Every good preacher will tell you to study the scriptures for yourself and to try to understand them in context. The real God that created the heavens and the earth gave us the scriptures with the intent that we should study the scriptures for the answers to life. God did not intend that only church leaders and clergy be the ones to study the scriptures.
Do people then actually study the Bible? In Bible college all the instructors were very well read. Was being well read, did that mean that they had actually studied the scriptures and the scriptures formed their doctrine? Or had they read the opinions of others, who also had read the opinions of others, who again had read the opinions of others? The majority were well read in the opinions of others. Even in that there was a consensus of mainstream Christianity. But primarily reading the opinions of others, also caused a blindness to the depth that is in the scriptures. That does not mean the scriptures are open to any personal interpretation. The real interpretation, when we discover enough detail, can easily be seen and confirmed by anyone who honestly studies the scriptures. With some scriptures, it takes extra work and time to get the details necessary to make an honest judgement. Declaring we know the meaning before we have enough detail to make an honest judgement, is either making a judgement before we have full understanding or it is just plain dishonesty. You will see in this book how we get the necessary details to make an honest judgement. As we study deeper, we will come up with what you would have come up with, had you done a thorough honest study on your own. This is key, as God doesn't want wacky doctrines floating around but He does want us to understand the deeper precepts as we are able.
Take for example the question of what Eve ate in the Garden of Eden. I have never heard of, in my 45 years as a Christian, of anyone who has studied it deep enough to truthfully identify what Eve actually ate that was sin. Someone may have at sometime in history, but I have never heard of it. But we did and it was not an apple. We have an entire chapter on it in the book. It is a deeper study but when a person studies it out, it is easy to understand and it is so logical. But it also calls us to be accountable for our thoughts and actions.
Buy the book to read more . . .