I was in Saudi Arabia few years ago and stayed at a quaint old guest house rented by missionaries. They had hired a Saudi believer (I’ll call him Khalid) to manage things. We spent time with him trying to understand the work they were doing there.

In the middle of our conversation he pulled me aside and showed me pictures on his phone of a “rest house” he had visited. Rest houses are luxurious residential properties you can rent for a day for your family and friends to barbecue and enjoy the pool with their kids. I’m like “that’s nice” and then get back to asking more questions about their ministry.

Later, I heard from another Saudi believer that Khalid didn’t think the guest house would ever work for Saudis. They grew up wealthy, with maids and drivers; they had never been in such a run-down place. He was trying to tell me that if they met at a rest house instead, he could start a church in no time.

I had completely missed what he was saying. As a Westerner, I started the conversation with what I wanted to know and ended it by summarizing what I learned. But as an Easterner, he embedded his most important idea as a story in the middle—and expected me to pick up on it.

The Bible through a Western Lens

Hundreds of years after the Bible was written, Greek influence shaped how people structured arguments—framing everything as a problem in need of a solution.

Reading the Bible in a linear Western framework naturally makes sin the problem, Jesus the solution, and heaven the goal. Because the main point always comes at the end, right?

1. God made us to be with Him
2. Sin separated us from God
3. Jesus came to save us
4. The church spreads the good news
5. Our reward is heaven

The Bible as the Early Church Understood It

The first century Jews were used to seeing things in chiasms, where the main point is in the center and the surrounding points mirror each other to draw more emphasis to the middle (ABCBA). Much of the Bible is written this way. An Easterner might naturally see the Bible like this:

• A) God made us to reign with Him
• B) Sin entered and the nations rebelled
• C) Jesus became King, dethroning the powers
• B) The church calls nations back to God
• A) Jesus reigns with us in the New Creation

In this view, Jesus is not just a solution to our sin problem so we can get to heaven, the whole story revolves around him being King. Jesus isn’t a chapter in the story. He is the whole point.