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What Happens If You Don't Read

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  • What Happens If You Don't Read

    Why should you hit the books?

    Link

    -------

    Why is reading so important today? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

    For thousands of years, people who could read were at a minimum. Today, we so take it for granted that a common objection against the Gospels is “Why didn’t anyone write this down earlier?” The idea is that obviously, you write the message down because everyone can read and that’s the fastest and best way to communicate. Back then, it wasn’t.

    Today, you would be surprised to meet someone in the West who can’t read. Our phones with simple instructions for games even depends on it. We have road signs that depend on it. Go to a restaurant and you have a menu and they don’t normally have pictures in them of everything. You are expected to read.

    Today, too many people don’t. I still remember visiting an old college professor who during the summer break asked a student what he was reading to be told, “Nothing.” I wish I was surprised by that story, but I’m not. Too many people today don’t really study at all.

    About a year or so ago, I remember being in a check-out line at the grocery store and somehow the topic turned to the book I was reading and some reference was made to Daniel in the Lion’s Den. The kid at the register had no idea what I was talking about. Even if you don’t believe the Bible to be true, to be a functioning member in Western society, you at least need a basic knowledge of the Bible and the stories therein.

    Those who don’t read are those who are not going to be learning in their positions. Yes. You can go on YouTube and watch videos and get good content sometimes and you can go to podcasts and get some good content, but most of the time, the real in-depth material doesn’t come out except in books. Most scholars aren’t dishing out their works entirely for free.

    At this, I would also like to say that I suspect most of my audience is Christian and you’re saying, “I do read. I read my Bible everyday.” That’s wonderful. I’m not opposed to that a bit. However, you need to be reading more than the Bible. If you’re in ministry, definitely.

    It has been said that a man of the book will be a man of many books. I thoroughly agree with this. This isn’t just reading books about the Bible. This is learning about the world we live in.

    Every minister should seek to be as educated as possible. Some might say the apostles never went to a Seminary, but let’s consider that. These guys had about three years training directly under Jesus. I think any Christian I know who has seminary training, including myself, would trade their training for that.

    A Christian should also be learning about the world besides Scripture. They should learn science, history, economics, math, philosophy, etc. It is all God’s truth and it is all worth knowing. C.S. Lewis said years ago one of the greatest blessings in the world would be that if someone wanted to learn about an academic topic, the best works were always by Christians.

    If you’re a scientist, be the best one you can be for Jesus. If you’re a doctor, be the best one you can be for Jesus. Same for economist, fashion designer, journalist, waiter, etc. As long as the job is a moral job, do the best you can at it as if working for Jesus.

    Read. If you don’t have much money, go to the library and read books for free. Drive a lot? Get audiobooks at the library. Read while traveling. I’m reading Jordan Peterson’s Twelve Rules For Life while driving now.

    Don’t be hesitant to read fiction either. You can learn good material from fiction and be entertained at the same time. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien both wrote fiction that sticks with us today. I’m reading through the Regan Reilly mystery series now by Carol Higgins Clark.

    Bottom line is read. It will not hurt your reputation when people can tell that you know what you’re talking about because you read. You will also be better able to interact with the world around you. That will greatly help your impact for Christ.

    In Christ,
    Nick Peters
    (And I affirm the virgin birth)

  • #2
    hominem unius libri timeo

    I'm always still in trouble again

    "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
    "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
    "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

    Comment


    • #3
      Couldn't agree more. Take the Virgin Birth for instance. Almost everybody (apart from Jews and skeptics) in the first century AD believed that gods had sons and they came to earth and had sex with virgins. That’s what gods did. It was expected of them. To put this in a broader context, sons of god in the first century AD were as common as celebrities today. Every other hilltop had a god, a brooding presence or a hyperactive deity chucking thunderbolts or kidnapping the prettiest girls for sex. Zeus fathered hundreds of children by women, mostly virgins. His son Hercules is the best known today, thanks to Walt Disney. Alexander the Great, Plato, Augustus, were all believed to be born of virgins. In fact they were common all over the world. Greek gods and satyrs, Arabian djinni, Celtic dusii, Hindu bhuts, Samoan hotua poro, various demons good and bad, all had human sons and daughters. The births were usually noteworthy in some way, being in difficult times, in the obscurity of a cave, in hiding from angry tyrants, with innocents being slaughtered, with miraculous signs and stars in the sky, foretold by prophets and wise men, under divine protection. This particularly applies to the more prominent sons, like Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, Zoroaster, Jesus. If you only read the Bible, you don't see the bigger picture.

      Comment


      • #4
        Just so everyone knows, I do affirm the virgin birth.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Apologiaphoenix View Post
          I’m reading Jordan Peterson’s Twelve Rules For Life while driving now.
          Hopefully the audiobook.
          "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

          Comment


          • #6
            "Just so everyone knows, I do affirm the virgin birth." - just for clarity - I'm not sure what it means - "affirm" in the sense of emphatically believe, or just support the idea of? Affirm the virgin birth in the sense of believing in virgin births generally, like pretty much everyone at the time did, or the one reported by Matthew and Luke (not Mark or John, or Paul who was far more prolific and writing earlier than any of them)? If the latter, virgin birth as a parthenogenetic event, or a result of God implanting his seed through the act of sex?

            Just curious. Divine sex seems a more likely route than parthenogenesis (which wasn't known about back then). And it's quite Biblical - in Genesis 6:4 for instance the sons of God copulate with women on earth to produce giants. Again, a belief shared around the world, often given as a reason for blue eyes - in the Hindu tradition the children of such partnerships were blue all over. It does lead to further problems though. If Jesus was God's son, then surely there was a time when God existed and Jesus didn't, so he was of secondary importance. If he had always been around, and was God Himself, then did he have sex with his own mother, in order to be born on earth? That must logically be the case, and the Epistula Apostolorum, a book considered canonical by parts of the early church, thought so: “And I, the Word, went into her and became flesh; and I myself was servant for myself, and in the form of an angel; so I will do after I have gone to my Father.”

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by John Hunt View Post
              "Just so everyone knows, I do affirm the virgin birth." - just for clarity - I'm not sure what it means - "affirm" in the sense of emphatically believe, or just support the idea of? Affirm the virgin birth in the sense of believing in virgin births generally, like pretty much everyone at the time did, or the one reported by Matthew and Luke (not Mark or John, or Paul who was far more prolific and writing earlier than any of them)? If the latter, virgin birth as a parthenogenetic event, or a result of God implanting his seed through the act of sex?

              Just curious. Divine sex seems a more likely route than parthenogenesis (which wasn't known about back then). And it's quite Biblical - in Genesis 6:4 for instance the sons of God copulate with women on earth to produce giants. Again, a belief shared around the world, often given as a reason for blue eyes - in the Hindu tradition the children of such partnerships were blue all over. It does lead to further problems though. If Jesus was God's son, then surely there was a time when God existed and Jesus didn't, so he was of secondary importance. If he had always been around, and was God Himself, then did he have sex with his own mother, in order to be born on earth? That must logically be the case, and the Epistula Apostolorum, a book considered canonical by parts of the early church, thought so: “And I, the Word, went into her and became flesh; and I myself was servant for myself, and in the form of an angel; so I will do after I have gone to my Father.”
              In what way do you see yourself as a Christian if you don't believe in the trinity or in the resurrection or in the virgin birth? Who is Jesus to you?

              Comment

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