What is the Bible? (in 5 Minutes)

My church is doing a year long survey of the Bible. The problem is… well, …. the Bible is a big, long book.

How do you grasp the story of the Bible, without getting overwhelmed?

It is a pretty daunting task.

This may sound odd to some people, but most Christians have never read the entire Bible. Evangelical believers will say that they look to the Bible as their authority. But sadly, and typically, we only read select portions of the text.

So, there is a bit of a tragic irony here. Grasping the whole Bible can be intimidating. For it could even be counter-productive. When professed atheist Penn Jillette was growing up, he was the only kid in his high school church youth group, to have read the entire Bible from cover to cover, and he was not impressed by what he read. As Jillette put it, reading “the Bible itself, will turn you atheist faster than anything.”

Yikes!!

There is a better way of going about this. But how?

I mean, as a Christian, I have probably read the Bible through completely perhaps twice… and I confess to have cheated in some places … like skimming through the lengthy description of the tabernacle, in the Book of Exodus; skipping over a few pages in Lamentations; eyes glazing over various long genealogies, of “someone who begat someone else, who begat someone else,” …. and yes, I had my head scratching when it came to the Book of Revelation, quickly moving to the end.

So, getting an overview of the Bible, before one tries to dive into it would be a helpful thing.

This is where The Bible Project really becomes a handy resource. Some 1.4 million subscribers on YouTube have made this channel one of the best learning tools, for gaining a survey of the Bible. Most videos are short (5 minutes or so), and have excellent graphics. As I join my church in our year long survey of the Bible, I will be referencing select videos from The Bible Project’s excellent catalog of resource, on the Veracity blog. Here is a good place to start, from their “How to Read the Bible” series, on “What is the Bible?” Learn more about The Bible Project here.

Enjoy!!