Why the New Testament is Not for Beginners

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Most people are told to start their Bible journey in the New Testament.

[00:00:05]Start with John, read the Gospels, then move into Paul. But, what if that starting point is actually part of the problem? In this video, we're going to challenge a deeply ingrained assumption.

[00:00:19]One in which starting the New Testament is where you're supposed to start your Bible study journey. The Apostle Peter warns us that Paul's letters contain things that are hard to understand.

[00:00:31]Things that people who are unlearned and unstable twist to their own destruction.

[00:00:38]And yet, those same letters are often where people begin.

[00:00:43]So, we're going to unpack why Paul's writings require a deep understanding of the law, the prophets, and the covenants, and why reading him without that foundation can lead to serious misunderstanding. Because that's the case that we have today. And we're also going to take a step back even further and look at the Gospels themselves and why they are not actually the beginning of the story, but the continuation of one that started long before they were written. This episode is meant to encourage you, but also to ground you.

[00:01:24]To hopefully help you to pause and really consider the question of the implications it might have on your studies when you're starting your journey with writings that already assume a level of understanding that one may not yet have. If you've found my YouTube channel or my podcast, I want you to know that my goal with The Promise Perspective is to really help us to slow down and get comfortable in taking our studies very slowly and very carefully.

[00:01:59]So that to to realign our starting point instead of trying to jump in and interpret the scriptures through a lens that we may not know we've inherited.

[00:02:14]And also, I want to invite you into a deeper, more meaningful, more complete way of reading the scriptures. One that begins where the story of the story and the gospel actually begin.

[00:02:34]In Genesis. So instead of starting in the middle of the book, we're going we're going to constantly go back to the beginning.

[00:02:45]And the reason I say that the New Testament scriptures are not for beginners in the faith is because that's not where the gospel starts.

[00:02:55]Any studied Bible teacher should know this.

[00:02:59]And that's why it pains me when I hear people treat Moses' writings with such a disregard to their relevance to our Messiah's ministry. Moses was Yahusha's primary authority base.

[00:03:15]When you look at how Messiah teaches, he consistently anchors his authority in what was written through Moses.

[00:03:22]Deuteronomy is one of the most frequently quoted books by Yahusha, our Messiah.

[00:03:29]And it is the single most quoted book from the Torah in his teaching. John 5:46 and 47, "For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me.

[00:03:42]But if you believe not his writings, how will you believe my words?" He's literally telling us he's not even quoting a verse. He's telling us that his revelation is woven within the pages of the books of Moses.

[00:03:59]If that doesn't humble us, I don't know what will.

[00:04:01]So, in Stephanie's words, Stephanie's thoughts, Stephanie's commentary on John 5:46 and 47 goes like this, "How do we understand what our Messiah is saying if we don't understand what Moses is saying?"

[00:04:20]That's it. That's the commentary.

[00:04:22]So, again, for that reason, we need to slow down and go back to the beginning. Go back to Moses. Go back to the first five books of the Bible.

[00:04:33]The New Testament scriptures are not for beginners in the faith because that's not where our faith begins.

[00:04:42]And that's why I also say Paul's writings are not for are not beginner-level scripture. They are not They are not for beginners in the faith.

[00:04:52]Because the Bible actually tells us this.

[00:04:55]Right? Many people begin their study of the Bible by reading the New Testament and the letters of Paul.

[00:05:02]But the Apostle Peter, like I was mentioning in the beginning, writes something very important about Paul's letters.

[00:05:09]He says Paul wrote about things that are hard to understand.

[00:05:14]And that those who are unlearned and unstable twist his writings as they do the rest of the scriptures.

[00:05:22]The scriptures is the Old Testament.

[00:05:25]There's no other script There was no other scriptures than that at the time of this writing.

[00:05:31]And that statement appears in 2 uh 2 Peter 3:16.

[00:05:36]So, Peter warns us that Paul can easily be misunderstood, especially by people who are not firmly grounded and rooted in the scriptures, in the Old Testament, in the Tanakh, the Torah, the prophets and the writings.

[00:05:54]So, and this is key to understanding Paul.

