This thread is created with the purpose of showing skeptics that the Bible is indeed The Word of God, to promote an open-minded interest in reading and study of the Bible, and to help strengthen the Christian faith in the face of relentless hostility and attacks.
But first, here is a brief description of the Bible.
Excerpt from the transcript of “ Word Of God” as delivered by Charles Price:
http://www.livingtruth.ca/Res-TRAN.aspOur English word, Bible, actually comes from the plural word, “Biblos,” meaning library. It’s made up of sixty-six books. It was written by more than forty authors over a period of at least one thousand, five hundred years in three completely different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
First of all, 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, although written in Greek, which had become the international language.
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, there are songs, there is law, there is biography, there is autobiography, there is prophecy, there is parable, there is allegory, and probably other things.
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;…
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. It’s 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. As literature, it’s been the best selling book in history. There may have been one or two occasions where another book, in a particular year, may have outsold the Bible. Apparently, Mao Tse Tung’s “Red Book” did one year. But throughout history, it’s been the best selling book.
And, of course, the story of the Bible has not been without strong opposition. It’s been declared illegal literature in some parts of the world ever since the beginning of the fourth century when, in the year 303 A.D., the Roman Emperor, Diocletian, issued an edict ordering the destruction of Christian churches and the burning of all Scriptures. And ever since then there’s never been a place in the world where the Bible has not been illegal literature. Interestingly, 25 years after Diocletian had issued that, the Emperor Constantine was converted to Christ, and he issued an edict ordering that 50 copies of the Bible should be prepared at the government’s expense. Now you say 50 isn’t very many, but remember that’s writing them by hand, word by word.
And when they wrote it by hand, they wrote it with incredible accuracy. One of the things they did – and this was just one of the checks – they would count how many letters were in each book of the Bible, identified the middle letter, and when the scribe had finished writing this particular book, they would count the letters; and if it was one letter too many or one or two short, they would throw it away, even though they’d spent hours and hours and hours writing it by hand. They’d then identify the middle letter, and if the middle letter was not the correct letter, they would throw it away. And then when the whole Bible was done, they would count every letter in the entire Bible and do the same thing. Find the middle letter again, and if it was wrong, discard the whole manuscript. Incredible! But how grateful you and I should be for the accuracy with which Scriptures have come to us as a result of that.
But it’s ironic, isn’t it, that 25 years after Diocletian ordered the destruction of all Scripture, Constantine, who became Emperor, was converted, and he ordered the government should pay for the preparing of copies of the Scripture.
In the 18th century, the Frenchman Voltaire, he was a writer and crusader against tyranny and bigotry, he predicted that in 100 years time, Christianity would be swept from existence and would pass into history. That was in the 18th century. Do you know in 50 years, Voltaire had been swept into history, and the Geneva Bible Society used his printing press to print thousands of Bibles, and they used his house to store them in before they distributed them.”
There is no doubt that Science does not contradict, but rather supports the Bible.
Several statements from The Bible – a lot of them describing or attributing to creation – have become scientific facts.
I. myself am learning as I go along researching about these.
As I’ve stated elsewhere in this forum the first 10 words of Genesis speak of time, space and matter – actually the universe is scientifically expressed in this terms: time, space, matter, power and motion.
Genesis 1(New International Version)
The Beginning
1 In the beginning (time) God created (power)the heavens (space) and the earth (matter). 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering (motion) over the waters.
Coincidence, a skeptic might say. Is it?
Edited by betsy, 14 May 2011 - 06:52 AM.
