Reading the Bible was disturbing to me. What now?

[SavedByGrace3]

I am in a group at church where we read a passage from the Bible every week and talk about it and how it relates to our life. The pastor picks the passage - it's often the one we'll read in church the following Sunday. This has been a good experience. The passages are often insightful and beautiful.

Since I have never read the entire Bible, this year I decided to do one of those programs where you read the whole bible in a year. I hoped it would bring me closer to God.

I'm afraid it had the opposite effect.

I read the book of Job and most of Genesis and then I quit reading. Unlike the New Testament verses we read in my church group, some of the stuff I'm reading in the Old Testament is deeply disturbing. The verses that bother me the most are Genesis 19:1-8. It's the passage where Lot offers to let a mob of Sodomites rape his daughters.

My pastor explained to me that it was another time and another culture, but that's not helping me. I assume God gave us the Bible because He wants us to read it. Why would God want me to read about Sodomites trying to rape angels and Lot offering his daughters to them?!?

I have heard people say that the Bible is God's love letter to us. I was not prepared for how horrible some parts of the Old Testament are.

Also, I know that Jesus uses parables in the New Testament, but parts of the Old Testament seem to be fictional but they aren't presented as so. It made me wonder how we can tell which parts of the Bible are true and which are not. Since so much about what we know about God comes from the Bible, this experience has shaken me a bit.

Is there a way to know which parts of the Bible are trustworthy and worth reading? Why do you think the story about Lot and Sodom is in the Bible at all?

These things happen all the time in theirs and ours. I am curious why you think that a record of it in the Bible is so offensive? Read the paper. Watch the news. God did not intend to sugar coat the reality of ancient times. He wants you to know what happens to a culture/nation that rejects God and descends into depravity and wickedness. As to Lot, remember what Peter said about the condition of his soul:

2 Peter 2:7-8 KJV
7. And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8. (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds

The viewing of filth and the actions of the wicked has this effect on people It vexes your soul where you may actually offer up children. We see this today as people offer their children up to the the sexually degenerates in schools. They are being conditioned into becoming the same as what you see in Sodom. This could happen to you if you watch gay trash on the TV and movies. The message is not to let yourself become vexed with this filth. Get away from it. Get away from the people who practice it and promote it. Get your kids out of the schools that teach it to 3th graders and encourage them to act on it.