How to Read the Bible – A Three Step Plan (written for Catholics - valid for all)

taylormarshall.com ^ | September 30, 2013 | Dr. Taylor Marshall

[NYer]

How do you read the Bible? Today is the feast day of Saint Jerome, who once quipped, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome

It’s a running joke that if you want to find a Bible verse, you ought to ask a Protestant and not a Catholic. Protestants read the Bible. Catholics not so much.

This raises the question:

Why Don’t More Catholics Read the Bible?

I think the answer lies in the fact that we Catholics go to Mass. The Holy Mass has at least two Bible readings every time. If you pray the Breviary or Liturgy of Hours, multiply that several times.

Joe Catholic says to himself, “Why should I study the Bible? I go to Mass. I hear it there. Check and check.”

There is something beautiful in this. For Catholics, Bible reading is liturgical. Hence, Bible reading remains chiefly a community experience.

Three Step Plan to Kick It Up a Notch

It’s good to listen to the readings from the Bible at Holy Mass. However, we also need a personal (even private) encounter with God in the pages of Sacred Scripture. All of the saints breathed Sacred Scripture. Scripture served as the grammar for their souls. They couldn’t communicate without it.

Here are some basic spiritual needs that you have every single day of your life:

1. Praise – Voicing your delight in God and His provision for your life. Gratitude destroys discouragement.
2. Wisdom – You need practical advice to navigate the complexities of life.
3. Challenge – You need to be lifted higher. You need to grow in your faith. You need to be inspired. You must be an intentional Christian.

So when you wake up tomorrow, do the following:

1. Read a Psalm. Start with Psalm 1. Make it your anthem of praise for that day.
2. Read at least one Proverb. Proverbs are the wisdom morsels of your day. There are 31 chapters. Why not read one chapter every day during the month. Oct 1 is Provers 1. October 31 is Proverbs 31. You get the idea.
3. Read a chapter of the one of the Gospels. This is your challenge. Your Savior challenges you in the four Gospels. He calls you to be not merely a nominal Catholic but a disciple. You cannot seriously read the Gospels and stay lukewarm. Christ speaks in a way that cannot be ignored.

“But I’m so busy. I don’t have the time!”

What? You’re too busy. Sorry, you just got served a yellow card:

That’s a yellow card. You’ve been warned…

Doing these three readings will take you only 3-5 minutes. That’s the time of a commercial break. It will change your life for good. I promise. It takes 21 days to make a habit, so give it 21 days and see if you aren’t hooked. Put the Bible on your night stand and read it in the mornings. Start fresh.

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Church

[smvoice]

It wouldn’t be a problem if you were calling a “spade” a “spade”. But you’re shouting from your rooftop, calling a chicken a duck. It’s embarrassing.

[Jvette]

No need to eat crow. We have all done it.

I thought it odd that you would dispute that in the beginning, individual believers did not have any of the NT writings to read for themselves and all reading of those writings was done communally.

Sometimes we are all so quick to react. I’ve done it and I thank you for owning up to your mistake.

Please, accept my apology for not waiting to hear it before I struck back.

[metmom]

Have you been doing much of that drolling lately?

[metmom]

Newsflash.

You’re not Jesus.

[Jvette]

We don’t know ALL of God’s plans for ALL the people who have ever lived, who live now and who will live. The Church believes that those who through no fault of their own never know of Jesus will also have access to God’s mercy though we may not know how that is.

Jesus is the only way to the Father. Without His life, death and resurrection, the gate to the kingdom would still be closed.

But, Jesus also told us that He has sheep not of this flock. There is much discussion of what this means, but I think that it means that there are people Jesus saves outside of the bounds of what we see.

God revealed Himself to the Jewish people and in Jesus, He was perfectly revealed. But, there are many billions of people that will never hear the name Jesus. They desire Him but have no name and no revelation of who He is. We have to trust that the God that wills all men be saved has a plan for such people.

As for the Muslims. They do claim the same God of the OT, the same God of Abraham and Isaac. It seems they have a disordered understanding of God and certainly, they worship Him in an imperfect and perverted way.

