I finally read and studied the entire Bible...here's what I learned
August of 2019 I was facing a crisis of belief about what to do with my life. After getting back from England for a summer, I knew I needed to give my life away to mission. I came back to Nashville to sign to RedStreet Records with my best friends. But I declined that record deal and said yes to the mission field. I had no idea what that meant, but I trusted the Lord to make a way financially.
With that, I was a fairly new believer. I trusted the words of man more than I trusted the word of God. The Bible was an afterthought in many sermons I listened to. I loved the feel good messages of certain churches. These churches are all rooted in a works based “prosperity gospel”. I grew up in a works based church, so it was natural for me to believe the prosperity gospel. I do not want to name any names because I was recently convicted about dividing the church. These men and women still sometimes preach Jesus as Lord, and even if that is for selfish gain, I will rejoice.
“Works based” simply means earning your salvation. Please understand that we haven’t and wont ever earn our salvation. God, father/son/spirit, is the only one who gets the glory for saving us. We can do good works to show “fruit” that Jesus has saved us (Matt 7), but our good works are nothing compared to the saving work of Jesus!
October of 2019 I watched this documentary called, “The American Gospel”. It absolutely rocked me. It shook the shallow faith and idea I had about God. It exposed the biggest televangelists, churches, and Christian celebrities who all preach feel good messages. Preachers that I loved and trusted. Their churches grew with shallow believers because of these feel good messages that were lies about the truth of God. Thousands and thousands of people are still influenced by them. After realizing my favorite teachers and even worship bands believe in this false narrative of who God is, I realized that the prosperity gospel is 100% false.
Prosperity gospel says, “Have enough faith, do for God, just believe enough, and anything you wish will happen. You won’t receive healing if you don’t have enough faith. God can do it if you just name what you want and claim your blessing!”
This is a blatant manipulative lie and a perversion of scripture.
Now, I dont agree with everything in “The American Gospel”. In fact, I believe some of the teachers in that movie have and teach an “American Gospel”. Such as, miracles ceasing, we have no free will on earth, etc. Some of those pastors do not believe in miracles, to which I say, “You don’t believe in miracles because you do not take huge risks for God in order for Him to do miracles.” Go on mission, I promise you that you will see the supernatural happen. You will not be able to explain things that occur. (It’s awesome. lol)
This new crisis of belief lead me to start fresh with scripture. No ones opinion influenced me but what the text said. If I struggled to understand, I prayed and asked the Lord. If I still struggled, I looked up the context on the Blue letter bible app. Its free! My favorite commentator was David Guzik. I went to his commentary almost every time. The dude is a legend. Read his statement of faith. He has studied scripture and I really enjoyed his perspective because he quoted so many others in his work and gave their perspective. I disagree in one area regarding his affirmation of the apostles creed where it is believed that Jesus “descended into Hell”. Thats it. My friend Nicole Clarke recommended him to me. Thanks, Nicole!
Reading the Old Testament (OT)
Man did this throw me through a loop! I doubted God more than I ever have reading the Old Testament. I had so many questions that needed to be answered about God’s wrath, polygamy, creation vs science, and the insane stories we see throughout the OT.
Some resources that really helped me with apologetics questions were two incredible teachers and apologists for the faith. Frank Turek and William Lane Craig. They are my favorite. Frank recommended a book called “Is God a moral monster?” that helped in my questions about God’s morality in the OT. It is questioned by atheists in almost every debate I have listened to. William Lane Craig has helped with my questions on creation, the purpose of life, and the need for God. To me, he is one of the most brilliant minds on the planet. I could write for days about all the sermons, debates, books, and discoveries I made when questions came up in my pursuit to understand God. Here are some conclusions (for now) that I have drawn.
God is the one who created morality and what we deem as “humanly moral”. When someone questions God’s morality, it is because God himself has placed a moral code within all of us. Life is valuable because God has created life with intrinsic value.
As far as creation goes, the Bible supports the idea of a planet less than 10,000 years old. (This was the hardest to grasp) Just because I have been told my entire life that the earth is billions of years old. But when we really dive into the evidence, you can support a claim from both sides for an old earth and new(er) earth. Since scripture supports a creationist idea and since I have done my own research to draw my own conclusions, I believe in an intentional creation from an eternal being from the beginning of time. We have a purpose in creation. We did not happen by accident.
