Category: exegesis

Among the dozens of the-most-commonly-asked-questions Carl compiled for me, most fall into one of maybe three fundamental categories. Most of them also betray a sense of chaos in how people view reality. How do I know something is true/accurate/best practice? Is it always true? What about when a person stops being alive? Is it all nothingness? What is happiness? Is it quantifiable? What is my responsibility to other people? Do I have one? What makes me different from non-human life? Is there a significant difference? What is real? How do we know? Is it possible to be absolutely positive? What is my destiny? Do I have one? Why am I conscious? Am I, or is this a construct? 

Chaos and the abyss were frequently described in the ancient world as having nothing below and nothing above. You can’t look up/forward to some goal, and you had no solid base to stand on. No fixed point to compare something to. No metric to organize information into a usable hierarchy. It was conceived of as the worst possible existence, all of hopelessness and despair realized. It was seen as the destiny of those who deserved the most severe punishment, as no experience could possibly be worse than this. 

Ironically, the “freedom” promised by social/moral liberation proponents almost immediately devolves into this nightmare. People in general seem to feel lost and unable to know what’s real. Even much of our humor is now dark, existential hopelessness! So many are addicted to short-term euphoria, and each crash is a fresh wave of meaninglessness. We look everywhere for answers, but don’t always know if we can trust those answers because they’re so often subjective. There are too many threads to chase and knots to untie, and we don’t even know where to start. 

To a seeking person, the division so prevalent in Christianity can be discouraging. How can anyone trust something that no one seems to agree on? Where people are, problems are. That’s true of literally every human enterprise, and doesn’t warrant discounting it entirely. And most of those disagreements are because of ignorance, not because of faulty source material. 

So if you’re looking for meaning and hope, give the Bible a chance! This might seem reductive or cliche to non-believers, but its teachings have brought so much good to the world. That alone makes it worth pursuing! Most importantly, it gives tangible hope for the future and a solid, reliable base to stand on. It helps us understand reality like no other source! At the very least, give it a shot.

Here are some (hopefully) helpful tips for beginner Bible readers: 

1. Bias is impossible to avoid entirely, but keep an open mind (believer and non-believer alike). An open mind prevents legalistic or liberal extremes, which are no bueno. Come to the text with questions and a desire for accurate answers. Be willing to adopt, adjust, or discard your beliefs when the narrative requires it. 
2. If you haven’t yet done a deep dive into its divine origins, presuppose absolute reliability. You’ll come to that conclusion anyway, and this lessens anxiety when seeing something that challenges a current belief. 
3. Stick with the New Testament at first, and avoid commentaries like the plague (I’m writing one, don’t read it). Don’t give up on a passage that’s hard to understand — try harder. Use a good, easy-to-read modern translation primarily, but have a couple others on hand too. I love the ERV, but also use NIV, GW, and NET Bible. 
4. Look for the narrative in each section you’re reading. What main idea does everything else seem to support or illustrate?
5. John’s writings are a great place to start if you’re looking for the most fundamental building blocks of meaning. Don’t just read the words, look into the concepts he presents. 
6. Ask questions. So many answers to the fundamental questions listed above are in the scriptures. They work so much better than any of the subjective secular answers offered today. 
7. Highlight, underline, and otherwise mark up the text. Look for connections and for ways to bring out each concept. You’re not looking for a code or some kind of religious experience, you’re looking for meaning. It will eventually become the lens you look through to understand reality, and the hope you have of humanity’s destiny. You will gain a deep appreciation for who God is and what he does for humanity and what he will give us when he comes back!  
8. Read all of it. It’s all good stuff — and there’s nothing wrong with starting at what resonates most with your interests or questions! Those interests only become more interesting once you have a better understanding of all the other stuff, too!