Last year, I decided to try a one-year Bible-reading plan because I’m one of those people who lives in cycles of near-coma transitioning into frenzy and back again. (Don’t ask me to do ANYTHING before noon.) 
That served me well until about age forty, but now I can’t seem to handle the mania like I once did.
So rather than the feast or famine approach I took to Bible reading in 2005 (not my normal pattern, either), I decided to try something highly structured and methodical. As someone who loves Scottish preachers, I threw my allegiance to the Robert Murray M’Cheyne Bible-reading plan.
That lasted four months before I threw in the towel.
Plenty of Bible-reading systems exist, with M’Cheyne’s one of the most popular. No doubt M’Cheyne and I will not cross paths in heaven given that he’ll be next to the throne of God, while I’ll be resigned to a distant spot on the outer edge of things, but this doesn’t change the fact that his Bible-reading program’s not all that good.
The problem, as I see it, is that all such programs miss the point. While reading through the Bible in a year is a worthy endeavor, it’s an artificial one. God’s not so much interested in us making it through all 66 books in 365.25 days. What He desires of us is that we understand what we read in His word, ruminate on it, and then do something with what we’ve read. With some of the plans out there, I could spend an entire year reading the Bible and not remember one whit of it, nor put into practice even one of its commands.
Sadly, that seems to be what a lot of Christians do. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the state of the world, and especially the biblical ignorance rampant in the Church in America.
Beyond the artifice behind them, most Bible-reading plans suffer from an imposed superficiality and disjointedness. This latter problem drove me off the M’Cheyne plan. It included an OT reading, a Psalm, a Gospel, and an Epistle all in one day. The next day, move up a chapter in each. Is it any wonder that the unity of the Scriptures begins to fall apart when read that way? Yes, I’m reading the Bible! But I’m not putting it all together into a whole that transforms my life.
One of the posts I featured in my “The Best of Cerulean Sanctum 2006” is entitled “Chapter, Verse, Blog” (it’s a good read; make certain to follow the link to the Viola piece). The main idea in that post concerns the artificial chapter and verse system we’ve imposed on God’s word. It may come as a shock to some people, but the chaptering system we’re so familiar with did not exist until eleven centuries after the New Testament came to be. The verse system came three hundred years after that. In other words, when the greatest saints of the Church read the Scriptures, they thought of them solely as uniform books. Today, we think of them more as chapters and verses. Most reading plans slavishly obey chapter delineation for no good reason other than convenience. But God never intended His word to be “convenient.”
The World’s Best Bible-Reading Program, as I see it, moves beyond this piecemeal approach to reading the Scriptures. It has nothing to do with the proud announcement that “I read through the entire Bible this year!” Instead, it has everything to do with knowing the word of God and putting it into practice. It’s not a one-year reading program, but a “rest of your life until they bury you in a pine box” program. The first way of thinking is marketing; the other is transforming.
Here’s how The World’s Best Bible-Reading Program works:
- 1. Find a quiet, undisturbed place to read. Start in the New Testament since the New Covenant is necessary for perspective on the Old Testament. Might as well begin with Matthew.
2. Read through one entire book in a single sitting. Obviously, the first five books of the NT are going to require some time. But do it. (You’re eternal. Live like it!) These books are whole units and are meant to be read as such. We need to experience their coherence. Trust me; the Holy Spirit will bring the entirety of the book to your mind in the future in a way you’ve never experienced before.
3. When you’ve read the book once, don’t move on! Read through it again. For the first five books, if you must break them into chunks, go with five or six chapters—whatever maintains the arc of the narrative.
4. Re-read that one book. Note the way the narrative and themes flow. Commit those stories and themes to memory. Note where they exist in the book.
5. Re-read that one book. Pay special attention to the way the Lord is portrayed.
6. Re-read that one book. Examine the relational aspects of the book, God to Man, Man to Man, Man to God.
7. Re-read that one book. Note the Lord’s redeeming and salvific acts within the greater arc of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. (This first pass through the NT assumes you have a modicum of OT understanding. After reading the OT through, the second pass through the NT will clarify things further.)
8. Re-read that one book. This time around, note all the Lord’s commands and how we’re told to practice them. Consider how they might work practically in your daily activities.
(By this point, you’ve read the same book seven times. Depending on the length of the book, it may have taken seven days or seven weeks. It doesn’t matter. This is about changing your life and relationship with Christ. This is about sixty years of discipleship. It’s not about getting through the Bible in a certain length of time.)
