The Every Day Christian Podcast
The Every Day Christian Podcast
91| Reading The Bible Out Of Context
Reading the Bible without context is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle with just a few pieces. Gain the tools to uncover a more profound understanding of scripture as Sean Sloggett and John Rich guide you through the essential practice of contextual Bible study. With our insightful discussion, you'll differentiate between exegesis and eisegesis, ensuring that your interpretations are based on scripture, not personal biases. We'll share practical tips to enrich your study, helping you avoid common pitfalls even experienced readers face.
In this episode, we navigate the tricky waters of biblical interpretation, with an emphasis on the Old Testament's intricate layers of history, language, and culture. We unpack why understanding the Bible as a cohesive narrative centered on Jesus Christ's life and teachings is crucial. Through examples like "judge not," we show how easily meanings can be misconstrued when texts are stripped from their context. You'll learn how to approach scripture with a holistic mindset, preventing contradictions and fostering a more authentic faith.
Our conversation also highlights the value of open-mindedness and the magic that happens when we engage with diverse perspectives. We discuss how dialogues with atheists or academic scholars can shine new light on your faith journey. Approaching the Bible with an open heart and seeking guidance through prayer reinforces the belief that it's more than just ancient text—it's a living document. Join us for a thought-provoking episode where continuous learning and community interaction lead to a deeper appreciation and understanding of the scriptures.
It's not about them, it's not about me. Get yourself just completely set aside and go back to studying the Scripture, because you will want to see something. Some way, there is something that you will come across and you'll be like man. I really think that it should be this way and if you're not careful, you'll convince yourself that it is that way through the scripture. Welcome back to the Everyday Christian Podcast, where we apply scriptural principles to everyday Christian lives. I'm Sean Sloggett.
Speaker 2:And I'm John Rich, and today we are going to talk about how to read the Bible in context. Now, brother Sean, it's sort of a simple.
Speaker 1:I'm already messing things up why? Y'all are going to have to forgive us. We're used to only having one camera pointing on us. This third camera is kind of throwing me off. Yeah, I usually like do little head swivels and bobs and stuff. Yeah, just to get it out while he is talking, because it's not on me and I've already realized I've done it once and then I look up and realize the camera's on me, so if any point, you just see me over here just twitching out. Um sorry, I have.
Speaker 2:If you don't see, it's because I used ai to edit him just sitting still I have to do that.
Speaker 1:I don't know what hd is, but I just came back from the doctor and he said I have 80 of them. So just where I'm at, oh my gosh this isn't dad joke hour.
Speaker 2:That was for a couple episodes back that's a good joke it was pretty good. I'll give you that one. I I was trying to think of one that beat it and I can't, so ADHD, anyway, adhd-mi, all right.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Everyday Christian Podcast.
Speaker 2:So yeah, welcome to the episode we are talking. As I was saying before, the great dad joke that we are going to be talking about Before my attention deficit squirrel just jumped in. Here we're going to be talking about how to read and, more importantly, how to study the Bible. In here we're going to be talking about how to read and, more importantly, how to study the Bible in context. So it is a practical sort of podcast, a little bit different than what we typically do.
Speaker 2:We try to take a subject like fasting we did last time talk about that. It is practical, but I believe that it is something that everyone could listen, to, adhere to, to learn from. Even myself, I feel like there are times where I can take the Bible out of context or I'll read something I'm like, oh you know. So we'll get into some of that, obviously, in this episode looking at the dangers of taking the Bible out of context, looking at the additions or pluses to reading the Bible in context I think is important too and then I honestly want to show the individuals who are listening to this things that you can do to read the Bible in context and to study the Bible in context as well, Brother Sean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean we all can agree that studying the Bible I got to figure out which camera I'm supposed to be looking at. That one, that one.
Speaker 1:This one right here, you got it. I'm telling you all this is throwing me for a loop, but we all most of us, if not all of us can agree that studying the Bible and learning from the word is very beneficial for us. So this is something that Brother John, brother, reverend, dr President, president John has that he brought to the table. Man y'all, I am all over. Before we get started, I'm going to go ahead and promote us real quick since Sean's all over the place.
Speaker 2:The Everyday Christian Podcast mugs. If you want one, send us a message, send us a text Some of you have my number or message me personally or Sean personally. They are $25 each. I'll put them off the camera there, maybe the middle one there, throw it over there to Sean so he can put it up on his camera. They are $25 each. That includes shipping. They are hot and cold tumblers that have the Everyday Christian Podcast. If you want to buy one of those to support our channel, to support our podcast, please message us, let us know. Also, like share, subscribe those three things really really help us. They promote us.
Speaker 2:I know we have individuals that are listening for the first time in this episode, but I know we have several individuals that have listened and commented, shared, messaged us, some listeners that are listening to this episode right now, that have listened to us since day one. We are thankful for those people and appreciate everything that they've done. But we have a call to action and that is we need to share it to continue to grow and continue to do the podcast themselves. So I just wanted to point that out there. There's a lot of changes that are going to be coming up, a lot of differences in the podcast, things that we'll be doing differently. New guests we've talked about potentially having on the show, so there's going to be new logo, new logo we're working on.
