Topic: D) THE BIBLE
No 1
(Its Divine Purpose)
God is a supreme being and we cannot
communicate with Him face to face. He is
a consuming fire and He created everything for a reason; His glory. Therefore, if we want to have a relationship
with Him, He must be the one to reveal Himself to us. Also, if we want to know
how He is and what are His commandementsare, again, He must be the One to
initiate the relationship. The Bible was
created for this reason and we are imperfect beings trying to comprehend a perfect
Bible. Again, God provided a way for us
to understand: The Holy Spirit. This
holy book has passed the ages and is still just as pertinent as ever. Don't you
think that a whole bunch of people rtied to destroy this book. The Bible is the Word of God. It is unchangeable and without contradiction;
it will never be destroyed.
No 2
(Allegorical or Literal Interpretation)
Interpretation (hermeneutics) of the Bible has been a
controversial subject for centuries.
Some believers say that the Bible must not be taken literally but that
it must be taken allegorically, that is to say, spiritually. In other words,
the terms used in the Bible are not literal events or occurances but just
symbolic representations. An example is the account of Adam and Eve. Those who hold the allegorical interpretation
say that this was not actual disobedience by Adam and Eve but just a figurative
expression of man's experience. There
are many examples of this that have grabbed the attention of Christians for
years and, sometimes, to the detriment
of the Body of Christ.
The Bible must be taken literally and in its actual context; but
you say, there are symbols in the Bible that were meant to be taken
figuratively. Good; use them. But then you say, how do we know when to
interpretate literally or allegorically?
Good question!!
Through the centuries, scholars have found that if the literal
interpretation makes sense, don't look any further; otherwise it will be
nonsense. Let me explain.
1) In Revelation 8 verse7 the Bible says that
an angel sounded his trumpet and hail and fire mingled with blood fell to the
earth; this is not a symbol! It will be
just as the Bible says: hail and fire mingled with blood; remember Moses'
plagues to
2) Now let us look at one of the horses in
Revelation; the white one. In chapter 6
verse 2 the Bible says that the white horse had on it a rider who was given a
crown and had a bow and went out conquering and to conquer. This is not a literal horse but a symbol of
Antichrist riding on a sort of system where he will conquer the world. The bow in his hand is definitely a symbol of
war but the absence of arrows indicates that he will conquer peacefully.
Interpretation of the Bible is not something to be taken lightly;
that is why the Lord gave us the Holy Spirit to enlighten us. He also gave us our intelligence, our wills
and our emotions. Let us put them to
good use and to the Glory of His name.
No 3
(Its writers)
The Bible is not a book that contains the Word of God; it is the
Word of God!! The Creator wanted His
people and the people of the world to know His laws and His promises. The writers that God used are so vast in
comparision and so diverse that only a divine miracle could have brought these
66 books together. We don't have time to
look at each writer in detail and I leave that up to you for your own study but
we can say, that in most cases, the writers did not know what the others were
writing and the writers were simply doing what God had instructed them to do
and they had no idea that those scrolls would become the Bible we have
today.
As we know, Moses is the largest contributor to the Old
Testamant (The Pentatuch and some Psalms); Paul is the largest contributor to
the New Testament (13 Epistles). Isn't
great that the two largest contributors to the Bible have so many things in
common; I guess the Lord knew what He was doing.
1) Both had humbling desert experiences: Moses 40 years as a
shepherd in the land of Midian and Paul 3 years in the desert of Arabia (Gal
1:18) 2) Both had a thorn in the
flesh: Moses had a stuttering problem
Exod 4:10 and Paul had an afflication that he asked God three to remove (2 Cor
12:7-10); 3) Both had received formal
education and training : Moses in the courts
of Egypt and Paul at the feet of Gameliel (Acts 22:3); 4) Both wrote the two
main outreaches the God had made to His people:
Moses spoke of the Law of God and Paul spoke of the Grace of God.
The Lord preserved His Word over the ages and is still as true
as ever: can you imagine how many people tried to destroy it since its
inception; it boggles the mind!! Isn't
our God awesome??!!
No 4
(Its inspiration and inerrancy)
The Bible is probably the most controversial book in the whole
world. Many have lost their lives
because of it; many have been persecuted because of it and many have even tried
to destroy it. I wouldn't be surprised
that right at this moment in time someone somewhere is trying to prove the Bible
wrong or to discredit it. But as the
Lord Himself said in Matthew 5:18 - "For
verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall
in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."
