How many years did it take you to be hable to understand the bible?

[Alwayreckles93]

[Exterminatore]

Quite a few. Understanding it is easy. Doctrine is the hard part. Scripture must be understood in the context of other scripture. So understanding how it all fits together takes a long, long time of diligent study. There are still things I don’t understand and things I don’t have an opinion on as I am not fully convinced one way or another as to their meaning. For example the timing of the rapture. I’m not fully convinced it will be prior to the tribulation or after. Very, very difficult to get that one right. Even the best theologians debate about it. So I neither teach one or the other. I just present both views. However I think the midtribulation rapture can be safely ruled out.


1st Peter 3:19 is another difficult passage. There are roughly 315 different opinions as to its meaning.


On the less complicated issues it’s easy to understand.


Becoming thoroughly schooled in scripture and having correct doctrine developed from it takes quite a while. I don’t believe we’re really ever done learning.


What we can know easily is when people are adding to God’s commands. Where scripture is silent, it’s silent for a reason.

[Alwayreckles93]

When people exaggerate things sometimes. I spoke with the Baptist pastor. He told me to be careful not everything people say about the bible is accurate.

[Exterminatore]

That’s exactly right.

[Exterminatore]

Watch this video. It is very in depth. Frankly I will need to watch it 5-7 more times to soak in all the information. I’ll attach it at the bottom.

It is about church history. It starts with some of the Pauline epistles in the NT, then moves on to the very first Christians the disciples trained.

It’s important to study church history for the understanding of doctrine. For example, the very first leaders of the church: Clement, Ireneous, Polycarp, were likely trained by one of the disciples themselves. The latter 2 by John as most historians and theologians believe. We can read their writings to get an idea of how the very first Christians understood Christianity.

By no means are their writings to be considered equal with scripture, but they have a view point that was right at the beginning of the church. They got trained by the disciples themselves. It is good material to help us understand scripture. It’s no different than listening to our favorite preacher on the radio or internet today, except these men lived about 2000 years ago. One advantage in reading their writings is they can’t change their views. They’re dead. What they said is what they said. They can’t purger themselves.

What they wrote can help us have a better understanding of scripture and how the very first Christians understood Christian theology.

As always we must consider their statements in light of scripture but they can be useful in understanding matters that have been debated about for many centuries.

My opinion would be they are probably closer to right than not in many cases. They got to actually speak in many cases to one of the 12 disciples or Paul. They were tribes by then in person first hand and may have a lot of valuable insight in understanding the meanings of difficult passages of scripture.

I say again that anything they say is to be evaluated by the true standard: scripture itself, and we are to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in understanding matters

[Exterminatore]

They wrote about concerning things in scripture.

They also serve as examples of to us. Examples of Godly character. Just as any of the disciples or things written in the Old Testament or the prophets of old.

Watch this video. Watch others on the subject. Read material on the history of the church. It may well help you in gaining a better understanding of what the Bible says as your reading the materials of men who were the closest to things from the very start.

https://youtu.be/AvKjB6hnRNo?si=Uj0qS_1PTWDsF6Lu

[DJB72]

38 so far. With the amount of spiritual information in there if I had a thousand years I'd still be surprised by God.

My grandfather was a preacher. He died aged 80 but just a couple of weeks before he passed he phoned me very excited to share a new Truth he'd found after almost 70 years as a Christian and a preacher for 60 of those.

Anyone who claims they fully understand the Bible is deluded.

[Alwayreckles93]

Your Grandfather seem like a smart men. It is exciting her called you and share that experience with you.

[DJB72]

I miss him. He'd be well over a hundred now if he were still around though. I'm confident I'll see him again

[wolfcat87]

No problem understanding it when I first started reading it at the age of 7.

[strateguy632]

no time, i understood the first stories i heard. the challenge was checking if they told me what was really in the book so i needed to wait until i knew more hebrew to understand the olt testament. anyone can understand translations if they know how to read. no need for a pope. when in doubt choose the meaning that better matches the words.

[Kreneman]

I've been studying the Bible now going over ten years and it took me a while to get this far but in the first year when I 30yrs old, I picked really fast and I understand more clearly now then I did before.

[lightbulb27]

15-20. It wasn't necessarily by reading it alone but by understanding my deeper issues and how human beings work, then I understood it from a different angle.

doesn't mean I undersatnd it right or same as others do.

[Staximus]

10 minutes to figure out it teaches some good morals and the rest is a bunch of speculation and hogwash

[Roudyrebel8]

It can take a lifetime and then some to fully understand it

[LiamJHayden]

Some parts are easy. Some are quite difficult, as Peter himself said about some of Paul's writings (2 Peter 3:16). I am still learning.

[SeymourBill420]

As soon as I got the right version of it.

[Yannae]

That'll take my whole life

[OddBeMe]

A week. I read it and saw it was bullshit,

[WhiteBoyChill]

I’m still trying to

[BarryLiverstone]

A lifetime.