Speaker 1:We've thrown a couple of those, a few, I think three out now yeah, just just feelers out.
Speaker 2:There's nothing set in stone. We're just trying to see. We want what people like you know new backdrop. Eventually we're going to get to that. I've got, we've had some ideas and have been throwing that around as well. We're just busy with life in general and everything else going on outside of just family and work, and so eventually we'll get there. But studying and reading the Bible in context yeah, Brother Sean brought out this point. I'll talk about it a little bit more. I know he will about how we can interpret the Bible incorrectly or how we can build incorrect doctrines out of the Bible and how there is danger in that. And, like I said, I'll go into some of that. But I do believe that a lot of religions there's several out there. You know I told our youth yesterday that Christianity is the number one religion in the world, but there's so many different?
Speaker 2:yeah, there's different side categories I don't know if side categories is the right word, but subcategories of Christianity. Some of them, I believe, are almost 100% biblical in how they were conceived or born or whatever. Some of them were born out of a single verse, which I don't feel like is correct or necessary. Some of those groups have been in fellowship with one another. You know I've seen churches that have had fellowships with other churches that they believed one way full heartedly, because of something the Bible said in the Old and New Testament, and then this group over here didn't really believe that. So it's important to understand context, to build doctrine, not build doctrine to understand context, and I think that that's what we're trying to aim.
Speaker 2:One of the, I guess, goals of this podcast is that is, you know, when you study the Bible, when you read it in context, we'll explain what that means. Obviously, I know we keep saying that. I keep saying that I should say but it's important to know why you should read it. It's important to know how you should do it. It's important to practice it. Don't just know why, don't just know how, but do it Because your relationship with Christ is going to grow and strengthen over that.
Speaker 1:Right it, because your relationship with Christ is going to grow and strengthen over that. On that point of the context of it, I will admit some faults of mine. Yeah, I know, when I first, the first few times for sure that I preached, I would come up with a thought and I'm not tearing this down, just hear me out. I would come up with a thought that I wanted and then I would study the Bible for it. And I realized something later and I want to read something that I came across, because in my notes I wrote down how do we align, align or do we align the Bible and Christ with us, or do we align ourselves with the Bible and Christ? You know, aligning with Christ means conforming our wants, our desires, our values, our thoughts, whatever, to him, to his teachings, to the Bible, and putting ourselves behind him, letting him be the guide, whereas aligning Christ or the Bible with us is twisting, manipulating Christ's nature to fit us and our values and our desires, which is not correct, it's unbiblical. And I realized at one point that I would come up with a thought. Whether it was right or wrong, that's neither here nor there, but I would come up with a thought and then I would go study the scriptures and then I could build my little sermonette around that. Right, because I had already pre-planned in my mind what I wanted. Right, because I had already pre-planned in my mind what I wanted. Right, and a lot of times, whether the message was right or wrong. Again, I was trying to align the scriptures to Sean Slogin and what he had going on for Wednesday night or whatever that was had going on for Wednesday night or whatever that was, and that's something that I fear, that I don't fear that it could have. It has happened because I've been guilty of it. So it's very important to, when you are studying these things is to get self out of the way. Yeah, and I actually talked about this a little bit last sunday. This is kind of weird. This is actually the second podcast that we've done that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, before we discussed it, it was taught in a class. Um, fasting came up before we started talking about fasting. Uh, but just aligning yourself and getting yourself out of the way. We're still human. We still make mistakes. We're selfish. Yeah, it's, it's in our nature, right? Um, so we want things to agree with us, we want things to align with us, we want to be in our context and our time, and you know how we view things, and I told my class that we have to be able to get ourselves out of the way, and even more than that and this is not a dig at anybody but we have to be able to get our movement out of the way we have to be able to get our pastors, our Sunday school teachers, get their opinions out of the way, because we are influenced by them, yeah, which most of the time, is a good thing, right, I mean, if it's a pastor or a Sunday school teacher, they're probably a decent enough influence.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or they wouldn't be there. Right, and I know that there's bad, there's good and bad, but you still have to get them out of the way. Yeah, it's not about them, it's not about me. Get yourself just completely set aside and go back to studying the scripture, because you will want to see something some way. There is something that you will come across that you'll be like man. I really think that it should be this way, and if you're not careful, you'll convince yourself that it is that way through the scripture. So it's very important that we get self out of the way.
Speaker 2:You have to get that church culture out of the way, like you're saying too. I mean, I think about that too when we're talking about the preaching. It's like the worst part of that is when you can't find anything in the Bible to bag up what you're thinking. You know it's like man, or you know you have those, those sermons, those sermons at least I have where it's like this is going to get this crowd going. Let's, let's find out what this. You know it's terrible.