I find it ironic that the Church can’t win either way with some people. If they claim salvation is only through the Church, that claim is excoriated. But, when the Church acknowledges that God/Jesus/Holy Spirit can save those who may have never heard of Jesus, we are also excoriated.

Whatever one thinks of the passages you quote, the RCC, doesn’t exist anywhere but in the twisted fantasy world of fringe Christians.

[terycarl]

The entire theology of the RCC is hung on one poorly translated verse in the most corrupted chapter in John’s gospel, and the entire chapter taken as a whole refutes that one verse as taken by papists.

and along came Luther, 1,600 years after the fact, to straighten the Catholic Church out....how lucky can we be!!!

or, just maybe...........wait now.......he was wrong??

[terycarl]

Never a peep about honoring anyone's grave, so why Mary's

because they were a civilized community and she was THEIR SAVIOR'S MOTHER....did they know where Lazarus was buried??? did they know where their king of Rome was buried, did they know where the pyramids were?????The Mother of God was buried and the apostles didn't know where??????????How about all her "sons" that the prottys proclaim????they didn't remember where mom was burtied???????please!!

[NKP_Vet]

There were Christians BEFORE THE WRITTEN WORD.

That my friend is TRADITION.

[NKP_Vet]

“Thank you for further proof that protestants on this forum are incapable of intelligent discussion”.

Best post on the board today. Thanks.

[CynicalBear]

>>We don’t know ALL of God’s plans for ALL the people who have ever lived, who live now and who will live.<<

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

[terycarl]

Yeah... I don't think you get to claim that when y'all were killing anyone else who tried to copy the Bible and burning their work.

copy it from what????the Catholics had the original documents and they started and continued to copy it, bY hand, through the ages....want to buy a copy of it?????until the printing press was invented, virtually no one could afford it. Municipalities, libraries, royalty owned copies....no one else...just think about it for a minute...common sense should prevail somehow11

[NKP_Vet]

“Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.”

The key phrase there is “no fault of their own”. When some knows the word of God and still sticks their middle finger up to him, those will be the first to bust hell wide open.

[smvoice]

BWHAHAHA!!!

I'm trying to figure out what that IS. Dumb trolling=drolling, maybe??

[Rashputin]

Newsflash - The verse I posted was Jesus Christ.

Or is that book or verse no longer in the Anti-Christ, Anti-Christian Pharisee Approved Luther Subset of Scripture the Self and Self Alone folks pretend is a complete Bible?

So far this evening:

Scripture does not interpret Scripture when the Self Alone folks have thrown out the Scripture Christ and the Apostles referred to.

Posting an obvious link is sufficient reason to question why a link wasn't included.

Dealing with others who have a long history of contradicting Scripture and trying to lead others astray the same way Christ did is grounds for pretending the person who points how Christ handled some types of people is claiming to be Christ.

[boatbums]

So you are retracting that they would have executed him, since you offered no proof. Thank you.

No, I'm not. Is it too much to expect that you could have easily gone to Google or Yahoo and done your OWN search for Michael Servetus? It is a KNOWN fact, one that has been discussed on this very forum multiple times and even admitted to by the honest Catholics here that the guy was arrested BY the French CATHOLIC Inquisitor and imprisoned and would have been executed had he not first managed to escape. Are you denying this took place?

Let me get one thing straight here, NOBODY is justifying anyone being put to death because they taught heresy. But, like you yourself said in an earlier post, those were different times. Back then the Roman Catholic Church started the whole Inquisition and execution of "heretics" pogrom - much of it as an insidious way to get back at personal enemies and to confiscate material holdings of those they got rid of. Whatever John Calvin's participation was in the death of this one man, it still doesn't come anywhere close to atrocities committed by the Catholic Church. So, I'd be careful with that recreational stone throwing in the glass houses game, if I were you.

