The Importance of Daily Reading of Scripture

Reading vs. Study

I am forever amazed and never impressed with the number of men who call themselves teachers of the word of God who incessantly boast about how they can spend an entire day, week, month, or year studying one single word in their bible. Having been born with the cursed ADHD syndrome (long before they had a clue what it was), I can only sit for about five minutes listening to men like this speak. I liken this mentality to the biologist who gets millions of dollars worth of grants to study the gnat. Absolutely sure he can find something in the gnat to help us better understand life, he labors rigorously for decades until finally, one day, he discovers one with an extra appendage. Concluding he has proven the theory of evolution, he writes a book, gets another few million dollars to continue his research, and dazzles great multitudes of dupes with his ability to speak for hours and say absolutely nothing of any meaningful consequence. Meanwhile a hundred million people are killed in one war, 55 million in another, 500 million in another, and this biologist doesn’t even know his country’s at war again. For decades I have considered finishing my masters and going on to get a PhD because it seems so many people hang of the words of those who know so much about so little. Then I came up with this definition describing them. A PhD is one who knows so much about so little.

I suppose it would be extremely narrow minded of me to think these freaks of society contribute very little to the overall scheme of things considering how much time they have spent focusing on the gnat. So, I will simply conclude it is a fact I can’t confirm one way or another. Is society better off because of people like Einstein, the guy who discovered nuclear fission. Let’s see, we killed over a hundred thousand people at Nagasaki and Hiroshima with just two bombs, in just two days. Wow! That’s something we should all be proud of. And now, with the current nuclear stockpiles around the world, we could make the earth completely uninhabitable in about fifteen minutes. I am a retired history teacher. I have read the books about the struggle by our President and his cabinet of advisors in deciding whether or not to use “the Bomb” to end WWII. I believe their conclusion that more Americans would have died needlessly if we hadn’t dropped that bomb was correct. All of those facts acknowledged, I still have to ask if society is better off with the millions of megatons of destructive power we now have in our nuclear arsenals, or if we would be better off without this technology altogether. I have a simple (not simplistic) answer to that question. Unless God was intervening in the affairs of man, preventing him from self annihilation, he would have totally destroyed himself and the planet within a millennium of his creation. So, the only reason we haven't completely destroyed ourselves with our "great learning" is that God isn't ready to allow that to happen. He is literally staying the hand of man until all of those whom He has chosen come into His kingdom. One must not conclude because someone is a genius he offers more to society. Many highly educated men, including theologians, have little to offer society, or in the case of theologians, the church, because they know so much about so little.

The human brain is an incredible phenomenon. Brain research indicates most people (of course there are always exceptions), learn best by moving from gathering general information and then drawing conclusions about that information by moving slowly to the specific. By extrapolation, using the gnat analogy, I humbly suggest the bible scholar who spends inordinate amounts of time dissecting tiny bits of godly wisdom, misses out on the massive amounts of wisdom found in the other 1200 chapters, 31,000 verses, and 775,000 words. Personally, I read massive amounts of information from the bible daily and then move slowly to particular parts of what I read for the purpose of better understanding the specifics. It has been suggested one can't ingest massive amounts of insight and wisdom from such reading. I can't speak for anyone else, but when I read I actually learn something. And after more than 37 years, when I read God's word I continue to absorb information like a sponge. And no matter how many times I have read a particular passage, each time I re-read it, I learn something more about God's nature and His purpose for us. I have never suggested, nor have I ever believed either reading or studying should be practiced exclusively by any serious theologian. What I have discovered is great multitudes of men who have graduated from some of the most reputable Cemetaries (sic) and bible colleges in the country who are incredibly ignorant of the overall picture the bible gives us about the plight of man and His solution to man's problem. Upon questioning many of them over the past thirty-eight years, I have been overwhelmed to learn few if any of them have any yearly plan of reading the bible from cover to cover even once. And the overwhelming majority of pastors with whom I have spoken for more than three decades find nothing wrong with the fact they haven’t read the bible from cover to cover once in their entire lives.

