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The Bible is an important book to put it mildly. In fact, as I’ll say in a future article, I have plans to rigorously study it more intensely than I ever have before over the next 4 years. Recently, I have started running into an idea that has always been around, but seems to be gaining enough traction to warrant an article. It’s what I call the “Just me and my Bible” approach to studying The Bible. It is this idea that you don’t need anything but your Bible in studying theology. No commentaries, theology books, sermons, lectures, or even group study is needed to fully understand the text. Just pick up a Bible and read it. This idea is attractive to many and it has some level of plausibility because it’s based on a half truth.

The Perspecuity Of Scripture – True

The truth within the lie is that The Bible is easy to understand. It is easy….in all the essential doctrines of faith and practice. You can easily understand those doctrines and biblical teachings that are absolutely crucial for you to be saved and to have a good relationship with God. Those things that we would recite in the Apostles and Nicene creed, or the “Romans Road” to salvation. These things are abundantly clear in the text and heretics have to jump through all sorts of hoops to rationalize away texts like John 1 which teach both the deity of Christ and/or his distinctness from the Father. And although Genesis 1 is a hotly debated text, no one can read this text without coming away with at least this conclusion; God created everything that exists. We may debate the length of the days, the chronology of the days, whether it’s about functions only, material origins, both, whether there’s a temple motif, etc. But every Christian would affirm that Genesis 1 is teaching that there is one Creator of all things.

The Bible is both easy and difficult to understand. This isn’t a contradiction because that which is easy to understand and that which requires a little bit of homework aren’t the same parts of The Bible. A heard a preacher many years ago say “The main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things.”

What I am endorsing here is a doctrine the reformers called “The perspecuity of scripture”. Martin Luther put it thusly; “But the notion that in Scripture some things are recondite and all is not plain was spread by the godless Sophists… —who have never yet cited a single item to prove their crazy view; nor can they. And Satan has used these unsubstantial spectres to scare men off reading the sacred text, and to destroy all sense of its value, so as to ensure that his own brand of poisonous philosophy reigns supreme in the church. I certainly grant that many passages in the Scriptures are obscure and hard to elucidate, but that is due, not to the exalted nature of their subject, but to our own linguistic and grammatical ignorance; and it does not in any way prevent our knowing all the contents of Scripture. For what solemn truth can the Scriptures still be concealing, now that the seals are broken, the stone rolled away from the door of the tomb and that greatest of all mysteries brought to light—that Christ, God’s Son, became man, that God is Three in One, that Christ suffered for us, and will reign for ever? And are not these things known, and sung in our streets? Take Christ from the Scriptures—and what more will you find in them? You see, then that the entire content of the Scriptures has now been brought to light, even though some passages which contain unknown words remain obscure. Thus it is unintelligent, and ungodly too, when you know that the contents of Scripture are as clear as can be, to pronounce them obscure on account of those few obscure words. If words are obscure in one place, they are clear in another. What God has so plainly declared to the world is in some parts of Scripture stated in plain words, while in other parts it still lies hidden under obscure words.” ^[1]Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will (Translated by J.I. Packer & O.R. Johnston) (Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1957), pp. 71-74.

Bible Study VS Bible Reading

The late biblical scholar Michael S. Heiser frequently made the distinction between Bible Study and Bible reading. ^[2]Michael S. Heiser, “Heiser’s Laws For Bible Study”, July 16th 2011 — https://drmsh.com/heisers-laws-for-bible-study/

I wish I could convince Christians that a “Just me and my Bible” approach to Bible study is the fast track to heresy. Theology should be done in community with fellow believers. Just as a scientist doesn’t hastily draw conclusions about God’s World by going outside and doing one experiment, but puts it to the test of peer review, so we should be our interpretations of God’s Word. We can learn a lot from each other. People don’t realize just how much their biases and presuppositions can get in the way of properly reading the text. Sometimes we were right all along, and we come away with a fuller understanding of why we believe what we believe. But sometimes we realize that we’ve been reading a passage wrong, or even had an entirely false theological system because someone comes along and says “Have you ever considered…?”

