Pathway to Understanding the Bible

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1.   Is it difficult to understand the Bible?

2.   Are we equipped to understand the Bible?

3.   Where do we begin the search?

4.   Can the Bible be trusted?

5.   The Bible under attack

6.   Who should we trust?

7.   How many gospel messages do we have?

8.   Jesus—the true foundation

9.   Who sent Jesus Christ to earth?

10.   To whom was Jesus sent?

11.   How Jesus Christ was raised from birth

12.   The teachings of Jesus Christ

13.   Jesus on clean and unclean meats

14.   Jesus on divorce

15.   Jesus on tithes and offerings

16.   Jesus Christ on the passover

17.   Jesus on the writings of Moses and the Prophets

18.   Jesus christ on the greatest commandment

19.   Jesus Christ on the Sabbath

20.   Jesus Christ on fulfilling the law

21.   Christ’s charge against the Pharisees and teachers of the law

22.   Jesus Christ was a Jew

23.   A short history of Man

24.   A new covenant between God and Israel

25.   The reasons behind Israel’s exiles

26.   Biblical definition of righteousness

27.   The loss!

28.   Why Jesus had to die on man’s behalf

29.   The Kingdom of God restored

30.   The gospel according to Jesus Christ

31.   Beginning the journey of preaching the Kingdom of God

32.   Chronological stages in spreading the Kingdom message

33.   Taking the Gospel to the Gentiles

34.   Answering the hard questions from Paul

35.   Paul’s letter to the Romans

Dedication

To my Mother, Grace Adorkor, a virtuous woman, whose price is far above rubies. Your steadfast faith in God through the many trials and challenges of raising six children inspires me to do away with all excuses in life and challenge myself in maximizing the full potential in me. You are the unschooled but educated mother I have ever known. The major lesson I learned from you which is sacrificing your life for the betterment of your children and others has compelled me to do same in writing this book to set others free.

A whole book could not contain what I feel deep inside my heart to tell you. Some words written by other higher minds though seem fitting at this moment to express my love to you for the sacrifices you had to make for your children’s survival.

All that I am my mother made me—John Quincy Addams

A man never sees all that his mother has been to him till it’s too late to let her know that he sees it—William Dean Howells

God could not be everywhere, and therefore He made mothers—Jewish proverb

There is in all this cold and hollow world no fount of deep, strong, deathless love, save that within a mother’s heart—Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans

Thank you with all my love.

And to those who are seeking the truths about God and spirituality with genuine and sincere hearts. It is my hope and prayer that this book will lead you to the right path in knowing the right steps to take yourself instead of forever relying on what others dictate to you and set you free. It saddens my heart to the very core when religion and spirituality is cunningly used by some few to imprison the minds of people instead of being used to reveal a man to himself and thereby manifesting his full potentials in life.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to:

My Father, David Adorkor: It is said that humility, integrity and patience are the solid foundation of all the virtues. You have these in abundance and I respect you for that.

Kofi Hammond: For your inspiration and incredible support. Ever since I told you about myself and mission, you’ve recommended and given me the books to read and the tapes to listen to. You really practice what you preach by proving that money is not everything. I doff my hat for you. I respect you greatly.

Ebenezer Bruce: For more than a decade now, you’ve taken the place of the brother I never had and sacrificed your life and time on me without complaining or frowning once. I feel guilty calling you a friend. You’re simply my big brother.

Mr. & Mrs. Francis Addabor: Francois, I have known you many years and you have been the most straight-up, honest, open and truthful person I’ve known. Jacqueline, your wife has also been a very good friend. I adore you both. I really do.

Benjamin Doe: For the time spent in teaching me the basics to put me back on track in 2001. No matter where you reach in life, you remain calm, respectful, humble and meek to all. It all started for me when you agreed to teach me back then. Thank you.

Kwame Anane: For being a brother and editor of the manuscript. Merci.

Kofi Anane: I appreciate you for always being there for me whenever I needed a helping hand. I cannot thank you enough.

Mavis Dzifa Adorkor: For being the most adorable sister I ever had. I admire the fearless attitude you apply to life. This book was written for young women like you. So far, you are the only one who knows the funny side of me and I can make my dance moves in front of you.

