Why is the Bible so hard to understand?

[GodLovesCats]

You would think God wanted to make the Bible a very easy book to understand so no Christian reader can misinterpret anything. It is His Word. He knows our limitations. What is the purpose of making people need help figuring out what everything means and allowing interpretations to be wrong?

This problem is why we have totally different opinions on things like evolution, infant baptisms, alcohol, and Communion. It is why we do not all agree on when Jesus was conceived and born, crucified, and risen. All this is even among Bible scholars with college degrees in theology.

 

[Neostarwcc]

The problem isn't the Bible being too hard to understand. The problem is people not taking the word of God for what it is, the word of God. You brought up Evolution for example, anyone who reads the book of Genesis literally, it's a no brainer that evolution couldnt exist. For one the universe was created in six literal days, not hundreds of millions of years. For two, the book of Genesis says God created everything I ng and it didn't happen from random chance. The Word of God deals with nearly every topic., it's reading it for what it says and taking it literally that's the problem. That and people love to pick an a choose what parts of the Bible to believe and what not to believe. Imo you cannot do that and get strong doctrine. Either all of scripture is the word of God or none of it is.

 

[eleos1954]

You would think God wanted to make the Bible a very easy book to understand so no Christian reader can misinterpret anything. It is His Word. He knows our limitations. What is the purpose of making people need help figuring out what everything means and allowing interpretations to be wrong?

This problem is why we have totally different opinions on things like evolution, infant baptisms, alcohol, and Communion. It is why we do not all agree on when Jesus was conceived and born, crucified, and risen. All this is even among Bible scholars with college degrees in theology.

well .... satan is constantly distorting the word of God in deceiving ways (ie temptation of Jesus). In the garden ... "Did God really say????

God's word is the main way He communicates with us .... the bible is the revelation of Himself ... and satan is constantly trying to distort who God really is. God is love.

So no God didn't make it confusing .... but He did write it in such a way that one needs to do their own serious study of it.

With that being said .... it is not like God is looking for "smart people" ... He looks at the heart and works in the heart ... teaching us about love (putting others before self) and that is a pretty simple thing to understand. There are some who can take that one simple principle of love and with His help .... their thinking/doing will be changed and He is ok with that

Others explore more deeply His precepts ... and that's ok too.

When one becomes confused in their thinking ... not sure about something ... then the only way to discern the truth is through His Word ... but it is something one needs to do for themselves.

Follow the lamb ... study His life ... follow in His footsteps .... He is our example in all things.

Thank you Jesus for all you have done and all that you do. AMEN!!!

 

[Francis Drake]

You would think God wanted to make the Bible a very easy book to understand so no Christian reader can misinterpret anything. It is His Word. He knows our limitations. What is the purpose of making people need help figuring out what everything means and allowing interpretations to be wrong?

This problem is why we have totally different opinions on things like evolution, infant baptisms, alcohol, and Communion. It is why we do not all agree on when Jesus was conceived and born, crucified, and risen. All this is even among Bible scholars with college degrees in theology.

Because the bible was never meant to be academically understood.

The real depth of bible will always be nonsense unbelievers. It will always be nonsense for believers who try to make sense of it with their intellect.
1Cor2v10For God has revealed it to us through the Spirit.

For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11For who among men knows the things of the man, except the spirit of the man within him? So also, no one knows the things of God, except the Spirit of God. 12Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit from God, that we may know the things having been granted to us by God, 13which also we speak, not in words taught of human wisdom, but in those taught of the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual means.

14But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them, because spiritually they are discerned. 15But he who is spiritual judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one. 16“For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who will instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

If you want to understand the things of God, put aside your fleshly intellect and read your bible prayerfully with an open heart before the Lord. He will teach you by His Spirit.

When Jesus walked the streets of Galilee and Judah, the high ranking theologians of the day, the scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the law, had all learned nothing with their superlative knowledge.
Jesus told them their father was the devil!

In contrast, when Jesus sent the disciples out after the resurrection, these scholars and the people around were astonished at the disciples' wisdom, despite the fact they were 'uneducated' fishermen.

 

[trophy33]

You would think God wanted to make the Bible a very easy book to understand so no Christian reader can misinterpret anything. It is His Word. He knows our limitations. What is the purpose of making people need help figuring out what everything means and allowing interpretations to be wrong?

This problem is why we have totally different opinions on things like evolution, infant baptisms, alcohol, and Communion. It is why we do not all agree on when Jesus was conceived and born, crucified, and risen. All this is even among Bible scholars with college degrees in theology.

