I’m here to be the trouble- maker who challenges you that you shouldn’t just take your pastor’s word for it. Or Beth Moore’s word for it. Or John Piper’s word for it. Or Mark Driscoll’s word for it.
I listened to an interview recently with a woman who spent many years in a non-Christian religion before becoming a believer in Christ. What she said alarmed me. When she became a part of this other religion, many years ago, she believed it was a valid Christian alternative. In fact, 80% of the people who joined the religion that she was a part of came from a Christian background.
She assumed the Jesus of her religion was the same one that was in the Bible. When she actually took the time to read and compare, what she found was very different. The Jesus in the New Testament was nothing like the Jesus she thought she knew.
At some point, your favorite Bible teacher might let you down. You might find out they were wrong. If your entire faith system’s foundation is built on that person’s Biblical interpretation, you have a problem.
Don’t you think the stakes are too high to not open up your Bible and do some studying yourself? I know that many are intimidated by the prospect. They don’t think they have the right tools or training. Just start somewhere. Some Sunday when your pastor preaches on a passage, take note of the things he says and Scriptures he mentions. Look them up and read them later. Does it actually say what he claimed? Hooray! You’re on your way to becoming a theologian.
You can do this. Your faith will be stronger for it.
Well said, Amy! I wonder how much of that I did when I was younger. I know that my belief system has changed a bit over the years. I also know that good preachers can preach untruths very, very well. So being able to believe that what you are reading and understanding the Bible to say is correct and that they are wrong is quite hard, particularly when you are young or are a new believer. But, yes, read it for yourself. I don’t know why people think it is so hard. It is words on a page, just like any other book. What helped me was to stop reading it by verse and read it in large chunks like I do any other book. It is so important to have an individual verse in the context that it was written, rather than in the “context” of what you happen to want to believe about something.