Words by Al Blanton | Image by Ryan McGill
The Bible is a vein of pure gold, unalloyed by quartz or any earthly substance. This is a star without a speck; a sun without a blot; a light without darkness; a moon without its paleness; a glory without a dimness. O Bible! It cannot be said of any other book that it is perfect and pure; but of thee we can declare all wisdom is gathered up in thee, without a particle of folly. This is the judge that ends the strife, where wit and reason fail. This is the book untainted by any error; but is pure, unalloyed, perfect truth. - Charles Spurgeon
I have a confession to make. Well, two confessions to make.
First, I haven’t always been excited to read the Bible. I sometimes catch myself going through the motions, reading hastily to check off my daily supernatural “to-do” list.
Sometimes I just don’t feel like reading. Sometimes, it feels “old” to me.
Secondly, there have been times where I have seen little value in reading the Old Testament. I’ve been almost exclusively a “New Testament guy” because if, in the end, it’s all about Jesus, shouldn’t I be reading about his life? Shouldn’t I cut straight to the real “meat” of the Christian walk as explained by Paul and others? Besides, there seems to be nothing drier than slogging through Leviticus…
Recently, though, I’ve been diving into the book of Genesis in a discipleship group, and it’s been fascinating (I also read a great portion of 1 Samuel and 1 Kings). During this process, I’ve discovered the more I read and unpack the Old Testament, the more I hunger for it, the deeper I want to mine for little nuggets that God has strategically placed throughout (and, trust me, there are many), and the more I want to “make it make sense” so my feeble mind can understand what God has to say to me/us.
Unfortunately, I think much of Christian America is in the non-reading camp. There’s little interest in diving into a 2000-plus-year-old text, and we don’t see value in an archaic book that has little application in a fast-moving world of apps, Walmart delivery, and high-speed internet. We’d rather go to the gym, watch the ballgame, play Fantasy sports, go shopping, and do a million other things that living in the greatest country on the planet affords us to do.
Writer Os Guinness once penned a book entitled Fit Bodies, Fat Minds in which he explained how we are failing to exercise our minds in pursuit of Christ (we have “buns of steel” and “brains of silly putty”) and offered as a remedy the reading of God’s word. And because we are hypnotized by consumerism with its seductive, “come hither” images, we’ve become mindless vendors of everything that comes within our purview “regardless of their truth, rightness, meaning, history, and value.” Because we are content to be entertained, we bind depth and meaning to the altar, wield a dagger, and sacrifice it. Conversely, something that has true meaning and value—the Bible—has been largely forsaken.
So, you say, “Ok, Al, why should I “take up and read?” Here are just a few reasons:
1. It strengthens our belief and helps us grow.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the truly remarkable things about the Bible is that if you dig deeper, you’ll discover so many parallels and cross-references to other passages. That might be remarkable if only one author planted these little “Easter eggs” for us to find– generating from the same mind–but what makes it even more remarkable than that is that many different God-inspired authors wrote the Bible in many different geographical locations across thousands of years. Therefore, the more I read, the more I conclude of its ingenious nature; only an author of otherworldly brilliance could have constructed such an extraordinary book. This does nothing but deepen my faith and helps me to grow as a believer. In turn, my fleshly thinking is dispensed and substituted by the Godly wisdom of Scripture.
Reading the Bible is not just about having head knowledge; it deepens our faith and our walk with God.
2. We understand the one true God more completely.
We cannot attempt to comprehensively understand Jesus and fail to read the foundational past through creation, prophecy, lineage, sin, migration, calamity, emancipation, miracles, human struggle, etc., that shaped His coming. Therefore, any study of Jesus is incomplete without tackling the Old Testament.
Sadly, though, people have a misconception that the Old Testament is just a bunch of independent stories that teach us some greater lesson of life (I once heard a professing Christian say that many of the Old Testament stories didn’t actually happen—e.g., Jonah and the fish—but they were “symbolic” in their conveyance of some moral truth. I respectfully disagreed).
The Old Testament carries weight because its message clearly and consistently points to Jesus.
By reading the Bible, we see who God is and understand the significance of Jesus coming to earth. We understand God’s relationship to mankind and that He desires intimacy with us. We discover the juxtaposition between worshipers of the one true God—Yahweh—and worshipers of pagan and other false gods and how this has implications in today’s world. We understand God’s plan and how we are interwoven into a remarkable story—the greatest ever told. And we connect to the Lord through His word.
Is there anything more important?
3. It adds value to your life that you can’t see.
Many look to find fulfillment in life through fortune, fame, sex, power, and material possessions. If we’re honest, we notice that these things satisfy our cravings for only a short period of time, and before we know it, we’re looking for the next gadget, the next encounter, the next experience. As we continue to try to feed these urges, our appetite grows and grows.
By contrast, the only true, lasting fulfillment in life is found through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, we find richness, purpose, meaning, hope, wisdom, and Godly power. These are all invisible ideals that the human soul is searching for but often attempts to replace with many of the aforementioned substitutes that are, in reality, lesser counterfeits.
When mind, soul, and spirit are infused with Jesus, we find the abundant life.
Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Our minds are transformed by reading Scripture and knowing God’s word.
4. We can rely on the Bible’s validity.
Several years ago, I published an article about a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers who’d dominated the 1984 World Series. After the article was shared online, someone quickly pointed out that I’d gotten a critical fact wrong about the pitcher, and I ended up editing the article and re-publishing it. Had someone not pointed that out, that inaccuracy would have been floating out there for others to see, and if someone were to come across this article and quote me or share it in the cyber world, that untruth could have been perpetuated in perpetuity. I wonder how often this happens across the vast expanse of the internet and how pervasive the sharing of untruths is…indeed, it has to be in the millions.
Which begs the question, “Where else can we go for absolute, 100 percent-reliable truth?”
I submit nowhere other than the Holy Bible. If we believe the Bible to be the Holy word of God, we yield to its accuracy and inerrancy; what it says rules, is sovereign, and is the final arbiter no matter what we think.
Further, if we read and know the truth, we will more easily dispel falsehoods and identify false teachers. The more we read and know Scripture, the easier it will be to perceive corrosive teachings and heretical ideologies. We’ll be able to spot society-conformers who want to bend the Bible to their own philosophies, as opposed to those who submit to the Bible’s unwavering authority.
In conclusion, what if, as part of your New Year’s resolutions for 2024, you made a plan to read the entire Bible in a year? How might that transform your faith? How closer a walk might you have with Jesus?
Let’s get excited about reading God’s word. Let’s take time to study and discover, as Rev. Spurgeon once pointed out, this “vein of pure gold.” And in the process, may the transformative nature of Scripture move us closer and closer to Christ. WL