[00:05:59]Because Paul was not inventing any type of new theology that was disconnected from the Old Testament like like many people claim.

[00:06:10]They don't physically say that, but that's what their teaching suggests.

[00:06:15]Paul was interpreting the Hebrew scriptures and explaining how the Messiah fits into them.

[00:06:23]Paul himself says this very clearly.

[00:06:25]Acts 26:22, when he declares that he teaches nothing except what the prophets and Moses said would happen.

[00:06:34]That means everything Paul wrote assumes that his audience already understands the Torah, the covenants, the sacrificial system, the promises given to Israel, the promises given to Abraham.

[00:06:49]And later in Acts 28:23, it says that Paul expounded on the kingdom of Yehuwa, persuading them concerning Yehusha, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening.

[00:07:07]If someone jumps straight into Paul without that foundation, without the foundation of what he was actually reasoning from, it can easily sound like a different gospel. And it can also easily sound like Paul is saying things that he never intended.

[00:07:25]And this is the biggest reason why Paul is misunderstood today at with so many angles, something I'm still learning today.

[00:07:33]And to the church today, this is our fault. And we need to admit, humble ourselves, and admit that we've not been diligent in our examination of something that is clearly implied in the New Testament letters regarding how to rightly understand Paul.

[00:07:51]There's nothing wrong with being wrong.

[00:07:55]That's what repentance is for.

[00:07:57]We we've had it all wrong. And I say we because I've been there, too.

[00:08:02]For example, when Paul talks about law, justification, sacrifice, priesthood, covenant, righteousness, he is using language that comes directly from the Torah. You can't understand righteousness without Torah. Without that background, without the definitions being established in the scriptures themselves, readers are going to misunderstand what the New Testament writers are saying.

[00:08:32]This is why the Messiah himself started somewhere very different when teaching his disciples.

[00:08:39]Like after the resurrection, Luke 24:27 tells us that he began He began with Moses and all the prophets and explained the scriptures concerning himself.

[00:08:53]>> [snorts] >> And my what has been driving me in my own personal ministry and discipleship is what does that mean?

[00:09:03]What do you mean that that Paul and our Messiah was explaining who he is through the scriptures, through the Old Testament.

[00:09:18]What do you mean? So, that seeing that alone has really transformed the way that I not only approach the scriptures and approach my own personal studies, but my like what it means to actually share the gospel. What it means to actually make disciples. Because making disciples isn't just about what you can teach somebody about what the scripture says. It's about encouraging and exhorting like a sobering humility towards like really really sitting down and stepping back and saying, "What does this truly mean?" I want to know what it means to reason in the scriptures, to reason with the scriptures, to show people who our Messiah is.

[00:10:13]Because they knew who they were expecting and they knew that he was him.

[00:10:18]It was him.

[00:10:20]How did they know that? Like it's it's and it might sound simple, but it's a lot deeper than we've been taught.

[00:10:29]So, going back to Luke 24:27 where it tells us that Messiah began explaining the scriptures concerning himself with Moses and all the prophets.

[00:10:41]Notice where he started.

[00:10:43]Moses.

[00:10:45]The foundation of the faith is not Paul's writings or the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

[00:10:53]The foundation is the scriptures that came before them.

[00:10:59]And Paul assumes that his readers understood that foundation.

[00:11:09]And he builds because he you can see in his letters he builds on that.

[00:11:14]There's not like any This is why it's just it's so heartbreaking that people use Paul to teach a completely different gospel because he was building on promises and covenants.

[00:11:26]He wasn't replacing anything. He was expounding on what was already written.

[00:11:31]And that's key. So, if someone wants to truly understand Paul's letters, the the best place to begin is not Romans or Galatians.

[00:11:42]The best place to begin is Genesis.

[00:11:45]And and the entire Old Testament. And immerse yourself in those writings so that that is where your foundation is built first.

[00:11:54]Because once you understand why he was reasoning our Messiah to people within those writings, Paul suddenly makes so much more sense.

[00:12:06]And when we look at the Gospels, the Gospels written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they aren't the beginning of the story.

[00:12:17]They're they're the climax of the story.

