May/June 2000
Read The Book!
Wisdom for Today from an Ancient Library
by Keith W. Stump
Years ago, during my first visit to Cairo, I heard of a mysterious ruined city in Upper Egypt--a city on the edge of the Western Desert near the Nile, more than 100 miles south of Cairo. In its ruins, I was told, a great library had been unearthed, containing thousands upon thousands of papyrus documents of great antiquity.
My schedule did not allow me to pursue the story. Back home, I checked it out in a university library.
The city in question was a provincial capital of ancient Egypt called Per-medjed. The site features an extensive cluster of mounds--actually, ancient rubbish heaps--which have yielded one of the largest collections of ancient papyrus manuscripts ever found, preserved for millennia by the dry sands and heat of the Egyptian sun.
British archaeologists Grenfell and Hunt carried out most of the work on this site, beginning in 1897. It was one of the most startling and successful excavations in the history of archaeology. The manuscripts they found ranged from entire books to scraps the size of postage stamps, dating from the second century B.C. to the ninth century A.D.
Intriguing Find
Perhaps the most important of these paper discoveries was also one of the smallest. It is a tattered fragment in the ancient Greek language, small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand. The scrap has writing on both sides. Its few words are tantalizing--fragmentary references to a person claiming to be a king, who came into the world to bring truth to humanity.
Who was this person? What was the truth he brought?
The papyrus scrap--as some readers may already have guessed--is an ancient fragment of the Gospel of John, recording part of Jesus' interview with Pontius Pilate. On one side of the papyrus is penned part of verses 31-33 of John 18, and on the other side, part of verses 37-38. It resides safely today in the John Rylands Library of the University of Manchester, England.
The importance of this papyrus fragment is far out of proportion to its size. Dated to A.D. 135--just a few decades after John's death--it is the earliest known fragment of the New Testament in any language. It provides valuable evidence of the reliability of the New Testament text. When translated, it reads exactly like the text in our modern Bibles.
Neglected Library
This priceless papyrus fragment is part of an ancient library found in virtually every home in the Western world!
That library is the Bible.
The Bible is a collection of books produced by dozens of different authors over many centuries, all bound into one volume--a "book of books."
According to the Barna Research Group, 91 percent of Americans own an average of three versions of the Bible--yet two-thirds of Americans admit they don't regularly read it.
This is indeed paradoxical because we live in a time when old things are highly regarded. Yet, for some reason, the ancient documents known as the Bible are widely ignored.
This is doubly puzzling since we also live in a time when people are spiritually hungry and desperate for answers to the big questions of life.
Why this widespread aversion to the Bible? Firstly, the Bible is commonly regarded as a difficult book to read. But just because the Bible is an ancient document doesn't mean it has to be read in archaic language! Today, hundreds of modern-language versions are available.
But there's a second, more insidious reason why many avoid the Bible. For many, the Bible comes with a lot of negative "baggage."
Many people remember the boring, interminable sermons of their childhood, the pulpit-pounding preachers, the manipulative appeals for money, the judgmental and self-righteous congregations, the harsh legalism, the peripheral trivia--and even abuse at the hands of clergy and religious workers. These negative associations have poisoned their perception of the Bible.
Consequently, many people today are turning to other ancient traditions for spiritual wisdom and inspiration, as evidenced by the New Age boom and skyrocketing sales of books on Eastern religions and even pagan traditions.
Yet some have never even given the Bible a cursory reading, assuming that it has nothing of value to offer them. (It's ironic that, while millions of people are struggling for happiness, meaning and peace, God has provided the Bible to show us the way to all these things.)
Other people have drifted from the Bible. Still others wrestle with it in frustration, unable to make it "come together" in a meaningful and useful way.
Whatever your background with the Bible, we extend this invitation, and challenge: Give the Bible a fair chance! Read it afresh, with an open mind, not assuming that what you've always believed is necessarily true. Discover--or rediscover--this ancient library for yourself.
We guarantee this: You'll be surprised at what you find! With prejudices and preconceptions put aside, you'll see things you never saw before. You'll discover that the Christianity of the Bible embraces far more universal truths than you might have thought. It will expand your mind, your goals, your horizons--and give you a whole new outlook on life!
The Bible's message of God's abundant grace and the joy of the salvation he freely provides overwhelms the heavy handed emphasis on human sinfulness and corruption stressed in many churches. You'll discover that the Bible offers a message of peace of mind now and sure hope for the future! You'll be comforted and encouraged by its timeless themes of love, mercy, kindness, goodness, compassion and forgiveness.
Further, you'll discover that the Bible provides a substantive, coherent, all-encompassing scheme by which to comprehend the purpose of human existence. It makes sense of what many today regard as the meaningless absurdity of life. It explains the purpose for human existence and the way to salvation and eternal life.