Because Bible was not written to us. It was written to people in a very different cultural background.
So we must decipher many of their thoughts and terms used in the Bible.

Also, the original languages of the Bible can be understood and/or translated in various ways into our national languages.

 

[miamited]

Hi @ChristianForCats

I must agree with other posters. The Scriptures are not hard to understand if one is willing to take the time to really read them. Oh, there may be a couple of places, especially prophetic writings, that are hard to understand what they are telling us as to the actual coming of events and how they might transpire. But we do understand that such prophetic writings will come to pass.

But in general, if one reads through the Scriptures a few times, there's nothing particularly hard to understand about the overall story that it tells.

1. God created all things.
the Scriptures spend a few pages explaining this act of creation and the first few centuries of life upon the earth.

2. Man sinned.
We are told how the first sin came about and then we have a number of accounts throughout the
Scriptures that give us examples of sin.

3. God had a plan for man's sin.
this begins in God's call to a man by the name of Abram. Through Abram, later called
Abraham, God raised up a special people to do His bidding upon the earth.

4. God sent His Son to us.
Jesus was born after God had all that He wanted us to know written down that we could make an informed decision of the choice that we were being offered.

5. Instructions on how to live.
both Jesus, and the other new covenant writers, then spend some time giving us instructions
on how we, those who would choose God's offer, should then live.

6. Finally, we have an account of how it's all going to end.
the Revelation gives a fairly concise and complete understanding of the existence of mankind
from the days of Jesus until God's day of judgment.

That's about it in a nutshell.

God bless,
Ted

 

[JulieB67]

anyone who reads the book of Genesis literally, it's a no brainer that evolution couldnt exist. For one the universe was created in six literal days, not hundreds of millions

Well, actually if you take it literally we see that the the earth was covered in water already at some point before this age's creation comes into being -in Gen 1. So we have to ask ourselves how did it become in such a state? Not evolution but definitely covered in water and who knows for how many years. That's why other scriptures in Isaiah, Jeremiah that alude to this, as well as 1st Peter are helpful to work out these truths.

Peter states that people are willingly ignorant about how old the heavens are and this very fact that the earth was standing in out of the water. Peter states the world that was "then" perished. And we know this world perished and we have the fossils to prove it. This isn't Noah's flood, we are talking about the earth being covered in water at the beginning of Genesis.

So this is probably to the OP's point. We both are reading something different. You see yourself taking it literally but I do as well.

ChristianforCats, I do think a Strong's Cordance is quite helpful because many things do get lost in translation.

 

[timothyu]

It is quite easy with a few simple primers. First what does God want? He wants us to put His will ahead of our own. That should lead to questioning want makes our wills different? Well that is obvious from the start of mankind which coincidently is at the start of the Bible. Mankind for the first time put self interest ahead of the will of God and in the process became self aware. Enter original sin. Man thus became selfish and purposely seeking gain at the expense of others. We first need to recognizes that we live backwards to the way we were meant to be. The Bible from end to end gives examples and also the remedy to the misuse of our power. Man rebels, God gives advice, man rebels, God gives advice, man rebels, God offers salvation. Man rebels. Rather redundant but it often takes repetition to show how backwards we are. Understanding that is the first step to our salvation. It's in the book and there are no spoiler alerts.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Most of what is not understood isn't that important anyway.

 

[timothyu]

Most of what is not understood isn't that important anyway.

But it's great for building a great institutionalised religion and governing body on

 

[Halbhh]

You would think God wanted to make the Bible a very easy book to understand so no Christian reader can misinterpret anything. It is His Word. He knows our limitations. What is the purpose of making people need help figuring out what everything means and allowing interpretations to be wrong?

This problem is why we have totally different opinions on things like evolution, infant baptisms, alcohol, and Communion. It is why we do not all agree on when Jesus was conceived and born, crucified, and risen. All this is even among Bible scholars with college degrees in theology.

It's so much easier to understand a verse when read naturally as part of reading through fully a book. Then even those that might misunderstand an isolated verse can get it right with that full context. If one listens. Having "ears that hear" requires that humble listening, so that we expect the Word to teach us (to be superior to our doctrines. Ideas) instead of us being the teacher.

