“How can I understand the Bible?”

Steve Brown:
How can I understand the Bible? The answer to that question and others, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life, dedicated to the message that the only people who get any better are those who know that if they don’t get any better, God will still love them anyway. That teaching raises a lot of questions, so here’s author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from ForgeTruth with answers from the Bible that will make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey man. How you doing?

Steve Brown:
I’m doing good.

Pete Alwinson:
We’re both doing pretty reasonably good.

Steve Brown:
It’s kind of a fun thing. I look forward to sit down. And it’s not that hard. I mean, it’s not that we haven’t heard these questions before.

Pete Alwinson:
And you never let me, historically, you never let me know the questions ahead of time.

Steve Brown:
No.

Pete Alwinson:
So I could come prepared.

Steve Brown:
25 years ago, when I asked you to do this, at that time you were my pastor, and you wanted us to sit down, outline the answers, go over them, check the theology books and the Scripture references. And I said, if we do that, we’re never going to get this done. And now, Pete is looser than I am and he rises up and calls me blessed for the great lesson that I taught him.

Pete Alwinson:
Amen. I do, I do.

Steve Brown:
By the way, if you haven’t, go to ForgeTruth.com great podcasts there. And if you live in Central Florida, you might want to check out where the meetings of Forge take place. And be a part of it. I’ve seen so many guys whose lives have changed with Forge. And if you haven’t read Pete’s book, it’s Like Father, Like Son. And you’ll be glad for that too. Pete and I both love to hear your questions and you can call 1-800-KEY-LIFE, 24 7, follow instructions and record your question. And sometimes we put that on the air. Or you can send your question to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

in Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

or you can email your question to [email protected] and if you can help us financially, I promise we’ll be faithful to, with your gift, as faithful as you were in giving it. And you can check us out on ECFA and CCCC in Canada. Both those organizations wouldn’t accept us because they’d look at our books if we weren’t ethical. So, we promise we’ll be faithful if you can help us. And when you help us, you help so many others. And if you can’t help us, we understand. So, say a prayer for this ministry. Pete, you pray for us. And we’ll get to some of these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
All right. Our great God. We do come to you at the end of this week, so thankful that we can pray, that we can come right to the one who made us, who provides for us, who sustains us, who redeemed us in Christ, and who is our God and Father. We worship you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Lord, you know that we have needs. You know us more than we know ourselves. And in our more honest moments, we confess our sins to you. We ask for your strength in our insecurities. Lord, those things that we want to control, we have to give to you to control. And so, Lord, you know us, you know the money that we need to pay bills, you know, the jobs that we need. And even the relationships that need to be restored. And so, we come to you with everything about our lives. And we ask that you would meet us, meet us at the at the very point of our need, Lord. And we look forward to coming into being with your people this week-end in worship. Pray for our pastors and priests and teachers and leaders and worship directors. We really are thankful for how much they invest in us. And we pray that you would protect them from the evil one that they might lead and lead well. And so, we commit this time of Q&A to you and pray that you would be honored. Take us one more step now as we follow Jesus in his holy name, we pray. Amen.

Steve Brown:
All right. Amen. Pete, let’s go to our phone lines.

Caller 1:
I would like to know how I can understand the nature of each of the 66 books of the Bible.

Steve Brown:
Oh, good. That’s a good question.

Pete Alwinson:
I love it. I love it.

Steve Brown:
And you know, never in the history of the world has there been so much resource for Christians who really want to know what the Bible says.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s true.

Steve Brown:
There are a dozen great study Bibles. And I would suggest, and you might, one that I’ve given as a gift to my friend is the English Standard Version Study Bible. And it’s not cheap, but it’s not really expensive either. And it’s almost like having not only the Scripture, but having a commentary with you to allow you to look at every book of the Bible, what it’s saying, who wrote it, what it’s trying to teach, the major themes that are involved in it, and that’s a great study Bible. And there are a lot of study Bibles out there that are good.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Yeah. And I would recommend that one too. There are many, that’s my favorite at this point. I’ve used it for a lot, several years. The good thing about that one too, is that it will connect you online to some other further resources. But there’s great scholars that give introductions to every segment of the Bible and to every individual book. So, that can answer your question, what, when was it written? What’s the theme? What’s the focus of this book? That’s what you’re asking. And I really applaud this sister for bringing this up because a lot of Christians want to know what’s in the Bible, but it takes time.

