Read the Bible. Seriously. It’ll Make You a Better (All Around) Person & My 3 Reasons – 066
The Word made Flesh – AUDIO NSFW
What’s up guys? This is gonna be a fun one. You should read the Bible. Yep, you should read the Bible. Okay, okay, okay, okay, before you turn it off, before you go and roll in your eyes and doing all sorts of heavy sighs or whatever you’re gonna do, trust me, it’s not gonna be religious or whatever, however you deem that. It’s not gonna be spiritual however you deem that guys. I’m just gonna look at this idea of rationally, guys.
I got my notes in front of me here and I just want to tell you why you should read the Bible. Then at the end of all of this, maybe 20 minutes in or so, I’ll give you what the Bible has done for me. We’re gonna give you good 15 minutes or so on this talking about why you should read the Bible and then I’ll give you my personal stuff at the end. How’s that guys?
We are in a world where Bible illiteracy is at an all-time high. The Catholic Church for example only has a small part of the Old Testament and it’s a official readings or so and the Jews, they only read like the first five books. If you’re an Orthodox Jew, you actually spend most of your time in the Talmud and not even really in the Bible all that much.
What you have at least in America is you have the Evangelical Christians. These are the pretty much the only type of religious groups that generally have cultural desires that you should as a member of a Evangelical Christian Church or Evangelical Christian community. They have these desires that you should read the entire Bible. They’re not wrong. You really should.
Let’s look at this as to why this is one of those things that you don’t learn in school, this is one of those things that, frankly, they’re trying to take obviously religion and Bible and all that stuff out of school and maybe there’s a grand agenda to that, but I’m not gonna go off onto that tangent.
Here’s what you need to know, there is 2.5 billion Christians or so-called Christians out in the world today. That’s pretty much a third of the world’s population, you give or take a few million. It’s about the third of the world’s population. If you’re living in America specifically, this is a powerful, powerful, powerful idea that in and in many ways, at least in America, so much of America has been formed, shaped by Christian thinkers, God thinkers, individuals who had some relevance or some context or some experience engaging with the Bible.
Let’s just ask the question, merely ask the question, where does Christianity today if you’re living in America, where does it permeate? Well guys, you don’t have to actually think that hard. Schools, obviously, certain types of schools, Christian schools. Public schools don’t like it so there’s all there’s always gonna be that rub there. Sports, you kind of see sometimes sports athletes raising their finger after they scored that goal, after they hit that homerun, after they got that trophy. They’re raising their hands to the heavens. For what? Well, there’s some spirituality, there’s some religion there. Politics, come on guys, isn’t there so much religion and so much Christianity in politics. The whole idea about how you’re born, when you’re born, when you’re a human. These type of things what about the whole Leviticus thing, the whole the whole thing about sexuality, right? This plays into politics real well—local and state.
What about TV, entertainment, music, books? Pretty much everything in the Western world has been influenced by Christianity either directly or indirectly through actors and people who just happen to be Christian. This is the crux of my argument here as I was writing down these notes.
The crux of my argument is it’s so important to be, to understand not to be, but to understand this perspective, this Christian worldview. I think sometimes it’s hard to extract ourselves especially if we’re living here in America, it’s hard to extract ourselves from the realities that so much of the template of America, the template of our culture, the template of the times is because of individuals who were affected, effected, affected by Christianity at some level.
I believe guys, and this is important, kind of the crux of my argument here, that understanding the underpinnings of the number one religion should be part of a balanced world view diet. That’s what I wrote down in my notes. Understanding the underpinnings, which is Christianity, the number one religion, by like a billion people by the way because I think Islam is the next at like 1.5-1.6 or something maybe but it doesn’t matter. Christianity is number one.
Therefore understanding the underpinnings of the number one religion should be part of a balanced worldview diet. So much leverages, so much in the world especially in the Western world leverages the messages of Christianity. The sayings, slogans, and even entire organization’s view of the world and entire organization’s mission that’s Christian centric, that’s spiritual centric, that’s God eccentric.