 

[pescador]

The Bible -- all 66 "books" -- were written in cultures that are not only thousands of years old, in languages that are very dissimilar to modern English, but also to a culture that virtually none of us lives in. The subjects were relevant to an agricultural and pastoral population -- Cain and Abel for example -- that has nothing in common with our modern electronic, urban/suburban lifestyle. So it is important to understand the way those people heard and understood the various "books", which is not easy but necessary. A good in-line or separate commentary is required IMHO.

One way around this dilemma is to use an English translation ordered by a king 400+ years ago -- the Authorized version, a.k.a. the King James -- that is so different from any language in use today that it can be interpreted to mean almost anything, according to the reader's predetermined doctrine. The problem: we don't live in that society either, so it puts a second barrier to a clear understanding. KJVOs fail to realize that the Authorized version is not the Bible; it is an early Englyshe version based on the limited available manuscripts of the time.

Today, translators have many more sources, both Biblical and non-Biblical, to translate into 21st Century (or slightly earlier) English, as well as a greater understanding of the cultures in which the "books" were written. KJVOs ridicule modern scholarship, as though scholars 400+ years ago were somehow better at their craft, but there is no basis for this myth.

My recommendation is to find one translation (or more) that you are comfortable reading, with extensive explanatory notes and that doesn't butcher the text by chopping it up into separate verses. My preference is the NET Bible, v 2.1, with its 60,000+ translators' notes. I also recommend the NRSV and the NIV, which are also excellent renditions of the early text and have extensive notes (in many editions).

If this is too difficult one can read the NLT or The Message to gain a greater understanding. They get the concepts across easily to most modern readers, even if they are not "literal". God can use whatever means He wants to transmit His message to one and all without obfuscation.

The most important factor is reading a Bible that doesn't require re-translating into modern English (or whatever one's native language is). The Bible should "speak" clearly to the reader, conveying God's timeless message as clearly and accurately as possible.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

I recommend the KJV. Also the use of Strong's.

 

[pescador]

I recommend the KJV. Also the use of Strong's.

The subject of the thread is "why is the Bible so hard to understand". Are you seriously recommend the KJV as being easy to understand?

 

[pasifika]

You would think God wanted to make the Bible a very easy book to understand so no Christian reader can misinterpret anything. It is His Word. He knows our limitations. What is the purpose of making people need help figuring out what everything means and allowing interpretations to be wrong?

This problem is why we have totally different opinions on things like evolution, infant baptisms, alcohol, and Communion. It is why we do not all agree on when Jesus was conceived and born, crucified, and risen. All this is even among Bible scholars with college degrees in theology.

The bible is a spiritual book, contains spiritual teachings and must be taught by the Spirit of God..

 

[Francis Drake]

Here's an absolute promise that I have stood on for many decades. I have always found it faithful in all areas of life, but particularly in understanding the scriptures.

James1v5If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Wisdom is far greater than knowledge. Knowledge is basically just information.
Many people have incredible amounts of knowledge in their heads, but are utter fools.

The wisdom of God, given freely to all who ask, is in effect the life of God rising within us, directing and guiding us as his sons and daughters.
The wisdom of God will again and again give insights into God's own thoughts regarding His written words.
The answer you want might not come instantly, but that's sometimes because the Lord has to put other things in place before we are able understand what we seek.

 

[timothyu]

Wisdom is far greater than knowledge. Knowledge is basically just information.
Many people have incredible amounts of knowledge in their heads, but are utter fools.

Winner

 

[pescador]

The bible is a spiritual book, contains spiritual teachings and must be taught by the Spirit of God..

... in a language that we can clearly understand. IOW, our native language.

 

[timothyu]

... in a language that we can clearly understand. IOW, our native language.

Yep.. the speaking in multi-languages brought on by the HS, was privatized.

 

[coffee4u]

You would think God wanted to make the Bible a very easy book to understand so no Christian reader can misinterpret anything. It is His Word. He knows our limitations. What is the purpose of making people need help figuring out what everything means and allowing interpretations to be wrong?

This problem is why we have totally different opinions on things like evolution, infant baptisms, alcohol, and Communion. It is why we do not all agree on when Jesus was conceived and born, crucified, and risen. All this is even among Bible scholars with college degrees in theology.

Half the time it's because people are not truly looking at what the Bible says but are bringing in other things and laying it over the top like a coloured lens.
The lens could be science, traditions, what their pastor/church tells them, their life experiences, something they got from a book. It could even be our own fleshly desires because we don't want to view something God said is sinful as being sinful.

Some areas of the Bible are difficult and open to interpretation, but most is quite simple if the lens is removed and we ask God to open our eyes. Removing the lens first is the harder part.