The Bible is Not for Everyone.
While I write these words they seem inappropriate, even wrong. After all, I have always believed for the past 36 years that God intended the Bible be read by everyone. In the sense that God wants all people to know Him and the only way that anyone can really know God is by His Word, the Bible is for everyone.
What I am hoping to communicate in this short article is the fact that the Bible is not identical to all other books. The Messages from God that the Bible contains are focused on a select few people.
When anyone chooses to believe in and follow Jesus Christ, that decision was known to God before the earth, time or the universe was ever created. Known to God are all things and He elects to eternal life, all those whom He knew in advance, would choose Jesus and make Him Lord and Savior of their life. If a person never chooses Jesus Christ throughout their life, then God has not chosen them. I hope this principle can be understood. The sovereignty of God demands that every soul who makes it to heaven, does so by the foreknowledge and election of God.
We do not have the advantage in the domain of time, to be able to see the eternal results and inner workings of people’s choices working with God’s Sovereign power to save. We don’t know or understand what happens in the eternal, but it should be quite obvious what happens within the constraints of time.
Some people believe in Jesus Christ and are saved, and some people do not believe in Jesus Christ and they are lost.
Some people have a capacity to not only desire spiritual matters, but also attain the prize of eternal life by their pursuit of God.
The Bible, its words, messages and purposes are intended for those with the desire and capacity to receive Jesus Christ and be saved.
1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Those who have no desire or capacity to read and understand the simple message of Jesus Christ, will read the words of the Bible and it will mean absolutely nothing to them.
We have become a generation of self-centered Christians, not Jesus Centered. The Lord is made to wait patiently for us to move towards Him and desire Him. The Church views God as a patient Father who never ceases to struggle with heartbroken determination in convincing people to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior.
All this, while people feel no urging, no need, no desperation in themselves to turn to God and receive His offer of forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Not only do the vast majority of those who walk the earth feel no need for a Savior, they really could care less. We view God as wanting to do anything in desperation to save a person, even begging souls to turn to Him before it is too late.
In this scenario, man is at the center stage and the star of the show. God is reduced to embarrassing spiritual terms that flatter man and seem to be trying to romance him into salvation.
If you still think that the Bible is directed at the whole world, try to apply the teaching of the sermon on the mount to our U.S. legal system, U.S. Government or the U.S. Military. Does anyone really believe that any of these branches of American government could possibly follow the teachings of Jesus?
Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.
The words of the Lord in the sermon on the mount are for the Sons and daughters of God. Those that are in relationship with Him, not for the rest of the world who live their lives outside of the family of God.
When the old testament describes the Gentile nations of the world, it defines them as being like a lion, a bear, a leopard and dreadful beast. When Jesus addresses those who are in family relationship with God through His sacrifice, He calls them “Beloved”, “Little Flock”, “Little Children” and “Bride”.
Daniel 7:5 And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear.
Luke 12:32 Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
The words of the Bible are directed at all those who are able to receive them. To those who belong to Jesus, He speaks plainly His intended meaning. To those outside of a relationship with Him, He speaks in parables and illustrations that are difficult to understand.
Today, in those churches that teach the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation, verse by verse, Pastors often use illustrations from everyday life to try and make the teaching of the Bible clearer. Jesus used illustrations and parables to make the meaning of the bible more difficult to understand.
Matthew 13:13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
To those who casually read the words of the Bible, they will find them dry, meaningless and irrelevant to anything that is happening in their life. To those who hunger and thirst to know who God is and what His will is for their life, the words of scripture come alive with new found meaning and purpose for every corner of their existence.
The power that is contained within the Bible to transform a lost and Hell-destined soul into a brand new creation bound for heaven, is reserved for those who will see, understand, and respond.
The secret things of the Lord are reserved for the hungry soul who is desperate to know God and every detail of His innermost being. Those who cannot and will not repent of their sins and turn from their life of self will, find nothing in the Bible that will satisfy their hardened heart. It is a complete waste of time to read the Bible with the forethought to know what the Bible is about, instead of to know who the God of the Bible is.
Jeremiah 29:13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
Luke 9:37, 45 Now it happened on the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, that a great multitude met Him. … But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it.
Without humility, a desire for repentance, and some small measure of faith that God will hear, no person will ever be saved.
In the same way, without an approach towards the scriptures with great humility, respect, a sincere desire to know the truth, and a willingness to do whatever is necessary once knowledge is imparted, will render the Bible useless to the reader.
In the natural world, a person believes something because the evidence has given them reason to believe. In Spiritual matters, a person must first believe before any evidence for truth is revealed by God. At the very least, God requires a basic acknowledgment that He exists and that He is rewarder of anyone who diligently seeks Him:
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
The man of the world must first know before he believes, the Spiritual man must first believe in order to know.
When a person approaches God with the anticipation of receiving knowledge, enlightenment, a revealing of God’s nature, they will never be disappointed. The Bible is a book penned from outside of the domain of earth and time. It cannot be understood by approaching it in the same way that any other book is read and perceived. Without the assistance and revealing by the Spirit of God, it will be dead, unknown, and misunderstood.
This is why the educated, the famous, and the rich who seek to casually read the Bible to find its value, never come close to understanding what it is truly about. They began with the wrong motive, they end with nothing but confusion and dismay. To the hungry soul who comes to the 66 books of the Bible with a famished soul, believing that the eternal God is the author and revealer of all truth. Armed with a desire to know who He is, and a destitute and humble heart, the Holy Spirit will reveal the deep and inner secrets of the most Holy places of God.
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
Rob Robinson
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