It was God Himself who inspired the many writers and who
preserved His word all through the centuries.
The Bible says in 2 Peter 1:20, 21
- "Knowing this first, that
no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the
will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost."
Some have said that the Bible contains errors of dates and
events and that the reigns of certain kings are inaccurate. Every supposed error has been proven wrong;
the Bible contains no errors whatsoever. Once
there was a man who was given a challenge by an associate to try
to prove that the Bible is wrong and has many errors. This man was rich and set out to the task and
did so for ten long years. He went through
archeological findings, read manuscripts, looked at ruins in the various cities
of the Bible, questioned people about their cultural habits, etc, etc,
etc. When he had finished his work, he
came to the conclusion that not only is the Bible accurate to each and every
detail but it also has the power to save someone from eternal damnation. This man accepted Jesus Christ as his
personal Savior and began wondering what he could do with all the documents and
information he had accumulated over the years.
The Lord put to his heart to write about all this and he went on to
write the story of Ben-Hur.
No 5
(The many versions : Which one is the right one??)
Isn’t ironic how humans tend to complicate matters? When it comes to Bible versions; there are
hundreds of them in hundreds of different languages. Some have left this verse out; some have left
that verse out; and still even others have used different words to say
basically the same thing as the other version; you know what I mean. At first glance at all this we tend to ask
the question above : Which one is the right one?? The answer is simple : They are all the
right one because God wrote only one version and it is not the King James or
the Louis Second, etc. It is the one
that He gave to his inspired authors.
Peter best describes it in 2 Peter
Jesus said that : “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one
tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” Matt
I say all this to say that whether there be thousands of
different versions of the Bible; that’s not important!! What is important is that God knows what He
is doing and His word is true. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10 :13. Now that’s a promise!!
No 6
(Human Language)
The origin of human language
- the ability of men and women to
communication with one another in intelligent, symbolic, often abstract speech
and writing is a complete mystery. The
World Book Encyclopedia states, “No
one knows how language began because all people who are not disabled have the
ability to speak; language has probably existed as long the human species”
(Vol 12 p. 65). “No languageless community has ever been found” - Atlas of
Languages,
No 7
(Those boring genealogies)
In Genesis we read : “Joktan
begat Alomdod ”. In Exodus we
read : “And the sons of Korah :
Assir and Elkanah”. In the book of
Numbers, it’s even worse; whole chapters are dedicated to genealogies : “of the tribe of this , of the tribe of
that”. The New Testament isn’t any
better; Matthew and Luke have lists of : “the son of this person, the son of that person”, anyway, you
know what I’m taking about. When we
first read the Bible and we see all these genealogies, two words came to
mind : “Who cares??”. I can tell you of someone who cares :
the Lord Himself; because why else would He have put them there in the first
place? So then you say, “ok, what
purpose do they serve?” Watch
this : the Messiah was promised to Israel through Abraham (Gen
17 :5), further in the Bible, it says that the Messiah will be a
descendant of Isaac (Gen 21 :3), then a descendant of Jacob (Israel – Gen
32 :28) , then a descendant of Judah (Gen 49 :10), of the family of
David (1 Sam 16 :13) (both Mary and Joseph were of the family of David –
see the gospels of Matthew & Luke).
So you still say : OK, what does it all mean? Just this : the records of all the
tribes and all the descendants of these tribes were kept judiciously in the
temple by the Scribes and Pharisees. So
when Jesus was born , they were able to verify the validity of this One born in
a manger in the town of
No 8
(Its history and its historical
accuracy)
Many hundreds, if not thousands of
volumes have been written on the history of the Bible and needless to say, I won’t attempt to get into any specifics
here, but I will say this: The Bible has
passed the test of the ages and has never been contradicted by secular history;
in fact, the chronology of the Bible matches secular history perfectly. The Bible is not a history book, but it
contains history. The writers of the Bible had not intended it to be a history
book because they were just recording events that were transpiring before their
eyes and their main goal was to pass on their beliefs in God to future
generations. Men such as Moses, David,
Daniel or Paul had no idea that their letters and writings would go on to be
the Bible as we know it today. God knew
exactly what He was doing and used men to record events that would impact
generations of believers to come. The
Bible says in 2 Peter
No 9
(The Principle of First Appearance in the book of Genesis)
The Bible begins at the dawn of civilization and records man’s
first experiences. These experiences
were to set the pace for all the generations that would follow. Here are some of the first appearances we
come across in the Bible : Creation – 1
: 1; darkness – 1 : 2; light – 1 : 3; speaking – 1 : 3; good – 1 : 4;
day – 1 : 5; blessing – 1 :
22; man – 1 : 26; work – 2 : 2;
rest – 2 : 2; the soul – 2 : 7; life – 2 : 7; food – 2 : 9; evil – 2 : 9;
death – 2 : 17; woman – 2 ; 22; temptation – 3 : 1; sin – 3 : 6;
nudity – 3 : 7; clothes – 3 :
7; fear – 3 : 10; curse – 3 : 14; pain – 3 : 16; desire – 3 : 16; eternity – 3 :22; blood – 4 : 10; choice 6 : 2;
the heart – 6 : 5; grace – 6 :
8; covenant – 6 : 18; rain – 7 : 17; faith – 15 : 6; believing – 15 : 6; adoring – 18 : 2; prayer – 20 : 7; love – 22 : 2; obedience – 22 : 18. There are many others, but these are the most
important ones.