Joyce Sitsofe Adorkor: For giving me a grandson who has become a very good friend and inspiration in the person of Paul Smith Seyram Duncan. And for always seeing to it that I’ve eaten. You have been such a wonderful niece. I love you.

Christabel Adjei, Godwin Nuhoho Diaba, Evelyn Osei and Millicent Woyo: You guys are some of the nicest and wonderful people I’ve ever come across.

My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of my faith for choosing me to do this. I feel highly favored and honored. This work is proof that God indeed can choose the foolish and weak things of the world to shame the wise and strong so that no one may boast before Him (1 Cor. 1:26-29).

Introduction

I ’ll like to endorse this book with a quote from Elbert Hubbard’s book Love Life and Work, How to Attain the Highest Happiness for One’s Self with the Least Possible Harm to Others. A paragraph in that book sums up what I’m about to do in this book that you are reading. In what he termed a prayer, he wrote that:

"The supreme prayer of my heart is not to be learned, rich, famous, powerful, or ‘good,’ but simply to be radiant. I desire to radiate health, cheerfulness, calm courage and goodwill. I wish to live without hate, whim, jealousy, envy or fear. I wish to be simple, honest, frank, natural, clean in mind and clean in body, unaffected—ready to say I do not know,’ if it be so, and to meet all men on an absolute equality—to face any obstacle and meet every difficulty unabashed and unafraid. I wish others to live their lives too—up to their highest, fullest and best. To that end I pray that I may never meddle, interfere, dictate, give advice that is not wanted, or assist when my services are not needed. If I can help people, I’ll do it by giving them a chance to help themselves, and if I can uplift or inspire, let it be by example, inference, and suggestion, rather than by injunction and dictation. That is to say, I desire to be radiant—to radiate life."

Thanks to the concept of democracy! Each of us is entitled to his own opinions and can therefore say or do whatever pleases him provided he does not infringe on another man’s liberty. I’m very much aware of this, so my main purpose for writing this book is not to compel you to change your lifestyle or to impose my decisions on you either, since no individual has the moral right to even try that in our day and age. Even God, the Creator of mankind, does not force us to choose His ways which are meant to serve our own good. Choices have been given to each of us to determine how we want our lives to be led. Plato once wrote that "Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind."

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer once wrote that, You cannot learn anything through the efforts of others. The world’s greatest teachers can teach you absolutely nothing unless you are willing to apply what they have to offer based on your knowledge. Those great teachers only offer you choices on the menu of life. They can make them sound very appealing, and ultimately they may help you to try those items on the menu. They can even write the menu. But the menu can never be the meal.

This agrees with what I once read somewhere accredited to Gautama Buddha that "Do not believe what you have heard. Do not believe in tradition because it is handed down many generations. Do not believe in anything that has been spoken of many times. Do not believe because the written statements come from some old sage. Do not believe in conjecture. Do not believe in authority or teachers or elders. But after careful observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and it will benefit one and all, then accept it."

The systems of this age have made it quite possible for us to have easy and faster access to information. For instance, it’s much easier to acquire almost all the necessary information one needs on a subject on the internet faster in our days than it used to be some few years back. But the strange thing is that most people do not utilize or put into practice what they learn from these collections of information. This reminds me of a quote in the book of Ezekiel that:

My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you, to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. 32 Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice. (Ezek. 33:31-32)

I’m well informed that no matter how hard I try, this book is not going to change the entire world or even the Church, since most people only love to express their devotion to the Word of God with their lips but are not that interested in putting them into practice. There are those who will tell you pointblank that they are not going to obey even the voice of God when it is presented to them like what happened in the days of Jeremiah. When God realized that their evil practices would result into destroying themselves and making them an object of curse and reproach among all nations on earth, He sent Jeremiah to warn them of the consequences of their ways. But listen to what they said in response:

Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, 16 "We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD! 17 We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. (Jer. 44:15-17)

Now, although I know the majority of the populace would not adhere to what I’m about to deliver in this book regarding the underlying foundation of the message contained in the Bible, I also know that there is always a remnant who are usually in the minority searching for the truth and would go through fire to obtain it. I hope you are one of those by the mere fact that you are currently reading this book. Remain with me as we journey along through the Bible. Some books are copper, some are silver, and a few are gold: but the Bible alone is like a book all made up of bank notes—John Newton (1725-1807). I humbly invite you to "hear my words, you wise men; listen to me, you men of learning. 3 For the ear tests words as the tongue tastes food. 4 Let us discern for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good. (Job 34:2-4)