President Woodrow Wilson once observed: "When you have read the Bible, you will know it is the word of God, because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness and your own duty."
Ask God to give you understanding as you read and reflect on its pages--to illuminate your heart and mind with truth.
Keith Stump is an author, script writer, historian and archaeologist.
Naunny's Bible
by Nick Trujillo
I was devastated when I learned about the death of my grandmother, whom my two sisters and I called "Naunny." I will always remember the day I heard the message from my father on the answering machine that January evening several years ago. I knew that she had been moved to a nursing home because of her dementia and that she had come down with the flu, but I had no idea that her flu had turned so quickly into pneumonia. She died before I could even fly down to Los Angeles to see her one last time. Instead, I went there to attend her funeral and to deliver her eulogy.
As a tribute, I decided to write a book about her life and death. For the last couple of years, I have been interviewing various family members about their memories of her. When I interviewed my sister Michelle I discovered that she had been given Naunny's Bible. As I read through this Bible, I realized that it is not only a cherished keepsake, it is also a beautiful reminder of what a devout Christian our grandmother truly was.
Everyone in the family has recalled that Naunny read her Bible every day. She would wake up around 4:30 a.m. and read several passages from Scripture while drinking her strong black coffee before starting her daily crossword puzzle.
Although Naunny owned other Bibles earlier in her life, this is the one that she had from 1974 until her death in 1994, at age 86.
Over that twenty-year span, she read her Bible 16 times. For the first several years, she read it in its entirety each year. In later years, however, it took her two years to complete a full reading.
My sister Michelle found Naunny's inscribed messages in her Bible quite revealing. For example, on June 6, 1978, Naunny wrote: "5th reading. Voting Day. I feel better. Thank you God for your many blessings." On September 2, 1981, she wrote: "Day after Labor Day. 9th Reading. Saw my [other son] Billy on TV yesterday. Chuck called. God Bless them!"
"I think these notes show that God was just an everyday part of Naunny's life," Michelle said. "She didn't have to get down on her knees for hours every day. She just wrote to him and talked to him like he was her best friend. I wish that more people could simplify their spiritual life like that."
Naunny also marked many passages throughout the Bible. In a few cases, she wrote out brief comments. These passages help family members remember who she was and how she tried to live her life.
Naunny was very poor, so she identified closely with passages about those in poverty, such as:
· "I have learned to manage on whatever I have, I know how to be poor" (Philippians 4:11-12).
· "How happy are you who are poor; yours is the kingdom of God. Happy you who are hungry now; you shall be satisfied" (Luke 6:20-21).
Although poor, Naunny was also incredibly generous. Whatever little money she had, she gave to others. Not surprisingly, Naunny highlighted many passages about being generous, including, among others:
· "We must exert ourselves to support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, who himself said, 'There is more happiness in giving than in receiving'" (Acts 20:33-35).
· "For God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:6-9).
Relatives have also told me that Naunny was one of the kindest people they ever knew and that she despised anger and conflict. Many of the passages Naunny marked in her Bible reinforce the importance of rejecting anger and embracing love, such as:
· "Never have grudges against others, or lose your temper, or raise your voice to anybody, or call each other names, or allow any sort of spitefulness. Be friends with one another, and kind, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ" (Ephesians 4:25-32).
· "But now you, of all people, must give all these things up: getting angry, being bad-tempered, spitefulness, abusive language and dirty talk; and never tell each other lies" (Colossians 3:8).
Naunny marked many other passages throughout her Bible that reveal various aspects of her life. She loved little aphorisms and slogans, so she highlighted numerous verses from Proverbs, such as:
· "Better have little and with it virtue, than great revenues and no right to them" (Proverbs 16:8).
· "Better to live in a desert land than with a scolding and irritable woman" (Proverbs 21:19).
Although I used to think that people only read the Bible to learn more about God, I now realize that the Bible is also a source through which we can remember and honor the devout Christians in our own families.
In the last few months, I have read and reread various passages from Naunny's Bible. In so doing, I have not only learned more about my grandmother, but through her I am, at least in some small sense, a little closer to God. I think that would make my grandmother happy.
Scriptures quoted from The Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday & Company, 1966. Nick Trujillo is a professor of communication who lives in Sacramento, California.
Inexhaustible Riches
How the Bible and Prayer Go Hand in Hand
by Gary Zacharias
I teach the Bible as literature at a community college. In this class I stress the literary value of the Bible: its stories, poems, parables, proverbs, letters, satire and visionary writings. We also discuss the historical value of the Bible--our most complete historical record of the ancient world. The Bible has helped shape our Western world's laws, history, arts and speech. In addition, the Bible is full of useful wisdom, from such books as Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.
But for Christians, the Bible has another value which goes beyond all those I have mentioned. This book has a spiritual quality unlike any other piece of literature. The Bible can teach us about God and reveal the world of the supernatural. It can tell us where we came from, why we are here and point us in the way to eternal life.
