The reason this is important, along with why I'm spending so much time with it, as well as why I started this blog is, new believers are not encouraged to read God's Word straight thru.
Instead, they begin to study God's Word in fragments. Fragments of whole thoughts and concepts. Which then are pieced together with other thought fragments. Bits and pieces. And those bits and pieces come chopped up in verse form, dived up in misplaced chapters.
And all this in an abstract inadequate language. And this could last for years, or in my case, decades.

I'm not saying, toss out all your English version Bible's.
God's Word in America has lasted a long time. It's comforted many in troubled times.
God's Word in any language is powerful.
But so few know it.
We form ideas and beliefs based on verses.
We believe things because we heard it somewhere.
What criteria do we use when believing or not believing what we hear?

I can't tell ya how many times I heard someone use Jn 3:16 to say, if you believe, your saved and a minute later remind me that even the demons believed.
I can assure you, the brain has fun with that one.
But that vrs is not, or partial thought was used improperly. But I heard it this way over and over.
Were those that see it that way trying to deceive me?
I don't believe so but sometimes Christians zeal to win unsaved people can be mis leading.

When it comes to God's Word, someone might  say "isn't it the same Bible that's comforted those who lived thru the depression and two world wars?"
The answer is yes, but people must realize when much of the confusion began (which for us, was early to mid 1900's) and consider what we've grown up with..
The consequences from that takes decades and all that's needed is a generation that forgets.
And we have that.
We need a shallow self absorbed younger generation, and we have that.
We need a Bible illiterate generation, and we have that.
True... societies have always had those things but if you add rapid advancement of technology to the mix, there's something new.
Infants weaned on iPads and cyber toys is definitely new.

These kids will have a difficult time believing what their parents, grandparents & great grandparents taught them.
For example, we told them that when they get saved, all their sins (past , present & future) are forgiven , when God's Word doesn't allow for that.

Fragments of bits & pieces of whole thoughts in the Bible allow for it though.
Reading the Bible as a life application book allows for this.

But God's Word is filled with warnings, but we rarely see it this way.

Nothing in all the universe works in the same way evangelicals have taught scripture in the past hundred years.
So why would God's grace & mercy work this way.

Some say it's a choice, then when you make that choice, you then lose the ability to make further choices.
That's done by teaching all sins are forgiven and we will disappear before major trouble begins.

Some say the choice was already made.
Depending on what we've been told will determine how we read God's Word.

Case in point :
We are told nothing can separate us from God's love and PTL, that's true.
But we ignore language that speaks of being "kept" in Christ, or to "remain" in Christ.

The writer of John encourages us to "remain" in Christ.

Paul says :


1Co 15:1 — 1Co 15:2
The Resurrection of Christ
15​ Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

Wait a minute!  "if"  we hold fast? 

The only way we can account for such things, is with religion. 

I remember asking once, why do we need to ask forgiveness for sins if there all forgiven. 

God wants us to to show faith, sorrow.  they'd say, but it sounded inadequate.
If we note it's inconsistency we're told this is something new.  

I'm thankful for those who went before me and lived and taught scripture as they did. 

But there comes a time when we need to say, some things wrong. 

From where I sit, what's wrong is a century of influences along with an ignorance of God's total Word delivered in fragments, bits & pieces has given a self absorbed culture exactly what they want to hear.

The only prove we need is, ask anybody where God's Word says all future sin is forgiven, and you know what you'll get?

A verse or two.
It's how we were all raised. Meanwhile, nothing anywhere else gets this kind of treatment. Not in the physical world or in the religious world.
Only the Bible gets fragmented up and delivered.
If one chooses to continue such a discussion, arguing will soon pursue.
Because commenting on clearly seen passages that conflict with influences & experiences won't get a person too far.

At this point, I need to remind you that this two part post began with my hearing a verse (Luke 2:6)can be viewed two ways, of which I agreed.
It's clear, that can't be seen unless we understand how our Bible's work.

This post is not concerning salvation of those in times past. We all grew up under hostile conditions, myself also.

I post this way because of a desire to convey God's message to our kids and grandchildren without influences of the past.
If we're not careful, those influences can effect our understanding when we finally do come to the Bible and read it vrs by vrs.

Challenging those influences along with ridding ourselves of them, isn't easy.
Losing all the language that create excuses is also, not easy.
But it's worth it.


So now more than ever, we need to know what God really said in His Word.
Would it make a difference?
I'm gonna answer that with a, yes.
Let's say you have  a friend you've  never spoke to you in 20 years all because you thought they said something, then it was proven, they never said it.
How would you feel?
You'd probably feel like you just wasted 20 years.