AUTHORS’ EXPERIENCE
In our experience, understanding came, and continues to come, in bits and pieces over a period of many years. Because of the difficulty of understanding Biblical mysteries and symbolism, we had more questions than answers during and after study sessions. We had been trained to believe that the Bible should be taken literally only and that there was only one truth for scripture. And we lived according to those teachings for years even though they severely limited our understanding of all scriptures — especially the ones that made no sense to us.

But by the time we entered the second and third year of disciplined study, we began to find little glimpses of truth in scriptures that were previously impossible to understand. And, in other scriptures that we thought we understood because they were so familiar, we began to see spiritual truths where we had previously only seen a literal story.

It is a cliche to say, but little by little the Bible came alive for us. And now, every time we sit down to study we are filled with expectation of what God will reveal to us. And he never fails to uncover a new dimension to an old truth or expose a new truth that overrides our ignorance and confusion about a particular scripture. It is exciting to say the least.

The lesson here is that, we did not let the Bible’s structural difficulties deter us from study. We trusted God’s promise that those who diligently seek him will find him. As we were faithful, he also was faithful.