How to NOT Study the Bible

What? Not study the Bible?

No matter how devoutly religious you think you are, you might unwittingly be going the same direction in life as the devout atheists. Bible critics study the Bible, or at least the established literature which pretends to be about the Bible.

It's like this. There are two main reasons to try to get to better know one of your fellow human beings: 1) To discover his needs - the ones you may be able to help him with; 2) To figure out where his stress-buttons are, so you can press them and thereby control him.

Whether you like it or not, there is only ONE reason humanly available for trying to get to know your Bible better - it compares to #2 above. All who study the Bible, monk or critic, are filtering the words that they read through the education definitions they have acquired at school or elsewhere. The Bible doesn't need your help (see #1 above) to mean what it says. All that remains for the scholar or critic to do is to help the Bible seem to mean what he feels comfortable with. Or he may feel a little more noble and desire to help it mean what he thinks others should understand from it. Do understand this: The scholar who has memorized "Thy word is truth" actually thinks that with his own corrupted understanding of life he can understand the concept of truth. And how can truth be understood, let alone acted upon and benefited from, if the concept of truth is muddy at best in ones own mind?

So, we now come to the Bible. I am writing this to intelligent persons, and some of you may actually, at this point, not realize how intelligent you really are. In fact, be ready to discover an entirely new meaning of intelligence that you may not have ever heard about before.

The question may come up at this point about which version of the Bible to read. Much has already been written elsewhere about this matter, so I will just recommend having two versions at your disposal, an older one and a newer one. If you understand more than one language, read the Bible in your two best languages. Alternatively, you could grab one "literal" translation and one that is more paraphrased.

I don't recommend going to Bible commentaries or Bible dictionaries because they tend to be more confusing than helpful, at least until you know the Bible itself much better. Concordances are generally good to have and use, because you can use them to help zoom in on particular subject matter in the Bible.

But the best thing to do with the Bible is to simply read it. Starting where? Just start anywhere. Open at random. Go to a book in the Bible whose name catches your attention. Once you start reading at your starting point, it should quickly become clear to you whether that particular part is making sense to you. Don't read it to feel good or to feed a daydream. Read it without expecting anything in return or to benefit yourself in some particular way. Allow its own words to introduce you to a much more intelligent meaning of the word benefit and of the idea of expectation.

It may be best for you to start with something you are already familiar with, but that is not necessary. If you are the persistent type of person, you may even just start at the beginning of Genesis and proceed right through. At some point a temporary or permanent detour may seem in order, so take that detour if you wish.

Here and there the Bible itself will explain its purpose to you, define its own words, shed light on its own meanings. When you find a section that seems to mean nothing to you, don't study it. Leave it alone until another time. If you memorize anything, do that where the Bible itself seems to recommend it, but trying to memorize is not the answer as much as simply coming back to the same part again and again until not just the words take hold in your mind but the meaning as well.

You can see by now that I have not referenced any specific book, chapter, or verse so far except the beginning of Genesis. The most beneficial way to learn to get around in the Bible is by getting around in it, catching meaning as you go.

Sooner or later, sooner if your mind is truly now open, you will discover that you have begun to be in touch with a greater mind than your own. The realization of that greatness must not be based on a feeling or some self-imposed attitude. That realization must come of its own as if from a distance, yet welling up close from within. That realization must never be confused with the emotional feelings stirred up from outside yourself by some preacher, evangelist, professor or critic. It's only real and useful to you when it is directly to you. And it must be as if it came from both a great distance and from within you at the same time.

You will also begin to get that uncomfortable sense that you are, for the first time, seeing yourself in a mirror. If you have already begun to think you see faults in other people from what the Bible says, but you have not yet had the sense of seeing yourself in a mirror, you most likely are not seeing others faults at all, but your own faults projected onto them. Be very cautious about what you do at that point, and of which way your mind goes. You must be able to see your own thoughts clearly, as if from a distance, as if through another set of eyes, before you can be sure you see others clearly and truly.

The words in the Bible cut deep within, and are designed to do so. External preachers and commentaries tend to dull the Bible's inherent sharpness and substitute either outright softness or some useless humanly-designed sharpness of their own. The words of the Bible state that they themselves are a sharp sword, sharp on both edges. That does not mean that everywhere you read in the Bible is going to cause feelings of pain. However, if there is never any pain as you read the Bible, then you are receiving only the shapes and sounds, but no meaning.

My own personal greatest battle having to do with reading the Bible has been with resentment. I remember reading very young about how God set an example way back at the beginning of how we humans should behave on a weekly basis. Immediately the force of confusion leading to possible resentment began to pound on my brain. The Bible says this but they do that. What am I going to do? The force of reason then presented itself using the idea of simply asking someone supposedly in authority, "What gives?" at the next opportunity. Then I simply put the matter out of my mind. Next Sunday, the question came to mind in the young-children's class I attended. I asked it at seemingly the appropriate time. Everything got quiet. The teacher got a bewildered look on her face and said to all of us, "Everybody stay put. I'll be right back." She soon returned with one of higher authority and he took me and one of my also-interested fellow pupils to another corner of the large room to attempt to answer the question. I still remember not being completely satisfied with his set of answers, but realized that I still didn't know enough else at the time to pursue the matter further.

