Posted on 02/02/2015 4:37:58 AM PST by metmom
THAT MANY PERSONS FIND THE BIBLE HARD to understand will not be denied by those acquainted with the facts. Testimony to the difficulties encountered in Bible reading is too full and too widespread to be dismissed lightly.
In human experience there is usually a complex of causes rather than but one cause for everything, and so it is with the difficulty we run into with the Bible. To the question, Why is the Bible hard to understand? No snap answer can be given; the pert answer is sure to be the wrong one. The problem is multiple instead of singular, and for this reason the effort to find a single solution to it will be disappointing.
In spite of this I venture to give a short answer to the question, and while it is not the whole answer it is a major one and probably contains within itself most of the answers to what must be an involved and highly complex question. I believe that we find the Bible difficult because we try to read it as we would read any other book, and it is not the same as any other book.
The Bible is not addressed to just anybody. Its message is directed to a chosen few. Whether these few are chosen by God in a sovereign act of election or are chosen because they meet certain qualifying conditions I leave to each one to decide as he may, knowing full well that his decision will be determined by his basic beliefs about such matters as predestination, free will, the eternal decrees and other related doctrines. But whatever may have taken place in eternity, it is obvious what happens in time: Some believe and some do not; some are morally receptive and some are not; some have spiritual capacity and some have not. It is to those who do and are and have that the Bible is addressed. Those who do not and are not and have not will read it in vain.
Right here I expect some readers to enter strenuous objections, and for reasons not hard to find. Christianity today is man-centered, not God-centered. God is made to wait patiently, even respectfully, on the whims of men. The image of God currently popular is that of a distracted Father, struggling in heartbroken desperation to get people to accept a Saviour of whom they feel no need and in whom they have very little interest. To persuade these self-sufficient souls to respond to His generous offers God will do almost anything, even using salesmanship methods and talking down to them in the chummiest way imaginable. This view of things is, of course, a kind of religious romanticism which, while it often uses flattering and sometimes embarrassing terms in praise of God, manages nevertheless to make man the star of the show.
The notion that the Bible is addressed to everybody has wrought confusion within and without the church. The effort to apply the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount to the unregenerate nations of the world is one example of this. Courts of law and the military powers of the earth are urged to follow the teachings of Christ, an obviously impossible thing for them to do. To quote the words of Christ as guides for policemen, judges and generals is to misunderstand those words completely and to reveal a total lack of understanding of the purposes of divine revelation. The gracious words of Christ are for the sons and daughters of grace, not for the Gentile nations whose chosen symbols are the lion, the eagle, the dragon and the bear.
Not only does God address His words of truth to those who are able to receive them, He actually conceals their meaning from those who are not. The preacher uses stories to make truth clear; our Lord often used them to obscure it. The parables of Christ were the exact opposite of the modern "illustration," which is meant to give light; the parables were "dark sayings" and Christ asserted that He sometimes used them so that His disciples could understand and His enemies could not. (See Matthew 13:10-17.) As the pillar of fire gave light to Israel but was cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, so our Lord's words shine in the hearts of His people but leave the self-confident unbeliever in the obscurity of moral night.
The saving power of the Word is reserved for those for whom it is intended. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. The impenitent heart will find the Bible but a skeleton of facts without flesh or life or breath. Shakespeare may be enjoyed without penitence; we may understand Plato without believing a word he says; but penitence and humility along with faith and obedience are necessary to a right understanding of the Scriptures.
In natural matters faith follows evidence and is impossible without it, but in the realm of the spirit faith precedes understanding; it does not follow it. The natural man must know in order to believe; the spiritual man must believe in order to know. The faith that saves is not a conclusion drawn from evidence; it is a moral thing, a thing of the spirit, a supernatural infusion of confidence in Jesus Christ, a very gift of God.
The faith that saves reposes in the Person of Christ; it leads at once to a committal of the total being to Christ, an act impossible to the natural man. To believe rightly is as much a miracle as was the coming forth of dead Lazarus at the command of Christ.
The Bible is a supernatural book and can be understood only by supernatural aid.
Glad I could help. If I can be of any more help to you, feel free to FReepmail me! :-)
The link worked for me.
The site is Biblegateway. If the link doesn’t work, you can just google it up.
Christ explained the purpose of parables in Mark 4:10-12.
10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that “they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.”