Speaker 2:Look, I'm admitting to it in front of everybody. I don't feel like I've. I feel like for the most part, my heart was in the right place, but I didn't always do the right thing when studying or reading, and so it is sort of a revival of thought. That's one of my favorite phrases. It is sort of a revival of thought when you make it up in your mind that you're going to study and read the Bible in context and study for yourself, because you're talking about, like, getting these things out of the way. Well, part of getting those things out of the way is studying and reading for yourself and understanding what you believe and why you believe in and how and all those things. And so I wanted to get in and I'll briefly go through these and we can come back to them. I won't be long but the importance of why we should avoid reading it out of context or reading it from an eisegesis standpoint.
Speaker 2:Now, if you don't know what eisegesis means or exegesis means, I'll try to explain that here in a moment. I know that's a big word that people are like. What is that? You know? What does that have to do? Essentially, it means an exegesis study is bringing out the scripture and applying it to me, whereas an eisegesis way of studying is taking me and applying it to scripture, which is essentially what Sean was talking about.
Speaker 2:You know, you're not I tell people this all the time. I can't remember who I heard it from the first time. It might've been like Paul Washer or something like that, one of those cool cats. But one of my favorite phrases is you're not David and you're not facing a Goliath. You may be facing things and the principle is that God can deliver you from those things, but I don't have a Goliath and neither do you. I know that's going to hurt some people's feelings, but when you get out of that mindset, you might hear the sirens by the way, in the background. I need to speak louder. But when you get out of that mindset or you're in that mindset rather of reading the Bible out of context, there's a lot of danger to that. You know you could read or when you read you won't look at it or read it as an entire document.
Speaker 2:Something that I think that it's important when reading the Bible is understanding that there's an overarching theme and that is what that Jesus Christ came, died, rose again and is coming again. That is the overarching theme of the entirety of the Bible. There are things that you can dig into and get down to more granular detail of when you're studying and reading the Bible, but that is the overarching theme. The problem is when we read it out of context, we read it in such a way that it's just piecemealed and it's several letters or several books or several verses or several chapters instead of a whole book. So that's something.
Speaker 2:I don't even have this in my notes, but something that you need to sort of understand if you don't understand it already is everything grammatically the chapter separations, the verse separations, all those things are man-made, all those things were added to the Bible and to the interpretation. So when you're studying and reading the Bible that's something that's important to understand is, in the Greek there weren't those grammatical differences and pauses and periods and commas and all those things. There wasn't the separation of verses. It's just something that was put in to help us understand it better and thank God for it, I think. But understand that when you're reading it it's not just something that's pieced together verse by verse, it's something that is whole.
Speaker 2:When you read it read the word of God out of context you put yourself in places of scripture where you don't belong, and that's why you have issues that stem from Old Testament documents where people say you can or cannot do X Y Z. But then you read three verses later and it's like well, if I can't do X Y Z here, then I can't do X Y Z here. Well, that's because you're reading it out of context. You're putting yourself in a place of scripture where you don't belong. You put yourself in danger of misinterpreting what a verse is saying and then you build doctrines that aren't even there. Those are dangers. Those are dangerous.
Speaker 1:I can show you, using the scripture, where it's okay to kill the king and where it's not okay. So which one is it? Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Exactly. It all goes back down to that, and that's where the studying comes in to play. There too, I think that if a lot of you have more faith than even I do, this is such a rabbit trail, but some of you have way more faith than even I do, even though you don't read the Bible in context. You have way more faith than I, because if I read the Bible like some of you read the Bible, I'd have a hard time trusting and believing in God, because it's like well, the Bible here says don't do this, but then the Bible over here says you can do this. So which is it? Does the Bible contradict itself? I don't believe it does. The contradiction is you taking it out of context. That's the entire point of this. The contradiction is you not understanding each piece and how it is a part of a whole, the other Go ahead, no, go ahead.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, you're fine, go ahead the literary type of it, yeah, you know. Is it poetry? Is it a prophecy? Right, right, is it a letter that Paul wrote to one of the churches? You know, those things are very vital to it. And then I like to dig deeper. I really enjoy history, oh, yeah, so when you're reading the Bible and I'm not degrading the Bible, it is a roadmap, but it's also a history book. Yeah, use that to your advantage, right? What's going on during that time? Yeah, you know, they had wars. They had times of peace. Yeah, there were other countries. There were all these things going on, just like is happening in our world today.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, we have earthquakes, we have floods, we have these horrible hurricanes that have hit the East Coast and pray for them while we're at it, right, absolutely. But we have all these things going on in our lives. We get up in the morning and you've got a to-do list that you have to do, yeah, and you lay your head down at night and you're like, man, I got nine of the 11 things I needed to get done today and I mean, look at the current events that was going on, study the history behind it, study the culture behind it. I took some classes in college about it was more or less the history of. So we didn't just study history, but we studied the paintings, we studied the, the art, a lot of the stuff like that that happened with it, and and you came to actually understand a lot of it a lot better.