THE CULTURE OF BLAMING OTHERS

It seems we now live in a society of fault-finders, complainers, blamers and whiners always talking about why there are myriads of problems on earth but none claiming responsibility for creating them. Like Jack Canfield puts it, Most of us have been conditioned to blame something outside of ourselves for the parts of our life we don’t like. Today, we do have individuals and institutions whose job it is to tell us about problems as well as the causal agents of such problems encountered on earth. But at the end of the day, what they do is to merely point an accusing finger at someone else or another institution as being responsible for a problem, excluding themselves.

It is not uncommon to hear children blaming their parents for being responsible for their failures in life. Employees blame their employers for their non-performance at various workplaces. Citizens of nations accuse their leaders for not being creative, innovative and effective enough in coming out with adequate policies and regulations backed with unbiased implementation to bring about improvements in their lives. Those on the African continent in particular accuse their leaders of being corrupt but forget the fact that these so-called corrupt leaders came from their own homes and are only doing what they would do if they were in their shoes.

Unions like the Security Council, AU, ECOWAS, UN, The Arab League, and NATO, occasionally point accusing fingers at each other for being responsible for the failures of each other. You have a so-called super-power like the United States watch its defense system penetrated so much that almost three thousand of its citizens could be killed in a day by hijackers and then accuse Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden as being responsible. I thought the US had powerful institutions like the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and the Ministry of Defense. One wonders if they were on strike that fateful day.

This concept of always blaming others did not originate with us and has grown so much that in Africa especially, even when there are mosquitoes in people’s rooms at night, someone has to be blamed for it, and that excludes the occupant of the room. So in a situation like that, the government has to take the heat, and blamed for not constructing good drainage systems resulting in stagnant water bodies in the cities and towns which serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

When a very able-bodied young man who refuses to put his hands to the plough is unable to earn enough money and develops a lean purse in the process, demons are blamed for punching holes in his pockets. There are times that even when a pastor who should know better is unable to keep his sexual desires in check and is unable to keep his own zip up resulting in fornication or adultery, the fault is squarely laid on the shoulders of someone like the devil to take full responsibility, and the pastor is exempted from wrongdoing himself because they claim he is also a descendant of Adam.

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY AND BEING

PART OF THE SOLUTION

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)

I have also identified some things that I would refer to as problems bothering mankind. I have seen several of them, and just like everyone else, I used to feel frustrated as well until it dawned on me to choose and tackle one of these problems bothering us. So unlike most people, instead of repeatedly blaming, whining, complaining and pointing accusing fingers at others for what is going wrong around us, I have rather chosen the path of selecting one of these areas to address. This is because I’m always passionate about hanging around solution-oriented people. What a Kingdom-minded person does is to concentrate on fixing problems rather than wasting his energy telling people how those problems were created and who caused them. The path I have chosen is the one that is very dear to my heart; that is, locating the exact message contained in the Bible. Andrew Bonar wrote: I looked for the church and found it in the world. I looked for the world and found it in the church.

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. (1 Pet. 4:10-11)

I have often wondered why is it that if I should give a Biology textbook, for instance, to hundred persons in hundred different countries and ask a question pertaining to something contained in it, they would most likely give me the same answer. But if a Bible is given to a hundred different pastors even in one country and a question is asked about a subject in it, they are most likely to give me different answers or interpretations to the same question. That has always baffled me and I know I’m not the only one in this boat. And when asked Why is that so? some teachers of the Bible would often quote 1 Corinthians 2:4 as an excuse that the Bible can only be spiritually discerned. That should take us to the question of whether God would intentionally make the Bible difficult to understand or not.

C. H. Spurgeon once wrote that: "An unwatchful church will soon become an unholy church . . . The main cure of a church comes by strengthening its inner life. When we live near to Jesus, when we drink from the fountain-head of eternal truth and purity, when we become personally true and pure, then our watchfulness is under God, our Safeguard; heresy, false doctrine, and unclean profession are kept far away. Sleeping guards invite the enemy. He who leaves his door unlocked asks the thief to enter. Watchfulness is always profitable, and slothfulness is always dangerous."