If God doesn’t exist, why does anything exist? (think on that one during your next morning cup of coffee)
After reading through the narrative of Israel and king after king becoming ruined because of greed and sin, I got to the major and minor prophets. These books are hard to read and study. Here is something I never had seen before. God is both wrath and love? Yes, it’s hard to comprehend. Conclusion, you cannot have a just and loving God if he does not bring justice to all sin and imperfection the same. It is not in God’s heart to afflict or condemn (Lam33, Ezekiel 18) but He must punish sin against Him. This is the beauty of the gospel of Jesus! Because Jesus paid the cost for this justice. The OT narrative is all leading to HIM!
These out of context OT verses and stories in the major and minor prophets, that many declaring Christians love to take and make about us, is a misinterpretation of the text and an absolute disrespect to the people who lived and breathed during this period of God’s testing and wrath. Thank the Lord we have Jesus today. I truly believe His own grace keeps everything from being destroyed tomorrow.
Let me just say this…
Yes God has a plan for you, but Jeremiah 29:11 is NOT about you. It was about the Israelites going into captivity for 70 years. Read Jeremiah before you quote that scripture again. I sang a song with this text in our prosperity gospel church growing up! So crazy. But when I read the story, the full context humbled me.
Yes the Lord can heal our land if we repent and turn to Him, but 2 Chronicles is about ancient Israel and NOT about America.
You are not David vs Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. Your debt is not your Goliath that you will slay. David was a shepherd and a worshipper for years before He became King. Do you want to fit into that story? Then claim the role as the scared Israelite in the back waiting for a King to bring deliverance. (Hello…does King David sound like Jesus to anyone?) I used to think that I was David and procrastination is my Goliath! While its a nice idea, that is not the message of that story the Bible is conveying.
I can go on and on with this. This is exactly what pastors and churches do today, we take a story or a scripture and make it about us. The Bible can guide us, instruct us, and teach us, but the Bible is NOT, and will never be, about you and me.
The Bible is the redeeming story of how God, throughout creation, redeemed man over and over when men would fall into sin. God created a way for men to be made right with him through rituals, rules, and a covenant. He did this because He wanted His chosen people of Israel to be set apart from other nations. It all led to Jesus. This is who the prophets were telling us about! Jesus.
Reading the New Testament (NT)
I actually started with the gospels, (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) when I began reading the Bible in October 2019. The gospels are the story of Jesus, His teachings, and how His sacrifice has paid the price for our sin. The Lord needed a spotless sacrifice in the OT for people to be made right with Him. (Lev. 1-7) Jesus was perfect and spotless. Who is capable of being perfect? Only God. Jesus is God. (John 8…that discovery was a journey. I could do an entire blog post about that topic if you’d like) How can we overcome death and enter into God’s full presence and be saved from eternal death? We must be perfect. If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is God and was raised from the dead, we will be saved. (Rom 10)
The story of Jesus leads to transformation and the forgiveness of sins through belief alone. (Eph 2) This was the hardest for me to understand? How is the work finished? So you are saying I can confess that Jesus is Lord and keep on sinning? The answer is “no”. (Romans 6)
I realized that when someone is changed by Jesus, they are changed forever. This is more than a simple prayer. This is a decision to make Jesus LORD of your life. That means whatever He says, you do and obey. How can we do such a thing? Well, I realized that God doesn’t come and go like in the Old Testament. God was not around sin because he resided in the temple. (1 Kings8, 2 Sam7) Since we have the saving work of Jesus, we have His spirit living within us. We are the temple now. (1 Cor. 3)
I used to believe that the Holy Spirit was only present when people worshiped God and when we didn’t sin. How jacked up is that. What kind of love is it when its one you constantly have to work for and prove yourself worthy of? I used to throw away a “WWJD” bracelet that I’d wear on my wrist after I sinned with lust because I thought it was tainted with sin. Then i’d put on a new one for a fresh start and the only way to be clean again was through my works. “Jesus wouldn’t lust. Holy Spirit come back please.” I would say. This was a reference to David in Psalm 51. “Please don’t take your spirit from me.” A desperate prayer for King David, but no longer must we beg for this because of Jesus. Nothing can keep us from His love once we are in Christ! (Romans 8, John 10)
Then I realized, the Holy Spirit never leaves me. I only suppress His voice and guidance in my life when I choose sin over His will. ( 1 Thess 5) This is why Paul still struggled with sin in the NT. He was changed, had the Holy Spirit living within Him, but he was still human and needed Jesus to help him overcome His struggles through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the good and bad, the Holy Spirit never leaves us or forsakes us. (Matt 28)
Christian doesn’t mean “perfect person”. It only means we admit we are imperfect but we need someone greater than ourselves (Jesus) to come and redeem our imperfections.