No 10
(How to study and explore the Bible)
A true believer will never cease
studying the Bible because it is the mind of God and who can say that they know
the mind of God entirely? Good Bible
study requires time and the right tools. A concordance and dictionary are good
for starters; lexicons and commentaries can come later; what a person really
needs to have a good Bible study is an ardent desire to know and to experience
God. It is good to have a system of
study such as : 1) Thematic study
– a topic such as forgiveness is chosen; the person searches through the Bible
with the aid of a concordance and in no time, one has a good grasp on the
subject. 2) Outline study – a
person can make their own outlines or résumés of each of the books of the
Bible; it is amazing what a person can discover when this type of analysis is
done. 3) Family study – this is
similar to the thematic study; a topic such as obedience that concerns the whole
family is chosen and together, a family can discover what God wants for them in
this area. 4) Book study – an
individual book is chosen and a person can obtain a few commentaries written by
different authors and arrive at a good appreciation of the book. There are several other kinds of studies, but
these are the main ones. I saw a study
once on the number of words in the Bible (807,361); the number of letters in
the Bible (3,566,480); the longest verse in the Bible (Esther 8 : 9); the
middle verse in the Bible (Psalm 118 : 8) etc, etc. When I saw these statistics, two words came
to my mind : Who cares? This is not
Bible study; it is the work of someone who had a lot of time on his or her
hands. The Apostle John in his gospel
(John
No 11
(The
Jewish bible)
The
Jewish bible contains the 39 books of the Old Testament and is almost identical
to the Christian Old Testament except for the order in which the books are
placed. There are four divisions in the
Jewish bible :
-
The Law – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
-
The Prophets – Joshua, Judges, I, II Samuel, I, II Kings, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel
-
The Twelve – Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
-
The Writings – Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes,
Esther, Daniel, Ruth, Nehemiah, I and II Chronicles, Ezra, Lamentations
However,
there are three noteworthy differences in how the Jewish people read the Bible
as compared to Christians.
1) Isaiah 53 is not read – In the front of each Jewish Bible, there is the list of the
Scriptural readings that are done in the synagogues; all of the chapters of
Isaiah are there, except Isaiah 53 for fear that Jesus would be considered as
the subject of the chapter.
2) Isaiah 9 : 5b is unreadable – When we come to Isaiah 9, verse 5b is
transliterated into Hebrew and looks like this: “And His name shall be
called Pele-Joez-El-Gibbor-Abi-ad-sar-shalom”. It is this way to dissuade readers from
believing that the Messiah is God; because the Jews, although they believe in
the Messiah, they don’t believe that He will be God.
3) Daniel is not considered a prophet – The book of Daniel is placed among the “Writings”
undoubtedly because Daniel is considered by many Christian commentators to be
one of the most important prophetic books concerning Jesus Christ in the entire
Bible. The Jewish scholars do not
include it in the “Prophets” probably for that very reason.
Is it
possible to present the Gospel to someone who reads only the Old
Testament? The answer, of course, is yes. The Apostles did it; why can’t we?
No 12
(The Catholic Bible)
As we all know, the Bible has been
translated into hundreds of languages and there are almost as many different
versions; the Catholic Bible is amongst them.
