How to Read the Bible: A Guide for Beginners

"Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do." (Ecclesiastes 9:7)

"The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners."'" (Matthew 11:19)

"Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." (Luke 12:19)

"Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." (1 Corinthians 15:32)

"do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink" (Colossians 2:16)

• One man feels an elephant's leg and confidently states, "An elephant is tall and stout like a soft tree trunk."

• Another man feels the elephant's trunk and declares, "No, you're completely wrong. An elephant is long and flexible like a large snake."

• The third man feels one of the elephant's tusks and says, "You're both wrong. An elephant is a solid tube that curves and tapers to a point."

1. "If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about - but not before God. What does Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness." (Romans 4:2-5)

2. "You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone." (James 2:20-24)

Wikipedia

1. Pick a doctrine and focus on it so you're not distracted by studying other doctrines at the same time. Ask the Lord (see my article above) which doctrine you should study next, and if you're not discerning anything specific from Him then study whichever topic interests you the most at the moment.

2. Bible software allows you to search many different versions of the Bible, and usually gives you access to Bible commentaries, Bible dictionaries, and other study tools. I like the free e-Sword software, but there are other good software Bibles for free as well.
   
   Keep in mind that all Bible translations, Bible commentaries, Bible dictionaries, and other resources are the work of a person or group who made interpretations, assumptions, and educated guesses about each verse of Scripture, and these people can easily be influenced by misunderstandings, misinterpretations, mistranslations, or biases. Therefore, it's helpful to look at passages in different versions of the Bible and in different Bible commentaries rather than assuming that one translation or one commentary is accurate and sufficient.

3. When I write articles, I try to be accurate and clear and precise so that my meaning is less likely to be misinterpreted or misunderstood. However, this is not how people spoke and wrote in biblical times. Understanding Bible passages often involves discerning the spirit of what people meant, not just taking what's written at face value (see the section called "Shakespeare vs. God" above) or assuming that everything is meant to be taken literally.
   
   Throughout the Bible, people tended to speak or write using flowery or poetic language, indirect or imprecise language, symbolism or figurative language, hyperbole (exaggeration), metaphors, and so on, as in these examples:

   "Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have acquired a man from the LORD."" (Genesis 4:1 NKJV)
   [Here we see sex being described indirectly.]
   
   "And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times." (Psalm 12:6)
   [This is an example of flowery or poetic language.]
   
   "Out in the open wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square; on top of the wall she cries out, at the city gate she makes her speech: "How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings. But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you - when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you."" (Proverbs 1:20-27)
   [Here we see wisdom being treated as if it's a person.]
   
   "This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1)
   [Jesus was not literally the son of David, and neither Jesus nor David were literally the son of Abraham.]
   
   "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot." (Matthew 5:13)
   [Here we see one of the many metaphors that Jesus used.]
   
   "If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." (Matthew 5:29-30)
   [As Bible commentaries point out, these statements are hyperbole (exaggeration) and are not meant to be taken literally. For example: "It is not mutilating of the body that Christ enjoins, but control of the body against sin." (Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament, Matthew 5:29)]
   
   Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - yes, even their own life - such a person cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:25-26)
   [As Bible commentaries point out, this is hyperbole (exaggeration) and is not meant to be taken literally. For example: "To emphasize that discipleship is difficult, Jesus said that one must hate his own family and even his own life in order to be His disciple. Literally hating one's family would have been a violation of the Law. Since Jesus on several occasions admonished others to fulfill the Law, He must not have meant here that one should literally hate his family. The stress here is on the priority of love (cf. Mat 10:37). One's loyalty to Jesus must come before his loyalty to his family or even to life itself. Indeed, those who did follow Jesus against their families' desires were probably thought of as hating their families." (The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Walvoord and Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, Luke 14:25-27)]
   
   "Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father." (John 16:25)
   
   "For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise. These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother." (Galatians 4:22-26)
   
   "if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant." (Colossians 1:23)
   [This is another example of hyperbole (exaggeration). In Paul's time, and even in our time, the Gospel message had not been proclaimed to every person under heaven. In addition, there's no indication in the Bible that the Gospel message was ever proclaimed to creatures such as donkeys and birds and so on.]
   
