How to Build a Firm Foundation on God's Word

“You have got to build a firm foundation on the
living word of God. You have got to study it, to store
it in your heart, to gain the wisdom that it gives and
apply it to your life.”
― Calvin W. Allison
Dear Readers,
In these 3 parts, (BIBLE STUDY – part 1, 2 and 3) you will find
53 short and simple articles on Bible (courtesy: various
sources from the internet).
Though, these articles are not arranged in a systematic way or
may not be meant for scholarly studies, nevertheless, it would
help the readers to acquire some knowledge on the Bible.
These articles may be used for personal study or may be
published in your parish bulletins or other publications.
To encourage your group/parishioners to read these articles,
you can even conduct a BIBLE STUDY QUIZ (BSQ). For further
details on how to conduct the BSQ, please refer to – BIBLE
STUDY QUIZ (BSQ) file in this website. You will also find a
sample objective type question set prepared for PART 1 of the
BIBLE STUDY articles. TO make it easier for the organisers of
the BSQ, answers of each BSQ is also given. See the same
section.
ALSO AVAILABLE 43 SETS OF BIBLE QUIZZES (BIBLE
QUEST) IN THIS WEBSITE. For further details go to the
title BIBLE QUEST and read the INTRODUCTION.
Fr Felix Rebello
Email: frfelixrbello@gmail.com
SEE PART 1, 18 ARTICLES IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES

ARTICLE 1
BIBLE QUOTE OF THE MONTH
When you read God's Word, you
must constantly be saying to
yourself, "It is talking to me, and
about me." Soren Kierkegaard
What is the Bible?
Put simply, the Bible is God's word to humankind. It is a
combination of His directions for how we should live, a history of
the world, a story with a purpose and a revelation of God. The Bible
is the ultimate authority on God and all matters of the Christian life
and salvation.
What does 'Bible' mean?
The word Bible basically means "collection of books", and in its
physical sense it is exactly that - the Holy Bible is the collection of
Holy Books placed together to form one book.
How did we get the Bible?
Over a period of about one and a half Millennia, God inspired many
different people to write down His words into 73 individual books.
During the centuries following Jesus' ascension into Heaven, these
were collected together to form the Bible.
The Bible since then...
Since the original texts were decided upon (a somewhat final
decision being made in 397 AD), the Bible has been translated from
its original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into more languages than
any other book. It is also available in English in many different
translations, from the King James Version of 1611 (which is known
for its archaic speech) to the modern, everyday language translations
such as the New International Version and the New Revised
Standard Version.

ARTICLE 2
For some years now I have read through the
Bible twice every year. If you picture the Bible
to be a mighty tree and every word a little
branch, I have shaken every one of these
branches because I wanted to know what it
was and what it meant. --Martin Luther
WHY ARE THERE DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE?
Courtesy: Internet
When people hear there are over 50 different versions of the Bible in English alone, they often
think to themselves, "No wonder there are many denominations each teaching different things,
there are many different versions of the Bible." This view, however, is wrong. Yes there are many
denominations, but don't blame that on the fact there are many versions of the Bible. There is
one Bible.
First we need to understand what we mean by a "version". A better word than "version" is
"translation". The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the New Testament in
Greek. If every man could read Hebrew and Greek, then we would have no need for an "English
version". Most people can't read Greek, "It's all Greek to me"! We must rely, therefore, upon men
who are fully fluent in English and Greek. These "scholars" read the original Greek Bible and
come up with an English equivalent. This process is called translation. We have all seen a foreign
diplomat give a news conference through the help of a translator. One translator may choose
different words or sentences, but the message is identical. Translation is a reliable science of
communicating between different languages. Remember, it was God Himself who created all the
language barriers in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel. God is satisfied that His inspired word can
be maintained although translated into over 200 languages.
Translation of the Greek New Testament is a very precise science. The New American Standard
Bible, for example, was translated over 10 years, by over 45 scholars and was first published in
1962 AD. Similar painstaking work was applied to the production of the New International (1978
AD), and King James (1611AD) and the New King James (1982AD). These translations and
others like them were the products of many years of work from scholars from many
denominations.
Each translation has its own strengths and weaknesses. The King James Version (KJV) is
excellent, but you must use a dictionary as you read because it uses language typical of the time
it was translated (1611). I recommend you purchase a more recent translation. The New
American Standard Version (NASV) is believed by many to be one of the most accurate
translations and is an excellent study Bible. The American Standard Version (ASV) is also
excellent and highly accurate. The New King James Version (NKJV) is high on the recommended
list. The New International Version (NIV) tries to make the text as easy to understand as possible
and is an excellent reading Bible, but not a good study Bible. The New World Translation (1950,
the Jehovah's Witnesses Bible) should be avoided because its is actually corrupt, being a
sectarian paraphrase rather than a true translation of the Holy Scriptures.
Although the exact choice of words or sentence structure is different in each translation, the
meaning is identical. Take the words of Jesus in Mark 16:16 from three "versions" as an example;
NIV: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved". KJV: "He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved". NAS: "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved" Different
words and sentences but the meaning is identical. To blame religious division on the fact there
are different Bible versions, therefore, is incorrect. The view that each translation of the Bible
conveys a different message is also incorrect. There is only one Bible message that has been
translated into hundreds of different languages.