Speaker 1:Um, like there was a painting that that we did a study on. I couldn't even tell you there were. If I remember exact, if I remember to correct there was a lady looking out of a window. It was a painting and there was a dog painted beside her. And you see the painting and you're just like, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, whatever, if you like art or you, don't, move on. But if you studied I believe it was during the Renaissance time. But if you studied, I believe it was during the Renaissance time. But if you studied more, you dug down deep into that you would understand that the guy that painted this suffered with depression, or that that time frame. You know things going on during that.
Speaker 1:It was a time of war, a time of peace. So in this painting the sun is shining through the window and her face is lit up. So that was in their time, when somebody's face was glowing like that. It was a time of peace in their life. Yeah, you see the dog sitting beside her, and dogs have always been companions and friends and and somebody who sticks close. You know a dog will never leave you, you know you. You walk out of the door. It's wagging its tail. You open the door when you come back home and it's still sitting there wagging his tail. It seems like. So. There's all these things that you get to actually draw out of it. You know the painter was not feeling lonely. He had people around him at that time. Yeah, so you study all this and just this seemingly simple painting ends up telling this story, yeah, and then they would play songs for us in class and you could just tear these songs apart and put them back together and there were so many different things like that that we were learning and trying to figure out. And it was very eye-opening because you got to study the context behind a lot of this and you get to learn about the history of them.
Speaker 1:We did some on the Bible times and I know this is kind of my own rabbit trail. Like when Jesus was born, there was hierarchy set up and it was. It's very conflicting when you study history, right, because in times of hierarchies you didn't move up or down levels More, so you could move down, but it was still very rare. If you were born a pauper, if you were born poor, you were poor. You weren't going to get wealthy, you just live your life out.
Speaker 1:If you were born into royalty, guess what? Your family was royalty. There's no way around it, right? I mean, look at King David, that lineage. It was royalty, yeah, and it stayed royalty. So you study all these things and then they talk about a king being born in a manger, a king being born in a poorhouse, a king being born to a carpenter. Yeah, one of the nobodies, right, and it was very and that was some of the trouble that a lot of those people had in that time was they're trying to understand how does somebody that's poor going to end up living in a palace one of these days? Yeah, because they saw this guy that's working for his dad. His dad's got a carpenter shop in the back or whatever. So you, you study a lot of this history and stuff and it's very eye-opening to those current events that they were struggling with and it brings a lot more to the table.
Speaker 2:Something else too when you're studying and this goes hand-in-hand with what you're talking about is you have to understand that reading the Bible, studying it, you're bridging a gap.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the biggest part of that is the time gap, because you're not only having to bridge the gap between who translated the Bible to yourself, you're also having to bridge the gap from the original text to the translator. And so it's sort of like I kind of chuckle. My son asked me the other day. He said, dad, he's like, why is the a word in the bible? That's exactly what he asked me, you know, and I just laughed, you know.
Speaker 2:It's just funny to me, um, that he was just so curious because he's like, why can't I say that if it's in the bible? You know was like, well, you have to understand, jackson, when they interpreted the Bible, that word wasn't a bad word like it is today. I said, when they say certain things, those words don't mean the same thing that they mean right now. I said, and not to mention, when they translated it, it was from a different word that they translated from, and he we just talked about that for a little bit he sort of kind of sort of understood. Hopefully he'll understand a little bit better and won't cuss, but that's, that's something, that. Is it really cussing, if you just see?
Speaker 1:it If it's in the bio you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, but that's something that you need to understand, though, when you're reading and studying, is you're having to bridge that gap too. You cannot just take a word in the Bible or a phrase in the Bible and apply it to me right now, and there's reason for that. You have to go back and you have to look at what word it was interpreted from, what was the purpose of that word, et cetera, and going on from there. Like there is history and understanding the history behind everything. Understanding the history behind you know why God said don't eat shrimp. Understanding the history behind you, know why Paul wrote to the Corinthian church and said women need to be silent in the church. Like there, it doesn't mean what you think that it means. There's reason, there's purpose in that. That came up last time. Yeah, I bet it did, but it always does. But at least that entire context. But there's a reason for that. It's because there is.
Speaker 2:You know, we talk about the Everyday Christian Podcast here. It is right up here. You apply scriptural principles to everyday Christian lives. That's our goal, and the reason why is because there are so many principles you can draw from the Bible that you can glean from. But that does not mean that every single thing in the Bible or every single thing that's written like. The Bible says that Mary and them left their land that they were in and they moved back to their homeland because of the law, you know, because of tax reasons, more than likely, mary rode on a donkey and rode it to Bethany or Bethlehem, right, that's that there's. There's nothing in the Bible that says that, by the way, but most people interpret it that that's probably what happened.
