7 Ways My Perspective Has Changed After Four Semesters of Bible College

We end the year, today, and as I reflect on this past one I can’t help but think about the ways my perspective has changed since starting Bible college two years ago.

I’m smack in the middle of a four-year, Bachelor of Biblical Studies degree. It’s the point in the course where I am tempted to give up because of how much work it is.

But it’s been so good, and I have learned so much.

Here are the seven things that first come to mind when I think of how I’ve been impacted by the first half of the course.

1. I see the Bible as one cohesive, overarching story

I first started reading the Bible on a regular basis after my baptism as a twelve-year old boy. Around fifteen and sixteen years of age, I faced a several month-bout of depression. It was during that period I first remember hearing God speak to me and sensing his intimate presence as I spent time in his Word.

Scripture has always been precious to me, but I must admit that it had become a mixture of a mystical book along with a road map for life.

I went to it to feel God’s presence.

I also went to it to know what I was supposed to do.

When my mom died, and I was a newly married man not wanting to wake up and struggling again with depression, I did not feel God’s presence. Neither did it help me know what we were supposed to do.

Because of past experiences with God, I could not give up faith. Maybe it was merely hope at that point. But in those moments, I struggled to see how scripture had any relevance for my life.

My perspective had already started to change before Bible college. But when I started classes at Eternity Bible College and began seeing all of scripture as one cohesive message telling the story of God and his creation, I realized it’s so much more than a book of mystical experience or of road-map-like direction.

The story of brokenness and God’s redemption is embedded all throughout scripture. He is personal, intimately involved, and working all things together for good as we await the completion of the birthing of the New Creation.

2. People can be clearly filled by the Spirit of God, exhibiting his character and presence, and still believe significantly different than I do on what I always considered crucial theological issues

I recommend at some point in your life doing a Bible study with or going to a Bible college under people of a different denomination than you grew up. Not because what you grew up with was inherently wrong. I recommend this because it will broaden your perspective and force you to confront your biases.

I have gained new friends, dear friends. They challenge me in their love for Jesus and their thirst for righteousness. Some of them also believe significantly different than I do, and it has forced me to learn at a deeper level what it means to be one in Christ.

I can’t just write them off.

3. Bringing questions of science to the first two chapters of Genesis sets one up to miss the message of Genesis

How we read Genesis one and two dramatically shapes the way we understand the rest of Scripture. The first two chapters of Genesis mirror other ancient near eastern epics of origin. However, they differ in dramatic ways that declare and loud an clear message in the ANE context.

Moses seemed to be altogether unconcerned with answering our modern questions of scientific origins. There are many things we can’t know by simply going on Genesis one and two.

However, we can know that

1. God is good and he is the supreme God above all others
2. He has made a good and beautiful creation and has given it everything it needs for life
3. Man is made in God’s image and commissioned to reproduce and create more of the goodness and beauty of God
4. Man chose to rebel against God and attempt to be god themselves, setting in motion brokenness and chaos
5. God is working to redeem all of creation by doing a miraculous work in the very ones who broke it in the first place

4. The Old Testament is filled with God’s love for the oppressed

Have you read through the Levitical laws recently? Did you ever explore the origins of the ten percent tithe as laid out in Deuteronomy 14? When was the last time you read through Amos, Nahum, or Zephaniah?

God cares deeply about servants, about those who are oppressed, and about anyone put in vulnerable situations. God’s love and sense of justice doesn’t start with Jesus—it’s been there all along.

5. We have no basis for the authority of Jesus without the 39 books preceding him

How is one supposed to know who the Messiah is? What did Jesus, himself, quote from whenever establishing his authority? Where do the New Testament authors go when looking for explanation about why Jesus told us to do certain things?

The Old Testament.

Jesus fulfilled the law of Moses, which changes man’s relationship with God in significant ways. However, don’t ever separate Jesus from the Old Testament. If you do, it’ll only be a matter of time until Jesus is just another philosopher.

6. Be suspicious of people who say doctrine doesn’t matter

Any attempt to say what the Bible means is the establishment of doctrine. If you listen closely, when someone decries doctrine as if it’s man getting hung up on the intellect, they’re usually unraveling boundaries so they can then hold you hostage to their personal doctrine.

We will never get things completely figured out in this life, which is why we need to study scripture in humility. However, no one generation has a monopoly on Biblical interpretation. Understanding doctrine helps us stay accountable to Christians past and future.

7. Most people get disillusioned with God because they don’t know his story

“God, if you’re good, why did you allow my mom to die?”

“God, if you care about my wellbeing, why have you allowed us to go in debt?”

“God, if you truly want creation to be redeemed, why didn’t answer our prayers for healing?”

“God, if you’re actually real, why do the people who talk about you act like jerks?”

Each of these questions are legitimate, deeply felt frustrations by many who live more than a year. However, if they cause one to become disillusioned with God, it exposes that he has stopped reading the story cover to cover.

Within the story is embedded the dark reality of evil, brokenness, and death. Even when experiencing the presence of God in one’s life, we will continue to groan as we wait the full redemption of the earth (Romans 8).

But God promises and exemplifies how he is with us in the middle of it all. Even our darkest doubts don’t cause him to question our worship or our ability to help others know and experience him (Matthew 28:16-20).

Bonus: the Bible is for busy mothers too

If you want to know God’s message, spend time in it. His story is breathed out by the Holy Spirit, which he has placed in each one of us as we hear and believe his good news.

Bible college graduates don’t have a monopoly on Biblical interpretation. Neither do pastors or missionaries.

Busy mothers, aged singles, and men who’ve driven truck all their lives have an understanding of God’s truth we need to hear too.

Question: how has your perspective changed in the last year? Share in the comments below.