Try it. You may find out for yourself. Realize how a life giving word, a living word opens potentia to become again children of God. I believe it's omnipotent.
I, my wife, my adult son and his wife together did a one year through the Bible course that was led by a skilled pastor teacher via YouTube. My son and his wife had been studying the Bible for about 20 years before that. I am my wife had been studying the Bible only for about three years before that. I can say without qualification that our previous study of various parts of Christian doctrine was invaluable to helping us truly understand much of what we learned in the one year through the Bible course. I suppose everyone is different but I don’t think we would have learned nearly as much or understood 1/10th of what we learned in the one year course had we not done some focused studies on Christian doctrine before then.
One such previous course I had undertaken was a focused study of basic Christian doctrine. That was a 10 part series of 1 hour lectures along with a study guide that took me approximately three months to complete in my spare time.
If anyone is interested, respond to my comment and I can provide links to the various courses, including the one year through the Bible course. None of the courses have any cost associated with them. They are all offered totally free of charge.
Here’s the thing. When reading God’s Word you have to remember it is reading you too. The Word is living and sharper than any two edged sword. It will cut you and heal you. I have read the Bible from cover to cover it was only when I prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to give me revelation before reading, to show me the things He wants to teach me did it come alive. I recommend doing that. Sometimes He will keep you on one Scripture for a month. It’s important that you let the Holy Spirit lead you, otherwise you won’t know what God is trying to tell you. It’s important that you are led by the Spirit and not doing things on your own power.
Agreed, but it’s not an either-or. You can do both. The problem is that only about 6% read the Bible regularly at all, so even fewer have established (for lack of a better term) the biblical vocabulary to understand that one Scripture in its proper context.
This is a wonderful admonishment Dr. Rod...thank you so much for sharing. My husband, 5 year old daughter and I read through the Bible, slower pace of course. We read the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) in the morning and the Christian Scriptures (New Testamament) in the evening. It amazes me how a holy, just, wise God governs and preserves all His creatures and all their actions...pprovidence. The Scriptures principally teach us that: God exist; what we are to believe concerning Him; and what is our duty. This is our duty: to know Him, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (John 17:3). That is eternal life; evidence of eternal life is to obey God (His Holy Bible) fully.
Ok, sold. I’ll read through the Bible straight through from cover to cover page by page in written order in 2026. I have 3 days left on the Chronological plan. 1st time reading through the Bible in a year.
I have been reading the Bible straight through, Genesis to Revelation, as you suggest, for 20 years. ( It’s easier to keep my place that way.) But Rod, are you suggesting that the ORDER of the books is inspired just as their CONTENT is inspired?
I thought the order was merely laid out in a human-conceived logical sequence.
It is not a stretch that God uses that particular order, but I have never considered that it was on the same level as the content of each inspired book.
I realize that this is controversial, but I think the logic is clear enough. God inspired the text and inspired those who set the canon to understand which books were actually canon. They then very deliberately chose an order for those books that has stuck for 2,000 years across Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions.*
That's really quite remarkable. And not likely to be accidental.
I contend that the order IS inspired, because the Bible is a complete book and its Author had an order in mind from the beginning. And the more I read the Bible, the clearer that seems to be, because there is meaningful literary development from beginning to end of the canon that cannot be coincidental.
*EXCEPT: Luther deprecated four NT books other Protestants accept, and grouped them together at the end; while of course most Protestants do not recognize the Apocrypha.
Thanks for the thoughtful and well reasoned answer, Rod.
To support your position somewhat, I once heard a quite mature student of the Scriptures observe that Paul’s general epistles followed the outline of 2 Tim 3.16 (Scripture is given for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness).
His thought:
Romans teaching doctrine of salvation
1-2 Cor rebuking the same
Galatians correcting
Ephesians teaching doctrine of the church
Phil rebuking the same
Col correcting
I don’t recall if the pattern held further than that, but he argued that the construction (of the NT, at least) was divinely prompted.
Thanks for the discussion. Hope your new year is prosperous in faith and life.
Try it. You may find out for yourself. Realize how a life giving word, a living word opens potentia to become again children of God. I believe it's omnipotent.
