Basic HTML Version
by
Ronald D. Kelly
Out-of-date in the nuclear age? A
collection of ancient superstitions? Or the
most up-to-date book
available? You need to know!
w.T
a paradox. The Bible is
consistently on the best-seller list. Yet for
many who have a copy it is one of the least
read and most often misunderstood of books.
10
The chances are, if you hav.e a Bible in your
home, it primarily occupies space on the
bookshelf. Or it sits on a coffee table as part of
the living room decor.
Or it's there in the nightstand drawer by your
bed. But read it? Understand it? Not many do.
What the Bible ls
Why should tbat be? The Bible is tbe oldest used book
known to man, and at the same time the most
up-to-date book avaílable.
So why don't people read the Bible? Tbere are
probably as many reasons as there are people.
Few know that in its pages are revealed tbe purpose
of man, the reasons for the course of human history
and prophecies of wbat is to come upon this generation.
You would think more people would want to
understand these tbings.
ls it any wonder that the Bible has been viewed as a
book you can't understand. Author Bruce Barton
referred to it in a book title as
The Book Nobody
Knows.
And that has generally been true. Not many
people have understood the Bible.
But you can.
1Accepted a Challenge
While listening to
The World Tomorrow
on radio more
than 30 years ago, 1 decided to accept Herbert W.
Armstrong's cballenge, "Blow the dust off your Bible.
Read it. Find out what it really says. You'Jl be shocked
at the truth of your own Bible."
l decided to start reading the Bible. Like many
American bornes, ours had a Bible or two. But 1 bad
not read it. In Sunday school, we sometimes read sorne
verses, but usually we had quarterlies and lesson plans.
During worship services no one took a Bible. The
minister usually had a text for the message of the day.
It
seemed to me the Bible was a book for only ministers
toread.
Mr. Armstrong cballenged listeners, "Get out your
Bibles. Read tbe scriptures. Prove wbetber what 1 say
is true or not."
1 decided toread tbe Bible. 1 didn't know where to
star t or how to go about
it,
so l decided to begin at the
beginning. That made sense. l started witb Genesis 1: 1,
" In tbe beginning God created.... " 1 got tbrough tbe
first four cbapters-how God made tbe beavens and
the earth and all Jife-the account of the first humans
in a garden (familiar from Sunday school)-and the
story of Caín and Abe!.
Tben l carne to Genesis 5. Here was a whole chapter
of hard-to-pronounce names and somebody begetting
somebody else who, in turn begat yet anotber. l
couldn't understand why all that was important. But 1
read on.
The story of the Flood in cbapter 6 was a
challenge-and the repopulation of the eartb in the
following chapters. Then carne Genesis 10. Another
whole chapter of names-even harder to pronounce
than tbose in cbapter 5.
" 1 just don't understand all tbis," 1 said to myself. 1
put the Bible back on the shelf. There it sat for more
than three years.
The PLAIN TRUTH