One great way to do this is to read many commentaries of biblical books from different theological traditions. Another way is to actually debate your view with other Christians. I probably wouldn’t have every considered annihilationism over my previous commitment to Hell as eternal torment if David Pallmann hadn’t given me the push back that caused me to realize eternal torture’s scriptural foundations were shaky at best.

Or what about The Trinity? I would say that I see key ingredients for the Trinity all over the pages of scripture, especially the New Testament. But folks like the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Mormons would say that I’m seeing something that isn’t there. And you know, I have to be open to that. That is why I gladly read Unitarians and consider their arguments. Now, the fact of the matter is that time and time and time again I find that anti-Trinitarian arguments fall flat. ^[3]For people wanting a good interaction with Anti-Trinitarian apologetics, see my articles “Why You Should Believe In The Trinity: Respoonding To The WatchTower (Part 1)“, “Why You Should Believe … Continue reading But I welcome the pushback, as the nature of God is no small matter.

Sola Scriptura is often brought in to support a “Just me and my Bible” approach to study. The problem. Is that this doctrine simply states that scripture has the ultimate authority to dictate what we believe. ^[4]For more information, see my blog post “My Theological Epistemology Explained“. That is, if anything contradicts what The Bible teaches, that thing is just wrong. Sola Scriptura is not to be confused with what I call a “Just me and my Bible” approach to studying the thing; just reading it insolation from any input from any outside sources outside of your own mind. Such an approach has lead to many strange, fringe, and even dangerous beliefs. It’s how we get cults.

Biblical scholar Ben Stanhope has a great video on YouTube called “Christian Anti-Intellectualism Snf The Role Of The Holy Spirit In Bible Interpretation” and I recommend watching it.

Why Should We Want To Go Deeper?

If you’re new to The Bible, you shouldn’t concern yourself with going deeper. You need to drink milk before you’re old enough for solid food after all (Hebrews 5:14), and I have an article for newbies to The Bible called “Overcoming The Bible’s Barriers For Entry”. But if you have read through The Bible a few times, you should want to go deeper. Here’s why;

Reason 1: The Bible is under constant attack.

And it is no longer just atheists like Richard Dawkins and Dan Barker bringing up “evil Bible verses” like the Canaanite Conquest narrative, slavery, and other troubling passages that prima facie paint God in a bad light. We now have people flying under the banner of “Christian” who are attacking the authority of the word. The so-called Progressive Christians as they are called, typically have a very low view of scripture. And I don’t mean this in a Ken Ham sort of way that because they disagree with my interpretation on such and such a passage that they’re all just a bunch of man pleasing heretics. I mean they will do things like put Paul’s inspired letters (2 Timothy 3:16-17, cf. 2 Peter 3:16) with the red letters of Jesus in the gospels. See my article “Why Progressive Christians Are Wrong To Pit Jesus Against Paul” to see why this is a theologically wrongheaded idea. But there are also progressives who will outright say The Bible is wrong even in some of the things it intends to teach! Christians must devote themselves to knowing the word so that they can defend it from attacks. (1 Peter 3:15, 2 Corinthians 10:5). Don’t forget that doubting God’s word was how Satan got Adam and Eve to commit the first sin. (Genesis 3). ^[5]See Ben Stanhope’s video “Why The Villain Of Eden Was A Serpent” for a great exegetical defense for the identity of the serpent in Eden not just being Satan, but a seraph. A seraph … Continue reading His tactics haven’t changed. He knows that if you fight with the sword of the spirit, he will be defeated. (Ephesians 6:17). After all, how did Jesus defeat Satan in the wilderness in Matthew 4? “It is written..”, “It is written…” “It is written…” Don’t let yourself be disarmed!

