I finally broke down and read the whole Bible cover to cover

I spent 6 months reading it straight through after a buddy in my small group said most people who argue about it haven't actually read it. He was right, I always cherry-picked verses to support my side. What got me was how messy and raw the old prophets were, like Hosea being told to marry a prostitute. Has anyone else gone through the whole thing and come away with more questions than answers?

2 comments

2 Comments

walker.robert10d ago

Hosea marrying a prostitute still blows my mind every time I think about it! God told him to go do that and then name the kids weird names like "Not My People." That is just so out there compared to what people think the Bible is like. Reading it straight through really shakes up all those neat little Sunday School pictures we have in our heads. You end up with a lot of "wait, what did I just read?" moments for sure.

richardh449d ago

Is it just me or does that kind of thing actually happen more than we think in real life? Like, I've seen people get married to someone who seems like a total mismatch from the outside, but then you realize they're exactly what that person needed at that time in their life. The weird kid names too, I mean, how many people do we all know with unique names that their parents picked for some deep personal reason nobody else gets? It's almost like the Bible is just describing the messy, complicated way God actually works with real people instead of the clean, perfect version we like to pretend is true. Maybe the whole book is way more relatable than we give it credit for once you get past all the stained glass windows and organ music.