Is It Actually Helpful to Read the Entire Bible in One Year?

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All right, Tim, the question for today's episode is, is it actually helpful to read the entire

Bible in a year? Yeah, I think it's one of those things that obviously any

Bible reading is helpful, but then the problem is that a lot of people, when they set out to do the read the

Bible a year plan, they don't actually follow through with it. So most people, if they start at all, and most of the time they just say they're going to start, but then if they do start at all, maybe they get bogged down in Leviticus or Numbers, maybe

Deuteronomy, they start to get bogged down, if they persevere through Leviticus. But then often what's happening when you do the read the

Bible a year plan, what happens is that you'll get started, and then you'll get hijacked, and then you'll get lost, and then you don't keep up with it like you should, and then sometimes you feel all the guilt that comes with that, and then you try to catch up at certain points.

The reality is most people don't do a very good job at it, and it really isn't a means that most people retain very well anyways.

So it is possible to do that kind of thing and actually stick to your guns and stick through it, and it may be that you're just reading a couple chapters a day, and checkmark, and they go in your brain and out your brain, and you don't really process them like they should.

So theoretically it should be a helpful thing, but I think that there's probably a lot better ways to actually study the

Bible than that. I'm actually a little surprised that you said that. I was more expecting you to say, yes, it is pretty beneficial, and I don't think you're saying people shouldn't do it.

Is that what you're saying? I'm not saying they shouldn't do it. If you have an old lady who's read her

Bible every year for the past 50 years, I'm sure that that lady knows the

Bible pretty well by then. She's gotten through it 50 times. I think for the vast majority of American Christians, they really think it's a real accomplishment if they get through it once.

So I don't think most people are actually reading through the

Bible a year. By any means, not at all. Most of the time it's just something that you start out to do, and most people end up failing at doing.

So as a strategy, it doesn't seem to be working. And then when you actually do it, you read so little of it that often it's not sticking in your mind anyways, and it's not really doing what you're setting out to do.

So I just think there's better ways to do it. Especially if it's like, hey, this is the only

Bible interaction that you're getting throughout the day, basically. Okay, so if that's in your mind, if that's not like, given we see, hey, people just aren't even sticking to this.

So whatever benefit it actually could provide is not being provided because people aren't sticking to it, right?

What would be your alternative to that then? Well, I'd say that they're not sticking to it, so that's one part of the problem.

But then another part of the problem is that they're just kind of dipping their toe in and out, and then they get distracted by the rest of the day and they forget.

They're not really engaging enough content for the most part to really benefit as much as they could.

So I'm a big fan of trying to get larger chunks of the Bible in your brain at once if possible.

So the quicker you can get through a particular book and the more times you can get through it, the better.

So when I first became a Christian, one of the things that MacArthur taught about that I had processed was a

Bible reading plan that I guess he had come up with, and I don't know where he got it from, but he got it from somewhere.

But essentially one of the things that he recommends is you take the New Testament or something and you break up the

New Testament in five to seven chapter chunks, and then you'll read the same five to seven chapter chunk a day for 30 days.

And then by the end of the 30 days, you'll really know it. So he recommends starting with a book like 1 John. And if you do something like 1

John, you can read the book of 1 John in literally about 15 minutes. That's if you read it.

If you listen to it on the audio Bible and speed it up a little bit, you can get through it a lot faster than that.

But what he recommends is doing that. I did that. And that strategy is if you break it up to five to seven chapter chunks, by the end of about three years, you really know the whole

New Testament because you've been through it not just once, but you've just gone through it each little section about 30 times at that point, and you really know it backwards and forwards.

And I really recommend doing that kind of thing, but then that doesn't handle the Old Testament as far as that goes.

And I don't think John MacArthur thinks we should unhitch from the Old Testament. No, he does not. No, I mean, there's plenty of things

I've tried over the years, so I've done that kind of thing. And I would say that there's a great benefit, particularly for new

Christians in doing that. There's a great sense of accomplishment that you'll get if you think, hey,

I can't read this whole thing. It's a big book. I can't read the whole thing and know it like the back of my hand.

But if I start somewhere, if you start with one of the small books like James or 1

John or Ephesians or something like that, Galatians, you can really, by the end of the month, feel like you really know that book.

