8:30 AM Traditional Service

The Bible was written for us and our benefit, but it was not originally written to us who live in the 21st century in America. Many people bring their 21st century questions, including those about science, to the biblical text and expect to find scientific answers—and when they don’t, some jettison their faith and use that as a strategy to urge others to do the same. Reading the Bible well requires working to understand what it meant to those who first received and read it—only once we understand that can we begin to responsibly and fully apply it to our lives today and here. It’s important to understand the questions that the text was originally written to answer, rather than assuming it was written to answer our questions today (even though some of the big questions of life are timeless and it certainly does speak to the questions that were common to ancient Israel and to us today).

BIG IDEA QUESTION: Describe a time when you misunderstood something someone else said or that you only understood part of it, but missed the main point.