Understanding The Bible

Understanding the Bible

by: Karen (mother-in-law)

I would like to relate the true story of a man in the Lord's church many of you know. He grew up in a non-Christian home - unchurched and "heathen". About the age of 18, his mother gave him a Bible. He began reading it - sometimes 6 or more hours a day. Without being taught by anyone, and contrary to popular religious thought, this young man determined just from reading the Bible that he needed to be baptized to have his sins forgiven. So he began looking at names of churches around town, trying to find one that sounded like the church he had read about in the Bible. He walked into a Church of Christ, found the minister in his study, and said, "I believe from reading the Bible that I need to be baptized to have my sins forgiven." The minister replied that it was exactly what he taught and what the church practiced and proceeded to baptize this young man. 

This ability to read God's word and understand it and obey it has made it possible for individuals throughout the centuries of time to come to the same conclusions - independent of each other. I have always found it amazing that people separated by time, distance, and theoligical beliefs can arrive at the same conclusions spiritually simply by reading and understanding the same book! 

This is possible for any topic in the Bible - not just the plan of salvation (as in the story of the young man above). How many people do you know who may be part of a denomination, never immersed to have their sins forgiven; and yet they live exemplary clean, godly lives - often putting baptized believers to shame. They, without submitting to God's plan for salvation, (and w/o the subsequent help of the Holy Spirit some of you claim) are able to read the Bible and allow it to effect change in their lives. 

So can we read the Bible and understand it and obey it without an internal aid of the Holy Spirit? Absolutely! Any chapter, any verse, any topic in the Bible? Undeniably, YES!

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Romans 12:2