge
not." Since these two verse were read without the context, most people do
not properly understand their meaning. The "eye for an eye" passage
was a judicial command for the Jewish people. The design was not for personal
revenge but to protect both the innocent and the guilty in a trial. The
"eye for an eye" was designed to give a fair punishment for the crime
that was committed. It was not designed to give the Jews permission to seek
revenge. Since it was a part of the Old Testament Law, it does not apply to a
Christian. In fact, Jesus taught Christians to "turn the other
check." The "judge not" passage does not forbid people from
calling activities sinful or wrong. In fact, pointing out sin is essential to
proclaiming the Gospel. Instead, its purpose was to make the person examine
their own life, to be humble about their own sinfulness, and to make sure that
they are not ignoring their own need for salvation. When we do not read the
full context of a passage, we do not know what it truly means.
3. History is not permission. The Bible records the lives of
individuals. Some of these individuals are good, godly people. Others were evil
individuals. With the exception of Jesus Christ, none of the people in the
Bible are perfect. God records the sins of Noah, Abraham, David, Peter, and
Paul for a couple of reasons. First, God is showing the universal need of all
men to be saved. Even godly people make mistakes and need to be saved. Second,
God is showing us the price these men paid for their mistakes. God records both
the sinful deed and the consequence of those actions. Some have incorrectly
believed that if God recorded a behavior He approved of it. Truthfully, God
recorded a lot of behavior that He called sinful. Some individuals have
attempted to justify behaviors by citing the fact that the Bible recorded it. A
modern example is the debate of the definition of biblical marriage. Some have
correctly pointed out that the Bible records polygamous marriages and then
falsely stated the Bible has multiple definitions marriages. The Bible defines
marriage through the commands of God, not the examples in the Bible. Also, the
record of polygamous marriages shows the pain that comes from such marriages.
4. Understanding the culture. Some of the misunderstandings that people have of the Bible
is a lack of knowledge of the culture in which the Bible was produced. The last
book of the Bible was written about 2,000 years ago. The first book of the
Bible was written, approximately, 1,500 years before that. Most of the Bible
took place in the Middle East (Israel and the surrounding countries). This is a
different culture than many who live in the Western world in 2015. Some of the
commandments, accounts, and writings of the Bible dealt with the culture of
that day. There is still a lesson for us to learn and the Bible is still
relevant for us today. However, some twist what the Bible teaches because they
misunderstand the context of the culture. One example that people often quote is
the Old Testament commandment which says that if a man rapes a woman he must
marry her. Our modern society cringes at this command but what we do not
understand is how it is designed to protect women in that culture. First, men
in that culture did not want to marry a woman that was raped. Since women had
limited opportunities to make a living, they would either live in poverty or
continued to be abused by becoming a prostitute. If a man made a woman undesirable
for marriage by raping her, he had to be responsible for her the rest of her
life. In other words, he had to provide food, shelter, clothing, and protection
for the rest of her life. Second, the woman was not forced to marry the man. It
was still her choice. Today, woman in the Western world have a different place
and have different opportunities. They have different choices to make. Women in
that time period had few opportunities and choices. When one examines that
command in its cultural context, one begins to see how it is not cruel as our
society believes. The same could be said about issues of slavery in the Bible.
Once you understand the context, you see a greater lesson and you see what our
righteous God intended for us to learn.
Anyone can learn how
to study, learn, and understand the Bible. God designed it so that we could. We
will continue this theme by examining how the Bible is divided into the Old and
New Testament.
