Articles
The Bible
The Bible is an amazing book for one reason—it was written by an amazing God. Consider the following facts about the Bible:
- People usually think of the Bible as just one long book with different chapters, but it is actually a collection of 66 individual writings bound together in one volume—39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Each of these writings fall into one of the following categories: law, history, poetry, prophecy, and letters (aka epistles).
- These writings were authored by 40 different people of varying degrees of education, various occupations, and (most surprisingly) different nationalities and cultures. Some of these authors had no contact with the others or even knew each other at all.
- The Bible was written in 3 languages—the Old Testament in Hebrew and Aramaic, and the New Testament in Greek.
- From the first book written (probably Job) to the last (Revelation), the Bible was developed over a period of about 1500 years. Think of all the history these writings have seen!
To someone discovering these facts for the first time, it might be a bit of a shock. What in the world do each of these 66 books written at different times and places and by various people have to do with each other? Good question! The Bible was not compiled randomly, as if we were to put our “Declaration of Independence,” Homer’s Greek classic Iliad, and Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Romeo and Juliet into one volume. The books of the Bible display a remarkable sense of unity. Their theme is God and His gracious plan to save us from ourselves. We are all sinners by choice, and without God’s salvation we would suffer the awful consequences of our selfishness. The Bible is the story of how God intervened to deliver us from certain destruction and reconcile us to Himself, as we once were before sin entered the picture.
This unity argues powerfully for God’s hand in it all. No man (or men) could author such a message; time, history, and human nature would have prevented its existence. But as it is, the Bible was written by none other than the Living God Himself. “For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21-22).
The Bible is the foundation of all we believe. If it is truly God’s word, we must trust in it. Why would we not trust the God who by His vast knowledge, omniscience, omnipotence, and love created the world and us? His wisdom transcends ours by an immeasurable margin. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). There is no question about our need for God’s guidance; the only question that remains is whether or not we will submit to it.
Sometimes our confidence in God’s word is challenged or even shaken, especially in the world we currently live in. The world tells us today that there are no absolutes in life (except that there are no absolutes—a self-contradictory statement), especially like the ones we see taught in an outdated book like the Bible. We are sometimes told that it is ok for us to believe in the Bible, but that we should not push it on others. Other times (which are becoming more often), we are called ignorant bigots for believing in the Bible at all. Let such assaults fall lifeless at the feet of our faith in our Creator. Even better, may they sharpen our focus and understanding of God’s word and weed out any inconsistencies, errors, or weaknesses in our confidence.
Ultimately the Bible is about Jesus, from beginning to end. He is God’s answer to our desperate attempts to save ourselves from drowning in sin. In fact, He is called “The Word” in John 1:1. This Word became flesh and dwelt among us, eventually being crucified and raised from the grave to offer us salvation if we would only believe. That is precisely what each of the 40+ authors of the Bible for 1500 years, by God’s inspiration, looked forward to.
The Bible is a book too important to ignore. What will you do about it?
