So many people don’t read The Bible for their own reasons… Some complain about the King James English. Some say they don’t understand all the symbolism. Many people don’t read it because they are mad at God. Many others simply say they don’t believe in God. And others say they don’t care what The Bible says. Some people say they believe in God, but they don’t believe like God says they need to. They believe in the existence of “a god” but that’s all. Well, Satan believes God exists…. he used to work for Him!
Well, I guess if you don’t believe in God, I simply have to ask what you do believe in. I mean everybody has their idea of what will happen when they die. Many don’t think about it until they are deathly ill or have some sort of scare.
So, let’s say you want to start reading The Bible – but where to begin? If you look at the time we are in, many believe we are in the last days before the Rapture. So do you start reading in the middle of the New Testament? Revelation so you are close to the end? I say you start in the beginning. If you are investigating who God is or want to learn more about Him, I say start in Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1. Do not allow other “myths” to overwhelm your reading. The first day was the first 24-hour day. The second day was the second 24-hour day, etc..
I like to listen to The Bible on my phone at night. I can select a book, like Genesis, or Luke, and listen to it being read to me. The more often I read or listen, the more I understand. So don’t think if you struggle a little that you need to stop. Just start over and keep going.
I do not like to call them “stories” because that seems like they are tales or something man came up with. I will refer to them as events. Historical events. Some information may not be included with every documented event, but enough is there to get an understanding.
If you start in Genesis, you will read about the following events: creation, the first sin, God’s relationship with man before and after sin, the first murder, God’s knowledge of everything, demons having sex with women and their offspring, the evil and wickedness of man, Noah and the flood, Abraham and his almost killing of his own son, Jacob, Joseph, the beginning of Israel, the family lineage, the tower of Babel, God’s promises, and more!
Genesis covers everything up to the Egyptians making slaves of the Israelites and the plagues God brought to the Egyptians and the crossing of the Red Sea, in the book right after Genesis, called Exodus.
In order for anyone to understand God’s dealing with mankind today, I think we need to understand how God has always dealt with mankind. God never changes. And you need to understand the history of certain events in order to understand the next things you read.
There are lots of sites you can visit that will give you all kinds of information. I did mine just to do whatever I might be able to do in order to help someone find God and become a Christian.
I think once you get through Genesis, and read/listen to it a couple times, you will have a better understanding of why God does what He does. It is important to remember as much as you can so you can answer some of your own questions later….
Let’s think about “The Flood.” There are flood legends all around the world. Do a little research on your own for that, if you so desire. The reason is, only eight people lived through the flood. So, wherever they went, they told their children and grandchildren about it and they passed it on to their children.
Why the flood? Just before the flood is discussed in The Bible, you see something about “the sons of God” having children with “the daughters of man.” Although the word “nephilim” is not found in the English King James Version, the offspring of these relationships were called nephilim. They were a cross-breed between fallen angels and humans. Some of these were giants and it is believed by some that some of these could be the gods of Greek mythology. But, that is not written in The Bible, so I should skip that for now, but, The Bible says that Noah was a just man and “perfect in his generations.” We believe the perfection in generations means there were no nephilim in his ancestry. In Genesis 6:5, it says “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Right behind that are verses 6 and 7 – “[6] And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. [7] And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”
The wickedness of man upset God so much that He had enough and was going to wipe out life on the Earth. And look at verses 11 and 12 – “[11] The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. [12] And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” It must have been pretty bad…. the Earth was filled with violence…. sounds like Chicago, New York City, Seattle, and a few other cities in the US and many other places around the world.
If you have checked out my Creation #1 post, you will see what I think the world may have looked like before the flood. I think the water canopy crashed down and water burst forth through the crust of the Earth, creating our current fault lines and breaking up parts of the Earth. It sounds violent to me…. With all that water, it pushed a lot of animals and sand around and buried a lot of animals and people, and formed fossils using the pressure of the dirt and water. This is the only scientific answer for fossils. Any other flesh, whether buried or left out on top of the ground, turns to dust way too fast to make fossils. And fossils are found everywhere, even on the tops of some of the highest mountains.
It took Noah 100 years to build the ark with his sons, and he may have paid other people to help, even if they did not believe in God or the need for the boat. A job is a job, right? It rained and water burst through the Earth for 40 days and 40 nights. The whole time Noah and his family were in the boat was about one full year. I try to think about that when I am in the middle of a noisy and rowdy crowd (very infrequent these days). It was terrible before they got into the ark and only animals and their family for a year. When they got out, most of the animals dispersed and everything else in their world was pretty quiet.
It is interesting just how quickly man’s sin nature takes charge…. Noah’s great-grandson, Nimrod, was the leader of building the tower of Babel. All the people in the world were there working on building a tower to see God. God did not like what was happening, so He had to put an end to it. He decided to confuse the languages of the people so they could not understand each other. I believe God also used skin pigments to show everyone where to go to find people they could understand. We all started with Adam and Eve, and then Noah and his family, so the likelihood that people all looked similar is pretty good. If you can’t understand anyone, and your skin tone matches others, it would make it easy to create the different people groups. That is also why the flood information is all over the world. These people were not far removed from Noah.
I believe there is only one race – human – as far as people go. Nephilim were cross-breeds and angels and demons are their own race. We are all brown-skinned. Some very light brown, some very dark, many shades, including yellow, olive, and reddish tints. I think the first person to call the color variants races was the first racist.
As you progress through The Old Testament, follow it book by book, chapter by chapter. And remember, read/listen to it multiple times before moving on. When you get into some of the more violent books, like 1st and 2nd Samuel, remember the nephilim…. The Bible does not talk about the inter-racial (demons/humans) breeding again, but I believe it is still happening today. God did not want that in the Israeilite bloodline, so He had to destroy others. I believe the UFO’s are actually demons that are trying to get people to believe in beings from another planet, to confuse them about what God says in His Word. More on that in a later post.
I believe that you will come across some symbolic things that you may have a hard time understanding. Do some research, if you so desire, but don’t let it trip you up…. keep reading. One thing to remember is sometimes names are assigned differently – Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, are easy as they are clearly stated in The Bible. Others may not be so clear – the olive tree as Israel, for example. But, think of it as your cousin, Tim. Sometimes you call him Tim, other times it is my cousin, or maybe Tim Smith. All the same person, just different names.
I hope this helps to get you started reading The Bible. I have heard it said the Bible means – Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. It would be nice to know what it says so you can make an informed decision instead of an uninformed decision. One of my “favorite” chapters is Romans 1. Not because it tells me good things about me, but it tells me everything that is going on today was written of back then. And a certain phrase calls some people “willingly ignorant” – which Kent Hovind so clearly translates to “dumb on purpose.” Don’t be “willingly ignorant,” get to know what the Bible says, how God speaks to you through it.
Father God, we ask that You help each of us find more time to devote to reading Your love story to us, what we refer to as The Bible. It is called “The Word Of God” because of Your gift to us, Your Son, Jesus, being named “The Word Of God.” We ask this in His name. Amen.