   "The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority." (Revelation 13:1-2)
   [This is one of the numerous examples of symbolism throughout the Bible.]
   
   "On the first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypt - on that very day - they came to the Desert of Sinai. After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."" (Exodus 19:1-6)
   [This is one of the numerous examples of parallelism throughout the Bible. In this passage, "the descendants of Jacob" and "the people of Israel" are not two different groups of people because both expressions are referring to the Israelites using parallelism.]
   
   "For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this." (Isaiah 37:32)
   [This is another one of the numerous examples of parallelism throughout the Bible. Jerusalem is frequently referred to as Zion throughout the Old Testament.]

   Again, understanding Bible passages often involves discerning the spirit of what people meant, not just taking what's written at face value or assuming that everything is meant to be taken literally. Concerning symbolism, see the next bullet point.

4. To learn about the principles of Bible interpretation (referred to as "Bible hermeneutics"), browse through these Google search results on Bible hermeneutics .
   
   If you would prefer a book on Bible interpretation, one that I would recommend is Basic Bible Interpretation by Roy Zuck.
   
   For example, it's important to examine the context of a passage. The verses immediately before and after the passage you're studying can give you a better idea of what the passage means, and getting a feel for the theme of the entire chapter can help you understand the passage you're studying. There's also the historical context to consider, because it's helpful to understand who the original readers were and what local situation (if any) was being addressed by the author of the passage you're studying.
   
   In addition, there might be parallel passages in other books of the Bible that provide more information, especially if you're examining a passage in one of the Gospels or in one of the apostle Paul's letters. Sometimes parallel or similar passages provide a clearer understanding of passages that are not very easy to interpret, or they provide an explanation for symbolic passages. This principle is often referred to as "Scripture interprets Scripture," as in these examples:

   "Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - yes, even their own life - such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."" (Luke 14:25-27)
   [As we saw earlier, Bible commentaries point out that this is hyperbole (exaggeration) and we're not literally meant to hate our families. See the parallel passage in Matthew 10:37-38, below, which also refers to taking up our cross and following Jesus.]
   
   "Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me." (Matthew 10:37-38)
   [Matthew used different wording than Luke did (above), which clarifies for us that we're not literally meant to hate our families.]
   
   
   
   "One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries." Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns." (Revelation 17:1-3)
   [This is an example of the many prophecies in the Bible that contain symbolism. Often the symbolism is explained elsewhere in Scripture, as in Revelation 17:12-15, below.]
   
   ""The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings - and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers." Then the angel said to me, "The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages."" (Revelation 17:12-15)
   [This passage explains some of the symbolism in Revelation 17:1-3, above.]

   Again, often there are passages that provide a clearer understanding of passages that are not very easy to interpret, or they provide an explanation for symbolic passages. This is why it's so important to try to find all of the passages in the Bible (or at least in the New Testament) that relate to the topic you're studying in order to discern the full picture of that topic.

5. A covenant is essentially a contract between two parties, such as between God and humans. For example, when I lived in an apartment in Seattle, I had a contract with the apartment management there. No one else in the world was required to obey that contract, and no one else in the world could violate that contract. Before I moved back to Houston, I fulfilled the obligations of my old contract in Seattle, and that contract was canceled. Neither I nor the management in Seattle are required to obey the terms of that old contract anymore, and we can't break or violate the terms of that old contract. I now have a new contract with my apartment management in Houston. The analogy is that the Old Covenant has been completely canceled (see my series below), and Christians are under the New Covenant.
   
   It's very important to understand how God's covenants (contracts) work because throughout human history, God has made a total of nine different covenants with people, some of which are still in force to this day and affect every person on earth. All nine covenants are explained in detail in my series called Covenants, Dispensations, and the Ten Commandments.
   
