I really love my job! Not only do I get to drive around Western Canada and spread the gospel, I get to spend a lot of time driving which means...Podcasts!!
Yeah one of the benefits of driving so much is that I get to listen in on some of my favorite podcasts. And shocker, most of the content I consume is theological in nature. One of my favorite podcasts is called InVerse.
It's a bible study where a group of Christians go over different topics, themes and issues within the pages of Scripture.
And while listening to the latest episode I had a huge 'aha moment' when it comes to my understanding of the bible.
The round table on the podcast started to discuss the two disciples on the road to Emmaus which is found in Luke 24. If you aren't familiar with the story it's basically the bible study of all bible studies in Scripture.
Christ takes two disciples and breaks down pretty much everything in the bible that pointed to Him....And the 'moment' is summed up in this verse:
O.k., so work with me here....
One of the popular things to do in Christian apologetics is to use what is called 'proof texting'. Basically taking a verse from the bible to prove your point. And while I tend to think we need more than one 'proof text' to stand firm on, I found this part of the story in Luke 24 interesting...
This is pretty much what I'm calling the anti-proof text...Proof text?
The problem with proof texting doctrine is that we don't take into account ALL the prophet....And ALL the scriptures. Think about that for a moment....We love to throw around verses to prove our point but are we forgetting what Christ did when it came to a bible study?
He took it ALL in!
Meaning, you cannot get the full picture of God unless you start at Genesis and go all the way to Revelation!
I think this is what can be so revealing about deep bible study. It all connects. We see Christ throughout the old testament, yet many Christians today like to ignore the old testament and claim it's no longer needed.
My rebuke to that is....Jesus of Nazareth is our Lord and Savior. He is our example! Guess what 'testament' He was reading and studying?
Yeah the new testament wasn't even a thing yet....
My point is, we can't just come up with doctrine from a single verse and claim it's gospel. We have to do like Christ did and search ALL the scriptures.
That's actually a fantastic study we should do here on chain or in the Kingdom Discord group....Find all the mentions that Christ says, He is everywhere in the old testament. I can think of a few without even digging too deep...
The amount of wealth we can find from taking in the ENTIRE picture of the bible is worth the time. Let's not get too hung up on one or two verses, but rather read the entire thing from front to back!