THE BIRTH OF THIS BOOK

I have discovered that there has always been one simple message spread across the pages of this precious book called the Bible that I would be surprised even if there were just two denominations in the world. Most of Christians’ theology concludes that the Church has replaced the Israelites as God’s people. As a result, they mostly associate the Jews with the content of the Old Testament Scriptures and only use them as references in their studies and teachings. The impression then created is the notion that The New Testament belongs to Christians whereas the Old is meant for the Jews. It is my humble but deepest desire to correct this erroneous misconception with this book. This I feel is my way of serving this generation by contributing to the restoration of God’s knowledge on earth to the Gentile believers especially.

In my few years of studying the Bible, I have come to agree with Mr. David H. Stern when He wrote in the introduction of the Complete Jewish Bible that "The greatest schism in the world is the separation between the Church and the Jewish people." He went further to state that, "In translating the Jewish New Testament I had had a strong and directed desire to show everyone, Jews and Christians alike, that the New Testament is a thoroughly Jewish book." Under the unity of the entire Bible, He pointed out that "There is no need to collect the first three-quarters of the Bible into the ‘Old Testament’ and the last quarter into the ‘New.’ Rather, the Bible is presented as a seamless whole, a unified Word of God, a complete Jewish Bible for all humanity . . . Indeed, the New Testament completes the Tanakh (The Old Testament); so that the New Testament without the Old is as impossible as the second floor of a house without the first, and the Old without the New as unfinished as a house without a roof."

I have found reading the Bible the most thrilling and fascinating experience to ever happen to me that I have come to appreciate what Patrick Henry said that, "The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed." The more I stick to the Bible, the more I’m marveled at the depth of wisdom / mysteries hidden in it for those of us living today especially.

In two sentences, I have learned that the Bible is mainly about the establishment of the Kingdom of God in any environment and how the occupants of that environment (in our case, the people of this earth i.e. both Jews and Gentiles / believers and nonbelievers) are to repent of their ways which always seem right in their own eyes and be transformed in their thinking to wholeheartedly tune their lives to fall in line with the statutes, laws and principles of God which are written down in the pages of the Bible. The result of this acceptance of tuning into the principles of God is then expected to be manifested in the kind of life they live afterwards to the glory of God and for the peoples’ own good.

J. C. Ryle once wrote "I do not set up myself to be better than other people, and if anyone asks, ‘What are you, that you write this way?’ I answer, ‘I am a very poor creature indeed.’ But I say that I cannot read the Bible without desiring to see many believers more spiritual, more holy, more single-eyed, more heavenly minded, more whole-hearted than they (presently) are. I want to see among believers more of a pilgrim spirit, a more decided separation from the world, a conversation more evidently in heaven, a closer walk with God, and therefore I have written as I have."

If we truly believe the words of the Bible to be inspired by a Higher Power, then it is incumbent on all of us to seek to fully understand and practice its principles ourselves and then going a step further to teach it to the next generations. Failure to do this would buttress the thought once shared by Billy Melvin who once wrote that: My concern is the measure of infiltration by the world into the church. We have been influenced far more than we would like to admit. This infiltration has dulled our effectiveness, blurred our vision, and caused us to adopt worldly standards of success.

A. W. Tozer also once wrote that: We have learned to live with unholiness and have come to look upon it as the natural and expected thing. Philip Doddridge also wrote, and I agree with him, that Let us remember, that whilst we are in this world, we sojourn in a strange land, and are at a distance from our home; and, therefore, do not let us be inordinately affected with anything in it.

THE CHOICE

Life is about the choices we make. I have chosen to fully devote the last three years of my life to dig deeper into the Bible to locate the exact message that was intended for us by its Author and then to bring it to the open to make its reading, studying and understanding a delight for everyone especially the young men and women of this age. I have been so passionate with this search that, although I had to completely quit my full time job to face several challenges to finish this, it now feels like just yesterday.

I strongly believe that by the time you complete reading, you would have gotten a firm foundation on which angle to now study and understand the Bible without the aid of a Concordance, a Bible Commentary or a teacher. You will get to know who wrote the Bible, how it was written, to whom it was intended, its purpose, how it was preserved, the research that went into proving its contents before writing them down, a short history of Israel and the true source of Christianity.

