Bible Is Often Quoted But Seldom Read; Now's The Time To Correct That

If we are to understand what is true about the Christian religion, we must read and understand the Bible. Though many things have converged to cause the loss of moral fiber that has led to our present social chaos, not the least is a general failure to grasp God's timeless message as it is written in the Bible.

It is good common sense to discover what the Bible is and what it is not. The Protestant Bible contains 66 books, covering events from 1250 B.C. to A.D. 150. It was written on two continents, in three languages and by more than 100 authors. It is more extensively published and more widely distributed than any book in history.

The Bible is never off the press. More than 1.5 trillion Bibles have been printed since Gutenberg printed the first Bible more than 500 years ago. It has found its way into more homes and hotels than any other book. It sells more than 30 million copies annually. Each minute 28 people receive a copy of the Bible.

It is a book that contains every type of literature: beautiful stories, great poems, gripping drama, allegories, similes, metaphors and every kind of speech imaginable. Poets, authors and playwrights have leaned heavily upon the Bible and have quoted it freely. But while the Bible is often quoted and highly lauded, it is little understood and seldom read.

Part of the problem might be that, in an attempt to honor our Judeo-Christian heritage, Americans have made the Bible into an icon. That is, we venerate it to the point of making it inaccessible. Expressed another way, we place the Bible on the top shelves of our bookcases - in an exalted position, but out of our reach. We treat it as just another classic - books that Mark Twain said everyone would like to have read, but nobody likes to read.

But we do not need to remain where we are. A recognition of our condition could be the beginning of an attempt to do better. How, then, do we proceed?

-- First, procure a Bible - preferably one of your own - small enough to be easily handled, but with large enough print to be easily read. Fine print is the devil's device!

-- Next, recognize that the Bible is both a simple and a complex book. Some sections are crystal-clear, but others are puzzling and need to be explained to us. To know the Bible and to read it as it deserves to be read will require some effort.

-- Set aside a definite time for reading. Consider it a daily appointment with God and keep that appointment faithfully. The Bible is not a shelf of medicines to which we run only in time of trouble, but is food for daily sustenance.

-- Read the Bible with a concordance close at hand. In other words, study - until the history, prophecy and wisdom literature of the Old Testament get into our very bones, and the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament become the foundation blocks of our thinking and our way of life. Dirt is cheap, but we must dig for gold. Many of the gems of the Bible appear only after they have been read many times by the persistent reader.

(The sequence of the books of the Bible as they are bound together does not represent the chronology in which they were written. Genesis is not the first written nor is Revelation the last. The reader who starts with Genesis and tries to begin a journey straight through the Scriptures is likely to bog down on the way to Canaan, getting all tangled up in the legalisms of Leviticus. This method has killed the spirit of many a conscientious reader.)

-- The initiate would do better to begin reading the Psalms, the Book of Proverbs or one of the four Gospels, preferably Mark, which is the first of the Gospels to be written. Then read the Book of Acts and the letters of the Apostle Paul.

(Some books, like the book of Jonah or the book of Ruth, can be read at a sitting. Ruth, the great love story of the Bible, requires only about 18 minutes to read. Using the concordance will illumine the historical background of each book and heighten your appreciation, but is not necessary to glean the beauty and lesson found in each.)

-- Read expectantly. God can speak to us through the Bible. Often what we read seems to have been written especially for us. It is miraculous how we can read some passages over and over, and each time some new fact of its truth breaks into our mind. We know that the Bible is not only an inspired book but that it inspires us. It does not spell out in detail all we should do in any particular instance, but like a good compass, it shows us the direction in which we should move. It gives us attitudes and principles by which to live.

For the Christian, it is specifically through Jesus that the validity of each belief is to be judged. Nothing is binding for the Christian that does not square with the life and spirit of Jesus. His insights into the nature of God, man and life are as valid and valuable today as they were when he lived his life. That is why Jesus is our eternal contemporary.

We search the world for truth. We cull

The good, the pure, the beautiful,

From graven stone and written scroll,

From all old flower fields of the soul;

And, weary seekers of the best,

We come back laden from the quest,

To find that all the sages said

Is in the Book our mothers read. - from Miriam by Whittier