It's curious that this accusation gets spit out by the same folks who play the "Luther card" whenever they find themselves in a tight spot defending their religious views. Why is that? I appreciate this article on Calvin and Servetus found at http://triablogue.blogspot.com/search?q=servetus. In it the author says:

I would add that when unbelievers in particular raise this objection, all they are doing is substituting what they believe to be their more evolved sensibilities in this century for what they believe to be the less evolved sensibiliities of another age. So, they, in the name of their evolved morality simply practice the bigotry of assuming that their modern sensibilities are morally superior to those of the 16th century. How enlightened of them. Isn't this at odds with today's politically correct culture. How is it that they can judge Calvin in the 16th century from the ivory tower of 21st century ethics, which are, I might add, quite fluid. It's not as if a consistent atheist is operating with an absolute standard. If morals are determined by consensus, why then is the consensus of today superior to that of the 16th century? Might not the consensus 300 years hence look at the atheist today with the same kind of disdain as today's atheist does with Calvin?

As to the objection itself, we have to remember that Calvin was a man of his time. In addition, at this time in his life, he wasn't even in power in Geneva. No, he was in disfavor. In addition, Servetus was a known anti-Trinitarian heretic. His death was legal not only in Geneva but everywhere else in Europe. Calvin actually argued that his execution be merciful. Ah, but shouldn't he have opposed his execution? What good would it have done? He had no power to condemn him or save him.

Ah, but doesn't this speak to the character of Calvin? Well, if it does, does it prove that he was immoral or does it prove that he was a man of great mercy? Yes, he agreed with the decision of Geneva. So did all the religious and secular powers of that century, so if it proves Calvin was immoral, it also proves they were all immoral, secular and sacred alike. On the other hand, he pleaded with Servetus for him to recant. He also pleaded the council to make the mode of his execution quick. He was ignored. What's more, he prayed with Servetus and ministered to him in prison, in accordance with that particular axiom of the religion Calvin professed.

Now, I'm a Reformed Baptist, and I have no need to defend the Magisterial system nor the follies of Romanism, but even I can understand this age was the age of the Wars of Religion in which one petty ruler would use religion to excuse his private, petty, plunders of his neighbors territories. The states of Germany and Italy was kept it disarray by France, Spain, Britain, and Holland until the 19th century because of this kind of political behavior, behavior which was condoned by many a Roman Pope. In fact, this behavior resulted in what we know as World War 1 and then, because of the conditions imposed by that treaty, we wound up with World War 2.

In the 16th century, to be an anti-Trinitarian was a worse heresy than to be a Reformed Protestant or Lutheran. Even Anabaptists received more mercy than these individuals. Had the Genevan government not executed Servetus, and Calvin opposed them, then it surely isn't difficult to imagine the Pope inciting France against Geneva. Have you ever been to Geneva? When you leave the train station, if you go one direction, they speak French. If you go another they speak German. Why? Because Geneva is on the Swiss / French border. Ah, but wouldn't the Lutherans intervene? Maybe, but if they had, then all that would do is incite the Romanist states neighboring the Lutheran states in the Holy Roman Empire against them. In addition, if Geneva had fallen, will anybody think Zurich would have remained? The Reformation would likely have ended there.

It's worth noting that our atheist friends can thank the Reformed tradition in particular for the representative government that enables them to live with great freedom today. Look at the map of Europe and the way it evolved politically from the time of the 16th and 17th centuries onward. The Roman states remained monarchial. The Lutheran states were kept down by the Roman states in particular. The states where the Reformed tradition took hold were governed with ever increasing degrees of republican government. In Britain, the Puritans spawned the Congregational and Baptist churches, and they went to America, where the Baptist tradition took hold. The Presbyterian and Baptist traditions colluded to form a great many of the ideals in the Bill of Rights, like the First Amendment that gives our atheist friends the freedom to get away with the things Servetus could not. So, in arguing this objection, our atheist friends are sawing off the very limb on which they stand. That's what makes the objection so baseless.

[narses]

“Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats 19 my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum
Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”
As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?”
He was referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would betray him, one of the Twelve.” [John 6: 49-71]

[terycarl]

Just to clarify...are you actually saying that one man can stand in the way of God reaching the hearts of those who diligently seek Him? Are you claiming that all those people who left Roman Catholicism for a purer faith in Jesus Christ and all those Christians who are not Roman Catholics today are lost souls? Think carefully before you answer.

I'm in no position to condemn anyone to hell, even Hitler, however, those who, through their own volition, rejected the true church of Christ, that He founded< have more than a lot of explaining to do.....remember, the Catholic Church is infallible in matters of faith and morals whether you admit it or not.....2,000 years of Christian history is not wrong.