The next thing is that people especially the youth will now feel proud to own and carry Bibles around without feeling ashamed. This would enable them to study it themselves to discover all the powerful principles being discovered by most of the motivational speakers that guarantee true success today. You would also discover the solutions to the problems being encountered on earth today. This is your best shot on the one true non-denominational pathway to understanding the Bible.

MY HEART’S DESIRE

It is my desire and prayer that everyone alive will own a Bible no matter the color of their skin, race or religious background. I believe deep down within my soul that the first thing to buy for a child should be a Bible and not a toy. Your child will surely grow up to read and understand it later.

I’ll like to remind you that, although there are several things you will learn from the pages of this book, it is only meant to lead you into falling in love with the Bible like what happened to me. It is meant to serve or assist you as a route or path to direct you into understanding the Bible clearly. That is where the title Pathway to Understanding the Bible comes from. It is a path to aid you in your studies.

Once you are enlightened to this path, I’ll suggest that even if you cannot afford to buy a copy of this book for a friend or a loved one, you pass this very one to them to help them learn what you know. Only tell them in advance to take good care of it and return it in the condition they took it from you. Don’t be selfish and keep this knowledge to yourself. Study the Bible and seek to understand the principles found in its pages. After that, apply them to any field of endeavor you find yourself to extend the Kingdom of God on earth.

The only tool you will need aside your Bible is your ability to read. So plunge in and be prepared to learn many wonderful new truths! Make sure you pray for understanding before starting and approach this study with an open mind. God be with you. I love you.

"The first and most important book we are to study is the Bible . . . . When we study a book of the Bible we are seeking to be controlled by the intent of the Author; we are determined to hear what He is saying, not what we want Him to say. We want life-transforming truth, not just good feelings. We are willing to pay the price of barren day after barren day until the meaning is clear. This process revolutionizes our lives."—Richard J. Foster

Chapter One

Is it difficult to understand the Bible?

E ver since I was a kid, I have heard it said time and again that the Bible is difficult to understand and most of its teachers often quote 1 Corinthians 2:14 to support their stance that it can only be spiritually discerned. I do appreciate the works of most of these men who have searched into the Bible and written some marvelous books that have paved the way for us to also have the desire and the motivation to delve more into the scriptures ourselves in these last days. I hold such men in high regard and honor for their work; I doff my hat for them. But at the same time it is written "We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God , which He has given about His Son." (1 John 5:9)

So, with all due respect and apology, if we have been told all our lives that because it is spiritually discerned, the Bible is difficult to understand and that until it is interpreted to us by someone else, we wouldn’t be able to grasp its full meaning but God’s Word says otherwise, then we should be bold and courageous enough to declare openly like John that "we accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater." We do accept their testimonies because they are good. But the testimony from God is far greater and superior to what they tell us. I learned from Dr. Myles Munroe that, doing something good does not necessarily mean one is doing the right thing.

When the consensus of scholarship says one thing and the Word of God another, the consensus of scholarship can plumb go to hell for all I care.—Billy Sunday a.k.a William A. Sunday (1862-1935)

Paul wrote in the book of Ephesians about "the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things" (Eph. 3:9). This may sound like God intentionally chose to keep His ways a mystery to be hidden from His children forever. But it will interest you to know that when God gave His prophesies to Daniel for instance in the days of old, He did not intend them to be hidden forever. Read carefully what was said in one of such lines:

He replied, "Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand." Daniel 12:9-10)

Jesus asked, "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?!" (Matt. 7:9-11). God never intended His Word to remain a mystery and kept hidden from His children for ever. The question is, Why would He do that if He loves us so much that He could even sacrifice His only Son to die on our behalf? What does He stand to gain by keeping His Word a secret from the children He loves so much? Does that make sense? He promises us on several instances that "whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open" (Mark 4:22):

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. 18 Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him." (Luke 8:17-18)

It was Jesus Christ who said the above statement and to prove Himself right that He does not lie, He made sure He explained everything to His disciples who were always prepared and available to understand the morals He was teaching through His parables. That was what differentiated His disciples from the Pharisees and the crowd who only heard Him teach in parables without taking the required steps further to carefully consider how they listened. After each sermon in parables, His disciples went to ask Him in private to interpret everything He had said.