Now comes the hard (and controversial) part…
9. Take everything you’ve learned in this book and put it into practice. Take a month (*see comments below) to do nothing but concertedly meditate on what you’ve just read by making it real in your own life. It might mean that the only Bible you read this month are the parts of this one book that you still aren’t getting and must re-read. Doesn’t matter—do it. (If you absolutely have to read something every day that isn’t part of this program, consider a few Psalms or a cycle of Proverbs. They’re the most suited to broken-up reading patterns since they are collections of wisdom and less unified than a book like Romans.)
10. After your month, take stock of all that you’ve learned by reading and practice. Make a mental assessment of the themes of the book and how they apply to your discipleship. If you’re confident you’ve read and practiced this book, move on to the next one. Once the NT is finished, move onto the OT. (I realize some of the OT books are daunting in length for a single read-through. Make a concerted effort to read them in one sitting. Failing this, some of the OT books are narrative, which allows for breaks in the story. Psalms and Proverbs are easily segmented, as noted above. All prophets must be read in one sitting the first time through. A book as enormous as Isaiah is hard to partition, so consider reading it on a weekend day.)
Repeat these ten steps for the rest of your life.
George Barna’s dire poll warnings about Biblical ignorance today in Evangelical churches largely reflect the piecemeal approach we take to reading the Scriptures. Too much of our reading and teaching are topical, destroying the uniformity of the revelation. That so few churches preach through the entirety of the Scriptures in the way outlined in this reading programs explains our ignorance, too. Bible reading programs that reduce the Bible to tatters only compound the problem. So does the lack of digesting what we read.
I can’t guarantee many of the things I write here at Cerulean Sanctum, but I guarantee this: If you make The World’s Best Bible-Reading Program your lifetime plan of reading the Bible, you’ll be transformed.
And you can take that with you to eternity.
***
A final note: If you are looking to find out more about Christianity and its core beliefs, please visit this link: “How to Become a Christian.”
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32 Comments
I’ve never posted here, but I’ve seen this blog referenced on many others. This post caught my attention. A few months ago, I was talking to a friend and brother about studying the Bible. On a whim, I made an off-the-cuff remark, “When are going to stop studying the Bible, and start living it.” He reminds me of that comment from time to time. You point #9 reminded me of that comment as well.
Reading, re-rereading, re-reading, etc. entire books is one of the only ways to truly know what Scripture says. Thank you for this post and the reminder.
-Alan
Alan,
Thanks for posting! As 2 Tim 3:16-17 tells us, the whole point of knowing the Scriptures so well is that we live it out in such a way that our lives are equipped to do good works. Knowing the Bible solely for knowing it is a noble idea, but it’s not really the point. Yet too often that’s what gets drummed into our heads by people who want us to know it.
Thanks for this post. I found it very helpful and encouraging. I enjoy spending extended times on one book or going back and forth between a few short books in the NT (such as Galatians, Romans, 1 John) to help me understand certain topics better, such as law/grace. Strangely I have often felt guilty for reading too much of the Bible at a time, since we’re usually taught that it’s better to read a small portion and meditate on it. I have often wondered why I don’t devour Scripture the way I devour other books, reading my favorites over and over again. I think this post has hit the nail on the head: I enjoy the narrative more as a whole and it makes more sense that way. I love this plan!
Julie,
I think the plan will also help people know where certain passages are. I’m on my fifth day of reading Titus and already I have a better idea of its themes. As someone who’s been a Christian for thirty years, I’ve read every book of the Bible through dozens of times, but a lot of it didn’t sink in because my reading approach was “one shot and out” instead of constantly re-reading the same book. That’s why this “plan” is unique.
Great post. Your recommendations are spot-on.
Thanks, Mike!
“Too much of our reading and teaching are topical, destroying the uniformity of the revelation. That so few churches preach through the entirety of the Scriptures in the way outlined in this reading programs explains our ignorance, too. Bible reading programs that reduce the Bible to tatters only compound the problem. So does the lack of digesting what we read.”
You are spot on with this one! Thanks for the encouragement. I have found expository reading, studying, teaching and preaching to be transforming in my life. And since it has only been a couple of years since I started using this approach, I know the other side as well.
Don,
I’m not against topical. I think someone has to have a grounding in the overall arc of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration before one can grasp the topical, though.
I’m also not anti-topical. Some doctrines can only be dealt with topically, so there is a place for the topical. But I believe the main thrust must be expositional.
My take: Reading plan or no reading plan is not really the issue. I have tried both. Personally I need the structure of a task to keep me in the Word. I wish I was spiritual enough to not need a structure imposed upon me, but unfortunately I’m not. I require some auxiliary motivation. Call me a sinner if you will and I’ll say “Amen”. This is just how I am motivated best. For others, I can see how the “check the box on my Bible Reading Plan sheet” approach would seem rather mechanical and counter to good devotional thought. Either way, we agree that the goal is transformation by the Holy Spirit through his Word, rather than just intake of information.
