Saturday, January 8th, 2022.
This tip might save you time, money, and headache when trying to learn what the Bible says.
There are scores of academic theological journals containing a multitude of scholarly articles.
Popular magazines are filled with editorial analysis on religious subjects and popular trends. There are commentaries from many different perspectives, for different levels and uses.
Millions of books are published on every Bible subject imaginable from the languages to the theology, history, beliefs, people, style, problems, preaching, and practice.
There are innumerable sermons (now all recorded thanks to technology), blogs, videos, forums, seminars, symposiums, and online conversations that surround the book.
Are you getting a headache, yet? Can you imagine the time (and money) it would take to begin to sort through all of it to find the value?
Here is how you move to the head of the class…
Just read the text of the Bible.
Most people don’t do it. They spend their time in the abundant resources about the Bible which might address a single pebble of the text or provide a premade framework for which to view it.
This is like visiting the Grand Canyon and as you are standing on the precipice you open up a guidebook and start looking at the pictures or pull out a telescope and look at one rock without getting the big picture first.
Reading the whole text will equip you with what it does and does not say. It will give you the source of what everyone else is talking about.
Are those resources helpful? Some can be, but until you’ve read the text for yourself, you can easily get overwhelmed by how many pebbles there are instead of simply enjoying a walk down the beach.
Read the text for yourself.
For your edification,
Justin “first things first” Johnson