Speaker 1:However, have you never seen the movie the star?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, of course of course, that's what she rides the donkey but yeah, donkey, but yeah, but aside from that, there's really nothing in that. There's nothing in her riding the donkey. That applies to me, right? I know that's a silly point, but like I can go, I go further. Obviously it's like um, who was in the bible, was elijah elisha who shot the arrows. I I'm sorry I'm drawing a blank. There are things in the Bible, though, that happen in the Old Testament that have nothing to do with me, like I'm not shooting arrows.
Speaker 2:Instead of you to smote the ground, yeah, if I smite the ground however many times like this, you know that has nothing to do with me. Is there principle there? That's where I glean from that, and people are like yo, I'm tired of you talking about principle. That's what I get, though it's like there is stuff in the Bible that I can apply. There's stuff in the Old Testament I can apply to me today. I'm not saying that it's not, but I am saying is there are things in the Bible, when you read it in context, understand the history, understand the time, understand the language, understand all of those gaps that you're going to read it and be like why am I applying this to my life but not this to my life? And I think that's important.
Speaker 1:There are some things I believe you'll agree with this. Yeah, I will. There are some things that can apply directly to you. Yeah, and if you want examples, go read the Ten Commandments Exactly. There's no principle, maybe kind of. I mean it's don't do it Right, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal. Okay, that's commandments, that's Bible. But to say that I have to go out and slay my giant, right? I mean, please don't. I know there's some tall people around here and I may be one of them, sean's one of the giants.
Speaker 1:I'd like to live a little bit longer here on earth.
Speaker 1:If my wife took that scripture literal, I wouldn't have been married for 10 years, right, scripture literal I wouldn't have been married for 10 years, right. But yeah, I mean, there are definitely things that are on a principle basis but not others, and there's, you know, one thing that I tell my kids in my class about, that is is how. Or I ask them I say how much of it have you read? Or I ask them I say how much of it have you read? Because when we first started out and I'm not, I mean, it's whatever, I hate trying to correct myself all the time they would come and ask me a question about a scripture and I would back up three or four scriptures, yeah, and read it, and then read several scriptures after that. And read it and then read several scriptures after that.
Speaker 1:And I started telling them like, hey, I love that you have questions, please continue to ask them, but do me this favor before you come back with a question, yeah, read it. At minimum, read the whole chapter. Yeah, if you want to read the whole book or read several chapters before or after, great, but at a minimum read the whole chapter. Yeah, and, to my dismay, I haven't gotten near as many questions as I liked recently. Way to go, way to fail, but it's, yeah, way to fail, but it's failing in a good way, yeah, failing up.
Speaker 2:Kamala. Because, they are learning.
Speaker 1:Sorry, everybody, and I don't care if they want to come ask me questions or not. I want to be there for them. But they're beginning to understand and learn a lot of these things without ever having to bring them to class. Yeah, because and this scripture doesn't make sense oh well, paul is talking directly to this church. Oh yeah, well, I can see here where he's saying this, this and this I don't. Okay, well, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, and then I don't get asked any questions, which bums me out.
Speaker 2:Which one of my favorite parts of that is whenever people they'll quote a scripture to me yeah, and it's that you don't even have to read the whole chapter. You don't have to read chapters four or chapters after, you just have to read the whole verse and then you get the. I mean obviously still do that, but some people they'll say something like a three letter phrase, three word phrase, and they're like well, what about this? It's like there's more to that verse.
Speaker 2:Go ahead and finish that verse and then you're going to know yeah, judge not, judge not, that's the big one. You know that's. That's taken out of context. But so, yeah, that that is the thing you know. And that's the benefit of reading the Bible in context. You read the Bible as a whole, not just pieces. You glean from the laws and the principles of the Bible as they are to apply to you. You have a better understanding of God's intent. It helps you have a stronger foundation and understanding of God's word. All those things are good when reading the Bible in context. But, yeah, that is a problem. I've thought of a couple off the top of my head. I'm not going to mention but Just go with it. No, I'm not going to. We're out of here. We'll just keep digging deeper and deeper.
Speaker 1:But that is sort of Will somebody throw us a shovel if we get too deep?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for real, we need help getting out. That is what's interesting too, is you know I talked about earlier about doctrines being built off one verse. Some doctrines are built off of one phrase in a verse that is actually, like you know, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Okay, well, that's not what the scripture says. The Bible says follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. That's the correct reading of that scripture, sadly, a lot of people don't follow, but everything else is all pieced together.
Speaker 2:It's all eliminated from that, and the phrase that is used and it's not even the right phrase is without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. And you know, that was the one I thought of and that's when you told me to dig. So here I am. But that is the problem with reading the Bible out of context. Studying the Bible out of context is those doctrines, those lifestyles, those belief systems are built off those things, and I want everybody to understand this.
