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Bluethread -> RE: Who Taught You to Study the Bible? (7/17/2008 4:15:27 AM)
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Adonai taught me how to study. Even before I affirmed the Shema(Duet 6) as the proper method for studying the Scriptures, I read the Apostolic Writings from cover to cover in one day, thought about it each day and then took every opportunity to discuss it with whoever was willing. I then aquired a copy of the entire Scriptures and read it through, following the same procedure as before. When I had finished, I started again. Unfortunately, as I quickly found out, this not only was not the preferred method of study by most, but was considered quite disrespectful. Sense no religious people liked the idea of discussing the Scriptures, it was slow going. However, I persisted. Hearing a radio show where the host appeared to be honestly entertaining and answering questions, I saved up and enrolled in the school that sponsered the program.
I came to find out the program host was just a front man who only made public appearances and answered prescreened questions on th radio show. Most of what I learned there was of little practical use in studying the Scriptures an applying it to ones life. Most of it centered around number principles, color principles and the like. Fortunately, there were a couple of professors who rejected the rosetta stone method of biblical interpretation. One was an old marine who was either teaching or in His office from 6 am to 6 or 7 pm every day. Unfortunately, most of the time he was surrounded by kids from "church families" so one could not talk to Him much. However, in class, the statement that best summed up his view of bible study was, "The best translation is your own translation." When asked a question, he would say, "Let's see what the original says." as he pulled out his greek "new testament". The other was a new untenured professor, who soon got the reputation as a rebel. He spoke to us in private of the historical, grammatical and literal method of interpretation. That is about all I got from him, because he to was generally surrounded by more ardent followers, the rebellious kind of course. This was the professor who narrowly beat out my brother in publishing the new testiment timetables. Oh yes, there is my brother. Though he was older, I started the journey first so he was of little help early on since he was an ardent agnostic and I was the little brother. While he was in community college, he was impressed with an intellectual who was also a christian. He learned from him, but was not well versed in the Scriptures by the time I left for bible college. However, when I asked him, "Watch ya readin'." He would say, "You wouldn't understand it's intellectual stuff." When I persisted, he would tell me using long phylosophical and theological terms. I would then tell him what I had heard him say in more simple language and he would then say, wanting to get back to his reading, "That's right." After he left for WSU, I didn't see or talk to him much, since we were usually hundreds if not thousands of miles apart. After one year of "bible school", I had had enough and went out into the real world.
I found the real world wasn't much better. When someone would take the time to discuss things with me, they could not give answers from the Scriptures, but generally encouraged me to accept the doctrinal statement of whatever church I happened to be attending. I attended several churches over the course of the years. This is primarily because most seemed to find my questions a bit embarrassing, or I should say their lack of answers and unwillingness to discuss further. However, there were a few in each church that found great humor in this embarrassment I seemed to be causing. Finally, a family that felt it important to interact with the "worship service" crowd in hopes of finding someone who wanted to seriously discuss the Scriptures, chose the church I was attending. When their reasoned beliefs were insulted from the pulpit without any reasonable justification, I called them to apologize for the way they were treated. This lead to our discussing the Scriptures together. They asked me questions that I was ill prepared for and were more than happy to entertain questions I had, that they could not answer right away. Seeing that I was learning much more about the Scriptures in my discussions with these people than I had been able to learn in "worship service", "fellowship time" and even "sunday school", I chose to meet with them on the Sabbath. I then discovered that the method I had been using all of my life was not inappropriate as I had been lead to believe, but was indeed the proper way to study the Scriptures.
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