Why Read The Whole Bible?
"The child who is brought up to read the Bible as a whole, from Genesis to Revelation, will come to know early in life if he is to be safeguarded against the perils that surround modern life. A child who is brought up on a constant, thorough reading of the whole Bible is more likely than any other child to be free from the vices that are undermining the mental, moral, and physical strength of our young men and women."
— R.A. Torrey (1856–1928), Power-Filled Living, pp 463-464
"Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian."
— A.W. Tozer
"If you want to study the Bible to be meaningful to you, first of all read the Scriptures...Now there is no substitute today or shortcut to studying the Bible. We've come through a period where we want to take it easy, so we've had little gimmick programs of going through the Bible in a hurry. Well, believe me, my friends, you can't go through the Word of God in a hurry. It even took the Lord seven days to make the heaven and the earth, and He was able to do it in just a moment, but he took a lot of time, for him, and today you can't take a little seminar and hope to become an authority on the Word of God and solve all your problems. God gave sixty six books and the only way is to study those sixty six books. Read the Scripture. Pray for yourself ..."
— Dr. J. Vernon McGee (1904–1988), "Teaching the Whole Word of God for the Whole World"
FACT: Dr. J. Vernon McGee takes five years to teach through the Bible in his 30-minute radio program Thru The Bible Radio Network which is aired in over 200 countries in over 100 languages on perhaps thousands of radio stations. This is approximately 1300 30-minute lessons. (5 days/week x 52 weeks/yr x 5 yrs = 1300). This equals about 600 hours of actual teaching. These lessons are available via computer at the website www.thruthebible.org (transcribed from the video presentation at that site, and used by permission).
"I had always heard more or less topical sermons and that's about all I knew to preach, but I was fascinated by the idea of just taking the people through the Word of God. However, it took many years before I adopted the same practice myself." — Chuck Smith (1927–2013), founder of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, CA; www.thruthebible.org (transcribed from the video presentation at that site, and used by permission).
FACT: Chuck Smith, who adopted a verse-by-verse teaching method at Calvary Chapel, has at the Calvary Chapel website audio recordings of his teaching through the entire Bible. Assuming that the recordings are 60 minutes in length, and counting the number of lessons, and comparing with Read Thru The Word Bible Curriculum, we find that Pastor Smith takes about 320 hours to teach through the entire Word of God at calvarychapel.com:
- 112 lessons for Genesis–Ecclesiastes (equivalent to RTTW Year 1)
- 211 lessons for Song of Solomon–Revelation (equivalent to RTTW Year 2)
- 323 total lessons for the entire Bible @ 60 minutes/lesson
FACT: The complete two-year Read Thru The Word Bible Curriculum has a total of 340 Bible lessons, 170 lessons each year. Year 1 covers Genesis to Ecclesiates, and Year 2 covers Song of Solomon to Revelation. The curriculum allows for a total of about 125 hours of Bible-reading time in class. Considering that most audio Bibles are about 70 hours of listening time, this curriculum provides ample time for students to read the entire Bible in class at an average teen/adult reading speed of 130–140 words per minute. (Students requiring more time may finish Bible reading assignments as homework.)
Two editions of RTTW Bible Curriculum are currently available on this website: NIV-170 and KJV-170. While the KJV edition is specifically designed for use with the King James Version Bible, the NIV edition can be used with not only the NIV, but other modern Bible translations commonly used in Christian schools.
A BRAND NEW EDITION of RTTW KJV-170 is currently being developed. The new RTTW Bible Curriculum, 3rd Edition, revised based on customer feedback, will greatly improve the usability of the curriculum for both teachers and students. If you would like to be notified as soon as the new curriculum is released, click here to sign up for the wait list.
Why not read the whole Bible?