Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

Christians Need to Read the Bible

Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. My words may have little to no natural effect on anyone, but God’s words will not return to Him void. So it makes sense to read the bible.

Below is the best description I know to tell someone what the holy bible is. I Unfortunately heard it from Dr. Voddie Baucham, so I cannot take the credit.

“We have a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses, written during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events which took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim their writings are of divine instead of human origin.”

Dr. Voddie Baucham

Time To Wake Up

“Knowing the time now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” 

Romans 13:11

If you are a Christian, you should already believe that the bible is the word of God. And if you believe that you will read it. We may say that we believe, but if we do not act on what we believe, it`s a good indication that we are fooling ourselves. It comes down to what is most important to us. I cannot say what that is in your life, but I know that God wants us to put Him first. It is, after all, His rightful place. Anything we put above God becomes an idol.

If we gain the entire world, build enormous mansions, have the finest clothes, that would be nice. The fastest cars, a luxury jet, and a million friends would make it even better. But when we die, everything we see and have gets left behind, all of it.

This life and these bodies are temporary, and the older I get, the more grateful I become.

But the word of God endures forever. Jesus said,

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.”

Matthew 24:45

We don`t even get to take our bodies with us when we leave.

Our body will return to the exact place from which it came, dust. Putting off something as important as reading what God has said makes no sense. God has put the knowledge of Himself in man, Created a universe that declares His glory, has given us His Son, and provided us with His word. If that were not enough, He also sent us the Holy Spirit as our helper who guides in truth.

Why would we avoid and run from a God who loves us so much? Life is so short and filled with many things, but you can be sure that you are who you are and where you are because God put you there.

You are no accident, and God has made us for Himself. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, and we have no idea when our time is up.

“And It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgement.”

Hebrews 9:27

“From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” 

Acts 17:26,27

6 ” Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the  wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isiah 55: 6-9

Back to The Bible

The attacks on the bible have been non-stop and continuous, yet it stands today as the biggest selling book of all time and tops the list year after year.

Anyone can open the bible, read a passage and decide what they think it means. This is how so much of the bible is twisted, misrepresented, and taken out of context. Scripture interprets scripture, and God’s word means what God says it does. We don`t need phony bible codes or vision to understand the Bible; we need the Holy Spirit.

“But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God`s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated (discerned) spiritually.”

1 Corinthians 2:14

Once the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ and opens our eyes to the gospel, we receive His gift of salvation by faith. Once this happens, His Spirit comes into our lives, and we are no longer strangers or enemies of God. Jesus said, “my sheep hear my voice.”

“For who has known the Lord`s mind, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 2:16

Errors? I think not.

There are no “errors” in the bible on any content unless we talk about a comma or little comparisons of similar things. In the original copies, they were perfect and from God.

And that in no way means the bible has errors. People say that to try and justify themselves and their conscience and keep others from reading and believing.

I can tell you scripture is far more accurate than any of our modern history books could ever hope to be. Found in different places and written in different languages, no other ancient history records come anywhere close to the bible.

But the easy way out is to say you don`t read the bible because “it has errors.”

Scripture is the most vetted document in the history of the world.

There are over 5,800 known Greek New Testament manuscripts and

more than 2.6 million pages.

When we combine the new and old Testament manuscripts and scrolls, there are more than 66,000.

The first five books of the Old Testament are believed to have been written by Moses sometime around 3,500 years ago.

It begins back before the world was the way we know it to be now.

The new testament is written by those who knew Jesus (or Apostles) from 50Ad to the last book at around 150AD.

No other book or body of work compares to the bible as it has been the source of knowledge as to:

how we all got here

why we are the way we are

why everyone dies

and where they go

what has happened

and how it all will end

Because the bible is the living word of God, we cannot compare it with anything else.

“Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet-anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives.”

Ulysses S. Grant

So What Are We Doing?