   When God gives commands to people under a particular covenant, those commands do not apply to people who are not under that covenant. Remember, my apartment contract only applies to me and the apartment management. It would be completely wrong to assume that my apartment contract applies to anyone else. This is a very important issue to understand because many Christians have formed wrong conclusions by assuming that the commands in a particular covenant apply to people who were not under that covenant. For example, the Old Covenant was specifically between God and the Jews (Exodus 19:3-6). All of the non-Jews (Gentiles) during that time were not under the Old Covenant and therefore they were not required to obey the Ten Commandments or any of the other commands in that covenant unless they converted to Judaism or were servants of Jews (Exodus 12:43-49, 20:10).
   
   When we read any passages in the Bible before the cross, it's extremely important to discern which contract (covenant) applies to those passages, otherwise we're in danger of misunderstanding and misapplying those passages.

6. It's also helpful (and fascinating) to learn about logical fallacies that can cause us to form wrong conclusions. Sometimes we make arguments that sound logical and reasonable to us, without realizing that our arguments are faulty because they contain errors in logic. To learn about logical fallacies, a good resource is Fallacy Files .

7. As you're reading Bible passages, try to be aware of the assumptions you're making. As you're reading what other Christians have written, try to be aware of the assumptions they're making.
   
   For example, when Paul said "women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones" (Romans 1:26), most people make the assumption that he was referring to lesbianism because what else could it be? But there is something else that it means, and if we don't think through all of the possibilities and evaluate them against Scripture then we could easily have wrong beliefs that don't honor the Lord (see my article called Homosexuality Is Not Always a Sin for what Paul actually meant). One way to catch that we're making assumptions is by becoming more aware of when we're reading things into a passage that it doesn't actually say. Look closely at the above quote from Romans 1:26 in any version of the Bible and notice that Paul did not say that women had sexual relations with other women. That's just something that people are reading into the passage.
   
   When you start making a conscious effort to become aware of your assumptions and the assumptions of other Christians, it can be quite shocking to discover that we jump to so many conclusions based only on a surface understanding of Bible passages or based on reading things into Bible passages that aren't actually there (see the above article for more on this). I started noticing this many years ago, and my impression is that our Christian views tend to be based on nothing more than assumptions in many cases, and the things we were taught tend to be based on many assumptions made by our teachers (or by the people who taught our teachers). Start watching for the assumptions that you and other Christians are making, and you'll see what I mean. This illustrates how important it is to be thorough, objective, and unbiased when we study the Bible, listening for discernment from the Spirit of God within us (see my article called How to Discern God's Guidance).

8. Here's what I do when I begin studying a topic. For example, the Lord prompted me to do a thorough study of the Atonement, because many Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross in our place as our Substitute, taking the punishment that we deserved, but others believe that He did not take the punishment that we deserved. For the results of my in-depth study, see my article called Understanding Jesus - Part Two.
   
   I started by going through the New Testament looking for anything that relates to the Atonement, and I copied those passages to a Word document. I also copied some things that Bible commentaries say about those passages, and pasted them into the Word document (I copied them from e-Sword, mentioned above).

9. While doing this, I encountered concepts such as atonement, forgiveness, justification, propitiation, ransom, reconciliation, redemption, remission, righteousness, salvation, sanctification, and so on. In order to be certain that I'm understanding the Atonement properly, I looked up the meaning of the Greek words for those terms (30+ separate Greek words based on their Strong's numbers, described below) in several Greek dictionaries, and copied all of those definitions to my Word document.
   
   In the late 1800s, James Strong created his Hebrew and Greek dictionary, assigning a unique number to most of the Hebrew and Greek words in the Bible (which are referred to as "Strong's numbers"). Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionary is widely respected, but it only gives a brief explanation for each Hebrew or Greek word. I like to use The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament by Dr. Spiros Zodhiates because it provides an extensive description of the shades of meaning for each Greek word, taking into account the various contexts in which that Greek word is used throughout the New Testament, and providing derivations and synonyms and antonyms for most Greek words. I purchased and installed this dictionary in e-Sword (for both the Old and New Testaments), which makes it very handy to click on Greek or Hebrew words and see their definitions.
   