They can be recognized by the words “Nihil Obstat” and “Imprimatur”
that are always written in the front or rear cover. Although very similar to the Protestant
Bible, the Catholic Bible has certain books called “The Apocrypha” in
the Old Testament that have not been considered divinely inspired by the early
church fathers. They are not in the
Protestant Bible or the Jewish Old Testament either. These books are also called the “deuterocanonical”
books and some of them are: Tobit, Judith, 1 & 2 Maccabbees, Wisdom of
Solomon, Baruch and extra chapters in Esther and Daniel. The numbers varies from one version to
another but these are the main ones. It
is in these books that the Catholics find their beliefs of praying for the dead
(2 Machabees 12 : 46) and intercession of dead saints (2 Machabbees 15 : 14).
Of course, there are different versions of the Catholic Bible also; some are:
The New Jerusalem, TOB (The Oecumenical Bible), New American, Ignatius, Douay,
Pierre de Beaumont and the list goes on.
Can a person be saved by reading a Catholic Bible? Absolutely!!
Salvation depends only on what Jesus Christ, the Son of God did on the
cross; only that! If a Roman Catholic
believes that unequivocally, that person is saved. “Jesus saith to him, I am
the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh to the Father but by Me”
(John 14 : 6). “Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10 : 13). These verses are in our bibles; they are also
in the Catholic bibles.
No 13
(Accuracy of prophecies)
The Bible…the book that is most read
ever; no wonder, it is written by God. “For
prophesy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter1:21). The very fact that the Bible is still here is
proof enough for me that it is the Word of God but one of the strongest
defences for its veracity and inerrancy is the fulfillment of prophesy. I mean literally hundreds of prophecies have
come to fruition since its inception.
The odds of having someone write the Bible for some fraudulent religious
reason are so unimaginable that it boggles the mind. For example, we have already looked at the
prophecies that were fulfilled regarding the life of Jesus (Prof Zebulon Vol 1
No 20). Remember the gold coin amongst
all the silver coins all over the province of Quebec. Since the Bible is the Word of God and since
the prophecies that have already been fulfilled are a fact of history, is there
any reason why the ones that are still future for us could not be
fulfilled? I don’t think so….!! The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is the
most eagerly-awaited event of all times and is imminent; it could happen any
time. It could even happen before you finish reading this text. “Be ye therefore ready also for the Son of
man cometh at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:40).
No 14
(Does It Contradict itself?)
Christians who have read the Bible in its entirety, know that it
contains no contradictory statements.
But, we have all probably had someone, somewhere ask us about certain passages
that seem to contradict themselves; maybe we have even experienced this
ourselves. Well, here’s some good news –
there are no contradictions in the
Bible; there are however, contrasts in the Bible. In the book of Ecclesiastes (one of my
favorites), Solomon came to realize that “God has made everything beautiful
in its time” (ch 3:11), but he had just written a bunch of contrasts and he
concluded that it is possible that opposites can be harmonized in the design
and plan of God - “A time to be born,
and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is
planted. A time to kill, and a time to
heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time
to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to
cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and
a time to refrain from embracing. A time
to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to
keep silence, and a time to speak. A
time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”
(Eccl 3 :2-8) These are contrasts, not contradictions; the book of Proverbs has
some also.
No 15
(Science and the Bible)
The Bible is not a book of science but
it contains scientific ideas, theories and truths. Everything that the Bible says about science
is absolutely infallible and for centuries, man has attempted to discredit the
Bible regarding its scientific statements but has always failed to do so. As we
have seen in our studies on creation, the Lord has always been perfect in all
that has been written in the Bible about the origin of man, the origin of the
universe and the origin of life itself.
I would like to look at a few portions of Scripture that are scientific
in nature and have been tested by many agnostics but always been thwarted in
their attempts to disprove them. The
first one is in 1 Corinthians 15:39
where the Bible says: “ All flesh is
not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of
beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.” For centuries, scientists said that this
verse was untrue and that there existed only one kind of flesh. With the advent of modern equipment, the
scientific community have had to admit that there are different kinds of
“flesh”, just as the Bible says. Another
verse concerns the millions of stars that we see in the night sky. This verse is in Hebrews 11:12 “Therefore
sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the
sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.” A long time ago, scientists said that the
stars are not “innumerable as the sand on the seashore” and that there
are a certain number and that’s it! Of
course, when the high-powered telescopes arrived on the scene, they re-stated
their theory and admitted that there are many more stars than they had
originally thought. The Hubbell telescope that is outside the earth’s
atmosphere, has proven beyond any doubt that the stars are “innumerable”. The last biblical/scientific topic that we
will discuss is in the form of a question. What is the binding force of the
atom? Science has progressed exponentially in the last 50 years but still does
not have the answer to this simple question.
