The Mind of the Scriptures
The Difference Between an Eastern and Western Culture Mind
Those of the Western Hemisphere, which includes the United States, and even into Western Europe are a Western culture, think, act, and respond to life as Westerners. As a general rule, us Westerners rely more on concrete facts – we are more abstract in our thinking. There is a beginning and an end. The Bible, on the other hand, was written by all Easterners, who thought Eastern, wrote Eastern, and wrote to an audience who were all Eastern.
All of the authors of the Bible were of Eastern culture, coming from a different time, culture, socio-economical, and governmental/political structure 2000-3500 years ago.
Easterners are generally more relational in their thinking. Westerners, in opposition, think lineal – meaning we have a beginning thought and it follows a lineal direction toward an ending. In other words, there must be a beginning and ending to every story. The authors of the Bible were Easterner in nature, meaning they were more cyclical in their thinking. Their thoughts kept revolving back to its beginning and grew in cycles. It was about relationships. What was in the beginning stayed in motion all through history. As such, if you gave a story to a Westerner and an Easterner, they would each process and reiterate the story in two different ways. In other words, each would come up with a different conclusion. The westerners would look at the facts and view it as a process to an end, maybe even as a historical one of facts. The Easterners, on the other hand, would look at the people, their relationship to one another, and go into detail about their lives. The essence of the story would be the intermingling of their lives together. Nothing would come to an end, because relationships are meant to last forever. This is way of the Bible - it is cyclical in nature, and it keeps revolving. It has no end.
What you read in the Book of Genesis really is no different than what you read at the end of the Book of Revelation. God meant for all His creation, even in the Book of Revelation, to be just like what He created in the Book of Genesis. The Bible is written about people, their relationships to one another and to their God, and it became a revolving, cyclical book.
The Bible is a cyclical book about relationships and never ends
The Bible not just a history book or random words from God. When you learned about Abraham in the Book of Genesis, you find that it is a foundation of relationships. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 tribes of Israel. continuing on to King David, then to Jesus, teaching that Jews and Christians alike must come to Him, tells us that our lives are all intertwined with one another. You see Abraham in the Book of Genesis and in the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament. God always brings you back to the roots of what He wants His people to know.
All of God’s Word is written by Easterners, about Easterners, and for Easterners. To become Eastern in your thinking then means you must get into the head of the author of the book you are studying. For instance, when you read any of the writings of the Apostle Paul, as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, you must ask yourself, what did Paul mean back 2000 years ago in a culture that is unfamiliar to me. That will drive you to study about the times of the life of Paul, his culture, customs, his socio/economical/political culture, and everything you can learn about him and his times. And, of course, you will learn that to properly understand Scripture, you can never read it out of its own original context, but study it with the rest of the author's writings. And ultimately, you will learn that you must always study scripture with other scripture, regardless of its author. Knowing all this, it will teach you to disregard what you may have thought you knew about a certain passage of scripture, and instead, learn, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to study the Word of God in a deeper manner to discover its true meaning for you today. Then you can apply what you learned to your life today, which is centuries later, in a different culture, and carry the correct meaning of what the author originally intended. That way, you can then rightly divide the Word of God.
2 Tim 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. KJV