The Bible and Prayer
The Bible is closely tied to prayer. If we know what God says, we are more likely to have a deeper, more satisfying time of prayer.
We all acknowledge the need for prayer, but have we stopped to think what we gain by prayer? First, prayer reflects our dependence on God. We spend most of our time hurrying and worrying, living life as if the entire burden of success or failure depended solely upon us. When we pray, we acknowledge that some things are simply beyond us.
In addition, prayer restores our relationship with God. Through sin and indifference we can draw apart from God. Prayer not only reconnects us to the Father, but it links us with other believers. When we pray for friends, family members or others who are facing difficulties, we feel closer to them.
One more value of prayer is the way it reminds us that we are to be holy people, set apart for God's service. The world presses against us daily, whispering its advice in our ears: "Go for the gusto. If it feels good, do it. You deserve it. Claw your way to the top." Prayer brings us back to the reality that there is a spiritual dimension to life.
Bible Study andPrayer Related
Many people view these as separate activities, but we need to see clearly the connection between the two. Let's examine the model prayer Jesus spoke in Matthew 6:9-13.
· God is personal ("Our Father in heaven").
· We should come to him with great respect ("Hallowed be your name").
· We must see the big picture and our part in it ("Your kingdom come").
· We should realize that God will not grant us everything we ask for ("Your will be done").
· We are dependent on him for our necessities ("Give us today our daily bread").
· We need to acknowledge our shortcomings and our need for grace ("Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors").
· We should request guidance in a treacherous world ("And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one").
Paul, the great missionary and writer of so many New Testament letters, added further to the picture of effective prayer when he said, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6).
So, we see that prayer involves asking God for things, confessing our sins, praising him and offering thanks for what he has already done and what he can do.
Where should we start in order to combine effective prayer with Bible reading? The book of Psalms is already in the form of prayers to God. There are two main types of psalms we can use to improve our prayer--those that offer laments (poems expressing pain or regret) and those that offer praise.
Take a look at Psalm 51 to see an example of a lament. Here David calls on God in sorrow for his adulterous behavior with Bathsheba:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
Like David, we can acknowledge our sin against God and cry out for his forgiveness. Other psalms of lament include 10, 35, 38, 54, 74, 77.
We can use other psalms to consider all that God has done for us. Psalm 18 is a good example:
I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield.
Let your imagination go as you meditate on the figures of speech the author uses to express his appreciation for what God has done. Have you ever ducked into the cool shade of a huge rock? Picture the relief you felt. Imagine how a warrior depended on his shield to protect him. These pictures can help us thank God for the times he has protected us and provided stability in our lives. Look at other psalms of praise: 30, 65, 66, 96, 97, 103, 107, 124, 136, 139.
There are many other "inexhaustible riches of God's word," where the Bible can inspire us to pray more effectively. Read the Proverbs to see God's wisdom. Read the accounts of the patriarchs in Genesis, who lived boldly for God. Meditate on the life of Moses in Exodus, Numbers
and Deuteronomy. Read the other case histories found in the Old Testament books. Consider:
· The fierce struggles of Joshua.
· The up-and-down turmoil of the leaders in Judges.
· The sweet story of Ruth.
· The rise of David in 1 and 2 Samuel.
· The sad disintegration of the Israelite kingdom in 1 and 2 Kings.
· The brave queen Esther.
· The suffering and questionings of Job.
· The grim poetry of Ecclesiastes.
· The prophets who chastised the people for their sins but promised future glories.
Spend time in the New Testament with the life of Jesus, the spread of the church, the letters of the apostles and the visionary insights of John in Revelation.
If you combine the reading of the Scriptures with prayer, you can change your life and those around you. You can begin a lifelong journey in God's word that will provide challenges, comfort and spiritual insight.
Gary Zacharias is a college professor from Escondido, California.
Handle with Care
Personal Bible Study Skills
by Allison Kitchen
He can leap tall buildings with a single bound, wow his
bosses with ultra-competency and win the girl of his dreams--he's Super Christian,
empowered by the fuel of Philippians 4:13.
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
The Bible says it; it must be true.
There's just one problematic glitch with that line of reasoning. What did Paul mean when he originally wrote his letter to the Philippian church? What was he talking about when he said, "I can do everything"? Take a closer look at the context, and you may see that Paul spoke of contentment when he penned those words. A better application for Super Christian may well be something like this. "I didn't get the girl (or guy) of my dreams, I lost my job, and I can learn to accept it with grace because of Christ's empowering strength."
Understanding intent is of utmost importance when it comes to meaningful communication. If we don't hear what someone means to say, we can't conclude that we understand him or her with any degree of certainty.
That's what makes Robertson McQuilkin, president emeritus of Columbia International University, passionate about teaching Bible study and application skills to all Christians.
