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The Bible.
Is the God of the Bible, the Creator?
Is the Bible, reliable? Can we trust the Bible?
Is it truly God-inspired? How do you know it came from God?
Those are some of the common questions asked about the Bible. This thread aims to give answers to those questions (and maybe more).
But first, some basic facts about the Bible:
The Bible is the best-selling book of all time.
It is also the most scrutinized book that’s ever written. Scrutiny comes not only from Christians cementing their faith or skeptics seeking truth, but most intense scrutiny comes from those with hostile intentions.
It's very much relevant, even today.
As explained from the Living Truth, by Pastor Charles Price......(page no longer found):
The Bible is written by over forty authors from every walk of life.
There are kings writing in this book. There are military leaders, and there are peasants, there are philosophers, there are fishermen, there are tax collectors, there are poets, there are musicians, there's a harpist, and a drummer. A drummer wrote two psalms. His name was Asaph. There are scholars who write this book, there are shepherds who write this book, and there was a cowman who wrote part of this book. His job was looking after cattle. This has come from a huge variety of human sources.
It was written over a period of at least fifteen hundred years. That means if the last book was being written now, the first book would have been written in the closing days of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire finally was disbanded in 476 A.D. That's just over fifteen hundred years ago. That's a huge time span. During that fifteen hundred years, cultures changed, outlooks changed.
It was written in three completely different languages: Hebrew and Greek are the primary languages, but parts of the Old Testament are written in Aramaic, which also would have been the mother tongue of Jesus, so the original speaking of Jesus would have been in Aramaic, though written in Greek, which had become the international language. That was the legacy of the Greek Empire was they left an international language, a bit like the way the British Empire left English as a kind of language of international communication. Well, the Greeks did that; that's why its written in Greek, but Aramaic is the origin and some of the Old Testament Scriptures parts of Ezra in particular, parts of Daniel, and the language of Jesus.
It was written in numerous styles; in fact, almost every literary style you'll probably find in this book.
There's history, there's poetry, and songs, there is law, there is biography, there is autobiography, there is prophecy, there is parable, there is allegory, and idioms and other figures of speech...... and probably other things that I haven't thought of.
It was written on three continents in a day when people didn't travel very much: Asia, Europe, and a little bit of it was written in Africa, Jeremiah down in Egypt.
It was written in scores of situations. Moses wrote part of it in the wilderness. Jeremiah and Paul both wrote in prison. David wrote some of his psalms up on the hillside; Solomon in his luxurious palace; Ezekiel in exile, sitting down by the rivers of Babylon; John exiled to the isle of Patmos as an old man; Mark back at home in Jerusalem; Paul on the road, busy but writing as he traveled; and Peter writing his epistles facing persecutions.
It deals with dozens of controversial subjects like. Who is God? That's a controversial subject.
What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of life? It deals with things like authority and law. These are controversial issues.
And there are hundreds of hot topics that it covers: marriage for instance, and divorce, sexuality, parenting, truth, lies, attitudes to wealth, attitudes to poverty, attitudes to the needy. It deals with things like sin and judgement, and heaven and hell.
The Bible's full of controversial issues, and yet despite the breadth of authors, the huge period of time over which it was written, there is an amazing unity and harmony that runs all the way through. Because in spite of its diversity, the Bible presents one single, unfolding story. Its the story of creation, the fall of man, the redemption of man, and the future restoration back to what God intended everything to be.
To quote John Milton, Genesis is about paradise lost, and Revelation about paradise regained. And everything in between, including the need, the means, and the results of being restored to what God intended. In the early part of Genesis, the gate to the tree of life is closed, and in the end of Revelation, the gate to the tree of life is opened again. One continuous story.
Now if you tried to put that together humanly, with a very smart editor, though no editor survives fifteen hundred years....you wouldn't get this kind of unity and harmony.
Is the God of the Bible, the Creator?
Is the Bible, reliable? Can we trust the Bible?
Is it truly God-inspired? How do you know it came from God?
Those are some of the common questions asked about the Bible. This thread aims to give answers to those questions (and maybe more).
But first, some basic facts about the Bible:
The Bible is the best-selling book of all time.
It is also the most scrutinized book that’s ever written. Scrutiny comes not only from Christians cementing their faith or skeptics seeking truth, but most intense scrutiny comes from those with hostile intentions.
It's very much relevant, even today.
As explained from the Living Truth, by Pastor Charles Price......(page no longer found):
The Bible is written by over forty authors from every walk of life.
There are kings writing in this book. There are military leaders, and there are peasants, there are philosophers, there are fishermen, there are tax collectors, there are poets, there are musicians, there's a harpist, and a drummer. A drummer wrote two psalms. His name was Asaph. There are scholars who write this book, there are shepherds who write this book, and there was a cowman who wrote part of this book. His job was looking after cattle. This has come from a huge variety of human sources.
It was written over a period of at least fifteen hundred years. That means if the last book was being written now, the first book would have been written in the closing days of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire finally was disbanded in 476 A.D. That's just over fifteen hundred years ago. That's a huge time span. During that fifteen hundred years, cultures changed, outlooks changed.
It was written in three completely different languages: Hebrew and Greek are the primary languages, but parts of the Old Testament are written in Aramaic, which also would have been the mother tongue of Jesus, so the original speaking of Jesus would have been in Aramaic, though written in Greek, which had become the international language. That was the legacy of the Greek Empire was they left an international language, a bit like the way the British Empire left English as a kind of language of international communication. Well, the Greeks did that; that's why its written in Greek, but Aramaic is the origin and some of the Old Testament Scriptures parts of Ezra in particular, parts of Daniel, and the language of Jesus.
It was written in numerous styles; in fact, almost every literary style you'll probably find in this book.
There's history, there's poetry, and songs, there is law, there is biography, there is autobiography, there is prophecy, there is parable, there is allegory, and idioms and other figures of speech...... and probably other things that I haven't thought of.
It was written on three continents in a day when people didn't travel very much: Asia, Europe, and a little bit of it was written in Africa, Jeremiah down in Egypt.
It was written in scores of situations. Moses wrote part of it in the wilderness. Jeremiah and Paul both wrote in prison. David wrote some of his psalms up on the hillside; Solomon in his luxurious palace; Ezekiel in exile, sitting down by the rivers of Babylon; John exiled to the isle of Patmos as an old man; Mark back at home in Jerusalem; Paul on the road, busy but writing as he traveled; and Peter writing his epistles facing persecutions.
It deals with dozens of controversial subjects like. Who is God? That's a controversial subject.
What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of life? It deals with things like authority and law. These are controversial issues.
And there are hundreds of hot topics that it covers: marriage for instance, and divorce, sexuality, parenting, truth, lies, attitudes to wealth, attitudes to poverty, attitudes to the needy. It deals with things like sin and judgement, and heaven and hell.
The Bible's full of controversial issues, and yet despite the breadth of authors, the huge period of time over which it was written, there is an amazing unity and harmony that runs all the way through. Because in spite of its diversity, the Bible presents one single, unfolding story. Its the story of creation, the fall of man, the redemption of man, and the future restoration back to what God intended everything to be.
To quote John Milton, Genesis is about paradise lost, and Revelation about paradise regained. And everything in between, including the need, the means, and the results of being restored to what God intended. In the early part of Genesis, the gate to the tree of life is closed, and in the end of Revelation, the gate to the tree of life is opened again. One continuous story.
Now if you tried to put that together humanly, with a very smart editor, though no editor survives fifteen hundred years....you wouldn't get this kind of unity and harmony.
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