I guess it depends how hardcore they are with their beliefs!
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i beleive the whole thing litterally.
but the customs of the days past are not what we are held to now. those things are not told for us to do today, but back then.
also, some things in the bible we literrally metaphors. so, even if you believe them, you must realize that some things are clearly stated as metaphors, and nothing more. but like the creation, i believe it happenned in 7 days. 7 real days.
Why are you picking on Christians?
sorry but whoever reads the whole bible…..
they need abit more of a life.
if u want to be a good person, act it out, not spend all day reading a book, epecially in the old testiment with all the preducism.
im sure ill get hit for this lol
I believe the whole Bible and read it, too. The New Testament is what I live by and the Old Testament leads up to the New Testament in helping people to understand God’s hatred of sin and Why Jesus Christ is the only way to get right with God.
I’d like a responce from the poster to this question — what is the point of this post? Are you poking fun or looking for answers?
dav wrote:
I believe the whole Bible and read it, too. The New Testament is what I live by and the Old Testament leads up to the New Testament in helping people to understand God’s hatred of sin and Why Jesus Christ is the only way to get right with God.
I’d like a responce from the poster to this question — what is the point of this post? Are you poking fun or looking for answers?
I think perhaps the poster has found some level of hypocricy inherent!
Just a guess!
there is no hypocrisy of it for me. the bible makes a lot of sense, only when you “pick and choose” in order to attempt to make fun of it does it seem like it doesnt.
christians dont really care if people want to make fun of them, because those that are Real christians dont really have anything to be ashamed of. (emphasis on the word “real”, there seem to be a lot of people that claim to be, but really are hypocrites)
but this site is for real help too, so if you have anything else that you want help on, im sure that all the christians here would be glad to help.
i think i need to cut down on my usage of the word “real” and “Really” now… dang i overused them…
If you read the Bible and accept what it is teaching, it all agrees.
If you pick up the Bible to prove something you already believe and try to see if the Bible agrees, you are already in trouble.
Bible studies… Well I guess it’s like any school when you have to read any book. Read chapter 1 and then they talk about what it means, read chapter 2.
As for “How many people pick up a bible, read from page one to finish in one go?
I don’t have a statistic for you but I’m guessing a lot of people do it, to get an overview.
From a religious stand point I don’t think reading the entire Bible necessarily means anything of importance. I had a girl in my youth group back in high school who claimed to have read it, yet she lived her life like she didn’t even know who Jesus was. It’s not what you read, it’s what you take from it. If you don’t read the Bible and just parts, you need to read the entire book the excerpt comes from, so that you can’t take things out of context. Reading it doesn’t make you a better Christian, or a more informed atheist for that matter.
To just answer your question, I’m sure there are a lot of people who have said that they read the Bible from front to back. Cut that number in half and you’ll have a more truthful number.
Hmmmmmm…. nothing against Christians, but that book is so thick and heady!
If only there was a nice abridged version that just contained the positive elements!
Such as Jesus’ message!
Can’t say I like the idea that God would hurl fire and brimstone and two cities full of people!
Dougie the Pisces wrote:
Hmmmmmm…. nothing against Christians, but that book is so thick and heady!
If only there was a nice abridged version that just contained the positive elements!
Such as Jesus’ message!
Can’t say I like the idea that God would hurl fire and brimstone and two cities full of people!
Good news, Dougie! There is an abridged version!
If you want to start small read the Gospel of John.
Note: Maybe not everyone will agree on that but I think its an excellent starting point.
aye, i agree reading a lot of it seems… annoying. they have lists of names pages long and such that just get in the way.
the important parts can be boring too.
but there are actually some good stories in the bible as well,
but reading the whole thing isnt even neccessary. just understanding it is good enough i think.
Fire(Light) wrote:
aye, i agree reading a lot of it seems… annoying. they have lists of names pages long and such that just get in the way.
the important parts can be boring too.
but there are actually some good stories in the bible as well,
but reading the whole thing isnt even neccessary. just understanding it is good enough i think.
Uhmmmm???????? How do you understand it if you don’t read it?
[/quote]
Good news, Dougie! There is an abridged version!
If you want to start small read the Gospel of John.
Note: Maybe not everyone will agree on that but I think its an excellent starting point.[/quote]
I’ve read the gospels, genesis, exodus, and revelation!
Plus performed in the stage-show Godspell!
I think that’s where most of the gist is!
I’m not a Christian myself, but I do believe in turning the other cheek, and forgiveness!
thats a good question.
part of that would be from knowing what the message of the book is, and to get that, you do have to read some.
but many biblical scholars can teach you other parts, im just saying you dont have to read ALL of it, like as in every word. i still suggest reading most of it though.
Fire(Light) wrote:
thats a good question.part of that would be from knowing what the message of the book is, and to get that, you do have to read some.but many biblical scholars can teach you other parts, im just saying you dont have to read ALL of it, like as in every word. i still suggest reading most of it though.
So you are willing to let some one else tell you what the Bible says? I’d rather read it myself and see first hand.
Sorry missed your last sentence there. I agree except I would change “most” to “all”. The problem with so much of today’s so called Christianity is that people DON’T read the whole thing and they start picking out only what they want to believe. So much of Jesus’ teachings on denying self are ignorred.
and i agree that by picking out parts that we miss a lot of stuff.
i mostly think this way because while i try to read a lot of the bible, i haven read all of it, and feel that i am a very competent christian.
but, reading it is still very … time consuming. at least when its an uninteresting part.
