07/05/2025
Historical ,Hysterical or Hypothetical? Approaching Bible Study
Our 'general view' of the Bible will in a large part determine what we believe about it's teachings. Hebrews 1:1-2 gives a general view that allows for supernatural events, miraculous events and literal superhuman feats, while at the same time making the main focus on what came from the heart of God and the mind of Christ.
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the world."
The Bible, as a book of divine influence requires:
I. A contemplative approach
Read it for what it is, not for what you've been 'told' that it is. Many premises have been put forth as absolute truth but since the Bible itself says we are to "try (test) the spirits', we need to follow this consistently and challenge every concept we here, even from our own religious leaders.
2. A curiosity approach
Intellectual study of the Bible does not lead us to the divine wisdom that God has infused into the narratives of the Bible. We need to wonder why there is so much conflict among those who study the Bible for surface meaning and doctrinal content. If "the wisdom from above is first of all pure then peaceable, gentle and easy to be intreated..." (James 3:17) then all Christian theologians should be getting along and in agreement, rather than calling each other 'heretics' and false teachers.
3. A Cognitive approach
We are tri-partite beings just like God himself. This is part of being made in the image of God. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end." (Jeremiah 29:11) God 'thinks about his thoughts' and we have the power of 'meta-cognition'. The thoughts of God are equivalent to the 'mind of Christ'.
My general view of the Bible is that it is "a creative expression of the process and advancement of human consciousness."
Keep this in mind when you read the Scriptures for the heart of God is revealed all through the Old Testament and the mind of Christ is an open book in the Gospels.