Frankly, and I think this is important, frankly, without biblical knowledge, you’ll often fall victim to the misinterpretation by the world’s finest – the mockingbird mainstream media. So without biblical knowledge, you will constantly be fed misinterpretation by those who would leverage the Bible, leverage Christianity to their agendas, to their ideas, and to their schemes.
Even if I wasn’t a Christian, even if I wasn’t who I am today, I would still study the Bible. I would still dig into it. Actually, one of my master’s degrees—I focused a lot on world religions in my M.Div.—I spent a lot of time trying to understand and functionally decompose the different religions; where there was intersectionality, where there were a commonality, where there was alignment, and whether there was misalignment. And how the leaders within those particular religions, how the leaders and the God heads and all the representatives managed and interpreted what the Word of God was to them.
You see, I truly believe, and I’m pulling for myself a little bit here, that biblical knowledge is so important to have because so much of the world leverages it. So much of the world uses it. I think we should be in the know. I wrote a couple of ideas down here that might help liven up the debate. Or do you like to debate, actually? That should be it. Do you like to debate? Do you like to discuss things with other people? Were you that type of individual that likes to take a side and go through apologetics to be able to defend your side, maybe that’s going too far, maybe that’s just me? But there are people who like to debate. There are people who like to understand things. Then understanding in my view that understanding the Bible should be essential if you love to discuss things and you love to debate.
The greatest understanding of good versus evil is found in my opinion in the Bible. The greatest heroes of all the Bible argued, reasoned, pleaded, and fought with God. They all did. If you like to debate, if you like to discuss, if you like to try and debunk things, if you like to have conversations deep conversations about things of the world and certainly part of the world is Christianity, faith and spirituality, and these types of things, well guess what, we had lots of examples of that in the Bible.
For example, Job. You might know about Job, Job questioned God’s justice and mercy. Did he not? Did he not? Did he not ask God like what’s going on, bro? Why are you doing this? What about Abraham? Abraham demanded that God be merciful to Sodom. He did! Abraham demanded to God. He liked to debate. He liked to have those conversations. What about Moses? Moses in the Bible, he negotiated with God at the burning bush. Do you remember that? What about Gideon demanding divine proof before going to war? Show me proof God that you’re alive.
There are many individuals. These are just four examples that I wrote down that came to mind. But there are many examples of individuals who fought with God. You know what one of the things that I love about the Psalms? David who wrote the Psalms, you know one of the things that I love the most is he gave God his full heart. He talked to God like a personal relationship. It was really cool.
I think one of the coolest things about David’s example within his relationship with God, and you can see this clearly as day. If you read it for what it is, he argues with God. He gets mad at God. He talks to God like he’s a friend. He talks to God like he’s a foe. He reasons with him. He says bro, why aren’t you destroying these motherfuckers? Then the next thing is like please forgive me for being a terrible person. I love the authenticity of David and that’s something to be emulated. That’s something to want to be like, to be someone who just allows you to see them for who they are.
That’s what I love about the Bible. It gives us great examples of so many things. What about if you desire? I wrote this down. What if you desire finding meaning or you’re into social justice and equality? The Bible is something you should certainly read if you desire finding meaning or for social justice or equality in the world. All the greatest characters in the Bible had encounters with God that were somewhat enviable.
God showed up in amazing ways and helped them find their meaning. The Bible also has a lot to say about social justice and equality. The Bible has a lot to say about the value of human life, human dignity, equal rights for everyone. Jesus was one of the best examples of showing that children were valuable and even women too.
There’s so many examples of where Jesus met with women, that from a cultural standpoint, shouldn’t have been even engaging with, let alone talking to them. What about children? Children were worth less than dirt back then. He always called for the children. He was a great example of equality, social justice, and the value of human life, human dignity, equal rights.