An atom is composed of three particles – protons, neutrons and
electrons. Protons are positively
charged, neutrons are neutral and electrons are negatively charged. The electrons
whirl around the nucleus that is made up of protons and neutrons; what keeps
the nucleus from moving out since like elements repel each other and are
attracted to negative particles? We now
know that even these three very basic elements are themselves composed of
particles and are part of a very sophisticated system. What keeps it all together? The answer is found in Colossians 1:17 “And he is before all things, and by him
all things consist.” Our God is an
awesome God.
No 16
(The World’s Greatest Book)
In the late 18th century, Voltaire said
that the Bible and Christianity would disappear within the next 100 years. This could not have possibly happened because
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim 3:16); Voltaire,
of course was an atheist. The Bible has
earned the name of the World’s Greatest Book because it has passed test of
time, it is completely inerrant but most of all, even though it is an ancient
book, it is still applicable to our lives today. Many, many people have tried
to destroy it, to discredit it or to prove that it is incorrect but they have
all been thwarted in their attempts; it is without error in the areas of
science, history and prophecy. The fact
that the Bible is still here is proof enough for me to believe that there is a
sovereign God; no book in history can claim that it has 30 authors, that it
covers a 3500-year period and that it has no contradictions whatsoever. But the thing that amazes me the most about
the Bible is the fact that all these authors had no idea that their writings
would be used as the canon of Scripture.
When David wrote the Psalms, he didn’t know that they were to be used in
our daily lives; he was just writing what was transpiring in his daily
life. When Moses compiled the Genesis
account of creation, he didn’t know that it would be pored over by hundreds of
scientists proving its authenticity. The
four writers of the gospels were just keeping an account of what they were
seeing in the life of Jesus; they didn’t know that the gospels were to be the
first books of the New Testament. When
Paul wrote his many epistles to the early churches, he had no idea that they
would be used today as models for the church (Ephesians) or Christian living
(Galatians) or to rebuke false doctrine (1 & 2 Corinthians). God had overseen all this work of writing and
preserved it in one book – the Bible, the World’s
Greatest Book.
No 17
(Nourishment for our souls)
Have you ever felt tired or weak and
weren’t sure just what the problem was but after having a good meal you felt
much better? Whenever a person says to
me that their spiritual life is weak, he or she invariably lacks spiritual
nourishment. It took me the better part
of 15 years of my Christian life to come to this seemingly obvious conclusion –
I was spiritually under nourished!! I
would have snacks in the Word instead of having feasts; I would hurry up and do
my devotional time with the Lord instead of meditating a verse and applying it
to my life. It happens to all of
us….!
The Bible says in Psalm 119 :
a) “This is my
comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.” (v50
b) “Before I was
afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word” (v67)
c) “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light
unto my path.” (v105)
d) “I rejoice at
thy word, as one that findeth great spoil” (v162)
e) “LORD, I have
hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.” (v165)
f)
“I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law
is my delight.” (v174)
Do we want inner peace? Do we want joy in our lives? Do we want blessed hope? Read the Bible!!! Mr Harry Ironside, a Biblical scholar and
teacher had read the Bible 14 times at age 14 and when he died at age 75 he had
read it many more times than 75. Reading
the Bible purifies us; it keeps us clean inside and makes us more aware of sin
in our lives. God gave us His Word so
that we would keep ourselves pure “Thy
word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Psalm
119:10.
No 18
(Prayer)
As true born-again Christians, the Bible
is the light on our path, the staff of our sanctification and our weapon against
any and all of Satan’s evil ploys. However, the more we read the Bible, the
more aware we become to sin in our lives because the Bible is also God’s treasury of His truth. Jesus said “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17).
Prayer is the Christian’s way of communicating with the Creator and when
we realize our sinfulness in the face of a holy and just God, confession is our
only alternative. Prayer ought to be
grounded in God’s Word because there and only there can we find God’s will for
our lives. There are several types of
prayer and we do well to have a good mixture of all the components of prayer
that the Lord has made available through His Word:
U Prayers of worship and praise to our gracious heavenly
Father are the ones He cherishes the most “But
the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father
in spirit and in truth: for the
Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth” (John 4:23, 24)
U Then come the prayers of thanksgiving : “Be
careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” (Phil 4:6)
U Next are prayers of confession “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
U Lastly, come
prayers of supplication and/or intercession
“The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much”
(James 5:16b)
We found out about how to pray through
the Bible by the words of Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Matthew,
chapter 6. This is the first of several
studies on prayer and worship.