| The Doctrine Of The Bible | ||
| What is the "The Bible"? | ||
| The bible is a book or rather a
compilation of books. The compilation is of 66
separate books by 44 different authors. The various books span a time
period of about 4000 years. Though the bible contains the history of ancient
man it is really a history of one family. The family of GOD. The bible opens
with the words "In the beginning GOD". It ends with "They shall
reign forever". The human history in the bible starts with Adam, the first
man. It covers his separation from GOD and how GOD promisees eventually to cure
the separation that Adam caused through his own misdeeds. The history taught in the bible widens to show us where the various nations came from and about about 3 thousand years ago the history begins to narrow back down. This narrowing, points us to the promised solution to the separation of man from GOD. That solution coming in the form of the new Adam, then one who would lead a perfect life and therefore reconcile man back to GOD. This man came about 2 thousand years ago and his name was Yeshua ben Joseph, or more commonly known Jesus the Christ. The last bible writer was a man named John, who was a first person witness to the person and teachings of Jesus the Christ. At Johns death, no further books were added to the bible as he was the last witness living, and all things that needed revealing had been revealed. |
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| The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict |
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| Inspiration | ||
| The bible is considered to be
inspired by the mind of GOD. Just a cursory glance at it's teaching on the
state of man will show you that the bible is not a book a man would write if he
could and it is not a book a man could write even if he would. The bible states that "All men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of GOD", it also teaches "Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return." Other ancient works give man credit for being wise or great but the bible gives credit only to GOD as being great. The central theme of the bible is how bad man is and how great GOD is. A man wouldn't write a book that calls his deeds of righteousness filthy rags. Because of the span of time between the various books it is impossible that a man authored book could have come together like the bible has. As we get together even as families we can't talk about religion or politics because we fight over them. However the authors of the bible come together perfectly on every doctrine they assert. All 44 of them say the same things about GOD and the fallen state of man. There is one mind behind this book, and that mind is GOD's. The bible claims to written by men through the mind of GOD and a read through will show you that though there were 44 authors writing over thousands of years in different countries the books fit together as if one person wrote them all! |
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| Inerrancy | ||
| If the bible was written by the
mind of GOD it seems reasonable that it could not contain any Un-Truths. Though we have none of the original manuscripts we do have a ton of original copies. In fact the books of the bible are the most plentiful of all ancient manuscripts. There are literally thousands of ancient copies of these books. Ever heard of the "Dead Sea Scrolls." That is just a fancy name for really old biblical books that were found a in caves around the Dead Sea. The bible was in fact inerrant in it's original written form. We know that the bible we have today is close to the originals because of the overwhelming amount of ancient manuscripts. Scholars believe that the bible we have today is 99% true to what the original must have said. By comparing all the hand written copies from the different parts of the world we can see that the ancient scribes were faithful to there task of copying the books accurately. The bible is so accurate that modern archaeologists (Remember Indiana Jones) use it as a reference work to this day. Everything in the bible that could be tested through archeology has proven correct. Because of the bible we have been able to unearth many ancient cities and increase our knowledge of mans beginnings. |
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Inerrancy |
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| Prophecy | ||
| In Israel they have a copper
scroll of one of the bibles prophetic books that is over 2500 years old. This
book of the Prophet Daniel, predicted the coming of Jesus to the day. In other
works his place of birth, death and even how he would die are described in
graphic detail. It seems logical that if a book was really given by GOD that the book would know the end from the beginning. The bible is the only religious work that makes these claims and can hold them up. Even if all the ancient prophecy was written after the fact, we still have the books of Daniel and Jeremiah that predict Jesus to the day and we have copies of both those books that predate him. The bible is currently 75% fulfilled prophecy, the other 25% is yet to be fulfilled, however we are expecting the fulfillment soon. |
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| Revelation | ||
| There are truths about GOD that
can be discovered through the use of logic and reason. Then there are the
truths of GOD that could only be known if he, GOD, choose to reveal those
truths to us. The Bible is the revealed truth of GOD. Through the bible we see a picture of GOD that is not only reasonable, but different from what all the worlds religions teach. Which seems fair that if GOD was to reveal his truth it might be a little different than the stuff men just made up. As we stated before a look at the worlds other so-called divine books teach that Man can know god through their own (Man's) good deeds. All other religions teach that man gets to heaven by being a good boy. The Bible teach's their are no "Good Boys" and only those whose sins are paid for by the blood of Christ can get into heaven. The revelation of the bible takes place in stages. As one reads the Old Testament, we see a picture of history that is largely prophetic. Many of the stories in the Old Testament help point to the Messiah or the Christ. God choose to reveal his truths man over centuries rather than all at once. This tactic of gradual revelation turns out to be one of the strongest defenses for the bible, in that if one had written it, it would be less credible for it to contain no contradictions or errors. However since it was written by 44 different men in three different languages over a span of hundreds of years it becomes truly remarkable that they came together not only well, but perfectly as to very doctrine they asserted. |
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| Truth About God | ||