What about the Apostle Peter? The Apostle Peter in the New Testament was showing the value equality of person. The Lord showed him that he should not call unclean that which God had called clean. Paul and his Damascus conversion, he found purpose. God gave him purpose. These are amazing stories that should be read. These are amazing stories of human transformation and whether you believe divine inspiration or not, the Bible is something that is part of the collective conscious of the West. It permeates so much thinking.
For those who have listened to me on podcast, I’ve had people call me out and say wow, it sounds like you’re pulling from the Christian X or Christian Y or Christian Z. It’s like well, it’s just part of where I am, part of who I am. It’s just how I communicate.
What if you desire for a better life? What do you desire for a better life? If you’re desiring for a life worth living, well, the Bible can help you find that purpose. It can help inspire you. Some of the greatest stories and plot twists and events happening in the Bible, I could almost look at it this way, some of the best plot twists, some of the best story writing, before story writing was a thing. it’s all in the Bible.
Betrayal, wacky things happening, naked men sometimes doing wacky stuff with wacky people. I can think of a lot of stories in the back of my mind guys. Many of them are hilarious. So many of the stories, they show you the depth of man, the good and the bad, the shallowness of man, the foolishness of man and certainly the pride of man.
There’s a lot to be learned from this book on how to live better; how to be more thoughtful; how to be have a better loving life. You may just appreciate life more just because you’ve read the Bible. I haven’t even talked about the spiritual side of stuff. I haven’t even talked about faith. Here’s my argument. The argument is that there’s 2.5 billion Christians in the world today.
The West is certainly been molded and formed and shaped by Christian ideology, Christian worldview, Christian affects. Everything in the West has Christian context in it. Everything in the world that you interact with has in the West Christian undertones, whether it’s school or sports or politics or TV or entertainment or music or books—it all is affected.
The freedoms that we have are certainly freedoms that can be emulated from the Bible. Do you like to debate? Do you like to discuss? Do you desire to find meaning? Do you care about social justice and equality? Do you desire to have a better life and life worth living? All of this can be found in the Bible. Just merely through reading it, you can find the human experience. When you can find and see and experience and enjoy that for what it is, I’m telling you, it’ll reveal things about yourself that you never knew.
Now, I haven’t even talked about faith yet. I’m not gonna talk about it. I’m not gonna evangelize to anyone here, but you might just be able to find what you’re looking for by reading the Bible. It should be a source of knowledge. So much of what the world around us is affected by it. I think it’s ignorant, frankly, and I’ll just call it for what it is, I think frankly, it’s ignorant to not understand some of them, at least the basic tenets of what it’s about. I’ll just go with that.
So what has the Bible done for me? I’ll give you three things. These is not exhaustive by any means, but I’ll tell you what the Bible has done for me:
- The Bible has allowed me to further inform the reasons as to why I believe what I believe.
You might say, well, wow, that’s cool man. What does that really mean? What it means is now I have reasons. I have great reasons. I have excellent reasons not just because this was some document, not because just some people read or wrote what they wrote, but I can see the human experience just what I was talking about through these men and women in the Bible. I can see why I do what I do. I could see why I’m flawed the way I’m flawed. I can see why I have broken thinking the way that I sometimes I’ve broken thinking.
Because men and women of the past, who wrestled with God, met with God, met with this Christ figure, they still failed. It shows me that I’m not that special. It shows me that I make the same mistakes, that I’m human, that I have issues like everyone else. I have the psychosis that some of these characters of the Bible have. I have the insanity of some of them.
I have the terribleness in my heart that can be there just like all of them which allows me to resonate with their story, to be more than just empathetic. I can be sympathetic to their story because I realize that I am like so many of the characters of the Bible. Because of that, because I can see myself in so many of the characters in the Bible, it allows me to understand why I believe what I believe. I need something greater than myself. That’s deep.
- The Bible has allowed me to be educated in the symbolism of the world.
