“Understanding the Bible”
BIBLE REFERENCE:
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” 2 Timothy 3:16;
WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT:
Over the course of about twenty five years of studying the Bible, I found the most important thing we need to know is, “who is doing the writing” “who is it being written too” and “what are is the message referring to.” A great Bible scholar once said and I quote, “The Bible consists of 66 books written by over 40 authors and when you understand it as it was meant to be understood, you will come to the conclusion that it had to be written from outside of our time domain. That is an undisputed truth, but yet millions of people, including pastors and priests argue that fact. The reason…it’s because they themselves do not put the Holy Spirit first, therefore, they try to interpret the Bible the best they can to satisfy their own ignorance.
I’m going to explain how to understand the Bible to the best of my knowledge and I going to share how it made the Bible actually come alive for me. First of all I am going to break it down starting with Genesis and concluding with Revelation. The first five books of the Bible are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy that are referred to by the Jews by what they call “The Torah” (The Law). This was the law of the land that all Jews studied and lived by to the best of their ability. It was written by Moses to “The Nation of Israel”. It was written to the Hebrews and all their decedents. The next thirteen books are accounts of the historical events that happened during the time that proceeded Noah’s flood. Many of these books will refer back to the Torah during their teaching. Also, many of these stories have significant messages tucked away that turn out to be Old Testament pictures of New Testament teachings. For instance “The Book of Ruth” has a beautiful message about how a Jewish Kinsmen Redeemer (Boas) who took a Gentile Bride (Ruth) and helped redeem Naomi (Israel) back to their promised land. If you read this small four chapter book and understand the symbolism, it will come alive and bring chills up and down your spine. The Kinsmen Redeemer, Boas is symbolic of our future Kinsmen Redeemer (Jesus Christ). Ruth is a Gentile Bride which is symbolic of the church (The Born-Again believers). Jesus has promised to remove His Bride before the great and terrible day of the Lord. God made this promise to His Bride in 1 Thessalonians 5:9; “For God did not appoint us (His Bride the Church) to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Let’s move on to the rest of the Old Testament. The books of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs are excellent books filled with wisdom and knowledge written by a few different writers. It is certain that David wrote most of the Psalms. Then we get to what we refer to as the Major Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. The book of Lamentations is tucked away between Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It is believed that Jeremiah wrote this book because he lamented (Mourned) over Jerusalem because of their unwillingness to repent which lead to their Babylonian captivity. The Major Prophets are not named that because they are any more important than the Minor Prophets, it’s just that their books are a lot longer. There prophecies are written to the Jews about judgement, promises of the coming Messiah and events that they will face in the end of days. Where people get confused is what future events are being prophesied. It takes a lot of uninterrupted study time to do some diligent research. I can tell you that even though the prophecies are written to the Jews, they include the future Jewish Messianic believers along with the Gentiles that have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and have become (Born-Again in to the Holy Spirit.) So when they speak of the “Day of the Lord” that is a future reference to the end of days which we are rapidly approaching. Then we get to the twelve books of the “Minor Prophets”. They are very similar to the Major Prophets in what they are prophesying, but much smaller in size compared the four Major Prophets.
That brings us to the New Testament. We start with the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark Luke and John. These four books are written by four different writers that tell the life and times of Jesus Christ from His Virgin birth in a manger all the way to His crucifixion. In reality, what we have the pleasure of reading is only a fraction of what the life of Jesus consisted of. We read what the Apostle John said in John 21:25; “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” Some of the Gospels may seem contradictory but keep in mind, they are written from four different people from four different prospectives. When you peel back the onion, they are all dead on with how they complement each other’s writings.
After the four Gospels, we come to a very important book where the Church is concerned…it is the beginning of the church age where God now turns His attention to the Gentiles while the Jews have been subjected to judicial blindness until the fullness of the gentiles comes in as we read in Romans 11:25; Where Paul writes,“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.” We read in Acts 2:1–3; “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.” This was the beginning of the church age as we know it today.
Then we are privileged to be introduced to a wonderful man named “Paul”, the apostle to the Gentiles. He writes to seven different churches of Asia. All these letters are written to the church where Paul actually reveals mysteries that were never mentioned in the Old Testament. This is where a lot of Bible teachers get confused, the Old Testament is written to the Jews, The New Testament is mainly written to the Gentiles. When you try to put it all together as one message it will be so confusing that nobody could ever figure it out and that is exactly why there is so much confusion and allegorizing of scriptures in the main line denominations. The Old Testament is Not written to the Gentiles even though we can apply their Psalms, Proverbs and laws to our everyday living. Of course, the “Ten Commandments” and the “Sermon on the Mount” apply to all mankind so we need to use some common sense when distinguishing what is written to all mankind and what is in reference to the Jews of that day. It takes an intense study to understand the difference. After Paul writes the letters to the seven church’s he then turns to a few men with messages to them personally. Timothy 1 &2, Titus and Philemon. Then we come to an interesting book where no one is sure of who the writer is, but for reasons that are obvious to me, it has to also be Paul. But nonetheless, it is written to Messianic believing Jews, which also include Born-again believers.
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