Understanding the Bible for Average Christians vol. I

By T.J. Smith

Understanding the Bible can be difficult, if not downright impossible. Your own presumptions, your education, and the influences from church teachers and pastors all shaped the way you understand and interpret Scripture. Throughout my years of study, I have noticed the same flawed, poor interpretations and misunderstandings keep a perpetual cycle of confusion swirling within the church. I wrote this series of books containing individual studies and essays to deal with many of the topics which perplex believers on a daily basis.There are several reasons this scriptural struggle persists. The main issue deals with not understanding the overall narrative of the Bible. This narrative is generally never developed or taught in the church. Yes, "Jesus saves, God loves us and that's all that matters" might be true, but it is not the whole story. "God's not finished with me yet" has made a cute bumper sticker, but it hasn't expressed the deeper, more centralized focus of the Bible.So, what is this "narrative" that has been the malnutrition of the church? In my opinion, your "Biblical Narrative" should begin with this: God redeemed mankind through a temporary covenant offered to Moses. This group failed to hold up their end of the bargain. Fortunately, God had already made a previous, unilateral covenant with Abraham, so God divorced natural Israel and married the Church: comprised of those who are faith from both natural Israel and Gentiles. Once you can grasp that, figuring out the rest comes easier. (not easy, but easier)Not everyone is inclined to work on their biblical acumen, Sadly, most Christians simply do not care if they truly understand Scripture. They are happy with pithy sermons on Sunday morning and being nice to their fellow humans. Hey, nothing wrong with that at all. I'll take that next-door neighbor any day. But for the Christian who has a genuine interest in knowing what the Bible means, this book was written for them. In this book, I deal with myriad topics, word and verse studies, doctrines, sermons gone wrong, and how to interpret difficult passages. Some, if not the majority, of these chapters were created after hearing the subject matter butchered by some well-meaning pastor, or teacher I heard in Sunday school, or watched on television. It is always my desire for people to study, not just read, the Bible. I hope you are one of those Christians who is earnest in your desire to learn what the Bible really means. Feel free to skip around, as this is not a book that needs to be read in chronological order. Enjoy the topics and I know that you will learn more about the Bible than you did before!

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1793352151
• ISBN13: 9781793352156
• Release Date: January 2019
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 151 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.4" x 6.0"