Speaker 2:I think that a lot of what certain people believe is probably correct to an extent, meaning I think that people add additional measure to the Bible or additional context to the Bible. That's not there too. It's like we take things out of context because we read something and instead of just taking it at face value and applying it to our life, we add way more to it and then we want to apply it to everyone's life. That's a problem too when you read the Bible in context. Here I am, I don't need a shovel anymore, take your shovel back. Here I am, I don't need a shovel anymore, take your shovel back. But I want to get into how can I read the Bible in context? I think that's important. We've touched up on a lot of that and I understand, too, like some of these things are going to be different. You know, sean has his own idea of how he studies and reads the Bible. I have my own idea of how I study and read the Bible, but I think that it starts again we've talked a little bit about this already but I think it starts with a foundation understanding what you're reading, understand the document that you're reading.
Speaker 2:So, like when I read the Bible, I like to understand the who, what, when, where and why. Like who wrote it, who were they and why. Like who wrote it, who were they writing to? When did they write it? Where did they write it? Why did they write it? But I also do something. I don't know if I ever gave you this book. I've mentioned this book on this podcast before but the who's, who, where's where? I always go to that If I'm doing any sort of study. It's not, you know, a tell-all, it's not something that has all the answers by any means, but I always like to read that because, like, oh, I know who wrote this, david. Okay, let me go and look about and read about David and see what was going on in his life, and so it gives that detail, like the Psalms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Psalms you can read. You can read a back-to-back Psalms. Yeah, the Psalms. You can read back-to-back Psalms and one of them, he's like bless the Lord, oh, my soul loves him. And then life's great Lord, please take me out of this miserable You're like dude, you flipped a switch, but one of them he wrote in a cave and one of them he wrote when he was on the throne and they're times apart, they're several years.
Speaker 2:You know, whatever apart it's like the story. There's actually a couple of these Like we just did a virtual youth class, which here's my plug for you If you want more information about the Bible, join our virtual class. We have one coming up, probably when this episode releases, but message us for more details. Now back to what I was talking about. We talked about Touch, my, not mine anointed. You know that was a big class that we did here recently and there I tell people all the time when you're reading the scripture, don't take a verse and build belief system out of it.
Speaker 2:If there's a verse in the Bible and over here in the Bible it says it, and over here in the Bible it says it, over here, over here in the Bible it says it, and over here in the Bible it says it. You're probably pretty good to take that as literal and something I should apply, or principle I should apply to myself. But if there's one verse here that says it and every other verse seemingly contradicts it or doesn't say it, then you need to study it a little bit more. So like Touch, not Mine Anointed is a good example of that, because it actually is in the Bible twice. Now if you're reading it and you're like, oh well, it's in the Bible twice, so that's what it means. Well, it's in the Bible in Psalms. And then it's in 2 Chronicles. And Psalms is recording David, who was written about in 2 Chronicles. So it's actually technically one. David's just writing a song about the things that about in 2 Chronicles. So it's actually technically one David's just writing a song about the things that happened in 2 Chronicles. But people don't understand that. Or there's Psalm. I'm trying to think I'm going to mess it up, but it's talking about Lord. Many are they who rise up against me, many there who trouble my soul. He's talking about when his son was trying to kill him. You know, and that goes back to Samuel. So you can read the Bible in context.
Speaker 2:And to me, when you set those foundations of like we talked about the history, the time, the who, what, when, where and why, the digging into the character study of who wrote that verse, the cross-referencing in the Bible, you're like, well, what is that? Get your Tom Chin Chain reference Bible, it will save your life. There are other ones that obviously out there Don't, but you'll be reading. I love that You'll be reading the scripture and you'll look on the side and it'll have a cross-reference verse and then you can go to that and you can see and start piecing it together that way as well, so that that would be one of my main, for me, objectives when I read the Bible is is I need to set a foundation, I need to understand the purpose, I need to understand the who, what, when, where and why, and then I, I.
Speaker 2:Secondly, I need to understand the time and culture. We've talked about that. I'm going to say it again you need to understand the time and culture, the things that they wore in the old Testament. You better believe it. We're actually a little bit different than what they wore in the new Testament, and I don't know who needs to hear this. It's going to shock some of you. Honestly, the things that they wore in the New Testament are probably not things that you're wearing today.
Speaker 2:I'm being sarcastic, obviously, but understanding the culture, reading and studying it, understanding the time gap, understanding the languages, all of those things are important when studying and reading the Bible. But first I'm going to say it again, then I'll pass it over to Sean but first understand the who, the what, when, where, why, how? Ask yourself that it's the most basic thing. There are so many deeper things you can do when studying the Bible. There are so many different things that you can do. But if you would just start with that as a foundation and say, oh, this is who wrote it, oh, this is what they were going through, this is what they faced, this is where they were born, this is what they came from, and then you start to slowly piece those things together and understand why they wrote it.