So, I mean, I started off with 1 John, and I read through it once, and I made a list of all the questions

I had from the chapter, and I had like 20 questions or something like that. And then I read through it for 30 days, and by the end of 30 days,

I looked at my questions and I could answer them all without looking at a commentary or anything because I just knew it at that point.

I knew what they were talking about. So I think that's one good thing you can do is just think in terms of repetition.

The more that you repeat, the better. I'm also a very big fan of trying to get through the whole thing fast, right?

So get through the whole Bible very quickly. And I don't mean a year. I mean quickly, quickly.

So when I first became a Christian, one of the things I did was I read the New Testament on repeat.

I read through it about five times in a row. And that was the first thing

I did. I read through it like five times in a row, and it didn't even take but a few weeks. You know what I'm saying? It didn't take that long just reading it.

And I really knew it by then, but I'd say try to get through the whole Bible. There's a lot of blessing that comes from seeing the context and seeing the broader story when you're thinking about the smaller parts.

And so a lot of people are trying to get through it that first time, and they don't know the bigger story. And I would say the faster you can do it, the better.

Now, I mean, that sounds crazy to people. Like you can't even stick to it, doing it in a whole year. What are you talking about doing it very rapidly, right?

There's a study that shows that the average American screen time right now is 5 .4 hours a day.

So the average American is spending about five, five and a half hours a day. Honestly, that seems low.

I would have thought it would have been more to like seven or eight. Well, screen time in general is seven to eight.

And I don't know if that counts work hours or that kind of stuff, but five and a half. So I would imagine it's higher just depending on who you're talking to, right?

So if you have a person working a normal job, they may not be able to do that. But putting it all together, let's just go on the low end, five and a half, okay?

We'll go on the low end. An audio Bible, like if you listen to an audio Bible, that's 69 hours of audio

Bible to get from start to finish. Now, I mean, I listened to the audio Bible in like two and a half times speed, and that's not very hard.

I got you hooked into doing that. It's not hard. Yeah, I will say, you know, it takes a little bit, or at least for me, it took a little bit of training, but not a lot.

You know, it was mostly just listen to it, just listen to random things you would normally listen to.

And like maybe do, you know, one and a half times speed. And then you get to where it's like, all right, this feels just like normal people talking.

I'm going to bump it up to times two, and then I don't understand. And so I go back and listen to it again.

And after the second through, I've spent the normal amount of time I would have listening to it.

But I've also gotten better at listening on times two speed. And so now it's like when

I listen to the Bible, I listen only on times two speed in English, on times two speed.

I think my younger brother has taken this to the extreme, and he's up to like three and a half times speed or something like that.

And it's just not enjoyable for me that quick. I mean, I can do it. It's just kind of makes it's too much concentration.

And I just get a lot. I like a comfortable two and a half times speed. You know, it's funny.

Three sometimes. Even my wife, when we're driving or something and I'm listening to the

Bible, if it's not on times two speed, she's like, oh, they're talking really slow.

It is. It's painful. Once you get hooked on it, it's painful. No, it is.

It's kind of like your ears have been ruined now. You can't listen to it on times one speed anymore.

That's right. I like doing three, but then two and a half feels very comfortable. So I'm good with that.

But if you were to do like two and a half, like two and a half, you know, 69 hours to listen to the whole

Bible once, two and a half times, you can do it in 27 hours. And that's basically five days of phone usage.

So 5 .4 hours a day. That's five days. I mean, you could get through the whole

Bible in five days. If every time you had an itch to pick up your phone, instead, you just press play, you know, on a

Bluetooth device and listen to the Bible, you could do it in five days. But I mean, like the thing is, if you could really like get through the whole

Bible in a month or a couple weeks, even a couple weeks, a month, you just say, I'm going to do it.

One of the things you'll realize is, man, that did a lot more for you than dragging it out over the course of the year where you forget and you're coming in and out.

Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. No, I completely agree. I mean, I remember, you know,

I've done that. I've done that a few times. Listen through the Bible in a month. I haven't done five days, but in a month, you know, you can try it.