I, my wife, my adult son and his wife together did a one year through the Bible course that was led by a skilled pastor teacher via YouTube. My son and his wife had been studying the Bible for about 20 years before that. I am my wife had been studying the Bible only for about three years before that. I can say without qualification that our previous study of various parts of Christian doctrine was invaluable to helping us truly understand much of what we learned in the one year through the Bible course. I suppose everyone is different but I don’t think we would have learned nearly as much or understood 1/10th of what we learned in the one year course had we not done some focused studies on Christian doctrine before then.
One such previous course I had undertaken was a focused study of basic Christian doctrine. That was a 10 part series of 1 hour lectures along with a study guide that took me approximately three months to complete in my spare time.
If anyone is interested, respond to my comment and I can provide links to the various courses, including the one year through the Bible course. None of the courses have any cost associated with them. They are all offered totally free of charge.
Here’s the thing. When reading God’s Word you have to remember it is reading you too. The Word is living and sharper than any two edged sword. It will cut you and heal you. I have read the Bible from cover to cover it was only when I prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to give me revelation before reading, to show me the things He wants to teach me did it come alive. I recommend doing that. Sometimes He will keep you on one Scripture for a month. It’s important that you let the Holy Spirit lead you, otherwise you won’t know what God is trying to tell you. It’s important that you are led by the Spirit and not doing things on your own power.
Agreed, but it’s not an either-or. You can do both. The problem is that only about 6% read the Bible regularly at all, so even fewer have established (for lack of a better term) the biblical vocabulary to understand that one Scripture in its proper context.
Allocating time to both is important for both.
This is a wonderful admonishment Dr. Rod...thank you so much for sharing. My husband, 5 year old daughter and I read through the Bible, slower pace of course. We read the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) in the morning and the Christian Scriptures (New Testamament) in the evening. It amazes me how a holy, just, wise God governs and preserves all His creatures and all their actions...pprovidence. The Scriptures principally teach us that: God exist; what we are to believe concerning Him; and what is our duty. This is our duty: to know Him, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (John 17:3). That is eternal life; evidence of eternal life is to obey God (His Holy Bible) fully.
Ok, sold. I’ll read through the Bible straight through from cover to cover page by page in written order in 2026. I have 3 days left on the Chronological plan. 1st time reading through the Bible in a year.
It may take a little getting used to, but it's amazing.
I have been reading the Bible straight through, Genesis to Revelation, as you suggest, for 20 years. ( It’s easier to keep my place that way.) But Rod, are you suggesting that the ORDER of the books is inspired just as their CONTENT is inspired?
I thought the order was merely laid out in a human-conceived logical sequence.
It is not a stretch that God uses that particular order, but I have never considered that it was on the same level as the content of each inspired book.
I realize that this is controversial, but I think the logic is clear enough. God inspired the text and inspired those who set the canon to understand which books were actually canon. They then very deliberately chose an order for those books that has stuck for 2,000 years across Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions.*
That's really quite remarkable. And not likely to be accidental.
I contend that the order IS inspired, because the Bible is a complete book and its Author had an order in mind from the beginning. And the more I read the Bible, the clearer that seems to be, because there is meaningful literary development from beginning to end of the canon that cannot be coincidental.
*EXCEPT: Luther deprecated four NT books other Protestants accept, and grouped them together at the end; while of course most Protestants do not recognize the Apocrypha.
Thanks for the thoughtful and well reasoned answer, Rod.
To support your position somewhat, I once heard a quite mature student of the Scriptures observe that Paul’s general epistles followed the outline of 2 Tim 3.16 (Scripture is given for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness).
His thought:
Romans teaching doctrine of salvation
1-2 Cor rebuking the same
Galatians correcting
Ephesians teaching doctrine of the church
Phil rebuking the same
Col correcting
I don’t recall if the pattern held further than that, but he argued that the construction (of the NT, at least) was divinely prompted.
Thanks for the discussion. Hope your new year is prosperous in faith and life.
I know this much: if I wrote a book, I'd care about the order. And indeed, our God is a God of order.
Happy New Year! Thanks for the discussion!