   I discovered (for example) that some English versions of the Bible translate the Greek word hilasterios as "propitiation," and other English versions of the Bible translate it as "sacrifice of atonement." The same is true for many Greek words, because different versions of the Bible use different translations from the original Greek. So in order to be thorough, I searched the Bible for all of the Greek words rather than relying on searching for specific English words.

10. As I studied the hundreds of verses in which those 30+ Greek words are found, and the quotes from Bible commentaries and Greek dictionaries, this led me to more concepts to look up in the Bible. For example, the Atonement was a fulfillment of certain prophecies and foreshadowings in the Old Testament (e.g., the Passover lambs), so I copied those Old Testament passages into my Word document along with quotes from some Bible commentaries.

11. After I gathered together all of the passages I could find on this topic, I went through them and tried to prayerfully discern how all of the passages fit together to form the full picture of the doctrine. There's only one correct view of a doctrine, and no verse of Scripture will ever contradict that view. So if we find as many passages as possible that relate to a doctrine, and if every one of those passages fits well with our view of that doctrine (when we honestly try to understand the meaning of each passage rather than just jumping to conclusions based on a surface reading), then we have a higher chance that our view is correct.
    
    Our goal should be to find out what God has recorded in the Bible, objectively and without emotions, biases, or assumptions affecting our discernment, being guided by the Lord.
    
    As I began forming my own personal view of this doctrine (trying to be guided by the Lord), I wanted to make sure that there are no passages of Scripture that contradict my view. If even one verse contradicts my view then it means that I don't fully understand that doctrine yet. As we've seen throughout this article, it's very important to try to see the full picture so that we don't overlook any critical information.

12. While you're studying what the Bible says about a topic, keep in mind that all of the modern versions of the Bible were translated by people. If their translations and interpretations are not accurate in places, this can give us an incorrect understanding of what the Bible says.
    
    For example, in Acts 2:7 the NIV inserted the word "men" where it doesn't belong (prior to the 2011 edition). This was done to make the passage more readable in modern English, but it has caused confusion for some people. Here's that verse in several different versions of the Bible:

    "...Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?" (Acts 2:7 NIV - 1984 edition)
    
    "...Lo, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?" (Acts 2:7 YLT)
    
    "...Are not all these who are talking Galileans?" (Acts 2:7 AMP)
    
    "...Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?" (Acts 2:7 NASB)
    
    "...Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?" (Acts 2:7 KJV)
    
    "...Look, are not all these who speak Galileans?" (Acts 2:7 NKJV)

    By comparing this verse in several different translations, we can see that the NIV translators added the word "men" to make the verse more readable in modern English (this has been corrected in the 2011 edition). Some people have argued that only the apostles spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost because the apostles were "men from Galilee," and the NIV said that men (not women) from Galilee spoke in tongues at Pentecost (Acts 2:7, above).
    
    This demonstrates why we shouldn't base our views on just a single version of the Bible, because in this case the NIV wording was misleading.
    
    There are no perfect Bible translations, but many of the modern translations are well respected by Bible scholars, including the New International Version (NIV), the New King James Version (NKJV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), and others.
    
    The King James Version (KJV) is also a well-respected version of the Bible, but it can be difficult to read and understand because it was written in an older style of English. Some people believe that the Authorized 1611 KJV is the only true or infallible version of the Bible in English, but I don't agree with that view. To see why, and to see why there are legitimate differences in the modern translations of the Bible, take a look at my article called The "King James Only" View Is Mistaken.
    
    Another useful version of the Bible is the Amplified Version (AMP), which provides various shades of meaning that might otherwise be lost in the translation from Hebrew or Greek to English.
    
    Young's Literal Translation (YLT) is often useful because it translates the Hebrew and Greek texts literally, without interpreting Scripture into modern English. It's not as easy to read as the modern translations, but it can give you a better idea of what the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts actually say.
    
    Then there are versions such as The Living Bible (TLB), the Message Bible (Message), and several others, that are paraphrases rather than being actual translations from the Hebrew and Greek texts. These paraphrased versions of the Bible are good for devotional reading, but they're not recommended for Bible study. That's not what they were designed for.
    
