You Can Handle the Truth
You Can Handle the Truth: Making Sense of the Bible in 3 Simple Steps
By: Chad M. Mansbridge
'Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth’ (2 Timothy 2:15)
“Eternal life is not experienced by familiarity with the Scripture, but by knowing and trusting the Son whom that Scripture reveals.”
Chad Mansbridge is not a scholar and he didn’t even attend seminary. But that’s the point of his awesomely titled book— you don’t have to have a doctorate in theology to understand the Bible. It’s for everyone!
His heart is to equip everyone with the tools they need to open the Bible and make sense of it. He simplifies his points using acronyms and alliteration, making them more memorable. It’s an easy book to read and outline.
(I think it would have been a great addition to create a detachable bookmark or small printout summarizing the main questions/points to consider when reading your Bible that you can keep in your Bible to reference.)
Is This Book For Me?
Whether or not you should read this book, I think, depends on how committed you are to seeking truth.
There are a lot of good things in this book, but there are a few of his own beliefs peppered in as examples— not to convince you of his theology but to present texts that can be interpreted differently— that I would disagree with.
If you are going to read this book and actually study the Bible for yourself and not just accept his interpretations as ‘the way it is,’ then this would be a good resource for you.
If you want to learn how to read the Bible for yourself, but you don’t trust yourself to think critically and ask more questions, then I would recommend a different book that, I believe, would have more trustworthy interpretations— Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul.
The Vitals
The most important aspect of this book is that Mansbridge has a high view of Scripture. The Bible is our ultimate authority, it’s God’s very words that should be followed and shared, it’s infallible, and the Bible should interpret itself. He also emphasizes that any interpreting should not be done in isolation but should be done with others, comparing notes with at least two other sources.
He also emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit required to understand Scripture:
“[What] no human mind has conceived … God has revealed to us by his Spirit … no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God … [we have received] the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us … because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” (1 Cor. 2: 9–14)
Finally, his gospel message is solid. The purpose of Scripture is to know God and understand our relationship to him. To understand our sin and need of a Savior. All Scripture points toward that end: the sacrifice of Jesus to rescue us and put us in true fellowship with our Creator.
The Helpful
The book is divided into three sections according to the title’s three ‘simple steps’:
What does it say?
What does it mean?
What does it matter?
What Does it Say?
He suggests this ‘vowels’ acronym for reading our Bibles:
A—Appreciation
E—Expectation
I—Intention
O—Openness
U—Understanding
We recognize and appreciate the complexity of the Bible and are grateful to have such a masterpiece. We expect God to speak to us through it as we intentionally spend time reading, studying, researching, memorizing, and letting it influence our lives. We come willing to challenge our beliefs and correct where we need to as we recognize our own predispositions and biases we come with to the text.
Importantly: the beliefs that are most impactful to our lives are the ones we research and discover for ourselves to prove to ourselves how important they are. I love this! Own your faith and prove how important it is to you by understanding why you believe what you believe.
What Does it Mean?
Here he provides the ABCs of exegesis (which means “to draw out the original intended meaning”)
A—Author and Audience
B—Big-Picture Background
C—Corroborating Content
S—Style of Speech
He pulls out different passages and demonstrates how the meaning changes based on who wrote that particular book or who their audience was. For example, we are not the audience for the Levitical laws or some of the direct commands of the prophets.
He provides a chronological overview of all of Scripture to help us understand how the little pieces fit into the bigger picture. He also details some cultural differences that can cause misunderstandings.
He differentiates the three covenants that laws or commands fall into: the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Christ’s Covenant. The first in which covenant blessings were solely based on being part of Abraham’s family. The second— covenant blessings based on performance. The third is the covenant we are part of and is the fulfillment of the first two— we receive blessing because we are part of God’s family and based on Christ’s perfect performance.
Mansbridge also explains literary genres and devices that affect how we interpret Scripture— e.g. we don’t take every part of poetry literally whereas a historical narrative is not assumed to be allegorical.
What Does it Matter?
The main point of this section is application. He gives five important ‘cuts’ to make
What is Major vs What is Minor
What is Clear vs What is Cloudy
What is Descriptive vs What is Prescriptive
What is Theirs vs What is Yours
What is the Practice vs What is the Principle vs What is the Purpose
These cuts are important because there are mysteries in the Bible. Not everything is major, clear, directive, to us, or meant to be regularly practiced. We have to use discernment as we apply Scripture.
He also talks about how the Bible tells us our identity. This is immediate application because knowing who we are and our relationship to God and others influences every aspect of our lives.
“Similarly, to love others as Christ has loved you, you must first know others, know Christ and know your true self! After all, we cannot love what we do not know.”
This acronym was finding JOY in Scripture by seeing what it reveals about Jesus, Others, Yourself.
