MY MEMOIRS ARE MY LEGACY - Bruce Atchison

I'm convinced that one way to leave a good lasting legacy is to write memoirs. Having read many in preparation for writing my second book, I found the personal stories of being in a blind school most helpful. Learning the details of life in those institutions reassured me that my recollections were valid.

Though I wrote about some bad things which happened in my life, my latest memoir shows how God providentially used those to give me a passion for his truth. Being in a cultic house church and learning the minister's blasphemous doctrines now fuels my desire to study the scriptures as God meant them to be understood.

I learned so much from excellent Bible teachers such as Hank Hanegraaff, John MacArthur, and R. C. Sproul. They taught me the concept that everything in Scripture must be taken in its proper context. This includes cultural and literary aspects. Much of the Bible is a mystery to new believers because they weren't taught about the Old Testament times and cultural norms. Neither do they know how to interpret the various genres of writing in the scriptures.

The danger regarding reading the Bible  without an understanding of its history and the Lord's character is that people come up with bizarre ideas and misconceptions. The house church I attended had many false notions. One of those was the idea that evil spirits could be kept out of a person's home by dedicating it to the Lord. The lay minister got this notion from Deuteronomy 20:5 which reads, "And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it." As you can read from the context, demons are totally foreign to the context of Israel going to war. Uneducated believers, as I once was, would never know this without being taught how to read verses in context.

This is just one example of how my latest book is a perpetual blessing to my familial relatives as well as my siblings in the body of Christ regarding reading his Word. Showing, rather than telling, demonstrates how gullible I was and how wicked the church elders were. The end of How I Was Razed shows our heavenly Father's gentle leading as I transitioned from naive believer to biblically-equipped saint.

Furthermore, he bore my angry words when my eyesight grew worse instead of better, no matter how I psyched myself up to believe he would heal me. Now I understand clearly about providence and how the Lord works through disabilities. I'm much happier now than I was in that cult  because I understand the true nature of our heavenly Father.

One thing I want to do for my family members is to write a memoir about my sister Diane and our adventures during our formative years. Before I was exiled to Jericho Hill School for the Deaf and Blind, Diane and I were best friends. We walked everywhere together and had so much fun. I'd like to share that part of my life, especially with Diane's children. My sister died in 2004 of a liver disease so I now have nobody who I can reminisce with about those relatively carefree days. The book will be a memorial to my beloved sister who I still miss today.

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth -- Bruce Atchison

How should we read the Bible? It sounds like a ridiculous question, yet it needs to be asked. Why? Because many Christians have never been taught how to properly read it for all its worth.

The Bible contains several genres of literature. The historical books, such as Exodus, 1 and 2 Kings, and Acts, are straight-forward narratives. These are relatively easy for us to understand.

The wisdom literature, such as Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, teach general truths that we can apply to our lives. They aren't exactly promises but applying the principles of wisdom usually bring us good results.

The Psalms are the poetry section of the Bible. They were originally sung but they can be read without losing the beauty of the words. Some of them, such as Psalm 22, are prophetic. Crucifixion hadn't even been invented when it was written, yet it describes Christ's torment in graphic detail. This is also likely why he quoted the first verse while he was being crucified.

Scripture contains many prophetic books. These seem puzzling to those who lack the knowledge of the times in which they were written. Yet the fulfilled prophesies in these books help prove the divine nature of the Bible as being from God and not merely of human origin.

The letters in the New Testament are the instruction manuals for the early church. Though we can learn much from the spiritual principles, matters such as dress and meat offered to idols no longer have the importance they once did.

The most puzzling genre in Scripture is the apocryphal books. Because many Bible teachers today neglect the fact that the readership of those books was the people to whom they were sent, all sorts of bizarre doctrines have been invented to explain passages within them. As The Bible Answer Man host, Hank Hanegraaff has said many times, "The Bible was written for us, not to us."

We Christians would be well served by studying the ancient cultures of the Middle East. By doing so, all of us would gain a deeper understanding of the types and shadows in the Old Testament Jesus Christ and the apostles made frequent references to passages which their audience or readership knew well. This is why it's crucial to study the Bible in its historical and cultural context.

Scripture should not be used as a dictionary. Instead of considering the context of verses, various cults and ignorant persons isolate verses that appear to prove their ideas. Then they build whole doctrines around them, as Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:16. Keeping the context in mind will always result in a better understanding of what the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets and apostles.