Yeah, I probably need to, you know, and I think it's about 40 chapters a day if you're reading through in one month.

And a lot of people, it's funny because a lot of people, when they found out I was doing that, they would be like, well, that seems kind of pointless.

How are you going to remember that all that? And I think the point is like, all right, if you can read through the

Bible or listen through, I was listening through. And then there's other study that I did as well that was way more refined than just, you know, a lot smaller sections there.

But listening through the Bible in a month, you can listen through the entire Bible 12 times in a year.

And even just doing it, I mean, two times, just read through the Bible two times in two months.

And you will remember more, especially about the Old Testament than you ever knew before.

Well, that's what I mean. That's what that's that's where there's different types of learning. So, I mean, I've done I've done that before.

I've listened to it once a month for a year kind of thing. And there's just different types of learning.

And that's where people get hung up in this kind of discussion is they don't realize that there's different ways to learn. Right. And so so what you think is, well, if you just rush through it, particularly if you're speeding it up, hey, that's cheating or something like that.

And you're just not. No, it's like you get different things that way than you get, you know, agonizing over a part.

Right. So if you listen to the whole thing, what you're going to get is you're going to get context. Like if you get the whole thing rapidly, really quick, you get the context.

But then if you study one individual part, it's like it's the difference between looking at the forest and looking at one tree very carefully.

Right. And so you're not going to remember the details going through it really quickly. You're going to remember the overarching, broad story.

And what you're going to see is you're going to see connections between the books that you never thought were there. You're going to see that because you because what's happening is you're moving on quickly to new territory.

And then what you're going to find is you're going to see all the connections better that way. Whereas like if you're just like, you know, camping out in a tree, you just see that tree.

You don't see how it connects with everything else. Which is especially helpful in the Old Testament when so much of it is narrative.

Right. So I really recommend trying to, you know, one of the things if you if you say, hey, I really want to say the

Bible right now and I want to plan. What do I do? I would say, hey, yeah. In the New Testament, start out with one book.

Read it every day. You may just like say, hey, I'll read First John every day, 15 minutes for a month.

Go on to the next one again. But get through the Old Testament. Like just say, hey, you know what? What I'm going to do is listen to talk radio or whatever it is you listen to podcasts, whatever books on what as you're driving music.

Most people listen to music, I guess. I'm not like that, but with the driving. But I take your commute and say,

I'm going to I'm going to get through as much of the Bible as I can get on my commute. And particularly if you have a long commute, you might be shocked at how much you can get through and just say,

OK, I'm going to do that. Then when I get home, I'm going to do my 15 minutes a day kind of thing. And you may you know, you may then you're getting like in depth and you're getting breath in the

Bible. And so, I mean, I would you know, I would really encourage some everyone needs to at some point in their life say

I'm going to binge the Bible like I'm going to binge Netflix. Right. I'm going to sit down.

I'm going to binge this thing. I'm going to get through it as quick as I can. And if you if you do that, one of the things you'll find is, man, that really it really comes alive a lot more than just doing you're trying to force yourself to be faithful to that.

I read the Bible a year kind of thing. I guess some point like everyone stops, you know, but once you get hooked on it, like you get hooked on Netflix, it's hard to stop.

Yeah. And so I if someone could stick to the Bible reading a year, that's great. You know,

I don't I don't begrudge him of that. And that's better than nothing, you know, but I would just think I think there's a lot better ways to get it in there.

If you if you if you can. Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, it sounds kind of crazy.

Right. For for our context, you know, the society we live in to say, hey, listen,

I just, you know, I listen to the Bible. You know, if you want to get through it in a month and you're listening on times to speed,

I think it normally takes somewhere. I mean, it depends, obviously, on how long the chapters are and where you are. Like, if you're going through, you know, the book of Psalms, for example, to be thirty five hours, thirty five hours.

I'm just talking about like every day, you know. Yeah. So it'd be an hour a day. Yeah. It's typically about an hour, maybe like an hour and a half if you have like particularly long chapters.

But there's other places where it flies by because some of the, you know, like the book of Psalms, for example, pretty much all of the

New Testament beyond the beyond beyond like the Gospels. They I mean, you just fly through them because all those all those letters are so short.

