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A Plan for Reading the Bible. . . « Fides Viva

A Plan for Reading the Bible. . .

Posted: February 8, 2011 by Noel Muscutt in Personal, The Christian Life

Tags: bible, bible reading plan, bible reading plans, biblical metanarrative, hermeneutics, m’cheyne, mccheyne, reading, through the bible

There are just tons of Bible reading plans out there. For the last few years, my wife and I have been using Robert Murray M?Cheyne?s reading plan, which basically takes you through the Old Testament once and the Psalms and the New Testament twice per year. It is a great reading plan, and I can?t imagine the work that must have gone into preparing it before the days of computers, especially since this godly man died at the young age of 29 and already had the kind of insight into Scripture to put together such an excellent reading plan.

For a long time now, especially since D. A. Carson taught me that the Bible is to be read as a story-because it is a story, I have been unsatisfied with many Bible reading plans because, like M?Cheyne?s, they tend to jump all over the Bible. (I find it odd, that Carson, given his insistence on reading the Bible as a story, has used M?Cheyne?s otherwise excellent plan as the outline for his own through-the-Bible-in-a-year devotional.) Other plans, seek to arrange the Bible chronologically, which often have you chopping up books like crazy to maintain chronological order. Of course the problem with arranging the Bible chronologically comes when there are a great deal of passages that are very hard to date in relation to others. Also, the redaction of, for example, the Gospel writers that God uses to convey different theological emphases, get completely destroyed in the process. On top of it all, the authors intended the individual books to be read as a unit, and not all chopped up into little bits. Still other plans may be very wisely arranged to take you through the Bible in a year, but, unlike M?Cheyne?s plan, they only take you through the Bible once per year.

One of the strength?s of M?Cheyne?s plan is that it takes you through the New Testament twice. This is crucial, I believe, because the New Testament is the hermeneutical key to understanding God?s actions throughout the Old Testament. I believe that it is thoroughly un-Christian to read the Old Testament apart from the understanding it through a New Testament grid. As well, M?Cheyne wisely has us read the Psalms through twice, which helps us to remember them. Indeed, the Psalms were written to be remembered, given the fact that they were poetic songs, to be sung frequently for various life situations. I will never forget those times visiting Christians who were very close to death and wanted to either have me read them the specific Psalms or they would attempt to recite them to me from memory, struggling to find the words. They brought great comfort to them as they were about to cross that Jordan River and enter into the Promised Land-a crossing that I think is seldom easy, whether Christian or not. The only thing I might add to M?Cheyne?s reading plan, to read through twice per year, is Proverbs. These are also tidbits of wisdom given in short, pithy style so that they are easy to remember. (Of course, now someone will say, ?Well then, what about Ecclesiastes and other wisdom literature Well, you have to draw the line somewhere, I guess.)

Given all of these facts, I am seeking to do up my own reading plan for next year. However, I would like some feedback since, as long as I am taking the time to compile such a reading plan, I might as well do the kind of job that might benefit others as well. Furthermore, many will have wonderful considerations that I am overlooking.

In short, I want to ask you, the reader: If you were looking for a good Bible-reading plan, what would you want the reading plan to do for you? What kinds of features should it contain? Help me out.

via A Plan for Reading the Bible. . . « Fides Viva.

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