Reddit reviews Living By the Book: The Art and Science of Reading the Bible

So I was trying to answer your questions point by point, when I realized that I think you and I have fundamentally different views of the Bible and how to read it. Also, I'll say that I don't have all the answers to everything, and most of it I'm still working on.

So you know where I'm coming from, I was raised in the PCA (a conservative branch of the Reformed church) and the Christian Reformed Church. I went to Christian school from 3rd to 12th grade, and after that I spent four years in Bible college getting my BA in Biblical studies, and three years in seminary after that working on an MDiv. I don't know everything (far from it!), and there are other users with more credentials than me, but I hope it means you'll give what I say serious thought.

I think what it comes down to is context. You talk about the "plain reading" of Scripture, but the plain reading is not plain. You say it, but you mean “For someone with my specific and exact personal, socio-economic, political, emotional and religious history, and with the exact same personality type, memories and value system as me, the Bible clearly says…”

One of the first classes I took in Bible college was Principles of Inductive Bible Study, with a godly man named Gary Willford. Our textbook for that course was Living by the Book by Hendricks and Hendricks, and what it was about was how to read the Bible and understand it. (For what it's worth, it's an excellent book that's very accessible and I believe it comes with a workbook that you can do. It's not just for academia.)

Context is the most powerful tool we have in hermeneutics. It helps us understand first what the text meant to the original audience - the historical, cultural, literary, and religious context. Without knowing that, we can't really know what it's supposed to mean to us. When we take the context into account, we can more rightly interpret what it meant to that original audience, and interpret what it should mean for us today. Once we have that interpretation, we can draw out applications for day to day life.

The other thing I would say is that theology, doctrine, and dogma is not the most important part of the Christian life, although it does have an important role. What does Jesus say the greatest commandment is? "Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself." The Christian life is fundamentally, at its heart about relationship - to God, to each other, and to the world. Moreover, we must remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:1: "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." It's so easy to get wound up in theology and doctrine, but none of that matters if you are a jerk about it. Being theologically correct is not a fruit of the Spirit. Love is. Joy is. Peace is. Kindness, goodness, and gentleness are. If someone disagrees with me on the role of women, or evolution, or almost any other topic in the Christian life, I won't question their salvation. I think most believers are doing their best to understand and obey God to the best of their ability. But what makes me question someone's salvation is when they fail to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit in their words, actions, and lives.

I hope this all makes sense, and that it sheds some light on what us filthy liberals think. :) God bless.

I highly stress #4. So many cults and groups have been formed on one single verse or sentence. Mormons base their baptism of the dead on one verse, yet nowhere else is baptism of the dead mentioned, old or new testament.

There is a Bible study I recommend for you. Living By the Book which teaches you these things that were mentioned, plus some others. It is an actual Bible class taught at Dallas theological seminary, and the guy who wrote it taught the class for years.

Absolutely Essential: Living By the Book - The Art and Science of Reading the Bible

Right on.

I was recommended this

Here's a great intro book on Bible study:

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Book-Science-Reading-Bible/dp/0802408230/

It's not a conducive method to "bible in a year" type reading, but that's also a good thing to do.

I like the book entitled living by the book by Howard Hendricks . It’s a really good starting point

For me personally, it was never the study materials that helped me deepen my Bible study. I had to change the way I read the Bible.

Living by the Book by Hendricks was pretty helpful in getting me started. It also helped to develop a specific highlighting scheme with five or six different colors, each color relating to something I was specifically searching for (like commands to obey, prayers to pray, words like love, holy, suffering, and names). Specifically, looking for repetitions, themes, and trying to locate a "summary verse" in books have really brought a lot of insight into my study. Summary verses are great, because it forces you to "condense" the entire book into that one verse. Not all books have one, and sometimes its a summary passage, but its good practice for synthesizing and processing the content you're reading.

Once I started reading with a purpose to look for specific things, I began noticing details that prompted deeper questions that would sometimes lead to profound breakthroughs in my personal understanding of Scripture. Other times, I would have to do independent studies of the original languages (with tools, I'm not a languager) to arrive at an answer because study Bibles and websites didn't address the question well enough.

Blue letter bible is a useful place for comparing translations and looking at the Greek and Hebrew.