ARTICLE 3
The Word of God well understood and religiously
obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And
we must not select a few favorite passages to the
exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can
make a whole Christian. --AW. Tozer
The Bible, the Sole Rule of Faith?
Protestants derive their religion from a mere reading of the Bible which they interpret according to
their own private judgment. Catholics derive their doctrines from the Church which propounds to
them infallibly the teachings of the Bible and of Tradition. Which of these two formulas is
supported by the Bible itself and by the facts of history, and which consequently is correct?
The Bible makes it clear that Christ established the Church as a teaching organization to speak to
the world in His name and with His authority. Our Lord Himself wrote nothing. He commanded
the Apostles not to write but to teach and preach: "Going, therefore, teach all nations" and
"preach the Gospel to every creature." Christ's disciples and the Christians were commanded to
hear the Church, not to read the still nonexistent or at best incomplete New Testament Scriptures:
"He who hears you, hears Me." The teaching Church was in existence long before a single line of
the New Testament was written. The Apostles evangelized different peoples, not by presenting to
them a copy of the New Testament which did not as yet exist, but by preaching the Gospel, the
oral message of Christ to them. Thousands of men became Christians and adhered to the whole
truth of God before they saw or read a single book of the New Testament.
It was the leaders of the existing teaching Church who wrote the books of the New Testament. It
was the Church which collected and preserved these books, and distinguished them from
spurious books which might have otherwise found their way into the Bible. It was from the
Catholic Church that the Protestants of the sixteenth century took their Bible and also their belief
in its divine inspiration. How illogical, then, it is for a group to step in fifteen hundred years later,
wrest the Bible from its historical and lawful possessor and fosterer, put the Bible in the place of
the Church, and pretend to possess a true understanding of the purpose and meaning of the
Bible?
The different books of the New Testament were for many centuries scattered in the various
Christian communities of the Orient. Being written on papyrus which was fragile and breakable,
these books could not be widely circulated and hence were read by a comparatively few groups.
It was only in 397 A.D. that the Council of Carthage finally decided which books belong to the
Bible, and it was about this time, too, that the books of the Bible were combined into one volume.
Before the invention of printing in the sixteenth century, copies of the Bible written by hand were
so rare and costly that only the rich could procure them.
Bible Christianity, then, is an invention of the sixteenth century. In the previous centuries it was
not only unknown but it was impossible. Bible Christianity is a formal denial of the Catholic
Church, of her divine authority and mission to teach all. It strives to abrogate the Church which
Christ instituted, endeavours to substitute in its place a book, and makes the Bible, as interpreted
by one's own private judgment, the sole and supreme rule of faith and morality.

