This was my view before 1980. When I heard about reading through the Bible in a year on the 100 Huntley Street television show, I decided to enroll in their correspondence course and find out what the book actually said.
Each lesson was published in their Monthly magazine. As I read the large print Bible which I purchased for the course and studied the lessons, everything which seemed a mystery to me suddenly made sense.
One of those mysteries was the plethora of laws about sacrifices which God gave to Israel. Through these lessons, I saw how sacrificing pure and unspotted, male lambs was a foreshadowing of Christ's death on the cross for our sins. Even seemingly insignificant rules like not breaking any of the lamb's bones had its fulfillment when the Romans didn't break Christ's legs but shoved a spear into his side.
I also realized why the Israelites were made to wander forty years in the wilderness. It wasn't because Moses was too proud to ask for directions, as some jokers quip, but because the people of that generation kept rebelling against God by not trusting him.
Though I was in a cultic house church at the time, the Huntley Street course gave me great insight into the scriptures. It made murky things plain and showed me that the whole of redemptive history stretched from Genesis to Revelation. This is why I highly recommend studying the Bible in a systematic way to ALL believers. After all, shouldn't we treat the Word of God with the utmost interest and desire to know what he said?
Well-said, Bruce. Thanks for sharing the story of how you discovered the value of reading the whole Bible instead of relying on what others say about the Bible. "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Hebrews 4:12 NLT
ReplyDeleteThanks for this Bruce.
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