The brain works on symbolism the brain. The brain works on symbols, guys. I’m not gonna go too much deeper into that. Google it. DuckDuckGo it. The brain works on symbols. But by reading the Bible, I am able to see the micro narratives, the undertones, the underpinnings of what people say. I can catch the little phrases that they use, that might allude to who they are. It allows me an insight to their soul and it allows me an insight to people’s communication.
Especially for me, since I studied world religions, I studied all your major ones in university especially in my Master’s, in my M.Div. I focused on Christianity, certainly the apologetics thereof. I focused on Islam and the Muslim culture. I studied Buddhism. I studied, frankly in my view, the big fallacies with this whole idea of atheism. Most people aren’t atheists, they’re just agnostic.
I mean to be atheist means you know, right? I think it’s far more reasonable to say you know what, I don’t know. I don’t know if there’s a God or not. It’s probably the more rational thing to say than to look at someone straight in the eye and say yeah, there is no (God). Taking that one on a lot of faith, aren’t you?
Number two, it allows me to understand the world of symbols. It allows me to more deeply understand humans and people and how they operate. This was one of one of the big reasons frankly as to why I ended up getting an M.Div. because I had gotten a Master’s in learning and cognitive science and how the brain works.
I got another Master’s in counselling in organizational behavior, how people organized themselves, how people self-organize, how people work together in communities and groups, communal behavior. The system’s thinking and these types of things.
- The Bible allows me to have discipline by reading it every day.
The worldview of faith. The worldview of religion. How did that affect decision-making? How do people take the religion and how does that affect their behaviors? This is important for me because I have a scientific mind and this is kind of what I’m naturally drawn to—the understanding of how people work.
This made a lot of sense to me to read the Bible. It helps me understand the world better. I’ll tell you about the one this is this has been great number three it allows me to have discipline by reading it every day. It allows me to have discipline to myself and to my kids and to my family because I write notes in there. I write notes in it. I write notes about how what it means to me in the moment. I write notes about why this is so important to remember because there’s a real life lesson here.
It allows me to share powerful passages in the future with my kids so when I give these note-written Bibles to them, it allows them to see, at least maybe in their mind’s eye, be able to hear their father when I’m long and dead and they’re reading this thing and saying, woooh, look at appa, what did he say here? What did he think was important here? Reading the Bible daily is not only a great discipline, but it allows me to communicate in the future to my kids and to my family when I’m long and dead because this is something that’s important to me.
The Bible has improved my life in so many ways, has informed my decisions around how the world works. It’s informed my decisions around how people operate. For me, the Bible is so crucial to be balanced, and I think this is an important word here, a balanced worldview, a balanced understanding of how the world works.
If we’re only being in a consumerism world where we’re consuming stuff that’s just thrown at us and given to us in bite-sized chunks by news or whatever, we’re not getting into the heart or the deeper stuff of life. The Bible, I tell you have so many, so many answers, but sometimes maybe it creates even more questions answers for some of you guys. It has for me, as I’ve studied and studied and read it and read it, opened up the world to me.
I’ll tell you this, and I think this might sound a little spiritual here, but I’ll tell you, it’s always new. It really is. Every time I read through the Bible on a different stage of life, it’s always new. It’s always new. It speaks to me differently. It’s like a powerful magnifying glass into my soul and a powerful mirror to look at myself and say man, can you do better? Can you be better? Is this something you need to reflect on? Is it something that you need to improve on? So for me, the Bible is a great document. It’s a great thing to be informed about, to be educated about.
That’s gonna be my treatise on why you should read the Bible. Let me know in the comments section below whether you think this is something that you disagree with or maybe you agree with or maybe you want to just leave a comment as to why maybe this is something that isn’t taught in school.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Things You Don’t Learn In School, why reading the bible is so important, in my opinion. Share this. Subscribe. I’ll see you guys in the behind-the-scenes group.