Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible

5 Responses to Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible

1. Rohan L. Ebanks

   January 17, 2010 at 2:10 pm

   This is classic case of buffet style bible reading. It’s all well and good if we focus on the touchy-feely parts of the bible and come away with that same warm and fuzzy feeling that drives the sale of Christian books and stupefies the simple minded into filling the collection plates.

   If the bible was divinely inspired, then every bit of it should conform to all known facts in nature. Every bit of it should uplifting, useful, and good. Every bit of it should be true. Yet we find vile and repugnant things that are commanded, condoned, or personally carried out by old Yahweh himself. Over the years, mankind is left with the task of smoothing over, reinterpreting and in most cases outright ignoring some of the more despicable and ridiculous parts of the bible.

   Is it any wonder Scott Duvall did not explain too well:
   
   Deuteronomy 21: 1-8 ……. If you find a dead body and don’t know the cause of death, then get all the elders together, cut off the head of a heifer, wash your hands over its body, and say our hands have not shed this blood.

   Did Mr. Duvall grasp God’s word when he (God) commanded:

   Exodus 35: 2-3
   
   Whoever works, or even kindles a fire, on the Sabbath “shall be put to death.”
   
   Leviticus 24: 10-23
   
   A man curses and blasphemes while disputing with another man. Moses asks God what to do about it. God says that the whole community must stone him to death. “And the children of Israel did as the Lord and Moses commanded.”
   
   Deuteronomy 13: 6-10
   
   If your brother, son, daughter, wife, or friend tries to get you to worship another god, “thou shalt surely kill him, thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death.”

   Forgiveness, love, compassion is all well and good but Scott Duvall was not willing to grasp and apply God’s word in Numbers 31: 1-54

   Under God’s direction, Moses’ army defeats the Midianites. They kill all the adult males, but take the women and children captive. When Moses learns that they left some live, he angrily says: “Have you saved all the women alive? Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.” So they went back and did as Moses (and presumably God) instructed, killing everyone except for the virgins. In this way they got 32,000 virgins.

   Readers, you would be better off taking a secular humanistic approach to a better life than having someone reinterpret and repackage accent tribal nonsense.
   
   Rating: 1 / 5
   Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible
2. Ruth Hughes

   January 17, 2010 at 4:18 pm

   Thank you for sending the book fast so that I could start reading it for my college class
   Rating: 2 / 5
   Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible
3. Jeanine B. Gautreaux

   January 17, 2010 at 4:20 pm

   I am so disappointed in this book, what a waste of money. This is a direct quote from the book: “Make observations, Dig deep! Think hard. This is not an easy passage. Spend time on this. Make dozens and dozens of observations. Read and read! Looik again! Observe! Observe! Observe!” This quote is repeated in the first assignments. I am an avid reader of all kinds of books and I am old enough to know that hard work is necessary in many aspects of our lives, but surely this is not one of them. The bible is too complex even for educated theologians. I don’t want to work that hard. The book is supposed to be “hands on”. Maybe it gets better later in the book, but frankly, this author’s writing style is not engaging at all, and I find it so laborious to read it, to the point where I just can’t make myself read any further.
   Rating: 2 / 5
   Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible
4. Susanna M. Martinez

   January 17, 2010 at 6:23 pm

   Book received in excellent condition and in a reasonable amount of time. Would buy from this seller again.
   Rating: 5 / 5
   Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible
5. Dwight F. Brownlee

   January 17, 2010 at 7:08 pm

   I needed this book for a class I am taking, it has been helpful in my studies and my ministry,this book is for serious studiers and those looking for a method of how to study the word of God. I was also pleased how timely that it was recieved.Thank you for being there when I need you amazon
   Rating: 5 / 5
   Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible