Every week, in thousands of churches and homes across Australia and the world, Christians get together and read a book. Referred to variously as the Word, Scripture, the Old Book or just the Bible, this book takes centre stage in our preaching & teaching, forms the basis of our authority and spells out the message of Christianity in a way that no other book or speaker ever can.

Sadly, however, many Christians have either a limited or non-existent understanding of the Bible and its uses. Even though it is the number-one best-seller of all time, the Bible is possibly the most misunderstood book in history.

For some, it is an ornament or sentimental thing that gathers dust on a shelf, perhaps because it is written off as being an historical (or perhaps even fictional) book, with no real relevance to today. Others dismiss it as being for preachers, pastors and “super-spiritual” people. Still others find the Bible scary because it is hard to read and so not worth the effort, or because they have seen it mis-used and mis-applied.

Just about everyone has something to say about the Bible. Perhaps you’ve heard one or more of these:

• “It’s a pack of lies.”;
• “It’s irrelevant.”;
• “It’s a good story.”;
• “You can make it say whatever you want it to say.”; or
• “It’s been changed over time.”

As John Dickson writes, “It’s interesting to meet people who hold these opinions. I’m often amused to see them blush when I ask if they’ve actually read this ‘irrelevant fairytale’ for themselves.”¹

Well, the aim of this course is to:

• Help you understand what the Bible is, and what it may be used for; and
• Give you some practical strategies for making the most of the Bible.

What is the Bible?

Before we can answer the question of “Why read the Bible?”, we must first understand what it is. People have come up with many answers to this question over the years:

A library

The first thing to know about the Bible is that it is a book. In fact, the Bible is the single biggest-selling book of all time.

Actually, the Bible is a library of books – several books all kept together in one volume. It covers a variety of material: narratives, laws, ritual instructions, poetry, songs, sermons, prophecies, wisdom sayings, parables, letters and genealogies.

A history

Unlike many other religions, Christianity in general and the Bible in particular are set very firmly in the context of history. The Bible records many, many historical events that can be readily verified by independent sources. Even those who reject the Bible’s message find themselves unable to challenge the historical authenticity of the Bible.

A revelation

More important than either of these things, however, the Bible is the way that God has chosen to reveal himself. We can certainly understand some things about God from his creation and from our own thoughts, but we can’t get the full picture on our own. Perhaps an illustration would help. John Dickson writes:

Imagine, if you will, what my wife looks like… Suppose now you draw a sketch of my wife as she appears in you mind, scan it, and email it to me for review.

Even if a thousand readers took part in this odd experiment (please don’t!), the chances of any one of the sketches accurately portraying my wife are pretty slender. Some of the drawings might be beautiful… others may be works of great intelligence or artistry, the sort of thing that, while not accurate, would still be worthy of our admiration. In the end however, unless one of you had met my wife, the sketches would all be guesses. A beautiful, intelligent and artistic guess is still a guess.²

The point is this: we have in the Bible, and more specifically in the person of Jesus, a portrait of God. Whilst we can’t understand everything there is to understand about God from it, it gives us a much clearer picture than just guessing or relying on second-hand stories.

So why read the Bible?

The first reason to read the Bible, then, is that it is the way we get to know God. It is God’s Myspace. (Work with me here!) On his profile, God lists his interests, records his thoughts, puts ‘pictures’ of himself with his friends and advertises upcoming events! But we can only learn about him what he chooses to tell/show us. He even invites us to sign up as his friends!

As if that weren’t reason enough, however, the Bible holds another very practical use. It is a manual for life.

To get a pilot’s licence, you have to get an “instrument rating”. This means that you understand the instruments that your plane is equipped with – compass, altimeter etc. – and are capable of flying your plane using those and nothing else should the need arise. This is important, because otherwise it is easy to become disoriented when flying through fog or cloud. In some circumstances it is even possible for pilots to suffer what is called vertigo – ‘up’ and ‘down’ become confused, and you feel like you’re upright when you’re actually upside down.

To be able to fly using instruments only, a pilot needs the following:

• Good instruments: What’s the point in relying on your instruments if they are telling you the wrong thing? Even a slightly misaligned compass can lead you a long way off course.
• Understanding: You need to know how to use your instruments in order for them to be useful. You could hand me a compass, or a GPS device, but unless I had been taught how to use it it would be nothing more than a paperweight to me.
• Faith: Sometimes a pilot has to believe his instruments, even when they are in direct contradiction to what his senses are telling him.

I believe that Christians, too, need to get an “instrument rating”. Too easily we can get caught up in what our senses are telling us about the world that we are deceived. I believe that this is what happened for John the Baptist, when he sent word to Jesus to ask if he really was the Messiah, or if they should be looking for someone else³. This was a bit of a strange question, really, since John had been one of the very first to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah⁴, and had witnessed “the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting on him.” (16) and the “voice from heaven” proclaiming “‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.'” (17).

Things had taken a bit of a bad turn for John since then, however, and he was now in gaol and facing death. Is it any wonder that he began to think that something must have gone wrong somewhere?

Jesus’ response serves to remind John of his instruments. First, he suggests that John needs to consider more than just his immediate surroundings – he tells the messenger to let John know about all the wonderful things that are happening. The things he specifically directs the messengers to take not of, however, are particularly important as they are things spoken of in the scriptures as being indicative of the Messiah. Jesus is commanding, “Go back to your Bible and compare what you find there with what your disciples report – then answer the question for yourself.”

The Bible is Jesus’ answer to not knowing which way is up and which way down. When being tempted in the desert⁵, it is scripture which Jesus relies upon in overcoming Satan. If he allowed himself to be caught up in his own situation (I love the subtly understated “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry” (2)!) then Satan’s suggestions would no doubt have seemed like good sense – after all, how could he possibly be any good to anyone if he starved to death? Perhaps it would be easier to accept the world from Satan’s hand as a gift, rather than pay the price to buy it back. But Jesus knew the scriptures and trusted that the words spoken there were truth, even though his senses and his understanding of the world he was in right then and there were screaming there was a better way.

We need that instrument for ourselves. We need to know what the Bible says in order to know what is right. We need to rely on scripture to navigate us through the fog of this life. We need to trust God’s word, even when it seems totally contrary to what our senses are telling us.

This course is designed to help you become an “instrument rated” Christian. It won’t tell you everything there is to know about the Bible (if we had 3 years rather than 3 weeks I still don’t reckon we’d reach that!), but hopefully it will give you a sound basis for reading and understanding the Bible and then applying it into your own life.

Endnotes

1. Hanging in there (St Matthias Press, 1995) p. 26.
2. John Dickson, If I were God I’d make myself clearer (St Matthias Press, 2002) pp. 56-57.
3. Matt. 11:2-6
4. Matt. 3:13-17
5. Matt. 4:1-11