How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture

We can use all our time asking the Bible our scientific questions about creation, all the while missing the beauty of what God was communicating to the original recipients.

we cannot say that the teachings of Islam are the same as those in the Bible.

When we look at slavery in the context of the ancient world, we need to deprogram our normal definition and redefine it according to what it meant in that world.

the story is God’s way of letting the Israelites know that he wasn’t just building a universe, he was building a place where he could dwell with his people, much like a temple.

we don’t have to force answers from Bible verses that weren’t written to address the questions we are asking.

“Founders of other religions claim they are a prophet to help you find God. Jesus came to say, ‘I am God come to find you.’ ”

Islam was a new story about a different God, one who is not the same as the God found in Genesis through the Old Testament.

not every promise or blessing is something we can directly apply to our lives today. We might take Bible verses and promises that are not meant for us and then be disappointed in God when they don’t happen.

Jesus had a deep relationship with the Bible, and he saw it as a pointer to him, a story to prepare the world for what he had come to do.