How many times have you heard people say that the Bible is full of contradictions and everyone has their own interpretation?  The Bible is a very old text but is still very relevant for today and it can be understood more clearly as long as a few simple guidelines are kept in mind.

Before discussing anything else we need to realize that the Bible is God’s inspired word to us. 2 Timothy 3:16. To be clear, the Bible does not contain the word of God, it IS the word of God.  Those that say the Bible only contains the word of God are then able to dismiss anything they want as not inspired and can construe the scripture to say anything they want.  But understanding that the scripture is the inspired word of God in it’s entirety makes it so we must take it as it is written without adding or changing it to fit our ideas.

The first thing in understanding scripture is to take it literally.  By this I mean that if passages are meant to be historical it should be interpreted as historical or poetic then poetically.  the Bible is very clear about how the passage should be taken and it will tell us when something should be taken as literal or figuratively.  In the book of Daniel there are many visions and dreams that Daniel is given and the Bible is clear when it is a vision or dream and will often provide the interpretation of those dreams.  Genesis is written as a historical book and all of the accounts written in that book should be taken as actually have happened.

Now that we are taking the Bible literally we need to next understand the context of what we are reading.  Many times people will quote Bible verses and then come up with what they mean.  This usually leads to contradiction and mis interpretation if the verse is taken just by itself.  When reading a verse or a select passage it is a good practice to take a step back.  Ask yourself these questions.  What book of the Bible am I reading?  Who wrote that book?  When was it written?  Who is it written too?  what is the main theme of the book?  Once those questions are answered then the interpretation becomes much easier to understand.

Let’s take the book of Revelation as an example.  This book is avoided by a lot of Christians because they claim it is just too hard to understand.  However when you apply these criteria mentioned above it becomes much clearer.

Who wrote the book of Revelation?  We know it was written by the Apostle John.  When was it written?  We also know that John was in exile on the isle of Patmos and wrote this book around 90 AD.  Who was it written to?  Revelation states that John is writing to the 7 churches in Asia Minor.  what is the main theme of the book?  The actual title of the book is The Revelation of Jesus Christ.  This is the final revealing of Jesus Christ of things that are still to happen.  In fact, in Revelation 1:19, Jesus tells John “Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.”  So we see that this book is going to cover current and future events.  So now that we have these basic questions answered, and are taking the scripture literally as it is written, we will be able to come to a better understanding of what God is wanting us to know.