Thus, by staying objective about this situation, and many more to follow, I was able to keep seeking patiently while avoiding frustration and resentment. That is the frame of mind to always have, or at least admit the need to return to, when coming to the Bible. To simply memorize the sounds of the words and spit them back out at unsuspecting passersby is not the spiritual life, at least not the spirituality spelled out in the Bible.

You will find where Jesus talks about a pearl of great price, and where some folks are so out-of-it that they trample such treasure underfoot, before they turn and tear you in pieces, at least figuratively. That treasure is never in the shapes and sounds of the letters and words on the page. Keep reading in your own Bible and you will find where it says this and much more. Look at it this way: You must get more and more to the place where the words in the Bible are in fact reading you. You, individually, are the subject of the Bible. Allow it to read all your thoughts. You will discover thoughts within yourself, both pleasant and otherwise, which you never realized were there before. And you will begin to be able to step back and see, not only your own thoughts, but hear your own words and see your own actions in a brand new way. And as you watch, as if detached from yourself, you will begin to see your own behavior improve, as if by magic, through no effort or struggle of your own.

Here I have written something a bit drawn out and long-winded about the matter of just reading the Bible without studying it. You can see that I have by no means been completely thorough or comprehensive. And one more thing: You may have already been told to "study to show yourself approved unto God." If I may paraphrase the sense of meaning I understand from these words: "Diligently endeavor to present yourself ready and useful for the great Designer/Creator/Ruler to use as He sees fit." In other words, live in such a way as to be available to the One who is the origin of all meaning, life and fulfillment. Come to life the same way as described above in coming to the Bible and you will find understanding and wholesomeness beyond your wildest dreams (that is, if you are available to have wild dreams). Enjoy.

What Does This Have to Do with the Bible?

Whenever one comes to anything, one must come with the proper tools to deal with it. For example, when one approaches the matter of being able to read, one must begin with the basic symbols of the language. Since language is usually written and spoken, the sounds connected with those symbols must also be fairly well established.

We have begun right on target. To read the Bible, obviously one must be able to read it in the language it was written in. Oops, big oops, for most folks. Wasn't the Bible originally written in Hebrew, Greek, and a little in some other language? Not to worry. Many have, over a period of centuries, translated the Bible into more languages than just about anything else. Even in English, there are an ever-increasing number of what are called versions to choose from. To start off, pick up the one you are accustomed to using, if any. If you are brand new to the Bible, grab, purchase, or borrow one that has been translated into the language you are most comfortable with.

Wow! When is this guy going to get to something I don't already know?

NOTICE WELL: If you just asked that question, in your head or out loud, the Bible WILL NOT profit you at all in your present condition. "What was that?" you say. If you think you already know everything, or, just as detrimental, anything at all, the Bible will be useless to you.

NOW is when most of you reading this had better sit down. And those already sitting down better clear an escape route before reading further.

The worst news here is for those who have read and studied the Bible enormously and feel like you have done so faithfully. You may belong to Bible-memory clubs, outreaches, or missions. Or you might have exhaustively devoured its words in secret. The horrific news here is that you guys may indeed have the most to UNLEARN.

Look back, now, at the seventeenth word in the previous paragraph: FEEL. For the Bible to be useful to you, you must not only be able to read, you must know HOW to feel. Of course, no other book has word combinations so rich in their seeming ability to cause every possible range of emotions as those found in the Bible. That is why one must come to it with the proper emotional tools as well as reading skills. No, no, no: you must NOT move to Vulcan and learn the ways of the unforce. We are not talking here about suppressing emotions at all. The idea here is to make sure that your emotions are neither suppressing your awareness (inner or outer) nor your ability to effectively function in the world. Principled living begins with a determination to practice the ongoing balancing "act" between suppressing emotions and getting caught up (entangled) in them.

This is actually the introduction to my next post . . .

We Came to the Bible

An atheist came to the Bible and said, "Let me interpret this book as my group and I see fit."
A theologian came to the Bible and said, "Let me interpret this Book as my group and I see fit."
Does this difference of a capital letter really make any difference?

Do you really expect me to take sides? Actually the Bible itself never takes sides. Paul dramatically shows us through what he wrote in graphic detail how we ALL fall short and are en route to where we would rather not go.

Who will deliver us ALL from this sticky filthy resentment-filled confusion of death? The One who first came to us through one chosen, yet not favorite, people has paid the price for all of our willful ignorance, IF we do a simple turnaround and see fit to obey Him instead. If one cannot obey Him separate from our groups, churches, or nations, then we certainly cannot truly worship Him together.

The price He paid was NOT the Gospel our Savior preached while dwelling among us, however! His disciples rebuked Him for mentioning His upcoming cruel death not long before its occurrence. Then what was His Gospel?

He preached the Kingdom of God. God will yet rule us ALL, in the way that is best for us ALL! We humans have already proven many times over that humanity alone can NEVER establish peace on this little planet. But the Creator CAN and He WILL. He is the only One with the POWER and the KNOW-HOW to rule His own HEIRS. Yes, the Kingdom of God is also a NATION of INHERITORS. There can never be heirs if there's not an inheritance. If it were NOT so, He would have told us.