Steve Brown:
She asked about the 66 books.

Pete Alwinson:
I know.

Steve Brown:
Between you and me, a lot of Christians don’t know there’s 66 books.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. And it depends. Now, if you’re a Catholic, you’ve got got 80 books because of the 14 and the Apocrypha.

Steve Brown:
You’ve got a lot more to memorize than we do.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
But it’s good. It’s a good desire. And you know, it becomes the anchor of how we define ourselves, who we are, what this world, it’s a worldview that is clear and that explains everything.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And it is helpful for every Christian.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh, well said, well said.

Steve Brown:
I asked you about the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is one, this, let me see, there was a question about angels, and oh, here it is. This is an e-mail, Pete. If the angels who left God were put in chains, from where did demons come? I can’t imagine God creating evil spirits and have a hard time with Satan having the power of creation.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
Well, I have too.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
That’s not what the Bible says happened.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. So, what happened?

Steve Brown:
Well, you’ve got to be careful about timelines when you’re dealing with things. When Jesus points to Satan following and quotes Isaiah about that, and we read the chains of the demons and Satan and how they’re chained, that is not a timeline that goes from beginning to end. It’s talking about what is a reality and what will happen. And so, Satan is always seen, without a single exception, as a tool in the hands of God, for God’s glory and for our benefit. And so, when you read Job, Job has to get permission from God before he, I mean, Satan has to get, I’m old, I’m doing the best I can Pete, but Satan has to get permission from God before he does anything to Job.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And it has a wonderful ending, and you could see how God used that in an amazing way, and he’s doing that now. C.S. Lewis said, that there were two dangers. And this is in his introduction to Screwtape Letters.

That one danger is we give Satan too much power and another that we ignore him altogether.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Brown:
What is a dualist?

Pete Alwinson:
A dualist is a person that believes that there are two equal, opposite powers in the universe, good and bad, and they’re duking it out constantly and you never know who’s going to win. But that’s not, that doesn’t come from the Scriptures at all. Christian teaching, Biblical teaching is that God is the supreme king of heaven and earth. And Satan is his lackey. Satan is a fallen angel. So, the angels fell. God did create them with the capacity to rebel. Interestingly, not to be saved. He created us with the capacity to fall, but not to be, but also to be redeemed. And that’s a good thing.

Steve Brown:
And that may be what Paul was referring to, that angels long to look at us, and you know, we kind of make them jealous sometimes.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s a good point. I haven’t thought of that verse in that way.

Steve Brown:
So, you know, you get our charismatic friends are always praying that Satan would be bound in the name of Jesus Christ.

Pete Alwinson:
Right.

Steve Brown:
You know, that’s not a bad thing to do because the name of Jesus Christ is far more powerful because the apostle John said.

He who is in us is greater than he who is against us in the world.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Oh, that’s great.

Steve Brown:
Let me see. How do I know God’s will?

Pete Alwinson:
Well, most of it is already in the Bible.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. Study the Bible. Go back and do what we said about the 66 books in the Bible and you’ll know more than you do now.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. But understand too, that because of the gospel.

The law of God

Jeremiah 31:31 says

The law of God’s been put onto your heart.

You want to do it. You want to obey God. And so, most of God’s will for us is in the Scriptures. What generally people mean when they say, what is God’s will for me is that area that I’m not really sure like. What job should I take? Where should I live? Who should I marry? And, you know, there’s, you can get weird about that. Understand God loves you and has given you a great deal of freedom. And what did, was it Augustine that said.

Love God and do as you please.

Steve Brown:
And Paul said to the Thessalonians.

This is the will of God, you’re sanctification.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, that’s right.

Steve Brown:
And so, if you’re sanctified, if you can say, whatever God told me to do, I do my best to do it, as I know my heart. If you can say that and really want to know God’s will, you’re cool.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
Go get a milkshake.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
Don’t be so uptight about it.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s good. That is good. Now, what if you’ve got two job offers? Soak yourself in the word of God, get counsel from your friends, pray about it.

Steve Brown:
And then take the one that pays the highest.

Pete Alwinson:
And see, I’ll add to that and see how the Holy Spirit gives you that sense of confidence in the direction.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. Good advice. Guys, we’re so glad when you spend this time with us. We appreciate the compliment that gives us. And Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.