📖 Training > trying

I. When I was a kid in middle school youth group, I remember listening to adults share their stories and talk about what they were currently learning.

I would be somewhat confused by this. I assumed that after being a Christian for a few decades, there wouldn’t be much more to learn.

And yet, there is always so much more we can learn about God and his word.

Proverbs 9:9 states, “Instruct a wise person, and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous person, and he will learn more.”

Mature followers of Jesus are always learning and growing. Only the ignorant ever “arrive.”

What has God been teaching you lately?

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II. Training will take you further than trying.

Repeatedly in the Scriptures, we are told to train.

1 Timothy 4:7 says to “train yourself in godliness.” 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is useful for training in righteousness.

Ephesians 6:4 instructs fathers to train their children in righteousness. Proverbs 10:17 says those who follow instruction (i.e., practice what they learn) are on the path to life.

This means that you don’t simply become a Christian and never struggle with sin anymore. In fact, it is that false assumption that discourages so many. They wonder why, if they desire to follow Jesus, they still have such big struggles.

Yet, the picture we get in the Bible is that we must train ourselves in the way of Jesus - it will not come naturally.

It is not about trying harder next time you are tempted. It is about training better so that you are better prepared to walk in holiness.

Train. Because training will take you further than trying.

The books in the Bible were written thousands of years ago, in a different language, context, and cultural setting than you live in today.

It is okay to be confused or not understand certain things when you read it.

Scripture is wisdom literature we are meant to read and hear over and over again, learning more and making better connections within the text each time.

And while the essential message of Scripture is clear (who God is and how we can participate in his kingdom), there are many stories and references that require more study and understanding to fully comprehend.

So here’s a quick tip: using something like a study Bible when reading Scripture can be immensely helpful. It won’t answer all your questions, but it can give some insight and guidance as you read.

As a pastor, I use them in my personal devotional time quite often.

The Bible was not originally written as a bound book like the one you own today. It was written on scrolls, usually made from animal skin or papyrus.

Scrolls were:

Most people would have heard Scripture read aloud rather than owning a personal copy.

Because scrolls could only be so long before becoming difficult to handle, longer books were often divided across multiple scrolls. A book like Isaiah could require multiple scrolls to copy and store.

This helps explain why public reading, memorization, and teaching were central to how God’s Word was passed on.

The Rise And Fall Of Dispensationalism by Daniel G. Hummel

A book about the history of dispensational theology, how it started, how it gained ground theologically and pop-culturally, and how it has declined theologically, and (to a slower extent) in pop culture.

This is a very niche book and topic, so if you're not interested in it, you won't enjoy the book. The book was a slower read as well, given all the names and historical references.

Dispensationalism, as it eventually became known, is a certain way of reading and understanding the Bible that started in the early 1800s. While it is about much more than the end times, its view of the end times is how it became primarily focused on at a popular level.

The idea of a rapture where Christians disappear from the earth in the end times (think the Left Behind book series) is a strictly dispensational thought. If dispensationalism is an inaccurate way of reading and understanding the Bible (which I would strongly argue it is), the rapture is not a biblically accurate way to understand the end times (and it is not).

Faithful Christians can disagree about what Jesus' return will look like and entail, and one can certainly be a Christian and believe in the rapture, as that is not a test of orthodoxy, but it really isn't a grounded biblical possibility.

Overall, I learned a lot about dispensationalism, its history, and its (very shaky) beginning foundations. I'm glad to have read the book, and the author did a good job taking on a rather dry topic and putting it together in a book that didn't become a bore.

8/10

P.S. When dad tells you what he wants, he means it…