    Another issue to keep in mind is that when Bible translators insert words that are not in the ancient Hebrew or Greek texts (to make a passage more readable in English), these words will often be placed in square brackets or italics to indicate that they're not in the original texts. Here are some examples using Acts 3:1:

    "And Peter and John were going up at the same time to the temple, at the hour of the prayer, the ninth [hour]" (YLT)
    
    "Now Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour." (ASV)
    
    "And Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, [which is] the ninth [hour]" (Darby)

    So when you see words in square brackets or italics in Scripture, keep in mind that those words are not in the ancient Hebrew or Greek texts. They've been added for readability, so don't base any doctrines on those added words.

13. In order to be thorough as I'm studying a topic, I also search online to find out what other people have written about that topic. My goal is to find all of the different views that people have about that topic, and what scriptural evidence they use to support their views. Then I prayerfully compare their evidence with the Scripture passages that I've gathered together, as objectively as possible, trying to discern which view is correct.

14. According to Wikipedia, "Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs...A series of psychological experiments in the 1960s suggested that people are biased toward confirming their existing beliefs. Later work re-interpreted these results as a tendency to test ideas in a one-sided way, focusing on one possibility and ignoring alternatives." (Confirmation bias , emphasis added)
    
    According to Psychology Today, "Confirmation bias occurs from the direct influence of desire on beliefs. When people would like a certain idea or concept to be true, they end up believing it to be true. They are motivated by wishful thinking. This error leads the individual to stop gathering information when the evidence gathered so far confirms the views or prejudices one would like to be true. Once we have formed a view, we embrace information that confirms that view while ignoring, or rejecting, information that casts doubt on it. Confirmation bias suggests that we don't perceive circumstances objectively. We pick out those bits of data that make us feel good because they confirm our prejudices. Thus, we may become prisoners of our assumptions." (What Is Confirmation Bias? , emphasis added)
    
    The New Testament is the instruction manual for all Christians (no matter what denomination you're a member of), written by God through human authors, and in His omniscience He made sure that it's relevant even to this day. In it, God tells us what to believe and what to do. If we don't properly obey Him, the painful consequences for our wrong beliefs or lack of obedience are our own fault for not being diligent enough to find out what He wants us to believe and do (see section #11 in my article called Cheat Sheet).
    
    If I look in the instruction manual or owner's manual for my car, it describes how to use the rear-facing backup camera. Therefore, I know that my car came with a rear-facing backup camera. My son's car is quite a bit older than mine, and if I look in the instruction manual for his car, it says nothing about a rear-facing backup camera. Therefore, I know that his car did not come with a rear-facing backup camera.
    
    Similarly, if we look in God's instruction manual for Christians (the New Testament), we see commands that tell us to baptize new Christians in water and we see examples of new Christians being baptized in water (e.g., Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16, Acts 2:41, 8:12-13, 34-38, 10:45-48, 16:14-15, 30-33, 18:8, 19:1-5). Therefore, we know that Christians need to be baptized in water. But we don't see any commands for infants to be baptized and we don't see any examples of infants being baptized. Infant baptism is not found anywhere in the instruction manual. Therefore, it's unscriptural; it's not a Christian baptism (see my series called Everything We Need to Know about Water Baptism). If Christians were meant to honor and obey God by baptizing infants then we would find it in the instruction manual. This is just an example to show that the New Testament is intended to teach what we must believe and do (when it's properly understood by examining all of the pieces of information it gives us on any topic) in order to honor and obey God. As another example, there is no such thing as "Christian tithing" anywhere in the instruction manual. Even though most churches take up tithes along with offerings, the concept of Christian tithing is unscriptural. It's a complete fiction that does not honor God because it bears absolutely no resemblance to any form of tithing found anywhere in the Bible (see my article called Christians Are Not Required to Pay Tithes). If Christians were meant to honor and obey God by tithing 10% of their income then we would find it in the instruction manual. Some churches and denominations teach that Christians must observe the Sabbath, but this is yet another teaching that's not found in the instruction manual and therefore it's unscriptural and wrong (see my article called Covenants, Dispensations, and the Ten Commandments - Part Three). If Christians were meant to honor and obey God by observing the Sabbath then we would find it in the instruction manual. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
    
    Keep in mind that the above examples are specifically issues of honoring and obeying God. We don't find anything in the instruction manual (the New Testament) about driving cars, flying in planes, using computers, carrying cell phones, etc., but these are not specifically issues of honoring and obeying God. When it comes to other issues of honoring and obeying God that we would not expect to find in the instruction manual, such as what TV shows or movies we're allowed to watch, or what books we're allowed to read, and so on, it's important to know how to discern God's guidance within us (see my article called How to Discern God's Guidance).

