How do you study the Bible? (for those that do)

by Silent_Scream 23 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  darth frosty

  Interesting way to start here:

  The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth
  by Thomas Jefferson
  
  Thomas Jefferson believed that the pure-principled teachings of Jesus should have been separated from the dogma and abuse of organized religion of the day. This led him to recast, by cutting and pasting from the gospels, a new narrative of the life and teachings of Jesus, where, according to Jefferson, "there will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man."

  PDF
• 

  Fernando

  Hey darth frosty!

  Thank you for that comment and insight on Thomas Jefferson.

  I am interested in what we can learn from him on this, and still need to read up more on him.

  At this point I think his concept (in your post) was excellent, but the method and execution not.

  He inadvertently aided and abetted religion/ists' efforts to defeat the map (called the unabridged gospel) which leads us away from (legalistic and moralistic) religion toward God.

  It seems he too was duped by the clergy and their inane propaganda to accept the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as the so called "gospelS". What about the gospel according to Paul, Moses, Isaiah, Psalms and others? More than half the Bible's references to the gospel are by Paul!

  He certainly was direct and spoke powerfully against the ruling religious clergy class and organised religion: "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
• 

  jaguarbass

  When I left the tower in 83, I decided I was going to find out what the bible said to me, with as little

  outside influence and interference as possible. I read the bible cover to cover 7 times using 4 different translations,

  none of them the NWT.

  I made notes in the back of the bible each time I would read through.

  It would take me about a year to read through each time.

  Each time I would catergorize my notes.

  I would say the road to agnosticsm and atheistism is found by truly reading the bible and pondering and

  reflecting on what it says.

  I have a hunch that a great number of Christians have never read the bible cover to cover, outside of cherry picking certain verses.

  I dont know what percent of atheist have read the bible cover to cover but a lot of them have made the same

  discoveries about the bible and what it says that I have.

  I'm really sorry and feel let down and abandoned that reading the bible would lead me to agnosticsm/ atheism.

  I undertook reading and studying the bible to get closer to God, and what I got was God disappeared.

  If you dont want to end up like me dont study, read the bible cover to cover. Just let some preacher cherry pick

  motavational verses from Psalms for you. Dont be interested or learn to think critically. Accept authority. Be a sheep.

  Since I left the tower in 83, I have encountered a lot of christians that say dont read the bible cover to cover.
• 

  lilbluekitty

  LouBelle: It is not as easy as just picking it up and reading it and praying for inspiration.

  Actually, for those that believe, it can be that easy. You can get out the Greek/Hebrew interlinears and dictionaries and all that if you're researching something specific, but I just pick up the Bible and read. I do try to read in order somewhat, like I read Matthew to Revelation, now I'm re-reading Matthew again since my church is doing sermons on it lately, but when I finish I want to get into the Psalms. Sometimes I just randomly read Psalms when I'm bored or upset or something. I have a hard time reading the Old Testament, a lot of so and so begat so and so haha, but it's still good stuff.

  Sometimes I google or Wiki specific topics, but mostly I don't really pay much attention to people's interpretations and try to take the Bible as it really is, God's Word. If you do it that way and pray asking for Holy Spirit to help you understand, it goes pretty quickly and is nowhere near as painful as JWs made it.