I can only conclude, from my personal observations, that few men who claim to be called of God to minister the word of God take James 3:1 seriously. Recently, one pastor actually suggested to me, on more than one occasion, how ignorant so many men standing in the pulpit are who believe in the phrase, “Sola Scriptura.” who never spend any time reading the writings of great men of the faith (though biblically, there are no great men) in the history of the church. First of all, I would like to humbly reply that no man called of God who prayerfully fills his heart, soul, and mind daily with massive amounts of His word being enlightened by His Holy Spirit could ever be classified by any truly intelligent person as ignorant. Second, I will readily admit there are great multitudes of men standing pulpits across this land who proclaim "Sola Scriptura" who don't read God's word any more than those who proclaim the need to read the great works of the great men who have proceeded us in the faith. I have, however, heard men who were obviously not formally educated, who could not masterfully speak the English language, preach powerful sermons, making it abundantly clear they spent massive amounts of their daily lives with Jesus in His word. I am not opposed to reading things by men like Spurgeon or Calvin. I have read dozens of books by such men over the past 37 years. I've also read contemporary "Christian" writers like McArthur, Piper, Driscoll, Adams, Begg, Swindoll, Warren, McClarin, Rutz, LaHaye, Jenkins, and Stanley; and yes, I'm quite aware some on this list are heretics, and some who are reputed to be pillars of the faith are pretty weak theologically. I find them interesting, but not particularly inspiring. I don’t believe I have ever received any insights from them I could not have gotten directly from God, had I spent the same period of time studying His word. What I have learned by reading some of their books is that there is nothing new under the sun. God tells his chosen men in every generation, who are willing to read and study His word, the same things. My wife chuckles when I share some profound insight one of them has written in one of his books, retorting, "You have been preaching that for decades."

I am disturbed by the growing trend toward universalism and reinterpreting scripture in light of today’s cultures. The good news is that this rise is one of the many signs that Christ return is imminent. He warned us false Christs and false prophets would rise and mislead many. And he warned us the multitudes, not the called, would follow their false teachings. Mega-church pastors, beware. “When so many love the message you speak, there is great danger, what you speak is not God’s word.” In closing I would like to suggest we need to concentrate on spiritual growth of Jesus’ disciples, not church growth (numbers alone). Many a pastor has been sorely disappointed to discover, upon close examination, the incredible growth of his church in numbers over a year did not translate into appropriate spiritual growth of those attending. By that I simply mean we need to be spending a great deal more time discipling those over whom we have charge than developing strategies for reaching those who are not the elect. Properly discipled children of God will draw the called, with whom they have to do daily, to the body of Christ; who can then be discipled to go into their world and preach the gospel.

Paul Washer

I was listening to a message by Paul Washer today. He is considered by most conservative, God loving, bible thumping, evangelicals to be a solid preacher of the word. I was shocked to hear him suggest we need to preach the gospel and not to get caught up teaching eschatology. I am forever amazed at the number of preachers who seem to think the gospel is only found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Let's see, the gospel is, by definition, the good news about Jesus Christ. Uh, I think that good news begins in Genesis 1:1 and culminates in Revelation 22:21. The sixty-six books we have in our contemporary codexes are the gospel. One of the most significant prooftext of this point is written by Paul when he tells us in Galations 3:8, The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations will be blessed in you." And the final words of Revelation tell us, He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen, Come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. The Revelation is from chapter 1 and verse 1 to chapter 22 and verse 21 the record of the fulfillment of all the other sixty-five books prophesied was to come.

I was truly disappointed with Paul Washer, until I considered how young and inexperienced he is. What I found more disturbing this week were the comments by another pastor, R.W. Glenn. His suggestions had to do with whether or not a pastor should have a time set aside daily just for reading the Bible with the idea in mind of reading it in its entirety several times yearly. I find the fact that the question would arise rather disturbing. How can one accurately exegete scripture if he doesn't read it in its entirety several times a year. More importantly, how can a pastor convince those he is discipling they need to commit a significant amount of time daily in their own study of God's word, if he are not doing the same. My wife often asks me, when I am scheduled to preach or teach, if I am ready. My response is that God has been getting me ready for nearly thirty-eight years.

Maybe I'm exceptionally dense, but I find I have to read God's words over and over and over to get any sense of their true meaning. He is so incredibly omnipotent, omniscient, and immutable, that my finite brain just can't grasp it all without reading the words of His magnificent revelation to us in these 66 books until my eyes get sore and my brain can't absorb anymore information. And, I pray that won't happen until they lay me in the grave.

I find the disturbing trend that many of the "up and coming" young pastors today rely way too much on Spurgeon and way to little on Scripture. I would like to humbly suggest there is nothing wrong with reading Calvin, Spurgeon, Torrey, Lewis, Piper, or any of the other, so called, giants of the faith. But, there is everything wrong with reading them more than one reads God's word. When we get our theology from them, it tends to be top heavy with their own biases. I have read works by all of these men and many others whose reputation as pillars of the faith is indisputable. I have discovered at least one of them has received the exact same insights I have received directly from God about His word as I was reading it for myself. I pray that doesn't sound arrogant. I wouldn't suggest for a moment I am a theologian an par with any of these men. All I am suggesting is that preachers of God's word must first go to God and His word daily, reading, studying, examining, re-examining, cross referencing, and then reading some more before they lay it down and read what another preacher has or had to say about any given passage.

In closing, I want to make it clear I think Paul Washer is a man of God who speaks the words of God in his messages. I'm confident as he matures, he will realize some of the things he suggests in his messages, though certainly not heretical, are exegetically weak.

Open Letter

Below you will find an open letter to Barack Obama. I think it warrants reading, so I placed a link to in on my blog.