• 05/07/2024 - Added a paragraph in the Introduction section.

• 04/18/2024 - Slightly modified the first two paragraphs in the section called "So Many Conflicting or Contradictory Views." Slightly modified the 3rd, 5th, and 13th bullet points in the section called "How to Study the Bible."

• 12/28/2023 - Slightly modified the section called "Quite Amazing."

• 06/10/2023 - Changed the images for the jigsaw puzzle pieces in the section called "Quite Amazing." The original steamboat image came from a website that no longer exists, so I'm not able to show that it's a public domain image. The new steamboat is a licensed image.

• 04/27/2023 - Modified the section called "Quite Amazing."

• 02/13/2023 - Added some examples of parallelism in point #3 in the section called "How to Study the Bible."

• 01/15/2023 - Added a paragraph in the Introduction section. Added some information in point #5 in the section called "How to Study the Bible."

• 01/11/2023 - Slightly modified the beginning of the section called "How to Study the Bible."

• 01/02/2023 - Slightly modified the Conclusion section.

• 12/10/2022 - Modified the section called "Quite Amazing." Modified the Conclusion section.

• 10/23/2022 - Modified the section called "Proof-Texting." Modified the section called "Quite Amazing." Added a paragraph at the top of the section called "How to Study the Bible." Added more information in point #4 in the section called "How to Study the Bible."

• 10/10/2022 - Added more information in point #14 in the section called "How to Study the Bible."

• 09/10/2022 - Added a bullet point about getting the sense of what the authors of Scripture meant in the section called "How to Study the Bible."

• 08/28/2022 - Added the example of two seemingly contradictory passages about Abraham in the section called "So Many Conflicting or Contradictory Views."

• 08/23/2022 - Added a paragraph in the section called "So Many Conflicting or Contradictory Views."

• 07/25/2022 - Added a link to my article called "Make Your Own Christian Bookmarks and Business Cards" in the section called "Quite Amazing." Made some minor modifications in the section called "How to Study the Bible." Modified my closing statement.

• 04/18/2022 - Deleted some sections that weren't really needed. Added a bullet point about confirmation bias in the section called "How to Study the Bible."

• 04/14/2022 - Changed the title of my book because I discovered a couple of existing books with "Healing Is for Today" in their names.

• 03/26/2022 - Deleted a number of paragraphs that weren't really needed.

• 03/22/2022 - Modified the section called "Quite Amazing."

• 11/03/2021 - Made the font size a bit bigger and added a fish symbol as a favicon (which is displayed in the browser tab).

• 10/12/2021 - Added a paragraph about computer Bible software in the section called "Quite Amazing."

• 09/16/2021 - Added a new section called "Quite Amazing."

• 08/21/2021 - Added a new section called "Shakespeare vs. God."

• 08/02/2021 - Added a bullet point about making assumptions and reading things into a passage that aren't actually there in the section called "How to Study the Bible."

• 07/31/2021 - Added a bullet point about God's covenants in the section called "How to Study the Bible."

• 05/14/2020 - Added a link to my article called "Understanding Jesus - Part Two."

• 01/19/2020 - Modified the section called "How to Study the Bible."

• 01/11/2020 - Removed the section called "The Bible Is Trustworthy" (I believe this information is meant to be added to an article on understanding the Bible).

• 04/29/2019 - Merged most of the information from my article called "Are You Sure You Believe what the Bible Says?" into this article.

• 02/14/2019 - Modified some of the wording.

• 12/16/2005 - Modified the section on logical fallacies.