What Do You Believe?

I’m seeing more articles, news-casts, emails, blogs, postings, etc… that want to tell you their interpretation of the Bible, and its stories and passages. Much of this is wrong, terribly wrong.

As an example the most recent thing I’ve seen tries to explain why David was an evil man, and that no one should use Psalms as it is mostly written by an ‘evil man’.

Actually, Psalms is a very good book to read, as are all the books of the Bible. So, what does one believe, and how can we tell the truth from the nonsense? How do we know if someone is giving us the right scoop on a Bible or religious topic? There is one simple answer – you must read it for yourself.

The preacher can help you. The Sunday School teacher or Bible teacher can help you. There are books and seminars, YouTube videos, blogs, and FB postings that can help. But, none of these will take the place of you reading it for yourself.

Most everyone knows about Psalms 23, but what about Psalms chapters 1 – 22? Those are pretty good, too. In fact, there is tremendous insight into the character of David presented in these writings, and it is certainly not evil.

Of course, for the Christian our foundational truths are outlined in the New Testament. But, this does not exclude the lessons that can be learned from the Old Testament. It all works together. Even the long list of ‘begats’ (so and so begat so and so, etc..) have a purpose. If for no other purpose they put names to people to show that these people actually existed, lived, and had a history.

A little study on your own can reveal many interesting things. For example, while most people know that Methuselah is the oldest recorded human being, dying at the age of 969, few know that Methuselah died in the year of the flood (Noah’s flood). We can’t say for certain that Methuselah died as a result of the flood, but it is interesting nonetheless. Is this in the Bible? Yes, it is, but you have to read it and do your own calculations from the information given.

How many other interesting things are there to discover? You will only know when you start to dive in and read for yourself.