KNOWING THE BIBLE
Read and pray: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.” (2 Peter 3:18)
For a person to know the Bible, the same applies. There is the need for the mind and also for the spirit. No one can properly know the Bible while neglecting either of these aspects. To know the Bible, one must be trained in the mind and also exercised in the spirit.
However, regarding the knowledge of the Bible, Christians today take their stand either on the side of the mind or on the side of the spirit. Those who stand on the side of the mind overemphasize the study of the letter, while those who stand on the side of the spirit are too free to spiritualize everything, to the point that the Bible becomes almost empty of letters for them. Therefore, in studying the Bible, again there is the danger of being biased.
Many people bury themselves in the Bible day after day. They become specialists in the study of the letter of the Bible. For example, the Hebrew language is formed of an alphabet of twenty-two letters. Some people have studied so much that they have counted how many times each of those letters is used in the Bible. They have also counted the number of times each letter of the Greek alphabet is used in the New Testament.
Moreover, the Hebrew and Greek languages are similar to Latin in that letters represent numbers. For example: in Latin, “X” equals ten and “V” equals five. In the same way, letters in Hebrew and in Greek also represent numbers. Some people have delved deeply into this study. They have calculated the numerical value of every word in the Old and New Testaments.
It is impressive to see their discovery that the numerical value represented in each word in the Bible is a multiple of seven. I have never tried to verify this, but there are writings that confirm this fact. Now you know how far people have gone in the study of the letter. There are also the compilers of concordances who also labor in the letter and do much research in the Bible.
At the same time, there are people today who open the Bible and act entirely according to their inward inspiration. This is like “the wind [that] blows where it wishes”! However the “wind” blows, they speak. Sometimes they come like a hurricane. Originally the train was running properly on the tracks, but when the hurricane came, the tracks were lifted into the air, and with them the train. I believe you have already met this kind of person. The exposition of the Bible they present is something in the air; it is all floating. They are totally extreme on the spiritual side.
Let me repeat now: leaning toward the letter results in much death, and leaning toward the spiritual realm is very dangerous. It is true that those who lean toward the spiritual side may be very interesting and persuasive people, even people who release their spirit; but after listening to them, it is easy to be carried into the air. On the other hand, regarding those who lean toward the letter, every sentence they speak is supported by evidence; yet they are very “dead.” After speaking for less than half an hour, one may fall asleep. Both sides are alienated.
Therefore, brothers, if we truly want to know the Bible, we need to be balanced. We must properly understand the letter of the Bible, and we must properly use our spirit to sense the spiritual meaning of what we are seeing in the Bible. To read the Bible well, we must train our mind for this and, perhaps even more, exercise our spirit. Training the mind aims to understand the Bible.
Exercising the spirit is for the purpose of touching and contacting the Bible. The first is a matter of the mind; the mind must understand the Bible. The other is a matter of the spirit; the spirit must contact the Bible.
Enjoy more:
Hymn — Experience of Christ — “As the One Who Is Subjective”
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