The Quick-Read Bible: Understanding God's Word From Beginning to End in 365 Daily Readings. Harvest House Publishers. 272 pages. 2021 [March] [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: “All of Scripture is inspired, but some parts are more inspiring than others.” This well-known quip is funny because it rings true for most of us!
It may be a quick read, but it sure isn't a Bible! As best I can tell it is an adult book of Bible stories. There is a Bible story for each day of the year.
There isn't a verse of Scripture to be found. And the introduction makes it seem like the Bible text itself is out of reach of the average adult believer. We know the Bible is hard, intimidating, tough, and uninspiring as is....so we've chosen 365 chapters out of 1,189 to freshen up and spoon feed you.
That isn't quite true. Some stories summarize multiple chapters of the Bible. Some chapters of the Bible have multiple stories/entries. They also left out the parts of Scripture that might require work to interpret, understand, and apply, but they gave plenty of stories that are easy to summarize.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
It doesn't say some scripture is given by inspiration of God and sometimes proves profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction.
For the record, I am not against Bible storybooks for families. I believe that Bible story books can be a great blessing to families. Bible story books are never, ever, ever, ever meant to take the place of the actual Word of God. This one does not say that it's meant to take the place of the Bible in a believer's life...but it sure does leave the impression that it'll serve the same role as the Bible as "inspiring" you to live an "inspired" life.
The believer needs the whole word of God to be a whole believer.
Again for the record, I am not against Bible HELPS. Resources that provide summaries or outlines or commentary or charts or maps or timelines, etc. to help guide readers through the whole Bible (all 1,189 chapters) or whole books of the Bible. This devotional book provides summaries for some of the contents of some of the chapters from some of the books of the Bible. It's full of holes. So it fails at even being a cliffs notes for the Bible.
If the book hadn't tried to have just 365 readings, if it had summarized ALL the chapters of the Bible, then I would probably have less of an issue.
If the book had indicated that it was an introductory TOUR to give a brief overview and actively stressed that it was just the tippiest tip of the iceberg--that there was SO MUCH MORE to discover in the Word of God.
If the book had actively ENCOURAGED readers to pick up the Bible for themselves and to TASTE AND SEE THAT GOD IS GOOD.
If the book had taken a more positive THE BIBLE CAN ACTUALLY BE READ BY ACTUAL PEOPLE AND ACTUALLY understood. IT ISN'T AS HARD AS YOU THINK approach.
If the book was written for children and had illustrations.
But the summaries are hit or miss on if the writer of the summary actually *got* the main point, main theme, main significance of the chapter being summarized. Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. The only theme the writer(s) seem to understand and sing is this, "the main theme of Scripture—that God loves people so much, he has made a way for them to live with him forever." But is that the main theme????? Is it really??? I know some creeds and confessions that would disagree. I know some pastors who would disagree.
But even if there was nothing theologically iffy about the book--it is still missing the BEAUTY and SPLENDOR of the Bible. Imagine if someone decided that the Mona Lisa was too sophisticated for viewers today and promised to recreate it in a fresh new way and the end result was a stick figure.
If you're looking for an introduction to the Word of God, I'd recommend instead Welcome To Your Bible.
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