I don't think that this is exactly the way the question was posed on Linked In, but it is close. I failed to put a comment on Linked In, so I will comment on the question here. Having just finished reading Ecclesiastes and having read the first four chapters of Song of Songs, I can say that the Bible can be hard to understand, especially for new Christians. For what it's worth, my advice to new Christians has been to read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and get Jesus down real good, then read Hebrews to get the New Testament perspective on the Old Testament. I think, for example, that Leviticus would be very difficult for a new Christian to understand without having the New Testament perspective. However, we need to remember that the Lord provided a good resource to help all Christians understand the Bible - namely, the Holy Spirit. I've been reading the Bible for over fifty years, and I have read it through numerous times, at least once a year for the last thirty or so years, and without the Spirit's guidance the Bible would still be a mystery to me. I am one of those narrow-minded Christians who believes that a person who does not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, cannot understand the Bible. Why? Because they do not have the Holy Spirit to help them. Years ago, I read that one of Madilyn Murray Ohair's sons read the Bible through in one night and rejected it outright. In the first place, if he read it through in one night, he could not have understood it. In the second place, if he started reading the Bible from the perspective of an atheist, he had already rejected the Bible before he read one word of it. That's why there are so many misunderstandings among the unbelieving populace about us. They do not understand why we put so much emphasis on the Bible, and take its word over the almighty "popular opinions." If you didn't know Jesus, you would be puzzled too. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church: "The man (or woman) without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1Corinthians 2:14, NIV) That answers the question about why the Bible is hard to understand for an unbeliever. A believer, even a new one, has the Holy Spirit to help him or her understand the Bible. No one will ever understand all of the Bible, but everyone who believes can understand what they need to understand under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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