Zach,
I’m reading through Titus right now. I’ll read it for seven straight days. Then I’ll put it into practice and meditate on it for a month (you can do it for less if a month seems too long.) If you wish to read out of the Psalms and Proverbs during your time spent on Titus, that’s fine. It’s still a disciplined way to approach Scripture.
The problem with just about all reading plans is that they fail to inculcate the reality that the Word is progressive revelation. In Genesis we have a “germ” of Adam’s transgression, but in Romans Paul elucidates the “mystery of Christ” which is concomitant to the fuller exegesis of Adam. Richard Hays in his book, The Art of Reading Scripture, nails it when he says that the Bible should be read from back to front. Concentration should center on the epistles for that is where Paul lays out the “mystery.” See Eph. 3:4.
Peter,
That’s why I try to do the back to front with this, too.
COMMENT on post above:
Obviously, you’re going to need a month to think about and practice a book like John, Daniel, or Romans. You won’t need that amount of time for a book like 3rd John. Use sense about this, gauging what God is doing inside you during your meditation and practice time.
I appreciate all of the comments posted here and I agree that this is a terrific reading plan that would benefit any follower of Christ. However, I would not discredit reading the Bible front to back so quickly. I read the Bible front to back last year, and in doing so I feel that I have a MUCH greater understanding of God’s love and his sovereignty, culminating in Christ coming into the world for us. I’ve been in Sunday School, Church, and have done daily devotions since I was 12 (I’m now 24), and it wasn’t until last year after reading straight through the Bible that I felt I had a decent understanding of the whole picture. I agree with all of you that reading and re-reading a book with specific focuses is a great way of growing closer to the Lord, but I would also encourage anyone to read straight through the Bible in a year if you’re having trouble putting the pieces together. This comes from personal experience.
There are positives and negatives to both approaches. If you have been too microscopic in your reading and studying (pulling apart one verse or even one phrase at a time) than a “big picture” approach would be very helpful. This is one thing I’ve loved about Walk Tru The Bible Ministries. They help you see the big picture of the entire Bible, which I found to be very helpful.
Bible reading has never been a difficult thing to me since reading is already one of my passions, and Scripture itself is another. After years of tweaking this is my plan:
1. I have a one year chronological Bible so, I do get through it every year. My kids each have one too, and it’s part of their school work (I homeschool).
2. I read 5 psalms and one chater of Proverbs every day.
3. I also have a selected book that I read repeatedly (20 times). Right now I’m on 2 Peter.
4. I try to always be involved in some kind of Bible study with other people. So I work on whatever the group is working on (Isaiah currently).
However it’s read I think the Bible rewards zeal and diligence. Desultory reading is really the least productive. I too, as well, want to put in a word for cover-to-cover reading. It really is the foundation. And none of this talk of a year. I’ve done in in less than three months, though I’m not saying speed is necessary. Other kinds of Bible reading shouldn’t be seen as better or more useful than the complete, cover-to-cover readings because all the other types of reading benefit from the cover-to-cover readings. The complete reading efforts really are the best – perhaps only? – foundation for the other types of readings. It’s a hard book to get through, but don’t allow justifications for quitting to be turned into “here’s something better.” Trek across the continent (even through the death valleys) complete. One foot in front of the other, one page – chapter (1,189) – at a time.
My experience is reading single books several times in a row (I did it with the minor prophets) can even be a ‘go in one ear, out the other’ experience. The Bible seems to defeat most plans, for reasons the Holy Spirit knows. It does though reward complete readings. I think the very effort involved – and day by day dedication – is something the Holy Spirit rewards.
I wonder if there would be a market big enough to sustain a ministry that printed up one book of the Bible a month with large margins for taking notes and maybe without verse notation and chapters marked in such a way that they wouldn’t disturb the flow of the reading.
Then, with this subscription service, a new book would be shipped to your house each month for your perusal. Maybe a blog could be put up for all the people meditating on a certain book to make comments and share their meditation results in posts. Perhaps the blogs could be setup so that church groups could do this together.
I have found over the last several years that the fourfold approach to Bible Study used by is a great way to study God’s Word and apply it to one’s life.
Had some trouble with the link to BSF International… Here’s it is, hopefully.
