Thursday, February 28, 2008

Explore the Bible for Yourself, Part 2 of 52

IDEA: We have to think about how to study the Bible, because it was written at a different time and different place.

PURPOSE: To demonstrate that it's important to think about how to study the Bible.

I. Do you think that it is difficult to read and understand the Bible?

The answer to that is both no and yes.

No, in that there is a great deal you can understand about the Bible by just reading it. If we give the Bible the same chance we give a $20 novel, we'd get a great deal of its meaning.

Yes, in that it presents difficulties because it was written to people at a different, time and different place from our own.

When you pick up the Bible and read it, you're reading something written 2,000 years ago or more. That presents difficulties. It is the eternal Word of God, but it is given to particular people in history.

Illustration: Imagine that you are visiting an antique shop in New England. You see an old trunk, open it, and run your hand along the felt lining. Then you discover that you've hit a lever and a secret compartment has opened. In it you find a packet of letters wrapped in a faded pink ribbon, and you begin reading them. You discover that they are letters written by a young man to a young woman named Rachel. As you read, you recognize that the young man has gone off to war. You might have to read a lot of the letters to discover who Rachel is. Obviously the young man knew her well, but you're reading the letters from another time and place. Perhaps she was his girlfriend or fiancee or even his wife. You might learn about the young man that he was lonely, he was scared about going into battle, and he was grieving over some comrades who had been killed.

You might also learn that he came from the state of Massachusetts. But the other things that could confuse you are references to Manasses, Bull Run, Chattanooga, or to people like McClellan, or Jackson, or Grant. Unless you know something about our American Civil War, those names could be difficult to pronounce and might mean nothing to you at all. If you picked up a volume on the American Civil War as you read those letters, it would fill in for you a lot of things you didn't understand.

Reading the Bible is like reading someone else's mail. It's no different from reading a packet of love letters written 140 years ago.

II. Do you think the people who were the first to read to Bible - the letters of Paul, for example - had any difficulty understanding what the writer wrote?

There were probably things there that were deep for them (e.g., the baptism of the dead), but the people in Corinth probably had no difficulty with this.

III. We cannot determine what the Bible means until we determine what the Bible meant.

That presents both difficulty and challenge.