If people today say "to get closer to God you have to pray and read the bible daily"?

Question

If people today say "to get closer to God you have to pray and read the bible daily"......
what did people do BEFORE the bible was written to get closer to God? Wouldn't that still apply to our lives today also, since "God never changes"?

I would like it if I got some serious answers....from a christian preferably. Ty...

Answer 1

Before they had prophets, God used his angels to communicate etc. And if you want to get close to someone, how can you if you refuse to get to know them? Their personality, their name? How can you get to know someone if you don't talk to them? Some persons say that when they pray they don't see the point, but God does listen very attentively. In little ways, I see his influence on my everyday life.
Moses wrote the first books of the bible because the Nation of Abraham was just beginning. He tried to talk to them at Mt Sina, but the people were too afraid, and asked Moses to talk to him for them. So God, lovingly, had humans write his word down for them.

Answer 2

Before the bible Jesus walk this earth, they just talk to him like an open bible or seeked advise of from other christians.
Reading the bible doesn't mean you will get closer to God it's only truth. You need to ask God what the meaning is in the truth by giving you wisdom. Talk to him just as they did before and read/pray about what you read in the bible learn how God thinks and tell him you want a higher level relationship with him.

Answer 3

Praying and reading the Bible is one of the ways to get closer to God. Before the Bible was written, God stayed and watched the people (still does). He had messengers (prophets) tell the people who God was.

Answer 4

People didn't have that luxury. Of course, they went to hell, before being saved by Jesus, just after death and before His ascension.
Today, I consider myself blessed. I don't read the bible as much as I should, but I find when I do, and when I pray regularly, my life is better. I am more focused. I am a better husband, a better father, and an all around better person. I feel true joy, more than I could ever feel when I would be indulging in self-gratifying, sinful behavior.
Life is awesome when I am closer to God. Never in my teen years or early twenties would I have imagined myself saying that. Hope I helped!

Answer 5

Many people have been close to God even before the printing press and before they could read the Bible too. And as you say, before it was written. If you want to know God do this: Go into the stillness of the forest, of nature. Sit, walk, listen. I think that ancient peoples were must closer to God, and it was much easier for them than for us. Our lives are too filled with noise and busy activity that mean nothing. As Thomas Merton says "God is alive in all of the silences of the world". He has some good thoughts about this in his book "No Man is an Island". I highly recommend reading it.

Answer 6

i might not apply to today, there are a lot of things in the bible, we just wouldnt do today. But, i think reading the bible or praying is a great way to become closer to god. i am not sure what they use to do before the bible was written, but i am sure they talked to god

Answer 7

I think what many people think about getting closer to God is reading to understand him. Going to church so some one can interpret the words so you can understand what you’re reading.
I have been told all my life that it was a man who wrote the bible by Gods hand. God leading them and guiding there hand.
I just don’t agree that everything in the bible is what God wanted us to know. To me the bible is full of history stories and then something about the future that every one has tried to interpret but no one really understands.
There are many bibles many religions, which one is right? Who is the most holy? Who will go to heaven?
There have been so many wars in history over religion. Between catholic, protestant, Jews, and that is just the beginning.
I honestly don’t think that reading A bible will help you to understand God.
If you really want to be closer to him then just pray and ask for guidance to understand him. Try to go where that takes you.
I don't think that any God ever wanted the lies destruction and violence mankind has shown. In most cases in the name of God. Being spiritual and reading up on many different religions has helped me to understand and be closer to God.
Things have gotten so bad in this world today and most religions have helped no one. They prey on the sick and elderly asking for money they don’t have to give. Many will say you have to give like you have to pay your way into heaven. Many cannot afford there own prescriptions.
Heaven help them all.

Answer 8

Good question Anne,
I've been a Christian for 11 years now, and I think that it is true that you get closer to God by both praying and reading the bible, but those are not by any means the only two ways. The most important part is to ask yourself whether or not you have a RELATIONSHIP with God. And by a relationship with God I mean have you entrusted your eternity to Him?
Ask yourself the following questions:
1) Have you ever lied?
if the answer is yes, what does that make you?
That's right a liar.
2) Have you ever looked lustfully at another human being?
if the answer is yes, Jesus tells us that if we have ever looked lustfully at another, we have committed adultery at heart, so what does that make us?
An adulterer
3)Have you ever hated someone?
if the answer is yes, the bible also tells us that God equates hatred to murder, therefore if you answered yes that make you also a murderer.

So by your own admission your a lying, adulterous murdered and let me ask you if you where to die tonight, according to God's standards do you think you would go to heaven or hell?

If your answer is hell, well your right.. So what are we to do?
How do we get closer to God?

The answer is Jesus. Jesus died for this exact reason, in order to make a way for humanity (because every single person in this world is a lying, adulterous murdered) to be accepted by a holy God into His eternal presence. There is no one in the whole world who can just die and go to heaven, just out of their own goodness. Now I ask you to take time and "Get Closer to God" by asking Jesus into your life and accepting that His death is sufficient in God's eyes to make you clean and take your sins away. Make God bless you and remember the Christian walk will get hard a times but when you trust God it will be easier to bear and trust me this decision will be the best one you will ever make. See you in heaven.

Answer 9

Reading the Bible is simply a way to learn more about God. In times of reduced literacy, this would have involved listening to scripture being read and/or listening to teachers on the same subject. Learning about him and developing a personal relationship has not changed. The difference is that we can now relate to him with less assistance.

Answer 10

The Catholic Church has always relied on the Mass and the Sacraments to bring God and man into close communion.

These predate the Bible by several hundred years, and unlike the Bible, were all instituted by Christ himself.