Bible Bits© is a team of professing Christians who trust that our Jewish and Christian Bible is the word of God. We like to read it, like to study it, and also find it just plain interesting. We seek to share our fascination for the “small” things of the Bible with others who share our interest in scrutinizing the small details, here in Bible Bits©.
The Bible Bits© blog posts are intended for an audience of Christians who love the Bible and take it seriously. Our audience includes Christian scholar wannabes, and those Christians who are analytically minded, like to pour through commentaries, and are curious about nuances discovered in the original Greek and Hebrew languages. Our audiences loves the Lord and seeks to find God in the little details.
Our focus here is on the “small” bits, not the larger and broader (and usually more important) issues of doctrine, theology, and Christian life which (rightly so) are featured in your sermons, group studies, Sunday Schools and seminary classes. At least that is our aim.
We are part of a larger ministry called Read the Actual Bible for Yourself©. In this ministry we observe two things:
1) We Christians do not read the actual Bible for ourselves nearly enough. We lack knowledge of what it actually says and what is actually in it and not in it. Much of our understanding of Christianity has come from the voices and actions of others, which may or may not be backed by the word of God in the text of the Bible.
2) Non-Christians and critics of Christianity haven’t read enough of the actual Bible either. We are saddened by the large population of otherwise decent people whose understanding of Christianity has come from the words of people, and who have not bothered to pick up a copy of the Bible and read it for themselves.
We observe that the four gospels can be read in two or three or four weeks of bed-time reading. The gospels are the same size as a small-to-medium sized novel. The same message is repeated four times. If you don’t “get it” in Matthew, you get three more tries. There are some head-scratching sections, but the gist of the message is easily enough understood. Christ has a question for you. What is your answer?
Of all the billions of writings on earth, this thing called the Bible is the only one which claims to hold the word of God, and the claims of a God who supposedly created heaven and earth and visited earth personally in the first century.
One would think that everybody would want to read this. If only to confirm their doubts and reject it. But very, very few non-believers have actually read even the four gospels, much less the entire thing. We suspect that a majority of believers have never plowed their way through the short work of the four gospels, and are certain that a large majority of believers have never plowed their way through the much larger (but easily readable in one year) full Bible.
The Bible is the single tangible item God has given us here on earth — at least that’s what it claims — and that tangible item holds an articulate statement from a supposed God about the universe, earth, man, life, death, and so on. Somebody has even translated the original Greek and Hebrew into English. It is inexpensive at the store and free online. And yet majorities do not read it.
Astonishing. We find this astonishing.
Our take is this: Reject the Bible if that is your well-formed conclusion. Reject God and reject Christ if that is your considered conclusion, but gee whiz, at least read the one and only source document and its claims. Read the short the gospels, and read the actual bible for yourself. Reject it. Accept it. We don’t care. (Well, actually we do care. We’d rather you accept it.) But for goodness sake, at least read the claims in the first-hand account source document for yourself.
Blessings to you!
We love the Lord and we Love His Bible!
Read the Actual Bible for Yourself©.
Bible Bits 