Posted on November 17, 2025

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For 19 years, I was a preacher. I read the Bible almost every day. I taught it, quoted it, built sermons around it. But here's the truth: I wasn't really reading it. I was reading what I'd been taught to see. Then I had a falling out with my local church pastor. One week, I was singing "Amazing Grace." The next week, I wasn't even allowed in His building. They damned my soul without hesitation.

As a malignant cancer survivor, I know what it means to fight for your life. But this was different—this was a fight for my soul. I decided very quickly to reread the Bible with a different set of eyes and a different heart. I needed to determine for myself if organized religion was correct in its damnation.

What I discovered changed everything. Organized religion was not even close to being able to defend its damning position against me. The Bible didn't support what they were teaching. In fact, when I studied scripture without the filter of institutional dogma, I found truths that completely contradicted what I'd been told for two decades. If you want to study the Bible for yourself—really study it, not just confirm what you've been taught—here's how to do it.

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Start By Admitting What You've Been Taught

You can't read without bias until you acknowledge the bias you already have. Every single one of us comes to scripture with preconceptions. I certainly did. For 19 years, I taught what I'd been taught. I interpreted verses the way my denomination interpreted them. I saw what I expected to see.

The first step is honest recognition: you've been taught to read the Bible a certain way. Your church has given you interpretations. Your pastor has told you what verses mean. Your tradition has shaped how you understand scripture before you even open the book. Write it down if you need to. What have you been taught about key biblical topics? What interpretations have you accepted without question? What scriptures have been used to control or condemn you or others? I had to face the fact that many of my beliefs weren't based on what scripture actually said—they were based on what organized religion told me it said. That's not the same thing. Once I admitted that, I could finally start reading with a different set of eyes and a different heart.

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Read Scripture, Not Commentary

Here's one of the biggest problems with how organized religion teaches the Bible: they never let you just read it. Everything comes with commentary, interpretation, explanation. The pastor tells you what it means before you have a chance to understand it yourself. When I went back to scripture after being kicked out of church, I did something radical: I read the actual text. Not study Bible notes. Not denominational guides. Not what scholars said it meant. Just the words on the page.

This is harder than it sounds. We're trained to need someone to explain scripture to us. We're told the Bible is too complex, too ancient, too nuanced for regular people to understand without guidance. That's a lie designed to keep you dependent on the institution. Yes, context matters. Yes, understanding the original language can help. But you know what matters more? Reading what's actually written without someone immediately telling you what you're supposed to think about it. Try this: pick a passage you think you know well. Read it three times without looking at any commentary. What does it actually say? Not what you've been told it says—what do the words themselves communicate? You might be surprised.

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Question Everything You Have Been Taught

When I started studying scripture with a different heart, I gave myself permission to question everything. And I mean everything. All those "simple and exact beliefs" that organized religion holds—about the apple, the whale, the three wise men at Jesus' birth, why Noah was chosen to repopulate the earth after the flood—I questioned all of it. I asked: Does the Bible actually say this? Or is this what tradition added later?

I questioned the treatment of women in scripture and how churches justify it. I questioned the verses used to condemn homosexuals. I questioned the doctrines about slaves that organized religion conveniently ignores or reinterprets. And here's what I found: when you actually read scripture without the filter of institutional interpretation, major doctrines fall apart. I discovered that Eve NEVER sinned in the Garden of Eden. I found the biblical fact that Jesus CANNOT be the Messiah. I learned about events organized religion barely mentions, like angels having sex with Eve's daughters or the real possible origin of the Antichrist's number 666.

Organized religion doesn't want you asking these questions because the answers threaten their control. They've built entire systems of belief on interpretations that can't withstand basic scrutiny. When you question them, the whole structure starts to crack. That's exactly why you should question them.

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Be Willing to Find Answers You Do Not Expect

This is the hardest part. When you study the Bible without religious bias, you have to be prepared to discover that what you've been taught is wrong. Not just slightly off—completely wrong. I thought I knew scripture after 19 years of preaching. I was certain of my beliefs. But when I studied without the bias of organized religion, I taught them scriptures that contradicted their own positions. I found truths they'd never shown me, either because they didn't know them or because those truths didn't serve their agenda.

In the process, I recaptured my soul. That's not an exaggeration. When you realize that the condemnation you've been living under isn't based on scripture but on manipulation, something profound happens. The weight lifts. The fear loses its power. I created a little study guide to help myself fend off the relentless attacks on my soul by mean-spirited and intolerant Christians. I wrote down what I was finding in scripture—the real scripture, not the interpreted version. That study guide grew into Disorganized Christianity.

We converted non-Christians now see the real darkness of organized religion's dogma, and we are no longer bound by its condemnation. When you study scripture honestly, you discover that much of what passes for biblical teaching is actually institutional control dressed up in religious language.

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Trust What You Find

The goal isn't to stop believing. The goal is to believe based on what scripture actually says rather than what organized religion tells you it says. When you study the Bible without religious bias, you're not abandoning faith—you're finding it. I'm not telling you what to believe. I'm telling you that you have the right and the ability to read scripture for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Organized religion wants you to think you need them to understand the Bible. You don't.

Read it yourself. Question what you've been taught. Look for what's actually written, not what you've been told is there. Be willing to discover uncomfortable truths. And trust that your soul doesn't need an institution's approval to be valid. That's how you study the Bible without religious bias. That's how you find freedom.

If you're ready to start questioning what you've been taught, or if you want to know more about what I discovered in scripture, reach out to me via email. Let's talk about finding truth together.