[Jvette]

I don’t dispute that at all in what I said. Without Jesus, there is no chance for any of us, but we don’t know what plans He has for those who through no fault of their own never hear the name Jesus.

Scripture says that God wills that all men be saved. If that is the case, He must have a way for those who never have a chance to have faith in Jesus.

As Jesus said To whom much is given, much is expected. We are fortunate to know Jesus. Not everyone has such great fortune. We trust that the God of mercy knows the hearts of those who never heard His name and will act out of that great and boundless mercy He has for His children.

[terycarl]

Are you claiming that all those people who left Roman Catholicism for a purer faith in Jesus Christ of course not, but since there is no purer faith in Jesus Christ than Catholicism....yes, they are in trouble

[Iscool]

Knowing that one has to check on everything you guys post, just in case, ya know,

1Th_5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

Act_17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

I knew it would be prudent to check to see if the NT writers actually did copy from the uninspired books the Catholic religion tries to pawn on people as scripture...

Here's a random sampling from each group:

Sirach 35:22
{35:22} And the Lord will not delay, and he will judge for those who are just, and he will accomplish judgment. And the Almighty will not have patience with them, so that he may crush their back.

Matthew 16:27
Mat 16:27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

Supposedly, the verse in Matthew is taken directly from the verse in Sirach which is supposed to prove that that the writers of the NT copied or quoted those verses from the Apocrypha...

The one verse speaks of judgment while the other verse speaks of rewards...No relevance at all...

Sirach 32:23
Guard[h] yourself in every act,
for this is the keeping of the commandments.

Compared to this:

1 Corinthians 7:19
1Co 7:19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is
nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.

The word commandments is common all thru the bible...There's no specific or isolated connection here at all...

Wisdom 2:11
11. But let our strength be our norm of justice; for weakness proves itself useless.

Together with this:

Romans 9:31
Rom 9:31 But Israel, which followed after the law of
righteousness, hath not attained to the law of
righteousness.

A complete failure...No connection whatsoever...

Wisdom 17:17
17 For whether he were husbandman, or shepherd, or a labourer in the field, he was overtaken, and endured that necessity, which could not be avoided: for they were all bound with one chain of darkness.

Is claimed to be a direct reference to this...

Galatians 6:1
Gal 6:1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

Another abysmal failure...Not even remotely related...

Tobit 4:6
6 And do thou, while thou hast life, think ever upon God, nor lend thyself to any sinful design, nor leave the commandments of the Lord our God unfulfilled.

Compared with this:

John 3:32
Joh 3:32 And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony.

Tobit is a warning to a sinner and John is speaking of Jesus...Definitely no connection between these verses...

Judith 12:8
8. When she came up from the spring she prayed the Lord God of Israel to direct her way for the raising up of her people.

Referenced from this???

1 Thessalonians 3:11
1Th 3:11 Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.

What??? The only thing these have in common is they both have the word 'direct' in them...And you guys claim that Paul copied Judith is this text??? Deplorable...

1 Maccabees 9:39
39 They looked out and saw a tumultuous procession with a great amount of baggage; and the bridegroom came out with his friends and his brothers to meet them with tambourines and musicians and many weapons.

Supposedly influenced this:

John 3:28
Joh 3:28 Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.

This ought to make people want to scream...The first one is a procession getting ambushed and the second one is: John the Baptist...

2 Maccabees 8:17
17. And to set before their eyes the injury that they had unjustly done to the holy place, and the cruel handling of the city, whereof they made a mockery, and also the taking away of the government of their forefathers:

And this event is referenced in this verse in Matthew...

Matthew 24:15
Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

Aw, c'mon...The story in Maccabees is the retaliation of the Jews against the Gentiles long, long before Jesus ever showed up and the event in Matthew is future prophecy...

The one is the destruction of the enemy of the Jews and the other is the anti-Christ standing in the Holy Place calling himself God...

You couldn't find a connection looking with the Hubble telescope...

I wish I had time to go thru all these references...I'll bet there's not a Catholic on FR who would bother to check these to see if they have been lied to...And yes, they have...