Is it Possible to Read the Bible on Its Own Terms?
For more information, read Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels (http://amzn.to/2AW8bc5)
Read: Tips For Studying The Bible
When you read the Bible should you “take the Bible on its own terms”? How much should we import our own beliefs and experiences into the meaning of the text? Is it possible to read the Bible “on its own terms”? Detective Jimmy Wallace (J. Warner’s son) tackles these questions as part of his Incarnate Investigation Video Series.
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More thoughts on reading the Bible on its own terms: One: What a fascinating realization when I saw that Job might be literature art rather than historical narrative! Two: When I saw that most of the book of Ecclesiastes is not teaching us absolute truth, but asking us to consider what the wise "under-the-sun" teacher had to say, and then evaluate it according to what God did reveal to us from heaven. Three: Not to mine the Bible for answers to one's personal theological questions, as though it were a systematic theology resource or encyclopedia or religion and truth. Four: Not to take for granted that Western European Christianity gives us the proper lens and background for understanding; for instance, not to assume that the body and soul separate for the soul to live in heaven apart from the body, or that "faith apart from works" is best understood in Reformation terms.
When I think of reading the Bible on its own terms, I think of something like this: Even if I don't believe demons exist, I will read about demons as characters in the biblical story and follow the story and learn from the story anyway. You don't have to change your view about demons from the 21st Century secular view on demons in order to read and grow from the Biblical world view. And you don't have to refrain from reading the Bible just because you aren't immersed in the biblical world view. Too many people will watch a sci-fi movie that they find unrealistic, and take the story seriously as commentary on reality, but will not do the same with the Bible. I think we are trying to get people to break through that barrier, and let the story of the Bible sink into the heart and psyche, even if one finds it hard to intellectually believe everything they read in it.
I think that this concept is critically important to modern Christendom, and has led to a ton of (perhaps) well intended, but unfortunately wrong or harmful teachings. Additionally, I think that integrating and investigating this understanding (the cultural context) should be an important component of the journey of any serious Christian. That isn't to claim that the Bible's basic message of redemption and grace is not communicated plainly. Clearly many have heard the message and believed. But at some point, I think it is our duty to advance from a 'plain reading of the text' to a more thorough and investigative study of the Bible in it's cultural and historical context. I think the modern Church has had a bit of a gap here, and should now be encouraging and preparing people for this.
1 Timothy 3:15
if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
It is the church of the living God that is the source of truth. Not the laity. This is clear. This is Biblical.
Imagine you wrote a book in 2022, and it was picked up and read by a culture living in 4022 in another part of the world who spoke another language and didn't know much about life in America in 2022. And in the pages of your book , you used phrases like, "Knock yourself out." Or "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Or "No soup for you!"
Gen X doesn't know what one or more of those even mean. Imagine someone in 4022 in Asia.
How much understanding would they have of your intent? Not much.
So why do we think that just taking this 2,000+ year old text and trying to "apply it to our lives" is so easy? Context of the writers' world is essential.
The word is living, it's ideas like these that Jesus warned us about in Matthew 23.
You almost had the logical answer there.
Yes, you can read the Bible on its own terms, so to speak, but you'll only understand what fits your preconceptions. That how we got over 45,000 denominations of Christianity from one book.
I think reading the bible is a "iterative" thing ( iterative is a concept in math about some form of calculation that relys on it self ).
If you read it once more often than not you will not be able see the conections between diferent biblical text.
If you read it twice now you will be able to start to draw the conections and read the events under a rudimentary biblical lens.
If you read it three times each time you get to a text you will be able to draw even more conections and see even better how it all fits.
If you read the bible 50 times i thing you would be prety close to "read the bible under its own terms" once almost all assumptions you had at the start have now been redifined or replaced by biblicar text.
If you read 100 times almost nothing of your own primary philosoficla believes will have survived.
Add prayer and praising in the mix and you have a mix for a very good understanding of Gods word.
thanks this really helped me, last night God spoke to me and said i need to read the bible. and im a very very in my own head kind of guy and this cleared the air for me
No, it's not possible, source: bible.
Alan Shlemon of Stand to Reason discusses this point in his How to read the Bible series (which I highly recommend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHaw6vE27Q0
Yep i hear that a lot, Dr Heiser talked about it so much, it is called context.
When we read the Bible, we should let an 1st century Israelite live in our head.
Because the Bible is not written TO us, it is written to them, so how we could read the scripture with our modern-age lenses?
Makes perfect sense
The bible speaks about each subject multiple times in different places.
Compare all of those passages and you'll get the best understanding of what it's saying.
Things that I believe have to be looked at to see if they match what the bible says. If I have to choose between my belief, and what the bible says, it should be clear which needs to be embraced, and which needs to be rejected.
You helped me SO much. I was spiritually abused and ever since I've been really nervous about believing anything because "what if I'm wrong?"
I think another very important thing that people should understand about the Bible is there are no chapters and verses as they were added centuries later to help navigate the text. In addition to this and more importantly for those who like to quote a favorite verse they should make sure of the context of that verse and how it pertains to the rest of the paragraph and book
I thought about this. I have social anxiety and going to a church terrified me. I tried to read the Bible with no context and I was ready to sell everything I own and become basically amish. Church, bible study, and podcasts have helped me learn the context
That assumes that one is reading the Bible to honestly learn what it says. Nor is everyone who says that they are a Christian actually a Christian. (I like how Corrie Ten Boom’s father put it. Just because a mouse is in a cookie jar, doesn’t make it a cookie.). Nowadays I’ve seen too many go to the Bible to prove their agenda, taking verses out of context, even splitting verses. I’ve seen this done to promote the sin de jour. And if you don’t agree, we’ll you are a horrible, non accepting person. Never mind that Jesus always called a sin a sin, and told sinners to go and sin no more,
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives …2 Tim 3:16
Since God inspired the Bible, it will take the Spirit of God to understand it correctly.
No. The Holy Spirit through the Body of Christ (the mind and the heart) are the proper understanding. Anything less is man’s pride.
Agreed. Every book shows us how man choose to walk further away from God & that He continually pursued us. One day He will stop knocking if we do not respond. Today is the day of salvation (thank you Jesus)❤️