Lists of names don’t really help a person too much unless you are interested in geneologies. Some of them are proof that Jesus was truly a decendant of King David and various other prophecies about Him.
Here is a tip: Spend 15 minutes every day and read a short passage. It also adds inspiration to the day as well as increasing Bible knowledge.
I’ve read the entire lot, page for page. I would not reconmmend it as a light piece of reading unless you are particularily enamoured by animal sacrifice.
interesting… im listenning to thousand foot krutchs learn to breath right now…
when you said that…
A high majority of people don’t read the Bible straight through. But many, many long time Christians will be very familiar with the Bible and will have read at least most of it, and may even be able to name verses off the top of their head.
amhp wrote:
A high majority of people don’t read the Bible straight through. But many, many long time Christians will be very familiar with the Bible and will have read at least most of it, and may even be able to name verses off the top of their head.
Well said.
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Interesting reading these replies. I realize now my original question was based on all kinds of assumptions: one, that Christians actually read the whole Bible; two, that Christian beliefs were based mostly on those readings; and three: that those beliefs made sense somehow in that context. The ‘Christian’ replies lead me to believe that it is possible, even probable, that most Christians haven’t read the whole Bible, or even much of it, that their belief system is only tangentially related to the Bible and that questioning and/or thinking about the Bible and/or those beliefs is somehow threatening to Christians. While I don’t believe that this represents the whole Chrisitan community, it is enough to allow me to continue reading the Bible without being concerned that modern Chrisitanity has much to do with it.
I Read It All, Aged 13, Over A Year.
I am in the process of reading the whole Bible in order. I was about to commit to atheism and I thought it might be prudent to read it before I discarded it. I was fed up with ‘organized religion’. I am no longer in ANY danger of becoming an atheist, but I am not particularly happy with Christianity as it stands any longer. Everything the church had ever said about the OT God was untrue - he’s not a mean guy in the OT like they say. He is INFINITELY forgiving. He forgives people for eating their kids. That’s forgiveness. The thing about the Bible that I learned is that it’s like Ally MacBeal. You can enjoy it if you only watch one of the later episodes, but unless you watch them all in order you won’t get most of the jokes. The Bible constantly refers to things from way back, that unless you know about them you don’t get the context of what’s going on in the passage you’re reading. And Jesus quotes the OT sometimes and gets credit for it as an original saying. “Turn the other cheek” is from Lamentations 3:30. He’s quoting Jeremiah - the prophet who wrote Lamentations.
I also looked up things that I read about and found out they were true in the secular world. Hezekiah’s tunnel is still standing. Many things are still standing. They have the seal of Jeremiah’s scribe. Daniel is documented extensively in Persian records as having been a real officer of the court. So much of it has been found to be substantiated. No they haven’t found the ark, but that’s only one story in a vast, vast book.
The boring books aren’t so terribly boring either. You’re reading the Bible so you’re already set up to think you’re going to be bored. Try not to read it like a textbook, really get into it. And don’t give God a voice - even if he’s in all caps - let him speak for himself. I will say this and then I’ll wrap it up - it is of the utmost importance to read it IN ORDER. Use the Jewish order for the OT if you want to, but the point is you have to read at least each book on its own. DO NOT CHERRY PICK THE BIBLE. You will not have the knowledge of the context to understand what’s going on if you don’t. That’s how people got this impression that the OT God was overbearing and mean. You will get to points where you get mad and wonder what on earth he’s doing, but wait a few chapters or even a whole book and it will come out why he did what he did, and you’ll understand it and probably agree with it. There is even humor. I found the book of Jonah (and the whale) hilarious. God even has a sense of humor with him. God also shows his compassion greatly in that book. But Jonah reminds me of a grumpy old man - like I said - he’s so funny. And there’s much more to that story than you remember from your book of children’s Bible stories.
If you want the reading to go easier, and fundamentalists will have my head for this, read a more modern translation, sometimes they’re truer to the original language than the King James and it’s easier to understand without the thee’s and thous. I started out at a hair’s breadth of atheism and ended the OT crying because I would ‘miss’ God. (Because that’s the last time he talks before you hit the NT if you’re Christian and believe the NT).
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I think this is a great conversation. I am a Bible teacher and I knew of statistics that 10% of Christians have read the entire Bible, so I was looking to see what people think about that and if anybody really seems to care. At first it looked like people didn’t even realize it or even the importance of reading the whole thing, but as I read more, I was encouraged by the dialogue and how people really do want to know about the Bible, even if they have had quite enough of people calling themselves Christian and living in hypocrisy. That’s why I love my job as a Bible teacher, because my whole job is getting people to realize how amazing God’s word is when you start to understand it and not just pick and choose.
If someone was trying to see what a jigsaw puzzle picture was, would they put a couple random pieces together and say that they understood? No, that person would put the puzzle together. And putting a puzzle together takes time, whereas most people would be satisfied with just a little piece, if it was their favourite colour or something, but in studying God’s word, you see God and when you consider how big God is, you are looking at quite an adventure of knowing Him more. That’s what I hear people looking for and if Christians would take the Bible seriously enough to be able to show it to them, this would be a different world.
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I am rading the Bible for the second time. It is like a good book that you just cannot put down. Second time around it is easier to read with a little help from the internet.
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*Dougie*
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