Something I’ve noticed lately, as I’ve read online forum debates, is that people are really bad at understanding the people that they’re arguing against. Usually the more controversial the topic of discussion is, the worse it gets. Each opposing side has their own strong views and can’t see how on earth anyone could ever possibly disagree with them. Both sides see the other as fundamentally stupid and illogical, because they often don’t fully grasp what their opponents’ views actually are. This lack of understanding is especially prevalent when it comes to political and religious discussions, as the opposing sides’ views are much more likely to be based on entirely different ideological foundations.

I’ve specifically seen evidence for this in our forum discussions regarding Christianity. For the large part, those of us arguing for Christianity grew up in the Church and have never really known what it’s like to see things from a different ideological platform. Many of us likely accepted the Bible as truth from a young age and have been learning the teachings of Christ for most of our lives. As a result, we sometimes have a hard time explaining our faith to those who grew up on different beliefs not akin to our own. We expect unbelievers to either “just have faith,” or to see the logic in our arguments, without realizing that they haven’t been able to build up the same foundation as we have. We expect to be able to build a temple without laying the foundation first. The best way for us, as believers, to be good witnesses is not to endlessly debate over various little aspects of our faith; but to lead others to build a foundation in God's word. When we argue over bits and pieces of Christianity, we often seek to validate our own intelligence by proving others wrong; not to share the truth with others. Why do we do this? Do we assume that our words and our finite wisdom can do a better job at leading someone to faith than God's own words and God's infinite wisdom? Instead of arguing in circles all day long, let's let God's Word do most of the talking.

Some of us, realizing this, have encouraged unbelievers to go read the Bible claiming that, “If only if they would read the Bible, surely then they would believe!” But how do we expect them to understand what they're reading unless someone with understanding explains it to them? If I were to walk up to a Geometry teacher and ask them for help understanding geometric concepts, should they just tell me to go read my textbook? Or should they sit down with me, open the textbook, and explain to me what it meant? I might understand its teachings on my own, or I might just give up in frustration, claiming that Geometry was a stupid and useless class.

I admire the work that some of you have done to try and show the Bible to others; but only hearing bits and pieces of the Bible will not always give a person understanding. For this reason, I'm going to make a proposition: that all of us who are interested undertake a 90-day challenge to read through most/all(?) of the Bible. I, (and anyone who's interested in helping me), will compile daily readings and post them in this thread, so that we will have read through most/all(?) of God's word by the end of the 90 days. Accompanying these daily readings will be an explanation and interpretation of the selected passages designed to answer any questions that the reader may be having. These explanations will be put together by me and any other believer who'd like to help. Participants will then be able to ask any additional questions that weren't answered by our explanations. Through this challenge, I hope that all of us may grow closer to Christ, and failing that, at least gain a better understanding of Christianity.

This plan is very much in the planning stages so I'd appreciate any suggestions, comments, or even criticism you guys could give me. Please comment if you might be interested in participating, or even if you just want to tell me how horrible of an idea this is. Thanks for reading, I appreciate it! :)