Speaker 2:It's like reading Matthew, mark, luke and John. If you read those four gospels and read the same accounts, you'll understand that they write it a little bit differently or they interpreted it a little bit differently. Well, there's reason for that. The man Luke was a physician. I was going to ask why is that? He's going to obviously write more about certain healing and physical ailments. Matthew was a tax collector, so he's going to write more about things like hey, judas, you know he tried to give however much money back to the. He was paid this much. You know there's things in the Bible and there's reasons. When they interpret the Bible, the language that they use is interesting to know who wrote it, because then you can understand why they said what they said or said it in the way that they said it.
Speaker 1:I heard one guy was talking about the four gospels and he said, if I put a bike out in between everybody and let them look at it for five minutes and then take it away and ask everybody to explain to me that bike, he said it may have tassels on it. It may have blue pedals. It may have a red seat. The bike may have been red, you know all. It may had a horn on it. It may have had a. It may have a red seat. The bike may have been red, you know. It may have had a horn on it. It may have had a basket up front. Whatever he said, but when you take them all apart, you can look at it. Yeah, and two of them may say, hey, it has tassels on it, but the other two didn't Right. Does that mean that it's you know? Yeah, no, it didn't right. Does that mean that it's you know? Yeah, no, it doesn't mean they're wrong, it's just they didn't notice that detail about it. Um, so that's you know. That's obviously something that you look after. But study, uh, you know, in studying these things, study it for yourself, study with others and bounce ideas off of them.
Speaker 1:You know I talk to Jonathan here. Sometimes We'll call him up and be like hey, what do you think about it? Let's talk a little bit about this and he'll bring up a point and I'll bring up a point and we'll go back and forth on it. The great thing about it is, if you guys don't agree, that's something you know. That's more for you to dig deeper on and that's something I told my. Something I told my kids was you know, when you're studying these things, get it for yourselves and then go talk to somebody about it. Yeah, I said, because if you can go, I said I don't care if it's me or somebody else, so if you want to come talk to me about it, we'll talk about it. Yeah, I said, if I agree with you and we agree with the Bible, then cool, we got something right. Right, and we agree with the Bible, then cool, we got something right. If I don't agree with you, that means we both need to go back and do some more studying, because it's very likely one of us might be wrong.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Or misunderstanding the scripture. Yeah, and then when we figure it out, we can come back together, talk about it again and say, hey, I see where you're coming from because you know this year. So I think having others around you is very, very important. Yeah, but it needs to be those who can get themselves out of the way as well. Mm-hmm, because there are those people who still believe of the way as well, because there are those people who still believe it their way, and that's very dangerous. I want to be careful when I'm saying these type of things. I don't want it to come across that this is the way I believe and it's this is my way kind of thing but it's not it's.
Speaker 1:it's the Bible, it's Christ.
Speaker 2:I think, too, it is important to sort of see, to an extent, opposing views of whatever it is as well, it does cause you to want to dig deeper.
Speaker 2:And then it's also I'm telling you like some of you are going to think I'm crazy for this, I just like to do this. I think that it's important to listen to individuals that maybe don't have anything to do with Christianity, but they just studied the Bible and they read it, and they read it and they'll they'll say something about it and it's like okay, let me go back and read that again and study that out. And it's not that I'm doing it because I'm trying to give up on God or whatever. I'm doing it because I want to know more. And to me, those individuals that maybe weren't raised in church, they've got such a good understanding of the Bible, way more than those who are Christians. And the reason why is because of what he just said. It's an unbiased view of the Bible. It's going in and setting yourself aside and not just reading it because you want to read something into it. It's reading it so that you can take something out of it.
Speaker 1:And I think that just personal opinion. Take it or leave it. I think that you can advance your knowledge much easier and much faster if you will do that and you will allow yourself to be convinced otherwise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, an open mind is what that is.
Speaker 1:It's being open-minded. Yeah, I have talked with atheists before and I try my hardest not to go in there with a mindset you'll never convince me otherwise, right. And it's not because I'm questioning my faith, it's not because I have doubts, but I'm doing this, I'm setting myself up to be open to them, because I know people that will go in and have a debate, and it's you're wrong, you're an idiot. How can you not see? Well, it's because they don't study the Bible, or they've never studied that side of it, the Bible, or they've never studied that side of it. And they're trying to convince you of something that they have spent maybe years pouring themselves into to study. And you're doing the same thing. You've spent years pouring and studying and trying to be the best Christian you can. And now, when you go out to talk to them, you're stupid, like how could you not believe? I've heard these kind of things before. Oh yeah, from Christians and non-Christians. Right, and you know, from the outside looking in, they've poured their heart and soul into something and now you're saying you're an idiot, you need to think like me. I'm sorry, I don't blame them if they don't want to.