And it isn’t just theological internal critiques, but even the very reliability of the events described in the text. In his book “Confronting Old Testament Controversies: Pressing Questions About Evolution, Sexuality, History, and Violence“, Old Testament scholar Tremper Longman III is actually primarily contenting with other Christian scholars who call into account not just Adam and Eve, but even such crucial events in redemptive history as the Israelites’ Exodus out of Egypt! And these are people who claim to be CHRISTIANS! These are not atheists or other non-Christians trying to undermine the reliability of The Bible. I really recommend checking out Tremper Longman’s book out as he masterfully defends The Bible using top notch scholarship and solid reasoning.

As for The New Testament, you can check out my “blog book” called “The Case For The Reliability Of The Gospels”.

*The Case For The Reliability Of The Gospels – Introduction

*The Case For The Reliability Of The Gospels – Part 1: The Reliability Of The Manuscript Transmission

*The Case For The Reliability Of The Gospels – Part 2: The Case For Traditional Authorship

*The Case For The Reliability Of The Gospels – Part 3: The Dating Of The Gospels

*The Case For The Reliability Of The Gospels – Part 4: The External Evidence

*The Case For The Reliability Of The Gospels – Part 5: Some Internal Evidence

*The Case For The Reliability Of The Gospels – Part 6: Even More Internal Evidence

*The Case For The Reliability Of The Gospels – Part 7: What About Contradictions?

*The Case For The Reliability Of The Gospels – Part 8: Can We Really Believe In Miracles?

*The Case For The Reliability Of The Gospels – Part 9: The Resurrection Of Jesus

*The Case For The Reliability Of The Gospels – Conclusion

Reason 2; Bad Theology Has Consequences

Christians who adopt certain beliefs may not necessarily be heretics because they don’t sit at the heart of the Christian faith. Nevertheless, they may not reflect what The Bible actually teaches, and they may unnecessarily make the Christian faith look unreasonable in the eyes of the world.

In some cases of bad theology, it actually creates stumbling blocks for non-Christians because they think certain doctrines are unreasonable. And I for one would agree with them that, for example, Young Earth Creationism or seeing Hell as eternal torment create big problems. Many, many, objections to Christianity stem from things The Bible doesn’t even teach in the first place, but which many Christians insist upon. To a point, engaging in these secondary issues as as much doing apologetics for the sake of trying to win the lost as is presenting a case for the resurrection or expositing the Cosmological Argument. And to some extent to keep these bad theologies from continuing to be unnecessary stumbling blocks, I have to get other Christians to stop endorsing them. And if you don’t want to endorse unnecessary stumbling blocks, you need to study the word and understand what it is you’re teaching!

In other cases, like ends times systems, these are rather low stakes. Although even here there have been some objections to Christianity. For example, did Jesus get it wrong when he said “This generation will not pass away before all these things happen?” in Mathew 24? Was he a false prophet? Well, he must be! Wait, hold on. Not so fast. Have you considered Partial Preterism, Mr. Skeptic?

We shouldn’t pretend like our theologies don’t have ramifications on the reasonableness or lack thereof for the Christian worldview. If it’s what The Bible teaches, then we should stand firm on it. But let’s make sure we actually have it right.

These are secondary matters in terms of our salvation. You won’t go to Hell if you get it wrong in these areas. But that doesn’t mean they can be relagated to being trivial issues.

