Study All Scripture

This is the fourth article in our series on connecting with God. This one will cover connecting with God through the study of scripture and holy books. If you would like to read the other three first, click here.

Surprisingly, there are many Christians who have never read the Bible entirely, let alone thoroughly studied it. They rely on a preacher or priest to do that for them. They may have read a few favorite Bible verses, but rely on the preacher for the rest. But the preacher can’t get you into Heaven, the priest can’t awaken your spiritual faculties, you have to do that yourself. I don’t know if the same is true of Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims, but I do know that few people study the scripture of religions other than their own. Real scripture study, the kind that can help you connect with God, means looking beyond the scripture and teachings of your own church and studying others as well. Even just with Christianity, there are many versions of the Bible, and real Bible study means looking at several of them. Then we should look beyond the standard Christians to the Gnostics, Coptics, and other groups that have scripture of their own. The Holy Spirit can be found in nearly all scripture if you know enough to look for it. A loving God does not limit Himself to one group of people. Develop a personal relationship with scripture, and you will get more from it. In scripture, there is good news and bad, and we should study it all.

Reasons to Study Scripture

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” ~Timothy 3:16

To many, studying scripture is a part of Christian life. God’s presence may not literally be found in books, but we can get some idea of what the presence of God is like by reading and studying them. According to an online article in Christian Living, there are six reasons to study the Bible. The article has a paragraph or two for each reason, but here is a shorter version.

  • We quest for meaning beyond ourselves.
  • His Word creates life.
  • Scripture informs our brokenness and our joys.
  • Bible study is God’s Will for us.
  • Bible study deepens community.
  • Bible study grounds evangelism.

The website pursuitbible.com lists 21 benefits of studying the Bible. I won’t list them all, you can read the list by clicking here—but here are the more significant ones for us.

  • Receiving direction
  • Answering prayer
  • Instruction
  • Reviving the Soul
  • Victory in Spiritual Warfare

I would add to these lists that spiritual growth comes from working on your spiritual development.

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” ~Hebrews 4:12

We can generalize these to apply to all scripture and holy books. In the Bible, Ephesians advises us to `”put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.” The first item, the quest for meaning, is what connecting with God is all about. But one thing it is important to understand about scripture: scripture can point us to God, but scripture isn’t God. God is alive and cannot be captured in a book, any book. Scripture can point the way to knowing God and awakening our spiritual faculties, but we must go beyond scripture for our final answers. And when we study scripture, we must do more than simply read it. We must truly study it. We must question why certain things happened, or why the writer thought it was important enough to write down. We must ask what the scripture really means. We must also be aware that what is in the written scripture has changed over the centuries, sometimes intentionally, other times because the translator didn’t do a good job. We know, for example, that Emperor Constantine was involved in creating the first Christian Bible, and left out those books he didn’t like, and edited others to suit him. In recent decades, we have seen new versions of the Bible being created by translators who were very scholarly people but were not spiritually advanced people, so while their translations are literally correct, they are spiritually full of errors. That is why Christians should study several versions of the Bible, not just the one approved by their church. Remember that Jesus said he came to correct the interpretation of scripture, which means much of it was being misinterpreted.
“The gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world.“~Colossians

Study with Others

“ We are doing a scripture study together: reading along through some scriptures and discussing the passages.” ~Bhagavad Gita

“Think about what I have said and write down the thoughts that come to mind from the Bible, the New Testament, scripture, your professional studies, books you have read or whatever. Write down those ideas that come to you.” ~Gene Savoy, Sr. (Symposium Lectures)

Devotional study with others can be a great aid to learning scripture and getting that connection with God. There are essentially two ways to do this. One way is to study with like-minded people, people who are members of the same church, or at least the same religion. The other way is to study with people of other faiths or those who practice no faith at all. While both types can be useful, I think the second type would be most productive for real learning, provided you can avoid arguments. We help one another when we work together.

Consider Allegorical Meanings

“Now I have, in the tradition of the School, given you keys to open the secrets for yourself.

And above all things I want you to think for yourself. But remember that without these keys

you cannot unlock the allegorical teachings in scripture. A literal translation—that is a translation of ignorance—can only lead you, as it has so many people for so many centuries,

[in]to trouble. Literalism is the greatest danger to the world of high religion.” ~Gene Savoy, Sr. (Theology Lectures)

There is one primary reason why many people don’t get as much from scripture as they should, or consider it entirely nonsense: they interpret it literally. Scripture is not intended to be history. It is a teaching tool for spiritual and religious leaders. For that reason, it may include events or things that are not literally real. It may also include stories that are literally true, but the literal meaning is of little importance. In most cases, it is the allegorical meaning of the stories found in the Bible (both the New Testament and the Old Testament), the Upanishads, and most other books of scripture. So when reading scripture, be sure to take that into consideration. Scripture isn’t literally God’s word, it is the words of men attempting to understand and explain God. If we are to experience God, we have to understand that.

We all understand that the Bible story of the farmer throwing out seeds and some landing on rock, some on good soil, etc. is not a story about farming, but about spreading the word of God and awakening souls. We need to consider that most other stories, even if they are literally true, have an allegorical meaning that is more important. A good example of this is the story of Jesus Christ at the wedding turning water into wine. That may have literally happened, and many Christians consider it one of his greatest miracles, but it is more important for its allegorical meaning. And what makes it difficult, is a symbolic meaning may vary depending on the content or the author. In this case, water represents the ordinary person, the material person who’s spirit lies dormant, in a kind of coma. Wine represents the spiritual person, the Awakened person whose spirit is active. So the story is telling us that the real miracle Jesus performed was awakening materialistic people into spiritual ones.

Go Beyond Scripture

“So our movement is evangelical, pentecostal, and metanoic. And the Second Advent is dominant in our philosophy and theology, and of course we are charismatic with these new Teachings. We have new scripture. We have new doctrines, new statutes and judgments, a new Canon Law that fulfills Christianity, supplementing it, amending it, and accepting God as Redeemer.” ~Gene Savoy, Sr. (Theology Lectures)

Many churches and religions have books that are not considered scripture, but are meant to help us study scripture. I know the Catholic Church has many such books, and in Cosolargy and the Second Advent Church, we have many as well. These books can help you understand the ones that are considered actual scripture. But we must all remember that just as all spiritual instruction books are not written by qualified spiritual teachers, many of these scripture commentaries are written by people who themselves don’t completely understand scripture. So don’t just read, think and analyze. Follow up any references in these books to actual scripture by studying again the scripture mentioned.

Helpful Resources

Some helpful resources for scripture study include:

Be aware that some of these sites are aimed at one specific version of Christianity and are aimed at Christian traditionalists.

Summary

Awakening our Spiritual Self and connecting with God brings eternal life. The study of scripture can be an aid in that spiritual awakening, part of a spiritual life. But we can’t limit it to bible reading or reading various Upanishads. We must go beyond reading to truly studying scripture. Let your love of God lead you. God works through us now, not our ancient ancestors. We are all children of God, we just have to realize it. Develop reading plans for each book so you will stay on course. If you start with the Bible, learn how to study the bible using the resources listed earlier in this article. Make part of your prayer life praying for understanding of scripture each time you sit down during your quiet time to study. Petition God through prayer to help us understand the hidden meaning in scripture, rather than just for your daily bread. The heavenly Father listens to prayer requests that are spiritual in nature more than ones that are materialistic. Just as many keep a prayer journal, you can keep a journal of your scripture studies that you can refer back to. Scripture doesn’t have all the answers, but it’s a good place to start on your quest to connect with God.