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January 25, 2010
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Since faith is essential to pleasing God (Hebrews 11:6), and faith comes only by the study and understanding of God's revealed word (Romans 10:17), it behooves each of us to work on building faith. Unfortunately, many of the Lord's disciples are not spending much time in serious, personal Bible study. They lack the skills to dig out the message and properly interpret it. God said in Hosea 4:6, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Shall we be like God's people in Hosea's time? The following excerpt is taken from Bible Study for Joy and Profit:1 How Difficult Is the Bible to Understand? It is not uncommon to hear someone say they do not study the Bible because it is too difficult to understand. While some may not be willing to admit this reason for not studying, they rarely or never attempt to pursue a Bible question or try to grasp a spiritual concept on their own. They get their learning from a preacher or competent Bible teacher. Sadly, many adult teachers and some elders of the church are not able to dig out the meat of God's Word for themselves, but rely on a class book to lay out the points and the passages for them. Is that because the Bible is just too difficult? Certainly not! Are there difficult passages in the Bible? Yes, of course. Still, your Bible on the whole is not a difficult book. It may surprise you to know that the most commonly used English translations are written at the reading level of a twelfth grade student or younger. The King James Version reading level is at the 12th grade level, the New American Standard at the 11th, the New King James at 8.5, the Living Bible at 8.3, and the New International Version at 7.8.2 A new (first published in 2001) translation, the English Standard Version - arguably the most literal of English translations - is reported by Wikipedia as written for a middle school reading level. Understanding the Bible is not so much a question of difficulty as it is of interest and knowing how to unlock its meaning. This book hopes to show you how to unlock both the Bible's meaning and the real joy that will accrue to you from a very personal encounter with God's Word. Can Everyone Understand Alike? Realizing it is written at a level even an adolescent can understand may cause us to quickly answer that all can understand it alike. Yet many good and sincere people throughout denominational Christianity believe it cannot be understood alike by all. Why? What evidence do they have? Well, one evidence is that there are now over 34,000 denominations of Christianity and the number of new ones is growing at the rate of 270 - 300 per year.3 There were only a few dozen when I was a boy. The dramatic increase in the number of denominations could be an argument of itself that we cannot understand Scripture alike. Of course, there are other plausible reasons for such division: carelessness with God's message, failure to submit to God's will, leaders with another agenda besides making disciples of the Lord, placing the traditions of men over the Word of the Father, different views of the authority of God's Word, etc. Many today actually believe that everyone is entitled to his own understanding, his own "truth," as it were. This may be a product of the humanistic belief that each one is entitled to go his or her way, that is, to believe one's own thing. Or perhaps it partly stems from the charismatic movement within Christianity, which holds that the follower of Christ is miraculously or directly guided by the Holy Spirit. It is claimed that the apostle Paul taught this when he prayed that "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened..." (Ephesians 1:17, 18) The fact is, the passage does not support the notion that each one is entitled to his or her own understanding. Nor does it say that the Holy Spirit will reveal the knowledge of God directly. Many passages speak to the contrary. Paul said very clearly that faith - our understanding and conviction - comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). He claimed by inspiration that there is only one truth, one faith (Ephesians 4:5), which cannot be acquired by prayer or other means. It is a pragmatic process that involves study of the Word. Can everyone understand God's Word alike? The Bible affirms that all can. Paul said so clearly when he taught that God revealed to him the mystery of salvation in Christ Jesus, and he wrote it down for us to read (Ephesians 3:1-7). The apostle said, "He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ),..." (Ephesians 3:3, 4) Paul said this despite the fact that some of his writings are more difficult to understand than other passages, and Peter warned that "untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction" Paul's words as well as all Scripture (2 Peter 3:15, 16). Even the cases of conversion presented in the book of Acts prove that all can and must understand alike. On the occasion of the first gospel sermon, the apostle Peter explained to a multitude who believed why they should repent and be baptized (Acts 2:14-39). Those who gladly received his word and were baptized numbered about 3,000 souls (Acts 2:41). Why did the rest not also obey? Was it because they didn't understand Peter's message? Of course, not! They didn't believe it enough. It wasn't a question of understanding then, and it is not now. It is a question of whether or not people want to humbly submit to just what the Word says, or they want to twist and distort it to fit their own concept of what would please God. Why Not Leave Theology to Theologians? There is a popular belief in denominational Christianity that the Bible message can be divided into two groups: ethics and theology - ethics having to do with how to live as a Christian and theology dealing with matters of salvation, organization and work of the church, etc. This seems to some a convenient way to have unity throughout the broad community of Christianity yet still maintain the distinction of denominational difference. The idea is that we can unite in our belief that Jesus is the risen Christ, but cling to our favorite means of being saved and worshiping the Lord. In a similar vein, some have divided New Testament teaching into gospel and doctrine. The gospel, it is said, is the good news of Christ: His death, burial, resurrection and appearance. Doctrine is, on the other hand, all of the teaching that resulted from that good news: how one is saved, the nature of acceptable worship, and the rest of the teachings in the epistles. Similarly, this view leads some to conclude that belief in Christ's resurrection is sufficient to unite us in Christ, and doctrine is that which we necessarily will understand and practice differently. Both means of compartmentalizing the message of Christ offer to some the opportunity to move responsibility for understanding the "weightier, more divisive matters" of Scripture to those with theological credentials. If they cannot agree on the nature and purpose of baptism, it is reasoned, how can we who are less trained expect to understand? Separating the faith (Jude 3) into compartments for the sake of ecumenism in the midst of denominational division is, to this writer's mind, a failure to handle God's Word correctly (2 Timothy 2:15). The apostle Paul seems to use gospel and doctrine interchangeably when he writes to Timothy, "...if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust." (1 Timothy 1:10, 11) When he warned the Galatians against "a different gospel," (Galatians 1:6-9) surely he was warning against turning from any part of the true faith in Christ, not only belief in His resurrection from the dead. Separating Christian ethics from theology is, at best, equally tenuous. How does one distinguish? The two are intrinsically interwoven. Faith in Christ is all about faith that prompts action: behavior toward God and one another, in other words, ethics and theology all mixed up together in our daily walk and worship. I fear that those who try to shift responsibility for understanding God's will to others, no matter how learned, are in for a rude awakening at the judgment bar. Where will the experts be when God calls you to answer for your faith? Even if they are close at hand, who is to say which ones have the truth? They cannot agree, and the disagreement among them is increasing at an alarming rate. The only sensible answer is your own diligent study of God's Word. You can understand it, and God expects you to. Can't Someone Else Do It For Me? Salvation is a very personal thing. The knowledge which is prerequisite to salvation cannot be accrued for you by someone else. In fact, useful understanding of anything is very personal. To illustrate, try learning a new software application. You can read about it, even play with it, but you will not fully grasp it until you are required to use it to accomplish some series of tasks, that is, use it productively. Then and only then you will come to know it and with practice become comfortable in your knowledge. If understanding is going to empower you to do something consequential, it first must be made a part of your personal storehouse of knowledge; the facts must be known and accepted by you, its principles must become your convictions, the attitudes it encourages must find a home in your consciousness, and the motivations it provides must be intrinsic, that is, they must spring from within, from your heart. For as a person thinks, so is that person (Proverbs 23:7). 1Brackett, Charlie, Bible Study for Joy and Profit (2008), pp. 12-16, Clarion Word Publishing, Chattanooga, TN. 2English Bible Translation Comparison (2006) http://www.ibs.org/Bibles/ translations/#KJV, citing Comfort, Philip W., The Complete Guide to Bible Versions, pp. 48-49, 75-81, Wheaton: Tyndale, 1991, International Bible Society, Colorado Springs, CO. 3Ostling, Richard N., Researcher tabulates world's believers, Associated Press, 19 May 2001, Salt Lake Tribune cites 2001 edition of Barrett's Encyclopedia which counts 33,830 Christian denominations, the number continuing to grow by 270 - 300 denominations per year. |
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P.O. Box 21277, Chattanooga, TN 47424, USA