One gains understanding and becomes wise in the process when he is able to apply the knowledge or information at his disposal to overcome the daily issues of life. Even with the crowd, Jesus did not only speak in parables but He always "spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand."

With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when He was alone with His own disciples, He explained everything. (Mark 4:33-34)

The truth is that in past generations and now, God chooses to speak to His children in various ways through His Words but the majority refuses to listen to what the few who are always in the minority adhere to. For instance, when God said the wicked would continue to be wicked because they would not understand what Daniel was saying in those days, He still said many would at the same time be purified, made spotless and refined because of their wisdom which leads them to understand what they heard. Read those two verses again.

He replied, "Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand." (Daniel 12:9-10)

The same thing happened in the days of Jesus Christ when He walked the face of this earth, breathed the very same air that you and I breathe and felt the heat of the sun just like everyone else today. He spoke in parables to the crowd but He made sure He explained everything to His disciples whenever they were alone. Even with that, they could still not fully grasp everything He taught to the extent that when it was time for Him to ascend into heaven, He had to open their understanding to fully comprehend the Scriptures all over again (Luke 24:44-49). And this has continued to our day and age. Jesus praised the Father for revealing this to His children:

At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you Father, LORD of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure." (Luke 10:21)

PROVE ALL THINGS

No matter how safe a thing is concealed in the Bible in particular, there is always the element of revelation if the searcher will continue to seek and knock till the door is opened for him. Questions are bound to be answered if and only if the questioner does not relent in wanting that answer so badly. It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom—Horace Greeley (1811-1872). Jesus said:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matt. 7:7-8)

Although the Bible remains a mysterious Book to many, our Lord Jesus Christ, who died on our behalf that we might have life and whose testimony is greater than men, has promised us that if we will seek to understand it, seek to find the one true message contained in it and never relent in doing so until we get hold of what we are asking and seeking, the door will be opened for us. Wow! John the apostle also wrote that: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him" (1 John 5:14-15). God loves and hears us and for that matter will not conceal His word from us if we want to know it. We have to do the seeking first to reach the finding stage.

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, to search out a matter is the glory of kings. (Prov. 25:2)

After calling the Israelites from Egypt, God said through Moses to tell them that "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites" (Exod. 19:5-6). Later when it was time to call the Gentiles to inherit the covenant promised to Abraham that he was to become the father of many nations, God again said through Peter that, "But you (Gentile believers) are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Pet. 2:9-10)

If Gentile believers are today a people belonging to God though they did not qualify for that in the past, like Israel, then we are kings and queens in the assembly of the godly, and it is our collective responsibility to search out every matter that has been concealed by the Almighty King. Searching out these truths will bring out our glory as well.

PAYING THE PRICE

Brian Tracy once said, Decide upon your major definite purpose in life and then organize all your activities around it. There is always something to do to lead you to the truth. You don’t just sit with your hands folded waiting for the answers to drop like manner from heaven on your lap. You’ve got to dig to find gold. It was Napoleon Hill who once said that There is nothing like something for nothing. If you want something badly, you should be prepared to pay the price to attain it. There’s nothing precious taken on a silver platter. Understanding makes life simple. But it takes time, discipline, perseverance, passion and other traits to gain understanding into a particular subject. Solomon said, "Although it costs you all you have, get understanding." Be willing to pay any price for understanding.

To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32)

Something is got to give way if we are truly interested in finding the solutions to the numerous problems we face. Christians love to quote the immediate verse above at the least provocation to assure ourselves that we are free in Christ because we feel we know the truth. But if you were to carefully study what Jesus said and did not say in those two verses, you would realize that He actually said one would know the truth and be free in the process if and only if he holds to His (Christ’s) teaching. Therefore, if one assumes that Christ’s teaching or message is outdated and is no longer relevant to our internet and globalization age and yet claims to be a Christian mixing the teachings he received with that of the systems of this world, he would simply be deceiving himself. Holding to His teaching is the price.

For instance, if you claim to be a Christian and yet have a message distinct from what Christ preached and left with the disciples to build upon, then you are just a cranking cymbal "for no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 2:11). John adds that "Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God: whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. 11 Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work" (2 John 9-11). The teaching of Jesus Christ is the only true and reliable foundation that has to be built upon if one truly claims to be a Christian. The whole of this book is built on this principle.

