(Ver 1.3)  This Part 1 in a series of lessons on modern computer concepts that are found in the Bible.  If I learned anything from being a computer programmer for over 20 years, I learned that everything in this life has very strict rules or it is useless. In this life you do not get to do everything that you can do just because you can do them.  You do not get to drive on any side of the street that you want to.  You do not get to drive through any intersection as fast as you want to when you want to.  You do not get to do many things because rules exist to keep you from hurting yourself and others.   This is the basis of the majority of the problems in this world today. The problems of the world are caused by people who do stuff to other people just because they have the ability or power to do them. It comes from a self-centered ME mentality! The world is all about ME! What I need, what I want, what feels good to ME! People then use their attitudes of Me to take what they need or want from others without thinking about what they are doing to the ones that they are hurting. If everyone takes this attitude, then only the strongest survive to live. This attitude of ME is a self-centered absence of the feelings of the God kind of “LOVE” for anyone else. As long as people care more about themselves than they do about others, they will remain apart from the life of God. Today I want to talk about a computer programming concept called “Rules Based Systems” in relationship to what God and the Bible say about the concepts of them or the absence from them. Why are rules important to live by? Why do rules exist? The Bible is a highly complex book of spiritual information and it cannot be interpreted correctly without knowing God’s rules for interpretation. I’ll start by giving you a definition of this term from the internet:

rule-based systems are used as a way to store and manipulate knowledge to interpret information in a useful way.

I believe that God taught me about rules based systems as I learned computer programming.  A rules based system is one that adheres to a strict set of laws in order to work correctly.  When I first started learning computer programming in High School, I started with the Basic programming language.  I also played with another early computer language called FORTRAN.  Then I started working for a company and going to night school to learn mainframe programming.  I learned Mainframe Assembler and COBOL and became an expert in both of these languages.  This was of course way before there were any PC’s in the world.  What I learned from programming languages, is that they have very strict rules that must be followed, or guess what they do not work.  You create your program and then compile your program and get nothing but a long list of errors back.  This is not fun, when this happens, but it happened a lot until I learned to follow the rules more closely.  As I became more detailed oriented, I learned to pay attention to the little things that use to be where I made most of my mistakes.  I would just automatically learn to look for them and try not to repeat them.  I do not think that I ever got so good that I wrote a new program that complied cleanly the first time, but I did get much better.  So why am I describing my work experience to you?  Because it helps me more with Bible interpretation and understanding the Bible that you can imagine.

Did you notice two key words in the definition of what a rules based system was?  The two key words are “knowledge” and the “interpretation” of the knowledge.  A rules based system helps us to process vast amounts of information and then come up with the correct interpretations of that information.  So what is the Bible?  The Bible is the Spiritual knowledge of God written down in a book for us to read.  However, the Bible is widely interpreted in many different ways resulting in contrasting and conflicting points of view.  That is probably the major problem in the church today.  Everybody has their own opinion to what the Bible means.  Why is that?  It is because of a complete disregard to the rules of Bible interpretation.  Some people know one rule and they sometimes follow it and then sometimes they do not.  They are very inconsistent.  Other people know of no rules and they are all over the board with their interpretations.  Only a few know more than one rule to Bible Interpretation and try to adhere to them consistently.

While I read and studied the Bible, I started to recognize patterns of a rules based system.  Since God does not give us a list of the rules in any one place in the Bible, the correct understanding of the Bible must start with figuring out what are the rules that God has established for us to follow.  You see I know that every computer language has their own individual set of rules to follow.  However, I also learned that many of these rules cross languages and apply to other languages.  Even though each language was uniquely defined, the application of the rules applied across the board.  So in order to even begin to understand the Bible, you must first establish God’s rules for interpretation and not your rules.  This is the first step of understanding God and the Bible.

Do you realize that God follows the rules that He has established?  That is the beauties of God; He is a highly intelligent being.  His ability is so far beyond our most powerful computer.    I see the world around us and I recognize an intelligently designed world full of natural laws, systems and sub-systems.   This is the basis of any large complex computer programming system also.  Anything with an intelligent design has organization and rules.  So why do people not recognize that the Bible is also an intelligently designed rules based system?  Obviously they do not understand the importance of rules and following them.  If you are a Christian you should be following rules in everything that you do.  Following rules does not save you; it just helps you live the life that God intended for you on this earth.  Christians who do not follow rules are no different than unsaved people who rob banks because they want money or rape women because it feels good to them.  I know that is an extreme examples of bad Bible interpretations, but yet I feel that strongly about the subject.  I do not mean to reduce rape and robbery to minor offenses, I hope you understand the point and forgive the analogy.

So what ire my main points today?

1. Start by Recognizing that the Bible is a Rules Based System.
2. Then find out what the rules are!
3. Next follow the rules with all diligence!

When I was computer operator, on the top of our mainframe CPU, there was a big sign that said “THINK”.  Wow, if more people would do that one word!  To think before you act or speak is a widely ignored talent of many people in the world today.  I have many blogs on the subject of Bible Interpretation, I hope you that you will go and read them and then learn to follow them.  Life is a rules based system of existence.  This is the intelligent design of God.  If you learn the rules and follow them there will be great benefits to being a doer of the word of God and not just a hearer only.  By learning the rules and following rules I believe that the Body of Christ will finally come into agreement to what the Bible says.  So I challenge you today to apply what you’ve read today.  By learning rules and living within their guidelines you make the Bible useful as God had intended it to be.  You take the words of an intelligent God and you can finally begin to understand them.  There is no greater benefit than knowing the real God.

If you would like to continue reading in this series you may go to “Part 2” now.