BSFI
I have been reading the Bible for seven years, each year I read the whole Bible, first times I started with Genesis and ended with Apocalypse, then I followed a method… But after the seventh year, I discovered that I was doing a mere exercise… So I observed one year of full stop, trying to practice what I learnt. My 2006 has been a year of revolution for my life (two girlfriends, three churches…), but I discovered that God doesn’t want from me an exercise of reading, but an exercise of life. So I wanted to start again reading the Bible, and I wanted to use this new method
Very happy to read that I’m not alone 
Thanks Dan, that looks like a very good plan. I’ve been realising lately just how superficial my Bible reading is. I’ve got daily notes that have a small chunk of Bible to read each day, and then notes and ideas for prayer. It’s OK, but I find myself just trying to get it done each morning and though it helps to get me praying, I’m not really learning much. Setting aside time to read whole books at once is hard, but thinking back, the times when I have sat down and done that are ones I remember. The history books of the OT particularly are even more amazing if you can see the whole sweep of the timespan they cover in one go and how God acts through the history of his people.
Dear Dan E.,
It’s interesting to know another 43-year old who has a Christian favorites book list as eclectic as mine! (You probably should add George Grant’s The Micah Mandate to the list.)
I sympathize with the “world’s best Bible reading program” in its premise that the spiritual discipline of reading the Word is for the purpose of knowing it and walking in it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that your particular method is the “world’s best” (I would suggest Hebrews as a introduction to the OT rather than reading the NT before the OT), but any method the the ends you propose is better than reading for the sake of checking off the task on my to-do list.
For the King,
-RD
Correction:
I should not have tried to rush a response to such a great post before I had to leave for a meeting.
-RD
Your post is great, it shows up lots of the ways we go wrong! It also tells us how to do it right
except, reading a whole book at one sitting (at least for the longer books – think Genesis or Isaiah at 50+ chapters – is too much… For an approach that can have some of the benefits of hearing the context and the whole try downloading and listening to chapters successively. I put them on my mp3 and play them as I’m going to work, Genesis takes several days depending on the traffic 
One source is http://podbible.com/podcast
I can’t believe you would suggest that we actually DO what the bible says!
I’m no going to listen to some ‘do as I say, not as I do’ God.
When He comes down and lives a day in my shoes so He knows what it’s like to be human, then I might start doing what He says….
Oh….
Um……
Well, I guess you’ll find me out taking the good news to the poor, and making disciples of all nations then.
Jesus didn’t just sit and talk about doing what’s right – He did it. So who am I to do any different?
i want a bible reading programme of old testoment and ney testoment.
EXCELLENT!
Excellent post. I could not agree with you more repetition is the key to memorization. With your plan though it is more than just memorizing words, it is memorizing intent, context, etc.
Thanks for this!
Great post, I hadn’t seen it until today.
It’s interesting that at different times in life different things are right for different people.
I tried a system somewhat similar to what you suggest and I got a lot out of it.
Right now though, I have the bible on my phone and it comes with a 1-year reading plan.
I am getting so much out of reading from 4 different books every day. It is really helping me see how themes are tied together throughout the bible and throughout history.
I am also hearing God speak through it in a new way, it’s like every day He can say the same thing through 3 or 4 very different passages.
I would recommend your biblereading program to anyone though, they will get SOOOO much out of it!
Cool idea – I’ve been looking for a methodical way to spend more time in the Word outside of the usual “one-year reading plan” box. I’ll definitely give this a try!
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[...] With this in mind a post at Cerulean Sanctum caught my eye. I have to say that Dan Edelen has most likely hit the nail on the head, and if his proposed plan is followed, I can’t see how we as Christians could come away with greater knowledge. [...]
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[...] Reading through the entire Bible is a pretty common New Year’s resolution for many Christians, I think. It’s certainly been on my list of doomed-to-failure resolutions more than once. Dan Edelen has a great post on why most Bible reading plans just don’t work, and what a truly good Bible reading plan looks like. From his post: [...]
[...] Update: I still think it’s a good idea to read the Bible according to some kind of plan (as long as you don’t get legalistic about it). At the same time, check out Dan Edelen’s World’s Best Bible-reading Program. Fact is, there are lots of reasons to read the Bible and lots of methods to use. I’d listen to what Dan has to say. D. P. posted this entry on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 4:50 pm. Posted in the category APOSTLES’ TEACHING, THE PRAYERS, Bible You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [...]
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[...] Dan of Cerulean Sanctum offers an alternative to all of the one-year bible reading programs that we are inundated with this time of year. The World’s Best Bible-Reading Program, as I see it, moves beyond this piecemeal approach to reading the Scriptures. It has nothing to do with the proud announcement that “I read through the entire Bible this year!” Instead, it has everything to do with knowing the word of God and putting it into practice. It’s not a one-year reading program, but a “rest of your life until they bury you in a pine box” program. The first way of thinking is marketing; the other is transforming. [...]
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