THE WISE AND DISCERNING WILL UNDERSTAND

Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them. (Hosea 14:9)

The ways of God are right and will forever remain so. Those who choose to live by the principles contained in them are called righteous and walk blamelessly in them. But the rebellious who refuse to live by these same principles of God stumble and are ruined for choosing a different path. The ways of God remain unchanged since the days of Adam and Eve because it is written "He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man, that He should change His mind." (1 Sam. 15:29) God has not changed His mind from what He had in mind when He created Adam to rule the earth.

Go to this people and say, "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving." 27 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. (Acts 28:26-27)

You see, even as these hidden prophesies were given in the past, the people could have understood them if they had listened well enough with their ears and opened their eyes. There is a thin line between hearing and listening. The truth of the Bible became hidden to its intended recipients because they refused to adhere to its requirements and regulations. The fault was then with the people, and not God and His Word. In order to remedy this anomaly, read how God decided to do it:

"This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the LORD. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. (Jer. 31:33-34)

In past generations, a prophet appears on the scene and continuously warns the people to live their lives according to the principles of God. In our days too, we have pastors in front of pulpits and through other communication networks telling their congregants to know God by following His principles in the Scriptures. But what we need to take note of is the fact that the Word of God has been in existence long before even our great grandparents were born. Yet most of us refuse to even listen to these words let alone study them on our own. We only hear but don’t listen to understand.

But a time is coming when no-one will need a pastor, a brother, or a neighbor to remind him or her to live according to these same principles contained in the pages of the Bible. The same principles that people refuse to live by today are, in later times, going to make enough sense to the occupants of this earth and we will all choose to live by them because God is going to make it so. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14).

If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.—Daniel Webster (1782-1852)

Different interpretations arise from the writings of Paul that there are times one would wish he should have toned down a bit on the content of some of his letters for every Tom, Dick and Harry to clearly understand. But incidentally, he did not consider any of his writings difficult to understand. He once wrote to the Corinthian Church that "For we do not write to you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, 14 as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the LORD" (2 Cor. 1:13-14).

Although Paul himself considered his writings plain and not difficult to understand, his fellow soldier in the faith had a warning to give to us who read his writings today. And as a fellow Christian in the faith, my little and humble appeal to you is that each time you read anything that was penned down by Paul, I’ll plead with you with all due respect to heed to this warning from Peter, a loving disciple of Christ who was called to preach the gospel to the Jews just as Paul was sent to the Gentiles. Peter wrote:

Bear in mind that our LORD’S patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in ALL HIS LETTERS, speaking in them of these matters. HIS LETTERS CONTAIN SOME THINGS THAT ARE HARD TO UNDERSTAND, WHICH IGNORANT AND UNSTABLE PEOPLE DISTORT, AS THEY DO THE OTHER SCRIPTURES TO THEIR OWN DESTRUCTION." (2 Peter 3:15-16)

To really appreciate Peter’s warning, we need to understand the full meaning of the word "distort" in those verses. It is defined as to change the shape, appearance or sound of something so that it is strange or not clear; to twist or change facts, ideas etc so that they are no longer correct or true. Now, in relation to Peter’s warning, you would realize that one does not necessarily have to be a bad person to distort the words of Paul and the other Scriptures of the Bible. His deep knowledge base on the mysteries hidden in the Scriptures from past ages (Eph. 3:9) made his letters difficult to understand, that the ignorant and unstable twist or change them unknowingly, with the excuse of interpreting them, and this results in changing the whole meaning and truth that they were meant to communicate.

For instance, after the resurrection of the LORD Jesus Christ from the dead and His disciples’ marvel at what they had experienced in those days, Christ Jesus said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?" 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself (Luke 24:25-27). That is to say that if they had read, understood and believed what the prophets had said in the Scriptures before Christ’s arrival, they would have understood what was happening right before their eyes without being taught. The same thing is happening today. The future is hidden in the past.

Everything Jesus, Paul or any of the other apostles taught was clearly stipulated in the Scriptures but they remained hidden mysteries until they were discovered and taught by them to the masses. The Holy Scriptures of the Bible contain all that pertains to what constitutes the truth of God. Its message has been here with us since the days of Moses at least. Upon all the efforts by various kingdoms to suppress the