Review of Reading the Bible in 90 Days

"The Bible in 90 Days" is an increasingly popular course being offered through churches across America. Author Ted Cooper figured out that people could read the Bible in a prescribed period of time if they had a clear, attainable schedule to follow. Cooper himself experimented in reading the Bible and determined that reading 12 pages a day would allow someone to read the complete book in 90 days. The series includes a Participant's Guide and an illustrated paperback called The Essential Bible Companion that provides "Key Insights for Reading God's Word," a topic we shall address later on in this article.

The most appealing aspect of the Bible provided for the course is its size and format. Gone are the annotations and explanations that fill most versions of the Bible. That simple step eliminates about 50% of the physical (and therefore mental) bulk of the book itself, making the task seem eminently more attainable.

The inside cover even comes with a checklist of chapters so you know if you're staying on schedule. The whole process of reading the Bible is charted out for you. Just commit to reading 12 pages a day and you will be reading the Bible in 90 days.

Churchgoers seem to greet this task with a breadth of emotions. Some are enthusiastic while others feel great trepidation. Many Christians never have read the book that forms the foundation of their faith. In some cases there may be hidden guilt over the realization that there is ignorance of God's word. But people who take on the challenge may be surprised, in ways both pleasing and unpleasing, what the Bible has to offer.

Diving into the Book of Genesis, we find that the creation story offers an almost painfully brief description of the beginning of the world. One wonders what the fuss about creationism as a scientific premise is all about, for the passages about creation read like a whisper in the wind almost, the way God seems to have spoken to human beings throughout history, quietly, and giving them no more than they needed to know to find meaning in circumstance.

Then Genesis dives into a chronological, genealogical map of broken, disturbing familial relationships in which wives deceive husbands, sons kill brothers, husbands sleep with maidservants to bear children and tribes break off in warring factions. Pretty much the Bible makes clear early on that the human race is one mixed up, confused and dangerous lot.

It does not take long to realize that the Bible is something of a literary roller coaster, built around the hills and swales of personal and collective fortune among "God's people" who invariably fail in their efforts to stay faithful to the one true God.

Having read large swaths of the Bible previously in order to write a book about the impact of biblical literalism on politics, culture and the environment (The Genesis Fix, A Repair Manual for Faith in the Modern Age, review at www.naturesymbol.com) I resolved to partake of this effort to read the Bible in 90 days in an open-minded way. My wife and I discussed the first few days of reading with bemused amazement at the antics of ancient cultures, the sometimes strange laws created to manage human behavior and the many ways people chose to break those laws, and for often odd purposes. Significantly, so-called "family values" of monogamy and fidelity were notably absent. Republicans would have had a hard time getting elected on the family values vote in ancient Mesopotamia.

The very complex process of creating bible translations should be evident in reading the bible in so short a period as 90 days. But for perspective on whether the Bible is a perfect book or not, you can read about the many ways bible translators and scribes have made errors over the centuries that have sometimes had great affect how we view the persons of God, Jesus and other characters and events in the Bible. To learn more about the process of how the bible contains errors similar to those identified in the translation now known as The Bible in 90 days, read "Misquoting Jesus"(2005, HarperSanFrancisco) by Bart D. Ehrman, a biblical scholar whose evangelical upbringing was tested and altered through discovery of overwhelming academic and historical evidence that the Bible(s) we read today were not copied from original sources, then copied badly in some cases and altered purposely on other occasions to fit political and religious agendas as the Christian faith evolved.

Reading The Bible in 90 Days is proving once again that it takes a rational, comparative effort to arrive at a faith in God that is true, accurate and justifiable. We can roar through the Bible taking every word at face value or we can partake in the process of determining the cumulative truth and value of the book we call the Bible with diligent respect. Whether it takes 90 days or a lifetime, that is a pursuit worthy of our attention.