And YEC isn’t just bad biblically (Leviathan was a mythical multiheaded sea dragon, not a dinosaur) but it’s bad science. People have left the faith in droves because they’ve been taught that scripture’s trustworthiness depends on YEC being true, and when they go off to college to study actual real science, and when they’ve had their pastors and parents nail it into their skulls that if evolution and an old Earth are true, we should throw out The Bible because it meant God lied. And so they conclude “Well, guess I’ll be an atheist now.” And I don’t blame them. No offense to my young earth brothers and sisters, but YEC is scientifically ridiculous. And people with functioning consciences are rightly bothered by the idea of a supposedly good God torturing people forever and ever to the Nth degree. Thankfully what scripture actually teaches is that the wicked are annihilated, or as Jesus said, destroyed in both body and soul in Hell” (Matthew 10:28) which is why, in John 3:16, Jesus says “Whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life“. Implying that the unsaved do not live forever (have eternal life) in immortal resurrected bodies. They will perish. And why he compared looking to Him lifted upon the cross to those dying of snake bikes looking to the bronze serpent Moses put on a poll (John 3:14-15). God punishes heinous crimes the same way we do; with the death penalty. The wages of sin is death, not eternal torture (Romans 6:23). Its why John The Baptist said that the wicked would burn up like chaff (Matthew 3:16) and why Peter said the incineration of Sodom was a good example of what was to happen to the ungodly on judgment day (2 Peter 2:6, cf. Jude 7). So how do we answer to the skeptic’s objection “How could a good God punish people an infinite amount of time for sins of a finite degree?” The answer is that He doesn’t. That’s not what The Bible teaches.

For more information about these topics, see my articles “Genesis 1 – Functional Creation, Temple Inauguration, and Anti-Pagan Polemics” and “Genesis 2 & 3: Adam and Eve As Archetypes, Priests In The Garden Of Eden, and The Fall” for the creation/evolution debate respectively. And see my video course on the doctrine of Hell by clicking here.

You should want to understand what The Bible actually teaches even in (from a soteriological standpoint) secondary or tertiary details because you might be inadvertently putting a stumbling block in someone’s path to Christ. Jesus’ brother James said “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” (ESV). I will have to give an account to God if my teachings have lead people astray. You will too. So let’s make sure we’ve got it right.

Reason 3: This Stuff Is Just Plain Interesting!

The Bible is far more fascinating than a lot of people realize. I have scholars like Michael Heiser and John Walton to credit for my current passion for the biblical text, not just apologetics or theology. In Psalm 82, we have Yahweh judging evil gods who lead the nations astray into idolatry. These “Sons Of God” were set over the nations at the Babel event as we know from Deuteronomy 32:8-9 in which Moses says “When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.” (ESV) When did God divide mankind? At The Tower Of Babel in Genesis 11! These “gods” are what Paul the apostle calls demons. “No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.” (1 Corinthians 10:20, ESV). Of course, Paul isn’t coming up with this on his own. He is directly alluding to Psalm 106:37. So just in case you thought that idols were just man made, and that the gods of the nations weren’t real, think again! They are and they often successfully tempted Israel away from her fidelity to Yahweh.

Or in Genesis 6:1-4, we read “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” (ESV)

What is this all about? Sons of God coming into the daughters of men and they bear children? Who and what are these Nephilim? Well, I’m sure if you just pray about it God The Spirit will give you an impression on your heart and you’ll come to know the answer. Ok, no. He won’t. Most likely these are angels who took on corporeal form and mated with human women. Given the pusdeo-human nature of the bodies of the angels, the offspring were giant abominations. I make the exegetical case for this interpretation in my essay “Genesis 6: The Nephilim – Descendents Of Cain, Neanderthals, Ancient Kings, or Angel-Human Hybrids?” This is weird! This is fascinating! And this isn’t something I would have come to with nothing but my English Bible in front of me. Part of the problem is that the biblical authors are often writing TO an audience who would have already been familiar with what they’re talking about. The biblical authors (ESPECIALLY in Genesis 1-11) often assume background knowledge that ancient Israel had (and sometimes Jesus and the apostles had) that we don’t.

The Bible is far more interesting than a lot of people realize. And the deeper you go, the more you’ll come to agree that St. Jerome’s poetic watery description of Scripture is right!

Conclusion

I’m not saying everyone is called to be a Bible scholar, but I’m also not saying that you will understand every jot and tittle of scripture reading it in isolation from any other input. If you do, your biases and presuppositions will get in the way and you won’t even realize that it’s happening. You don’t have to go as deep as I do, but don’t pretend that you can just get away by “praying for God to reveal the meaning to your heart”. God will not bless your intellectual laziness.