When you want to learn and understand how to read the Bible, I hope you will let me know how you do. I'd like to know when I am wrong. If you have a question about the Bible, go ahead and send me an e-mail. I will try to answer you here on my blog. Feel free to ask me any question. I don't consider myself an expert, but I'll try to put your question in the right context. I was really encouraged by the answers you gave me on my previous post on the New Testament and how we can know God exists (you know, the one I did right before I went on a six month hiatus). I especially liked the idea of seeing in nature God's fingerprint and the fact that the Bible and the bible alone tells us about God. I believe in God, but I often tend to doubt God's existence and that is because of the arguments and science that some people bring up. Thanks again for your comments and ideas, which showed me there is a way that God can be real and relevant to the way we live without contradicting the scientific worldview. Thanks for keeping the conversation going, I hope you can come back soon. Dear Mr. DeHart, I enjoyed your reply on the last post. I would like to share with you how I felt when I was a Bible skeptic. A friend invited me to attend a Christian fellowship service at his church. It was something I had never done before and I was a little nervous. When I got there the first thing that occurred to me was how nice the people were and how much more friendly than any other services I have attended. I was warmly greeted and everyone asked me my name and shook my hand when I entered and went up for the service. All these friendly faces were there to worship Jesus Christ. It really struck me how a person could walk away from a place of worship and talk about how silly or stupid they were, yet when that same person walked away from that same place of worship to talk to others how sweet and good everyone was. I started seeing how fake and hollow is the world of skepticism. I am learning as time goes on, that we are so much better and more loving in a Christian church than we are as skeptics. We need to be reminded of the love that God has for us. We need to be reminded that everyone else who is different, need to have this same love given to them in a church. I want to thank you for having this discussion. I hope it will lead more people to seek out the Love of Christ, rather than continue to deny what we know is true. I would love for you to visit my blog if you have the time. I have written a few posts about this. Hey, I just had a question! I guess the first question that I have is: did you mean you were studying up on the bible to believe it or did you just use it as a way of understanding God better? If you are studying up on the bible to believe it, then I would really like to understand this. I want to understand better what you mean by that, and I would love to hear your thoughts. I recently realized that this is what's happening to me. I am searching for proof of God and thinking that's what I need to be doing. You might say it's the reason I am reading your book. I'm trying to prove that God exists and looking for scientific proof for it. As for my thoughts... I can understand your thinking in some ways. When you are talking about the bible, you are talking about the only religion you know. It would seem like the most logical choice to you. At least that's how I see it. We tend to have our parents' religions when we grow up and you just use it as your religion. It would make sense to just use something you know and you know how it works because you've been brought up with it. Now what I don't understand is, why did you just believe in God so recently? The bible is an amazing book and I enjoy reading it. I love it when you give evidence from the Bible and in it you show how it proves God is real. I have a hard time understanding the fact that you are using the Bible to prove God. For me, the best way to prove God would be from the bible. If you're willing to prove to me that you believe God is real, then why not just prove that the Bible is the Word of God by saying that I should do this or that and see how God was showing you that? Why did you get a bible and start looking through the pages instead of just picking one up from a Christian bookstore? What's that you say? You weren't just going to use the bible? You were only going to use a part of it and try and destroy it? And since the bible is the Word of God, wouldn't it also make sense that God would choose to send us to His Word and His only explanation to the world? You also proved in your post that I was right when you said that God speaks with every page. You also said that what happens in the Bible stays in the Bible. So it means that the bible was never written to explain who God was, or why He was doing anything. It also meant that the bible wasn't written to inspire the world or be our guide to living a life of peace. This is something that you can prove with the bible without having to go to scriptures or anything. I'm sorry but I don't understand how the bible can be used as evidence of God if all it does is show us how God has been trying to tell us and God's only method of doing this is by showing us this through things like signs and miracles. I just don't understand this. If I were to pick up a bible today, all I would do would be to look through it and think that it's God's Book and there's nothing more to it. Why does God need to convince you that He is real? Is it just for your knowledge? Does it feel good to know that God can do such things? So you get to know that you're doing something right? It's just knowledge for you and for everyone else too? If God wants people to believe in Him, why does it all seem like a riddle to me? How can you say that this book is filled with the Word of God when it's filled with a bunch of different stories and riddles that lead no where? Why can't you just pick up the Bible and explain to me why you believe that God wants me to believe in Him? Why can't you just tell me about it from what's already written in the Bible? I don't understand how the bible is supposed to be the Word of God when it is the opposite. Can you please explain this to me, I would really appreciate it! And lastly, I'd like to ask you a question. Why is it that you believe that God could be real but you say it's impossible for us to know Him? Why can't you be like the apostle Paul and say: "How can I know that Jesus is the Son of God" and end your statement there? If you truly believe that God is real, then why do you have to keep saying the same thing over and over again? Why can't you just tell me? Don't you think it's possible for us to know God? Why is it that you know and have to prove that He exists for me? It seems like you don't actually believe that we can know Him. But then you say that the bible explains how we can know God! How can you have confidence in the Word of God if you believe that all of it is just supposed to be knowledge? You will never see an example of God in the natural world. There is nothing you can see with your eyes that God is doing. There is no one you can call to ask who God is. There is no evidence that God does anything or that he is anywhere. You can't go into a church and say, "Hey, is God real?" The only thing you can say is that if you are a Christian, it's okay that you believe in God. Don't be afraid to answer these questions. I appreciate your thoughts and thank you for bringing these questions to my attention. I would love to hear your thoughts on them. I'm sure this post would not be the first one of many that I will have to address. I hope you're able to understand what I'm saying and why I'm saying it and I hope you'll have some time to answer my questions. Until then... Thank you for your time and take care, Joe Taylor PS. I will be responding to your post. Don't