WHY STUDY?
Why do we read the Bible? Here are a few possible reasons:

All of these are common reasons why religionists read their Bibles, Torahs and Korans, but they are not what God wants and they are not what he says about how we will know him. For God, loving him is all about what is in our hearts — not in our minds. Therefore, if we don’t study to know him in our hearts, we study/read for the wrong reasons.

The Bible actually says that knowing God is what happens when he brings judgement on religion, delivers people from bondage to religion and makes a New Covenant with them. This process is symbolically represented in the Bible as judgment and destruction of religious nations (e.g. Egypt, Babylon, Moab, etc.), return of exiles, and restoration of Judah.

In simple terms, this process describes how individuals are transformed from Old/First Covenant religionists who follow religious laws to New Covenant disciples who have God’s spiritual laws written on their hearts. It is also called creation and born again with a new heart.

We only come to know God for who he really and know our own hearts after we have been delivered from religion where we have been taught a wrong view of God. This explains why, in the New Covenant, the spirit of God — not other humans, not physical signs and wonders — teaches us about God.

This personal transformation is not easily interpreted from literal interpretations of the Bible. When reading accounts of deliverance from enemies, there is a tendency to interpret them as historical events for large populations who experience God’s judgement and deliverance all at once, at a unique time, in a unique place (e.g. Israel coming out of Egypt, Israel going into exile, etc.). If we are to learn from them, we must accept that they are parables of events that will affect us as individuals — not as groups. If these stories do do not have personal meaning for us today, and if we do not apply what we read to our own lives today, then what God says about all scripture being useful for training in righteousness is not true.

This way of thinking is a radical contrast with religious eschatology in Christianity and Judaism which always wrongly interprets the fulfillment of prophecy in terms of physical, observable events that will happen to large groups of people at unique times. These theories are based on scriptures which, according to literal interpretations, anticipate an apocalyptic end of the world when Jesus returns. In the Bible this concept has its origins in terms such as “end of day” and” end of the age.” Various theories about the rapture and End Times come to mind as interpretations of Biblical prophecy being fulfilled in global terms at a singular, unique time.

When applying Biblical stories to our personal lives, however, we should not imagine that prophecy will be fulfilled in our physical bodies, or with events (i.e. signs, wonders and miracle) that can be observed with our natural eyes, in our lifetime or in some future generation, on a more or less global scale. We must always consider that God’s spiritual work is always in our hearts — not in our flesh and not in outward signs that can be seen. And he performs that miraculous work one person at a time — not globally or to populations that live at a certain future time. With that understanding, we should interpret and apply these stories on a strictly personal level with no expectation of being swept up into a huge, observable, public phenomenon like religious people imagine when they think about revivals, the rapture or the end of the age.

In contemporary times, media reports the phenomenon of many people leaving religion (see God is Calling People Out of Religion) because there is tangible, observable evidence that God is doing something on a large scale. The trend is remarkable in terms of gross numbers, but it actually reports in the aggregate what is really happening imperceptibly, and slowly in individuals spread across the country and perhaps the world.

What we fail to recognize is the fact that the statistics that show many people leaving religion are the accumulated results of the spiritual work God has done in the hearts of individuals after each one has been delivered from religion. This trend will logically show up in declining church attendance, which is consistent with the way the spirit moves in the hearts of people to induce them to leave church as the first step toward becoming a New Covenant disciple.

The way God works imitates the obscurity of new birth that is prophetically represented in Jesus’ conception and birth. This well-known story is actually a parable that anticipates the spiritual rebirth (i.e. they are born again) that people experience when they leave Old/First Covenant religion and become New Covenant disciples. The so-called “Christmas Story” is not the story of one, unique person (i.e. Jesus) being born. Rather, it is the common story of new birth of everyone who transitions from Old/First Covenant religion to being New Covenant disciples.

Going back to the question of why we study, we can conclude that the reason for study is to observe in scripture the many different ways that Biblical characters throughout the Bible, beginning with Adam, have experienced spiritual rebirth and then apply their experiences (i.e. things they did right and things they did wrong) and God’s ways of dealing with them to our own lives.

COMMENTARY ON BIBLE CHARACTERS: Most religious people believe that the Bible was written by Bible characters (e.g. Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul, Luke, etc.). Whether any of these characters actually lived or not is irrelevant because we do not study the Bible to learn history. Rather, we study the Bible to hear God’s spoken word.

STUDY TIP: See Listen to God’s Voice While Reading.

The important thing about Bible characters who are quoted as though they spoke for God is whether the did in fact speak for God. When they said “hear the word of the Lord,” were they actually speaking for God? Are they prophets of God, sent by God to speak for God or not? If they are and if they do, then we want to pay special attention to what is written about them and what they say. They are all examples of true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses, and warriors. We learn from their words and actions just like we learn from Jesus’ words and actions. What we learn is how to conduct our lives as New Covenant disciples which we want to be.

STUDY TIP: See People for understanding of how Bible characters should be interpreted.

This does not mean,however, that we do not pay attention to characters that clearly are not sent by God (e.g. Pharaoh, Balaam, Ahab, Jezebel, Herod, Judas, etc.). We learn from these characters also. They are all examples of Serpents, Devils, Satan, Adversaries, Demons, Evil Spirits and Anti-Christs. What we learn from these characters is how not to conduct our lives because they are all examples of Old/First Covenant religionists which we do not want to be. Learning to know the difference between the good guys and the bad guys, therefore, is critical to profitable Bible study. We must know how to DISCERN BETWEEN CLEAN AND UNCLEAN, HOLY AND PROFANE, SOUL AND SPIRIT, and GOOD AND EVIL.

When we are religious, we read the Bible for the wrong reasons and are not able to distinguish True Prophets from False Prophets. After we are born again, however, God’s spirit will teach us which is which. God’s spirit makes scriptures come alive for us and we are able to see ourselves as good or evil. This is what the spirit is able to do to those who study while listening to God’s spoken voice.

Since people in all generations live in religious environments, the challenges to spiritual rebirth are always represented in terms of negative religious influences present in surrounding nations (i.e. people) that God represents as the enemy. In the example of the birth of Jesus, these opposing influences are represented in Herod and Jerusalem’s religious leaders. They are discussed in greater detail in Religion is the Enemy.

If we do not recognize these influences in our own lives while reading, we have missed God’s hidden messages and warnings to us about our relationship with religion that interferes with our relationship with him. Moreover, if we do not recognize these negative influences, that is a sure sign that we are still captives in spiritual Babylon.