The Not-So-Helpful
The biggest let down for me was lack of a comprehensive case study. I think it would have been really beneficial to include one large chunk of Scripture where he goes through each of his acronyms and questions on the SAME passage.
Those who read this book are going to put it into practice by opening up, say, Ephesians, and attempting to understand that book. To show one cumulative example of all these pieces at work on the same passage would have been an effective way to help the reader feel like they can complete these steps on their own.
I’m not sure this book would do this for many people. We see all the questions and things to consider but, to me, to go and do likewise still feels a bit overwhelming and disjointed and I feel fairly familiar with my Bible.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, he has some quirky beliefs about certain interpretations of passages that I had never heard before. It required me to do a little research.
He is clear that his intent in writing this is not to dictate his own theology to us and convince us of why he is right. He is explaining how he went through these methods of interpretation and came to his conclusion. He wants us to do the same.
But here are a few places that I disagreed with him to give you an idea.
He proposed that it was Lazarus who wrote the book of John, not the apostle John because only Lazarus was referred to as the one Jesus loved. But John 21:20-25 doesn’t seem to support this. D.A. Carson’s commentary on John was suggested to me as another source to read more about it.
When he discussed collectivist vs individualistic societies he proposed that he believed Paul, in talking about predestination, would be understood to be referring to a collective group. That God predestines a group of his people not individuals. Mansbridge wasn’t super clear on his entire belief of predestination (intentionally) but I believe it’s important that God predestines us personally and I think Scripture supports this. One reference being that God chose Jacob but not Esau (Rom 9).
The passage in Scripture that talks about God cutting off branches that do not bear fruit, Mansbridge interprets the word used here to mean ‘take up’ not ‘take away’ and that God lifts the branches up to get more sunlight and have a better opportunity to bear fruit. Whereas I believe this passage to be referring to those who are not genuine believers. They did not produce fruit so they were not genuine converts and God condemns those branches to hell.
In his interpretation of the phrase ‘whole world’ or ‘all nations’ he was differentiating passages that referred to the localized ‘world’ that the people were aware of vs the actual entire world. And so, it would seem he might believe the flood was localized rather than a global flood, which I don’t believe is the correct interpretation.
It also seemed like he believed the Bible taught that women could be pastors and preach the word to men. I’m not sure exactly the nuances of his beliefs on this but I find Wayne Grudem and Kevin DeYoung’s interpretation of these passages more compelling. I would suggest Grudem’s book Evangelical Feminism and DeYoung’s book Men and Women in the Church.
Lastly, it does include some graphics and doodles throughout the book. They didn’t do much for me. There were a couple that were relevant to the text in providing a visual, but most of them were more comic-ky. I think they could have done more to create drawings that would go along with the acronyms or visual devices to help remember things or keep things in order, e.g. the chronology of the Bible. I’ve seen pictorials for this in other books that I thought were helpful. In this context it felt a bit juvenile to me.
In Summation
Mansbridge is absolutely right that you and I CAN rightly handle the Truth, just like Timothy. If we are willing to put in the work, to ask the questions and seek the answers, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will hone our belief system and it will change our lives.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12
The Bible is God’s very words and if we would know our Creator, we would care about understanding his Word, not just reading a Psalm when we feel sad.
If you don’t know where to start, this would be a good introduction to hermeneutics and exegesis. It reminds us to consider authorship, audience, context, culture, chronology, styles of speech, themes, and literary devices to interpret God’s Word.
But if you have a more advanced understanding of your Bible, this may feel too introductory to you or not practical enough. Other book options are listed below.
Either way, I admire Mansbridge’s passion for equipping believers to take responsibility in studying and understanding the Word of God and I hope this book inspires many people to take their beliefs seriously.
Further Reading:
Seamless: Understanding the Bible as One Complete Story by Angie Smith (this is not about exegesis but is a really good overview of the Bible and the characters, themes, big picture background, and chronology)
One-To-One Bible Reading: A Simple Guide for Every Christian by David Helm (His acronym is COMA: Context, Observation, Meaning, Application. It’s a more practical look on how to study the Bible specifically with someone else)
Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul (This is an old book but a classic. Solid and foundational look at how to interpret the Bible. It may not be as easy to read as Mansbridge though; it’s on my TBR list)
Finding the Right Hills to Die on: A Case for Theological Triage by Gavin Ortlund (A book on differentiating the major vs the minor doctrines that Mansbridge referred to)
The Whole Message of the Bible in 16 Words by Chris Bruno (a short book on the chronology and major themes throughout Scripture; provides a good framework for study)
Surviving Religion 101 by Michael J. Kruger (The main point of this book is not hermeneutics but there are chapters on the canonization of the Bible and explaining common misconceptions of the Bible; written by a New Testament scholar)
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