And and, you know, it's really interesting because I think the temptation is is is to say, hey, you know, all right.

Yeah, I'm reading through the whole thing, but then I'm forgetting, you know, ninety five percent of it all.

Right. Right. Which honestly, like if you're you know, I think that's probably a pretty good place to be, honestly, if you're remembering five percent of everything.

If you're remembering five percent of the whole Bible after listening through it one time. I mean, that's honestly, that's pretty good.

But then the reality. But then once you do it multiple times back to back to back every day, you know, an hour or two hours listening through it like that, what you start realizing is.

All right. Yeah. I forgot. Ninety five percent of everything I heard the first time. But that second time

I listened to it, I remembered that five percent and then I remembered, you know, five more percent on top of that the next time.

Right. And and as you keep doing that over and over, you know, I think I think you'll realize that, hey, it's like, yeah,

I remember all those things that I read before. But then as I'm reading through it on, you know, future attempts,

I'm remembering, you know, smaller and smaller amounts. But either way,

I mean, spending that amount of time, inevitably you're going to remember way more. If you ask someone who's read the

Bible through all the way through or listen through the Bible 12 times in a year, you know how much of it they remember, if you could if you could figure that out in a percentage.

And then you ask someone a lot more than once a year. Yeah. Yeah. Or yeah. And obviously way more than the one who never does it.

Right. Right. Right. And so I think a lot of people are perfectionist in the way that they do. There's just some perfect way to do it.

You got to do it the perfect way. And if you don't do it the perfect way, then you're failing. And it's like, no, with this kind of stuff, you know, it's kind of like parenting in general.

I tell some people this and I know I'm a relatively new parent, but I think this is true.

When it comes to family worship time, for example, it's not about having a perfect sermon that you're going to deliver and going for 45 minutes and knowing every exact thing that you need to say.

It's not as much about that as it is about just worshiping, leading family worship time with your family every day or as often as you can throughout the week and being consistent in that.

And it's the same thing with Bible reading. You just prioritize, especially for people who struggle studying with reading the

Bible every day, prioritize consistency over perfection.

And then what you'll realize is as you are prioritizing consistency, you get better at reading it over time.

Yeah, and I think that there's just two things to try to do. So, I mean, think in terms of breadth and think in terms of depth.

So, I think if you can try to binge and get through a lot really quick, you'll see that there's a lot of value in that.

And then there are times where if you just focus on one part. So, just to give you another example, a professor of mine said essentially with the book of Deuteronomy that the key to understanding the

Old Testament is to understand the book of Deuteronomy. And I just thought, well, I don't see how that's true, but I'm going to believe you that that's true because Deuteronomy is the boring part, right?

But I know it's not supposed to be the boring part because I mean, I know that that's anti -intellectual and all that, and that's just absurd.

But I know that what you're saying is right. So, I just decided to put it to the test and see if what he was saying was right.

And I mean, listening at two and a half times speed, you can get through the book of Deuteronomy in an hour. And so I thought,

I mean, I think a lot of people just don't set big goals here. And so the kind of things I'm talking about sound absurd and obscene, but they're not.

So, I just thought I'm going to listen to this 50 times in a row. And that's 50 hours, you know, that's 50 hours.

But that's, I mean, you could do that. I mean, if you're spending five hours a day on your phone, you know, imagine like 50 hours, then like that's 10 days, right?

A phone time. I mean, you can do it if you're motivated. But by the end of that,

I read through the Bible again, or I listened to the Bible again after I did Deuteronomy. I saw Deuteronomy everywhere and he was right, you know?

So, but I mean, one of the things I've done over the years is I've tried to go through it quick, go through it quick, and then focus in on parts and do them over and over and over again as many times as I can.

And then go through it quick and then do parts, you know, and just, all right, I need to know this book better.

So, I'm just going to focus on this book and just repetition, repetition, and then read through the whole thing again, you know?

And so I just, I think the best thing you can do is just mix it up and, you know, try different ways of learning, reading, audio, just do as many things as you can.

But, you know, living in a society so addicted to entertainment, we really have no excuse to not figure out how to at least, you know, for some part of our year, do some heavy binging here, you know?

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