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I am making good progression in my quest to understand my relationship with God. I thought it a good idea to start right at the beginning so in addition to internet research I began reading the Old Testament. As I have progressed I am feeling that it is more important to understand Jesus through the New Testament and come back to the OT. With hindsight what would you recommend I do?
I am making good progression in my quest to understand my relationship with God. I thought it a good idea to start right at the beginning so in addition to internet research I began reading the Old Testament. As I have progressed I am feeling that it is more important to understand Jesus through the New Testament and come back to the OT. With hindsight what would you recommend I do?
The New. The OT is only useful for validating Jesus as from God and as presenting the TRUE NATURE of God . . to remove the veil of ignorance from reading the OT. Once you have the clear and unambiguous idea of the "mind of Christ" and His love for us ALL . . then you can use that as the "filter" to test the misunderstandings about God's nature presented in the even more primitive OT. If it is NOT compatible with the Jesus we know from the NT . . . it is NOT of God.
What I usually recommend is to start with the book of John, then Acts, and pretty much take your pick from there. If you have a referance Bible read the references they offer as you read the books.
New Testament first, Gospel of John is the best one to start which will give a Kingdom of Heaven vision you will need in understanding for the purpose Jesus will give you in your walk with him...... Read all the parables and pray for understanding into all these..... and Jesus Spirit will give insight into the heart of the Lord God.
I would recommend reading anything BUT John, 1st John, 2nd John, and 3rd John and Revelations.
In fact, I would start with Luke, then Acts, then Romans to get a basic understanding of who God is, who His Son is, and the purpose for which His Son was revealed to the world(Israel).
I would reserve John until God is revealing the Spiritual insights to His Word, because John talks way over the carnal man, and straight into the spiritual man.
The New. The OT is only useful for validating Jesus as from God and as presenting the TRUE NATURE of God . . to remove the veil of ignorance from reading the OT. Once you have the clear and unambiguous idea of the "mind of Christ" and His love for us ALL . . then you can use that as the "filter" to test the misunderstandings about God's nature presented in the even more primitive OT. If it is NOT compatible with the Jesus we know from the NT . . . it is NOT of God.
The OT books of history and prophecy can be daunting and tedious as well.. BUT I would definitely read through Job to understand the relationship between God and man (Of course a little background on the book is helpful since most think it literally happened). Also psalms and proverbs are good reads if you are in between NT reading.
Before you start the NT, I would do a little search on the times then. That way you can relate what is said to the history behind it. The first century was a time of turmoil and change and of course the terminology is different than ours.
Anyway, I hope you continue to seek and you will continue to find.
Definitely start with John. It was written to new Christians and non Christians to prove that Jesus is the Son of God and that all who believe in Him will have eternal life. John makes it very clear that Jesus offers the gift of eternal life to all people. And remember ALL of the Bible is the inspired Word of God
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