It’s another typical Sunday morning and I find myself in Sunday School with all the other students listening to our teacher seemly ramble on when the lesson winds to an end with these words “As you can see by the exegetical analysis of the verse, Lucifer is the antithesis of…..” WAH WAH WAH WAH. Did I hear that right? Am I now in a Peanut’s cartoon and the teacher is speaking? Yes my teacher’s mouth is moving, but why do they always use twenty five cent words? Is it to show how much smarter they are than me?
As I stiffle a yawn I think to myself “Another wasted hour spent in this class when I could be at home asleep.” Looking up from their notes the teacher asks “Are there any questions of what we’ve covered so far?”
Fear grips me, as I sit perfectly still, not moving a muscle. Experience has taught me that the teacher’s can smell our fear and pounce on us like a hungry lion on their evening prey. My pride would not allow me to admit that I have no idea of what’s going on or even what the lesson was about.
Across the world this scene plays itself out across millions of congregations. Was it the big words, arcane examples, or quoting verse after verse from all over the Bible? Could it be that I never learned how to read and understand the Word of God?
Sometimes I’m like the little girl at Church summer camp from the big city, when asked what do you call the little gray furry creature that runs up and down trees eating nuts all day? Her answer would have been mine….Jesus Christ, or was it David?, NO! Abraham?, Again NO! So it must have been Jesus.
If this story describes you, Welcome to the Club! But how do we move out of our ignorance into the things of God. Let’s allow God Himself to tell us how to study the Bible for ourselves.
For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
1 Corinthians 2:11, 12
Did I read that right no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God? That would mean that if I want to learn of God I have to go to the source Himself to learn what I need to know.
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
1 John 2:27
So sound’s like the best way to study the Bible is through prayer (telling God my heart’s desire) and supplication (asking Him to guide me). So does God agree with that statement:
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Luke 11:9-13
So are we reading the Bible to only get knowledge? God says:
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
Proverbs 4:7
But how do I get that kind of understanding?
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Isaiah 28:9-13
So I take one verse (line) and one idea (precept) at a time until I understand it. Because God’s wisdom is like precious jewels that are hidden throughout the scriptures not just in one place (here a little, and there a little).
You may ask if I can just have someone else teach me what I need to know? God says:
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15
There’s a whole field of study called Hermeneutics is a branch of study that deals with interpretations of all things Biblical.
The easiest interpretation is take everything literally except when the verses indicate that literal is not the case. Here are two examples one from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament.
Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.”
Song of Solomon 4:2
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Revelation 12:1-5
Neither is to be taken literal the first is poetic and the second symbolic. Once you find full understanding of the End Times from a literal perspective feel free to revisit all scripture looking at them through the lens of different view.
Teaching the End of Wickedness 