How Should the Bible be Read?

[pdudgeon]

God makes sure that we understand His intentions by having two or more authors cover the important stuff. So we can check God's word using that as a guideline. Everything in scripture remains in its context, eternally. Dreams are dreams, visions are visions, lamentations are lamentations, and advice is advice.

I don't think I quite get what you are saying with your statement," Everything in scripture remains in its context, eternally."

So at The Last Supper, Jesus holds up a piece of bread and says: "This is My body".
Is it His body, is it bread, or is it both, in your opinion?

 

[Soyeong]

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that ethe man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” So what should we take from the Bible when we read it?


There are two ways of teaching...you can teach by rote, or to instill others to think for themselves. God to a certain extent allows us to think, but the thinking we do as far as He is concerned is toward accepting what He tells us, even if it goes beyond our understanding of things.


The Bible contains things that have come to pass, and that will come to pass, and somewhere in the middle it contains symbolism and substance, things and ideas. It can serve as the pit of our fears and call on the summit of our imagination. At some point in our journeys it has joined us to show us the rest of the way.


There seem to be inconsistencies, to be sure, but God does not expect us to address the inconsistencies, he expects us to accept them as a given. Many of us are reasoning human beings by nature, but in terms of God if we give our reasoning for our own purposes the first priority instead of working to accept what God has told us in the Bible first and then thinking of how to apply what He has said, we will never understand what He wants from us.


Some have perceived anachronisms in the Bible, which are inconsistencies of time. How is it, for example, some ask, that the Bible has David speaking in terms of walls that haven’t been built yet, or an alter that hasn’t been set up? But what is the point? As far as the Scriptures are concerned, it doesn’t matter that alters and walls are mentioned in the Psalms, or if they were to be mentioned in the first few sentences of the Book of Genesis. In the Bible, all verses matter regardless of where they show up, and they are there to teach, train, correct and train us toward righteousness.


From perhaps another angle, consider the Book of Revelation. None of what is mentioned in there has come to pass, at least in a tangible sense, but John speaks of those things as if they are happening as he tells us.


In short, in the Bible, things like time, place and people are irrelevant...it is what God says that matters, regardless of who, what, when or where.

In 2 Timothy 3:15-17, Paul spoke in regard to holy writings that Timothy had available to him since childhood, at which point none of the books of the NT had yet been written, so Paul could only have been referring to the OT, primarily to its instructions in regard to our conduct, so the Mosaic Law is profitable for those things. Many of God's laws are in regard to our horizontal relationships with our neighbor are based on the principle of loving our neighbor as ourselves, so they straightforwardly make sense why God commanded the, such as the commands against murder and theft, which are found in every society that has courts. However, many of God's laws that are in regard to our vertical relationship with Him do not straightforwardly make sense why God commanded them and do not come with an explanation, so they almost invite us to ponder why God commanded them and what they teach us about who He is, such as the commands against mixing wool and linen or against eating unclean animals. However, it is the situations where we don't understand why God commanded something where we are invited not to lean on our own understanding and have the greatest opportunity to express that we trust in the Lord with all of our heart by obeying His commands.

 

[Monksailor]

Nothing in scripture has lasting value unless confirmed by multiple writers of the known 40.

You are entitled to your opinion.

 

[SkyWriting]

I don't think I quite get what you are saying with your statement," Everything in scripture remains in its context, eternally."

So at The Last Supper, Jesus holds up a piece of bread and says: "This is My body".
Is it His body, is it bread, or is it both, in your opinion?

Lets consider the context:

Matthew 26:26-29
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.”

Matthew 26:28
For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

 

[newton3005]

We're not in this alone. There is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian, so take advantage of the wisdom of others.

The Jews spent generations going by how those, who supposedly were more learned, had taken them away from His Word with each succeeding generation. This is one reason that Lord Jesus was angry with the Pharisees who continued along that tradition. God came to us through Jesus to set the world straight after deviating from His Word.

Yes, when in doubt it is OK to see how others interpret the Bible, but in doing so we should keep in mind what the Bible actually says when hearing or reading from others. Passages such as Hebrews 6:1, for example, can have many interpretations. Question is which interpretations are more consistent with the Bible taken as a whole?