Concluding thoughts after reading the NT…
I believe the gift of tongues mentioned in Acts and 1 Corinthians is the Holy Spirit changing your language as you preach the gospel in a foreign context. I was taught that tongues is the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit” but scripture teaches otherwise. As if, you don’t have the Holy Spirit until you speak in tongues. The Greek is two words, "glossolalia" and "xenolalia" or "xenoglossy", which specifically relates to the belief that the language being spoken is a natural language previously unknown to the speaker. The word glossolalia, also referred to as "speaking in tongues," originates from the Greek "glossa" which means "language" and "Lalia" which means "speak." It simply means to ‘talk language’. It’s not spitting off gibberish syllables. I am passionate about this because I was taught how to speak in tongues as a kid. And I believed it, felt it, and was told it was a “perfect prayer”. False. “The tongues of angels” Paul mentions in 1 Cor 13 is a plea for the Church at Corinth to speak in love. Because even if you “speak like an angel”, & you don’t have love, it’s useless.
The truth of scripture says, you receive the Holy Spirit when you repent and God saves you. (Ephesians 1:13-14) “The gift of tongues” is not proof of your salvation and is not anything you conjure up. It is fully the miraculous work of God.
Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecies in the OT. That is why the first gospel of Matthew starts with the lineage of Jesus. It all leads to Him. What a coincidence? Different authors from different centuries, with different stories all pointing to one man? Its not just about salvation or tongues or even mission. It’s the narrative of the redeeming work of God in His people, the church.
Revelation is not an excuse to keep saying we are in the end times. What about the Black Plague? Spanish flu? WWI & WWII? The countless war and famine in the 2nd-18th century? You think those people thought they were living in the end times? We are living at the peak of human civilization. The book of Revelation (with no ‘s’ on the end of the title) is not about you or the context you are living in. I do not fully understand it still, but I can definitely tell you what it is not.
Any other testaments of Jesus besides the Bible are false. Islam, Mormonism, Jehovahs witness are all false testaments of God and Christ. Beware of many who take one verse and build an entire denomination around it. (ex. snake handling churches) Also beware of new doctrine. A great example is the Catholic Church with Vatican II. The gospel is finished work. Beware of new doctrine or “Testaments of Christ”. Test every single claim about Christ to His word.
Even if the Bible didn’t exist, Christianity is still true because Jesus literally came back from the dead.
Friend, please take everything anyone says about God and test it to scripture. Yes, that includes me and it includes your pastor and anything anyone is saying on social media. We can trust the word. It is a great place to start when building, refining, and even shaping your faith. It’s more than a book, there is freedom and life within its pages. It is so beautiful.
The Bible is all about God’s heart to redeem the nations. It is the redeeming story of how He uses people and His creation to do so. He is a saving, merciful, perfect judge, and missional God that wants full reconciliation with the people He created. He will not force us into this relationship, yet He invites us through Jesus to encounter this relationship. It is the most historically complex and beautiful story ever written, in my opinion.😎
thank you so much for reading.
A resource I’d like to conclude with that I cannot support enough is the Bible Project. Their videos and descriptions of scripture helped me SO much in my pursuit of reading and understanding the entire Bible.
If you claim to be a Christian and you have not read the entire Bible, please pursue reading the entire book. It is the doctrine we believe in. I’ll never forget when an atheist friend of mine asked if I had read the entire Bible after trying to defend its validity. He asked, “If you haven’t even read the Bible, why should I believe what you have to say about it?”
He may not believe me any more now than he did then, but it sparked within me to pursue the testaments to our God, and the incredible story within it’s pages, as much as I can. It’s worth it!