[00:12:19]A lot of people will advise people who are new to the Bible to start in the Gospels, to start with Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Been there, done that. I'll be honest, I used to say the same thing.

[00:12:31]But, the thing is, even even John chapter 1 verse 1 points you to Genesis chapter 1 verse 1.

[00:12:40]It says, "In the beginning."

[00:12:42]And over time, as I began studying the scriptures, the Old Testament more carefully, I realized that even the Gospels assume you already understand the foundation laid in the earlier scriptures.

[00:12:57]But, even that advice misses something very important.

[00:13:04]Because the Gospels are not written for people who had never heard of the scriptures before.

[00:13:13]They were written to audiences They were written to Israel, >> [clears throat] >> to people who already understood their story and the writings of Moses and the prophets.

[00:13:25]I mean, the very first verse of Matthew says, "The book of the genealogy of Yeshua Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham."

[00:13:35]If you didn't understand the scriptures, you're not You know what I mean? Like, why would they say Why would he say David and Abraham? Because they already knew exactly who they were.

[00:13:48]And that's really significant. It's more significant than we realize. Matthew begins by connecting the Messiah to David and Abraham.

[00:13:58]But if someone has never read Genesis or 2 Samuel, you won't know why Matthew chose to start his gospel by using two very specific people to connect our Messiah to.

[00:14:13]Because it is directly tied to the covenants the Most High made to both of these individuals.

[00:14:21]And then Matthew immediately starts quoting the prophets.

[00:14:25]He says things like, "This was done so that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet."

[00:14:33]over and over again.

[00:14:35]Matthew assumes the reader already knows the prophets.

[00:14:40]This This same thing happens throughout the gospels.

[00:14:44]When John the Baptist appears, people immediately recognize the significance of what he's doing.

[00:14:52]Why?

[00:14:53]Because the prophets had already spoken about a voice crying out in the wilderness. When Yeshua speaks about the kingdom of the Most High, the crowds understand the language because the prophets had already described that kingdom.

[00:15:08]Even Messiah himself constantly appeals back to the earlier scriptures. He says things like, "Have you not read? It is written. Moses wrote about me." And I mean, after his resurrection, the Messiah explained who he was with the Old Testament.

[00:15:27]You can read that Luke 24:27, we just talked about, and Luke 24:44-45.

[00:15:34]That means the Gospels are not the beginning of the story.

[00:15:38]So, why are we starting there?

[00:15:40]Because they are actually the continuation of a much older, but but relevant story that begins in Genesis and unfolds through the Torah and the prophets and the writings, Psalms, Proverbs.

[00:15:54]And this unfolding story reached a climax point the first time he came.

[00:16:02]So, to start learning about who he is by starting at that climax point and not the beginning is is pretty much the same thing as picking up a book and starting in the middle of it.

[00:16:14]You can see what's happening. You can read what's happening, but you risk not understanding why it's happening.

[00:16:23]If someone starts reading the Gospels without that foundation, they can easily miss what the authors are actually saying.

[00:16:33]And on this season of my podcast, that's exactly what we're trying to do.

[00:16:40]That's exactly what I'm trying to do.

[00:16:42]Go back and as best as I can with the grace that he has given me, is just attempt to just slow down, be careful, be diligent, and lay the foundation. Instead of starting in the middle, we're we're constantly returning to the beginning in Genesis and working through the scriptures that came first.

[00:17:06]Because the Gospel message did not appear out of nowhere.

[00:17:12]Okay? It was built on It was built on promises and covenants.

[00:17:19]And we see these patterns when we truly study that were established long before the Messiah was born.

[00:17:28]By understanding those foundations in Genesis and the rest of the scriptures, the message of the gospel begins to make much more sense.

[00:17:37]And we can see the Messiah in the way the authors of the New Testament expected their readers to see him.

[00:17:45]We are intentionally focusing on how our Messiah is weaved into every thread of the scriptures, not just a couple prophecies.

[00:17:55]Every thread. How he is woven into the entire story because that's what Paul did. That's what Messiah did. And that's what his disciples did. I hope that's encouragement to you. Shalom to you. And until next time, y'all bless you.