Know-It-Alls Know Nothing

I've come to realize something in the past few days. With all my talk about Bible study, and with all my ranting on this blog and quoting every verse and its brother to prove points that I pretend to know about, I probably come off as pompous. I probably seem like a know-it-all who actually thinks he knows it all.

I don't.

Or, on the flip-side, maybe I just come off like I just have a natural understanding of the Bible and can read any passage and tell you exactly what it means.

I can't.

I will not pretend to have some deep, deep understanding of the Bible or even a thorough knowledge of Bible verses. A great majority of the verses I quote I look up online to make sure I know where they come from, the context, and what exactly they say because I don't want to misquote them. That's good practice I think, because misquoting the Bible is a very bad thing to do. But I don't just know millions of verses and passages off the top of my head.

I also can't understand the Bible in an instant. A great majority of my understanding comes from having a concordance, a Bible dictionary, and especially an ESV Study Bible, complete with study notes written by much smarter men than I'll ever be to help me understand the Bible better.

I also listen to Grace To You a lot, which is a very great, Biblically sound radio program from the ministry of John MacArthur that I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn and get closer to God.

Not just that, but there are a lot of great commentaries and things available free to read online, or through apps, etc. I highly recommend Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. Like I've said before, however, the internet is very iffy and full of a lot of heresy, so that requires a lot of care.

All of that to say this: I am a layperson who just wants to understand and to grow. All of the absurdly complicated things I write are the result of a layperson using ordinary Bible resources, the internet, and the teachings of much smarter and wiser men than I. I will never claim to know everything, and if I ever act like I do, I apologize, and please call me out on it.