Speaker 1:Exactly, yeah, treat somebody like trash and then see, go. I mean, I'm not saying, do it, but think about it. If you went home and treated your spouse horribly, go ahead, treat them like trash. Yeah, go home and treated your spouse horribly, go ahead, treat them like trash. Go home and treat your spouse like trash. You know, if you went home and treated people horribly your spouse, your kids and stuff and I believe this wholeheartedly you treat your kids bad, they're going to treat you bad, oh yeah. And then you're going to wonder, well, why don't they respect me? Well, because you're a knucklehead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're a jerk.
Speaker 1:Because that's the way that that relationship is built. So I go in open-minded with these things. I'm like hey, if you think you can convince me otherwise, I don't question my faith. I'll say it again, I don't question it, I don't doubt it. Do I doubt certain aspects of it? Yes, because I'm still learning, like everybody else is. There's a very, very, very, very, very slim chance you're going to convince me to be an atheist, right, but I'm going to open my mind to it and try it, because I also want you to come in open-minded. Hey, this guy is taking his time to listen to me. He's not sitting there just to throw a rebuttal at me. He's actually being honest and sincere about it, and that'll cause them to open back up where they can be like hey, maybe this guy does have a little something. Because, trust me, if I'm going to be nice to you, there's a much better chance of me convincing you to become a Christian than if I'm—I mean, we've heard stuff like this. You know, people are like man.
Speaker 1:I went to that church. Nobody smiled, nobody talked to me, nobody came and shook my hand, nobody even acknowledged I was there. They all looked so unhappy. Yeah, why would I want to go back. No idea, you're right. Why would you want to go back? So, when studying these things, be open-minded.
Speaker 2:Two weeks, we're going to be the Everyday Atheist podcast, because his mind is way too open when studying it. No, I'm kidding. That is true, though, and that's like you said. That's how you need to read the Bible too. Honestly, read the Bible with an open mind as well, and maybe your mind will be changed, I think, but it all takes that getting yourself out of the way from that, so I do pray that something in this episode helped you in some way. I also want to challenge you Pray about it.
Speaker 1:I mean, I didn't. It sounds like you're about done, but let me throw this in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Pray about it, right? I mean, the word of God is anointed. The word of God is is there for a reason? It's it, it, the Bible is alive, alive. So pray about it. Let god direct you. Right again, let him direct you.
Speaker 2:Don't let your thoughts and your wants and your what do you think it is directed, but let god direct you, yeah, go in with open eye and pray about it, and I think that's a challenge for everybody here is find something that you believe, pick a topic. Just everybody here is find something that you believe.
Speaker 1:Pick a topic, just pick a topic.
Speaker 2:Find something that you believe, find something that you've been rehearsed to believe and just study it, just dig deep into it. Don't just read a couple of verses either. Read chapters, read books, learn intent, learn history, learn the reasons why, find principle. All those things are important and I pray that somewhere along the way we've helped you in this podcast, in this lesson, to understand the importance of reading the Bible in context, because not only do you cause danger for yourself and learning or coming up with different doctrines and different belief systems, but you potentially become dangerous for someone else, because when you set your faith and foundation on something that is out of context or is a lie, then if anyone comes against that, you're going to argue or you're going to push back. So it's important to have a foundation, it's important to be strong in what you believe, but be strong in what you believe with context, and I think you'll go a lot further that way.
Speaker 1:And if this seems to be kind of a hot topic, so I'm just going to hit it. So I'm just going to hit it. If anybody, if you're asking questions and trying to learn these, figure these things out, and somebody in leadership calls you out for challenging authority, I'm here, I'm doing it. Yeah, ask them how they figured out and learned what they. What they learned. Yeah, because, if they're honest, one of two things happened they studied, they asked questions, they learned themselves, which is what you're trying to do or they blindly followed. Yeah, and if they blindly followed, there's a problem. Absolutely yeah, I have no problems with asking questions. I have no problem with learning.
Speaker 1:You can do it in the wrong spirit, you can do it wrong, but if you're learning, trying to be a better Christian, then please learn it, try to be a better Christian. And if they're right and I think that sometimes this is where they get kind of my you know, a lot of times when they're in leadership, all they see is the kickback yeah, oh well, you're just challenging, you're just challenging, you're just challenging, you're just challenging. Maybe it is that they actually did five things right. You just didn't have to go challenge them on it or not challenge, but ask them about it. So in reality, you're asking them one out of five or one out of six, so they're doing a little bit better, but don't let these people shut you down. You're learning to try to be a better Christian. You're learning to be a better human being. You're learning to draw closer to Christ. You're learning to win souls for the kingdom of God. Please study and learn. Don't let these people shut you down. Amen.
Speaker 2:Praise God. Well, that's the end of our episode. I want to thank everybody for listening and taking the time to. I pray that this challenged you in some way. Again, the challenge is find something that you believe, find a verse, find whatever it is that you feel like you have a foundation on, and go back, study it for yourself, read it in context, find all of these things that break down, that make the Bible complete. I believe, and I think, that you'll go a lot further, but I just wanted to again thank everybody for listening.
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Speaker 1:God bless you.