“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”

Thomas Jefferson

When it comes to reading, the common practice in our culture has been to read-only for pleasure or what is necessary to survive and a little more.

What`s disturbing is the thirst for as much tabloid-type news and information as we can get. Tabloids are nothing more than gossip in written form.

Truth is seldom present, and minds are shaped and programed in ways that hinder those who digest its never-ending supply of name-calling and storytelling.

Added to that are the made-up myths and stories of people and places that never existed and are full of superstition and fables.

These seem to be accepted as though they are historical facts and without question for many people.

Worshiping the created rather than the Creator.

Rather than take the factual truth of scripture, we read the daily horoscope and listen to someone telling us what the alignment of the stars has to do with our current and future life as though stars themselves are gods.

“It is necessary for the welfare of the nation that men’s lives be based on the principles of the Bible. No man, educated or uneducated, can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Truth is essential for justice and equity existing.

When the truth is no longer relevant, and our feelings are all that matter, that is the broad road that leads to destruction.

A nation so blessed as ours has been, whose beginning had deep roots in the Christian faith and God, is shameful to come to the place we are now.

I blame myself as much as anyone. Yet, no matter what I did or didn’t do, all these things were going to happen.

I feel like I have a VIP backstage pass to witness the fulfilled revelation of God taking place. But how would we know if we never took the time even to read what the bible says?

Do you want to trust your eternity on what other people say is in scripture?

Just Change History, so we Are Comfortable With It.

Removed from the school’s textbooks were the all-important Mayflower Compact and the study of why many early settlers came here. Removing Christianity out of textbooks is futile because no one can stop God and His truth. And there is a trail of godly men and women who followed Christ and held to his word throughout history as the only standard for life. Seeing people purposely lie, omit, and change history to fit what they want is what Marxists do when they attempt to take over a country.

And because slavery existed back then (all over the world), we now must accept that everyone was a special kind of evil, and we need to remove all remembrance of them.

Judging the past based on our culture today is another mistake that history will show to be foolish. You do not change, add to, or subtract from the past. It is what it is. What happened cannot be changed. If we try to change, hide, or ignore it, we will repeat mistakes that should be avoided and learn nothing of its lessons.

So what does any of this have to do with reading the bible?

I can tell that most of what we are experiencing in America today is from the lack of people reading the bible, not acknowledging God, and not learning from history.

Get started today and read through the bible in a year if you want. Just start reading, and you will be amazed at how God will speak to and change your mind. The dumbing down of our society is in full force, and this will only create more problems. We are already facing problems, such as bad racial relations, division, loss of freedoms, injustice, class warfare, and distrust, which will only worsen. And it also leads to a bigger and more corrupt government which is the opposite of what the founding fathers intended this nation to be.

In such an environment, where are vision, hope, love, and prosperity? Will it matter to have faster everything when in fact, we are going nowhere? How often do we hear someone say, ‘only God can judge me?

Which is another way of saying that they do not want to be accountable or responsible for anything they do.

God already judged us, and the verdict was guilty.

You can settle out of court now and avoid the penalty through Jesus Christ. Or you can ignore His propitiation for our sins and bear your guilt. Here are some rather depressing yet revealing statistics about Americans and reading the Bible.

10% have not read any of the bibles

13% read a few sentences

30% read several passages or stories

15% read at least half of the bible

12% read almost all of it

11% have read the entire bible

9% of those have read it multiple times

(source: Lifewayreasearch.com)

Nothing has had a better or more powerful impact on my life than Reading the Bible.

” A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”

Theodore Roosevelt

For me, I have all the evidence I need, but for those who doubt the proven prophesy and accuracy of its pages yet turn on the news and get a daily dose of lies and propaganda, I have to ask, what exactly is your standard?

The standards for truth and accuracy have not improved over time, and in fact, the lies are more bold and evident than ever before, yet we all are programmed to go with the flow and question nothing.

