Stop Thinking the Bible Is Easy to Understand
Why most of us misread it—and how to start seeing it more clearly
Stop Thinking the Bible Is Easy to Understand
Why most of us misread it—and how to start seeing it more clearly
There’s this quiet assumption that floats around a lot of churches—especially in evangelical spaces:
“Just read the Bible. It’s clear. God will show you what it means.”
It sounds simple. Comforting. Even empowering.
But here’s the truth:
The Bible is not easy to understand.
And the sooner you admit that, the sooner it can start to be useful to you.
Inherited Assumptions = Distorted Readings
When people say they “just read the Bible,” they’re never actually just reading the Bible.
They’re reading it through the lens of their upbringing.
Their pastor.
Their culture.
Their language.
Their trauma.
Their political identity.
Their Daily Bread devotional.
We all do this.
Especially with the biggest words in the book:
Salvation. Heaven. Hell. Sin. Grace. Forgiveness.
We think we know what they mean because we’ve heard them since we were kids. But those words almost never mean what they appear to mean on first glance.
Sometimes they mean the opposite.
Deconstruction Is a History Project
That’s why so much of what I write here falls under the title:
A Brief History.
Because deconstruction, at its core, isn’t just about picking apart your personal beliefs.
It’s about deconstructing the path those beliefs took to get to you.
How they evolved.
What was added.
What was lost.
What was mistranslated.
What was manipulated.
We’re not just questioning the text—we’re studying its genealogy.
Deconstruction is a historical excavation.
And the point is to ask: Does this version of the story still serve me?
And does it even come close to what the original writer meant?
The Most Dangerous Evangelical Assumption
One of the biggest theological mistakes in modern evangelicalism is this:
The Bible is self-evident.
It’s not.
Almost ever.
It is nearly impossible to pick up a Bible for the first time and understand what the original author meant—or how the first audience would’ve heard it—without context.
It’s not because you’re dumb.
It’s because it wasn’t written for you.
Not in modern English.
Not in your worldview.
Not in your era.
You’re reading other people’s mail across thousands of years, languages, and cultures. That doesn’t make it meaningless. But it does make it hard.
Three Popular Misunderstandings (That Make It Worse)
1. “Ask God and God will show you what it means.”
This is usually pulled from a verse somewhere in Psalms or Proverbs and wrapped in spiritual mysticism.
I’m not anti-mysticism. I believe deeply in the sacred experience of meditating on a verse or story. But you can do that with anything.
Mystical insight isn’t the same as historical understanding.
You can’t close your eyes and receive a doctorate in Second Temple Jewish apocalyptic literature.
2. “Read your Bible every day.”
The Bible-in-a-year plan. Quiet time. "Get in the Word and grow."
Here’s the thing:
I’m a bad golfer.
And if I go to the range every day and hit 1,000 balls with my bad swing, I’m not getting better—I’m reinforcing the wrong muscle memory.
Practice doesn’t make perfect. It makes permanent.
You can read Daniel over and over again and just get more confident in your misunderstandings.
3. “Just get a good study Bible.”
I’ll admit—this one helps. Sometimes.
But study Bibles are written by people.
And those people have theological leanings.
And those leanings shape the notes, not just the text.
It’s still a lens. A slant. A story.
So What Can You Do?
You’ve got two options:
Become a student of the Bible.
Really dig in. Study the languages, the history, the evolving theology.
(This is what I try to offer here—a glimpse into that world.)Or don’t.
But if you’re not going to study it deeply, at least stop pretending it’s simple.
Let it be complicated. Let it be messy. Let it be ancient.
My #1 Rule: Don’t Trust Your First Reading
Seriously. That’s it.
Don’t assume your first impression is the correct one.
It almost never is.
When I read the Bible now, I assume the gap between me and the text is enormous.
Because it is.
And that gap? That space between “what it says” and “what I assumed it meant”?
That’s where the sacred work begins.
That’s where deconstruction lives.
And that’s where you can rebuild from.
If someone had just been honest with me and presented the Bible to me the way you have I feel like I would have been so much better off from the start. That, and I KNOW I would be openly bi already. I read a Substack note from someone else on the subject of sin that rubbed me the wrong way because of the things I've been learning from you here. Not sure I'll stay subbed to that individual much longer. I'll save that judgement for his next post. Thank you for always being willing to share what you learned on this journey, especially the parts that have been hard for me to hear. It's really helped me take a hard look at my own faith and allowed me to ask 'do I really believe this, or do I just believe it because I've been told I should?' You have helped me so much to make my faith more honest. More real. More MINE. Thank you.
"That space between “what it says” and “what I assumed it meant”?"
That's a big one, Brother, just immense. If more people would be willing to accept that there might be even a smidge of a gap there, I think the world's humility level would increase exponentially.