The full implications of that passage really troubled me when I was a younger man and still believed in free will theology. It couldn't be reconciled with the idea that God loves all the same way. That passage was among those from the Gospels that shoved me to the Doctrines of Grace and Reformed Theology. However, I had read that passage countless times before it dawned on me it contradicted what I believed. In other words, only when the Lord was ready for me to "see" it's meaning was it revealed. I believe the whole Bible works the same way. Men must be given ears to hear and eyes to see or they will never understand the Bible.
#1 they find ENGLISH ‘difficult’!
My answer is YES!
There is a good bible book (I don't think it's a translation as much as a rearranging; timewise) that attempts to place the events in the bible into a chronological order.
Our present bibles have books grouped as to category more than anything.
Try this one to get a fuller understanding of the Jewishness of Christianity.
It's based on the NIV; leaving the Hebrew words found in the Greek; instead of an English equivalent.
For me, it was a bit tricky at first, as one encounters a steep learning curve. Due to having to refer back to the dictionary in the back as I went along.
http://www.familychristian.com/complete-jewish-bible-new-international-version-side-by-side-reference-edition.html?gclid=CKif-Y7Dw8MCFUE0aQodLxcAMw
Ooooh!
This looks a LOT better than my first one; which was NOT a side-by-side.
I had to keep referring to the dictionary in the back.
This would be a LOT easier to read thru!
Because they don’t read Hebrew?
That could certainly play into it.
I think it would add a richness to Scripture that is missing in translations but that just can’t be helped.
It comes with translating stuff.
I’m glad to know I’m not the onl one who thought so.
I think it would add a richness to Scripture that is missing in translations but that just can’t be helped.
It comes with translating stuff.
I think my implied point soared over your head.
If one does go with the NIV, make sure it's the original 1973 edition of the NIV. The "TNIV" released around 10 years ago and the NIV updated edition released three or four years ago are politically correct monstrosities which take massive liberties with the text and are horrible translations.
Oh, I agree. I loathe the “politically correct” versions!
When I worked at a “liberal” seminary back in the 80’s, they were just starting with the “inclusive language” garbage. At the time I was a one-woman campaign against it!
Needless to say, I lost my job over my big mouth. It would not be the last time THAT would happen! LOL!
1 Cor.18For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. "…
1Cor s. 14But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.…
2 Corinthians 4:3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
Not only does God address His words of truth to those who are able to receive them, He actually conceals their meaning from those who are not.
The natural man must know in order to believe; the spiritual man must believe in order to know.
These are salient truths...And this is why Catholics need someone to interpret for them...But sadly, the ones who interpret are in no better shape than they are...
My first bible was “Good News for Modern Man “...It is written so that even a child can understand it.. I had never read anything in the bible when I bought that.. so anything “complicated “ was beyond my understanding I started to read the gospels,which are an account of the life of Jesus.. then acts..tells you what the apostles did after the resurrection of Christ.. the “epistles” were just letters written to the various churches ..
The OT can be very hard because it is out of chronicle order ...But the book of Isaiah is prophetic and beautiful ..The psalms are prayers
You can still buy that version ..and I would recommend it highly for a new bible reader
Since God in His infinite wisdom allowed (I would say caused, but most will be more comfortable with “allowed”) the Hebrew Scriptures (I would say the Old Testament, but some will object to that too) to come down to the nations of the earth with Genesis placed first and the Greek Scriptures (I would say the New Testament, but others will object to that also) with Matthew placed first, would it not be best to read each of the two from its beginning, the beginning of each God has seen fit to give us?
Why? Other than the obvious reason that one should begin with the beginning, might it not also be that our understanding of say, Exodus, would and should be shaped by what God has already revealed in Genesis? And so on to the end of the Old Testament. And would and should not our understanding of Mark be shaped by what has already been revealed to us in Matthew? And so on to the end of the New Testament. After all, God is a God of order, and not of chaos. It is He who reveals and not we who uncover.
That works, too.
That’s how I do my general Bible reading but other times I just read as I feel led, or what I’m interested in.
How one reads the Bible in the course of time and circumstances of one’s life will of course vary. I am only suggesting that the Bible is understood best when one approaches it in light of its God-given order, knowing that what He revealed in the past He did not forget as He gave each successive revelation. “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” (Malachi 3:6) Always assume that everything He said in the books that precede the one you currently are reading is still very much operative and, as a corollary to that, one cannot ever set something He said in the past against something He said later, and vice versa. Otherwise He is not who the very Scriptures we read testify He is, that is, eternal, almighty, omniscient, all-wise, just, and, above all things, merciful.
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