So that you know, everything was handwritten before the printing presses and computers we all take for granted now. So the precise, tedious job of copying the scrolls was something the monks dedicated their life to and did so with excellence.

They had an intricate system to ensure that what they copied was accurate. When scrolls are compared from different periods and languages, there is no denying their accuracy and consistency.

In our news today

Media today reports whatever they want, often do no research, or bother to verify that their reporting is accurate. The news must follow their narrative.

It is nothing short of miraculous that they found manuscripts in different parts of the world, in other languages, and written at different times, and yet as they compared them all, they were the same. Even with computers and all of our fancy technology, I seriously doubt that could be duplicated again.

God has preserved his word even during various persecutions, wars, people burning them, banning them, trying to add to it, and taking from it. All to no avail. It stands after all these years and declares not a message of hate but a message of love from the Creator who made us.

We are told that Scripture is complete in the book of Revelation and that no one should add to God`s word.

Yet, various religions went right ahead and did so or included New Testament writings, not from the Apostles, or were added much later.

The Catholic church has done this, but I do not consider that the authentic Church. They are a manufactured religion that puts man over the church and ignores the word of God.

“So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”  

Romans 10:17

And to clear up another misnomer about the bible, the bible does not contradict itself.

The bible does not mean what I think it means or what I feel it means.

God`s word interprets God’s word and not my experience, culture, or preferences.

So many people and groups have taken verses out of context. Throughout history, we have seen how fanatics get so far off course and from the truth that they commit horrible acts of violence or foolishly lead others off into some cult. And, of course, people want to point to Christianity as though it is to blame. That would be like blaming Taco Bell because you hate the fries at Burger King, and now all fast food restaurants have bad fries. It just makes no sense.

In a world where things are changing fast, and everyone is looking for the next new something and experience, the bible is a timeless masterpiece from the Master Himself. Scripture fits together with one central message throughout. Jesus! So read the bible a little every day, and you will learn and grow. Do not use the excuse that it is too hard to understand or too long. It is not to be looked at once and never picked up again.

God loves us.

We sinned and were separated from Him. He sent His own Son Jesus, who paid the penalty of our sin, and made way for us to return to God not only now but for eternity.

You know in your heart that eternity is in there.

We know there is God, and we know we will live after this.

Why?

Because God put it in us.

The problem is that our sin has taken us so far away from Truth and holiness that we no longer recognize it as such.

“All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”

Noah Webster

Sin is Progressing very fast.

Our kids are walking around thinking they are nothing more than animals and that everything is relevant. There are no absolute truths or laws, and there is no reason to do right. So do what feels good.

Would you mind telling me in what area or place in anyone`s life are there no laws to which we must follow? You walk off a tall building, and guess what? The law of gravity will be there to meet you. The laws of motion and gravity (many more) are universal laws that apply to us.

These laws exist whether you believe they do, follow them, or completely ignore them as though they didn`t.

Because God has put it in the heart of man to know their Creator, none of us have a good excuse for why we may ignore God and even doubt his existence.

“Because although they knew God they did not glorify Him as God. nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

Romans 1:21

When God created us, He created us with the ability to make choices.

That means that I get to decide what I believe, and I am not a robot. Robots cannot feel and cannot give and receive real love because they are programmed. Suppose God would have just programmed us all; it may have saved Him a lot of grief. But true love can only be experienced when it is freely given and not forced.

However, man is limited and God is sovereign over man and all creation. Our will can never be above the sovereignty of the Creator. 

Why did God create this world when He knew man would sin and mess it all up? Why do we have kids even though we know they will mess up, feel pain, and even die one day? Love. To express and receive LOVE.

Not that God has need of any man or anything outside of Himself. 

If you have struggles and can’t seem to figure out what to do, remember what Jesus said, “

“If you continue in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.”

John 8:31

It is coming to the Word Of God daily where God begins to change us because He Is the Living Word. So make up your mind that you will read your bible and get started. Make a plan and do it.

More at Speakuptm.com