I believe that all we need to understand about God and his son Jesus at this moment is contained in the Bible. And since most of the major translations of the Bible are attempting to faithfully translate the intent of the Bible authors, they do represent God’s fundamental message faithfully.

Since the Bible states God’s moral principles in a straight forward way, they can be understood by all cultures from a young age if you take the time to understand them.

Unfortunately, you will find that many religious organizations say that only they can fully understand the Bible and claim authority from God to do so! However, I don’t believe that this is true as the Bible says that God helps us to understand the Bible fundamentals by the gift of his “spirit”.

However, not all religious organizations claim authority from God and one has to be very careful of those organizations that do so you don’t end up in an authoritarian church or even in a “cult”!

There is a test you can do to see if you are in an authoritarian church or cult. If you are not allowed to make up your own mind on unclear biblical points of discussion then you may be in an authoritarian church or cult. I suggest that you follow your “instincts” on this matter, if initially, it doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t. One trap I fell into was to excuse a church rule on ex-communication as just a mistake from the human elements in the church organization. However, 25 years later, when the church firmly insisted that the rule in question was a rule from God, I realized my mistake in that they didn’t deserve any “benefit of the doubt”. So don’t make the same mistake as I did and always take such organizations at the face value they present, they don’t deserve any leeway because if there really are from God, then they won’t need any leeway or “benefit of the doubt”

So then, if, like me, you have a strong desire to dig into the Bible in a detailed manner, here are some of the foundations I suggest that would be very useful to you (in no particular order)

  1. The Bible has been authored in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek and is a translation when read in our local language. Some versions of the Bible have been authored in Kione Greek (for example, some of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament). While one could learn Hebrew and Koine Greek, a good starting point is to just learn Koine Greek. Why is this needed? Because one can gain a better understanding of some of the finer points of the biblical interpretation and you will be able to see if someone is faithfully translating the biblical Kione Greek and not in a way to suit there own purposes or authority!
  2. Understand the “Philosophy of science”. This book called “What is this thing called science” by Alan Chalmers is a good primer to help you understand science and will help you to relate the Bible to “Science” when discussing the Bible with atheists etc.
  3. Knowledge of Jewish culture along with the political and social environment up to 70 AD. (sometimes called “biblical survey” or “biblical hermeneutics”). This will help you understand the context of the Bible authors and not make the mistake reading into the Bible your own cultural, social and political norms.
  4. Tradition does not imply truth however old it is!
  5. Everyone has a religion (e.g. a belief system), even it is no religion…
  6. Everyone has a unique viewpoint and experience. Try and understand human nature. An understanding of Psychology can be very useful in understanding some aspects of human nature.

If you can gain knowledge in the above points, it will help form a firm foundation for a deeper understanding of the Bible.

As I said before, this is NOT needed for anyone to understand God’s clear message to us all. But if you do embark on this further study, you will be rewarded for your effort in many ways and more importantly, be fully equipped to help others understand the Bible.