"I can't think of any serious disciple who is not concerned about understanding and applying the Bible," he says. "If there are some simple skills a person can use to be sure they're understanding what the author intended, they're way ahead of the game."
Teachers of hermeneutics, the principles of interpretation, say that people practice hermeneutics every day whether they know it or not as they communicate and interact with others. Unconsciously, we have been taught how to read a person's tone, voice volume and body language. We analyze comments in the context of a conversation and even a relationship.
For example, it means something entirely different to us if a psychiatrist says, "You have some serious mental problems," than if our best friend says it in jest. Sometimes we even "hear" more in the method of communication than in the actual words. All these things factor into our daily interpretation of words.
Flawed Approaches
McQuilkin says everyone comes to Scripture with an approach to understanding it. It's just that some approaches are valid, while others are not. Some will be profitable, he says, and others troublesome.
Troublesome approaches are more common than you might think. For example, how often have you heard someone say, "What this passage means to me is"? If what follows is an interpretation based on personal experience rather than the intent of the author, more likely than not the interpretation and the application will be off base.
Reading and studying God's Word in context, rather than pulling nuggets here and there to fit our purpose, is one of the cardinal rules of Bible study. Unless we have some hidden agenda, we wouldn't pull a friend's comments out of context, knowingly altering his or her original meaning. Yet, Christians do it all the time with the Bible.
McQuilkin, who wrote Understanding and Applying the Bible, says that when we "create" a message not originally intended by the author, we make a dangerous error, side-stepping the authority of Scripture.
"In such an approach, the Bible is not its own authority, free to make its own point and to demand obedience to its own teaching. I become the authority. I am functioning as God, even though I wouldn't phrase it that way," he says. "In the average Christian's devotional life, he is looking for a good feeling, a direct connection. And there is supposed to be one. But it's not supposed to bypass the meaning; it's supposed to flow from the meaning. If we find ourselves bypassing the hard work of understanding meaning, then we're cut loose from any anchor, and that's dangerous."
The Original Meaning
Getting at the original intent of biblical authors may prove challenging because of the cultural and linguistic gulf that lies between us. We must make some effort to understand those differences if we hope to understand a passage.
Bible dictionaries, concordances and word study books are among the many tools that can aid in Bible study. Reader-friendly Bible study skills books such as McQuilkin's teach Bible readers how to use some of these tools. Many seminaries also offer extension classes that teach solid Bible study techniques.
Still, most Christians leave serious Bible study up to their pastors and other church leaders. Their reasons run the gamut--"It's too hard for me. There are great commentaries; why bother? Reading Scripture shouldn't be work."--to name a few.
McQuilkin finds such excuses filled with holes. He notes that the original difference between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism centers around the belief that Christians need not rely on the church to interpret the Bible.
"In believing in the priesthood of all believers, we say it's our responsibility to hear from God through reading his Word," he says. "We have an obligation to try to understand what the Spirit is trying to communicate through that original author. If we're serious students of the Word, we can't simply rely on others and eat only prepared food."
Lack of Bible Study Skills
Terry Fox, a recent seminary graduate, agrees with McQuilkin, and that's why he believes that the lack of Bible study skills training may be one of the greatest failures of today's church.
"The lack of Bible study skills training by churches has done two things," he says. "First, it makes people more dependent on the pastor. If they cannot study effectively for themselves, then they must depend on the pastor to gain understanding of the Scriptures. Second, it allows people to develop poor theology. I was among those who once held that Philippians 4:13 spoke of the Super Christian. Since I didn't know how to study the Bible, I didn't realize how poorly I interpreted Scriptures."
Walter Kaiser laments the extreme reliance on others to understand God's Word in the book, An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning, which he co-authored with Moises Silva.
He writes: "The art and discipline of using the Bible in one's devotional life is fast becoming a lost habit of the heart, mind and soul. For those who do still attempt to maintain a regular daily devotional practice, it frequently may involve reading a half page of heavily illustrated comments in a devotional guide...the biblical portions, meager as they are, are frequently detached from their scriptural contexts and often reflect little or no connection with the purpose that they originally held. "
The desire to be an adequately equipped disciple led Sunday school teacher Charlie Vento to learn Bible study skills from leaders in his church. He says such study has forever changed his view of Scripture. It has also increased his awareness of his own accountability as a teacher of the Word. But he says the greatest benefit from the work and effort of serious Bible study was more than knowledge.
"It encouraged me to come to know more intimately the One who gave us this great book," Vento says.
And that, of course, is the bottom line. Learning Bible study skills won't clarify all difficult passages, but it will give us confidence as we approach God's Word--confidence that God is speaking and we can know what he is saying. The God of the universe took the time, through human authors, to communicate with us and reveal himself to us. What an awesome gift! What a great responsibility!
Allison Kitchen writes from Charlotte, North Carolina.