ARTICLE 4
Here, then, is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our
duty to study God's Word not so much because it is difficult to
understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because
it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of
passion. Our problem is that we are lazy. --R. C. Sproul
I. INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE
When Paul said: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2 Tim. 3:16), he used the Greek
word "theopneustos" for the idea of inspiration. This Greek word is composed of "theos," meaning
God, and "pneo," meaning to breathe. The compound word is an adjective meaning literally
"breathed of God." Since it is the breath that produces speech, this word provided a very apt and
impressive way of saying that the Scripture is the word of God.
II. THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN INSPIRATION
However it was only in special cases that the words to be written down were orally dictated to the
Scripture writers. In most cases the minds of the writers became the laboratory in which God
converted His breath, as it were, into human language. This was not done by a mechanical
process. The personality and temperament of the writers were not suspended. These are
manifest in the writings. Hence we read from Gaussen: "In maintaining that all Scripture is from
God, we are far from thinking that man goes for nothing in it . . . In Scripture all the words are
man’s, as there, too, all the words are God’s. In a certain sense, the Epistle to the Romans is
altogether a letter of Paul’s and, in a still higher sense, the Epistle to the Romans is altogether a
letter of God’s" (Theopneustia, a book indorsed highly by C. H. Spurgeon). And so we read also
from Manly: "The divine origin and authority of the Word of God is not to be affirmed so as to
exclude or impair the reality of the human authorship, and the peculiarities resulting there from.
The Bible is God’s Word to man, throughout; yet at the same time it is really and thoroughly a
man’s composition. No attempt should be made-and we shall certainly make none-to set aside or
ignore the "human element" of the Scriptures, which is unmistakably apparent on their very face;
no one should wish to so magnify the divine as to crowd this out, or almost out. This is one of the
mistakes which good men have committed. Let both be admitted, recognized, accepted thankfully
and rejoicingly, each contributing to make the Bible more completely adapted to human needs as
the instrument of divine grace, and the guide for weak and wandering human souls. The word is
not of man, as to its source; nor depending on man, as to its authority. It is by and through man
as its medium; yet not only simply as the channel along which it runs, like water through a lifeless
pipe, but through and by man as the agent voluntarily active "and intelligent in its communication.
Both sides of the truth are expressed in the Scriptural language: ‘Holy men of God spake as they
were moved (borne along) by the Holy Spirit.’ (2 Pet. 1:21). The men spoke; the impulse and
direction were from God" (The Bible Doctrine of Inspiration). "The Scriptures contain a human as
well as a divine element, so that while they constitute a body of infallible truth, this truth is shaped
in human moulds and adapted to ordinary human intelligence" (Strong).

ARTICLE 5
If there is anything in my thoughts or style to
commend, the credit is due to my parents for
instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures.
--Daniel Webster
Reading the Bible
Because the Bible is both authoritative and historical, it is important to read it as such. It
is God's word that seeks application in your life, but to understand how to apply it, you
must understand its original meaning, its original context. A simple and obvious
example of the need for context in any work is found in the fact that the words, "there is
no God", are found 15 times throughout the Bible (NIV). It is not until you look at them
in context that you realise they are all part of a sentence to the effect of "there is no God
but one" (e.g., Dt. 32:39) or "the fool says in his heart: 'There is no God'" (e.g., Ps.
14:1), or similar such statements.
But the need for context extends further in the Bible to an appreciation of the culture
and circumstances of the time. For example, in Exodus 21 we read that justice should be
in the form of exact retribution: "take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for
hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise" (vv.23-25), while
in Matthew chapter 5 we read Jesus as saying: "If someone strikes you on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic,
let him have your cloak as well" (vv.39-40). The differences between these two
apparently contradictory statements, both of which are authoritative, are reconciled
through an understanding of the culture and circumstances of each statement, and the
application to today's life is similarly found. In some circumstances it may be a good
idea to have a commentary handy when reading the Bible, to enable a clearer
understanding of the passage you're reading. (Commentaries comment on the culture
and circumstance, then focus on the meaning of the passages in the Bible.) But a great
deal of the time application for passages can be easily found simply by thinking and
praying about them. For example, in the 14th chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans he
instructs them to obey the authorities and the law of the land. Although we live under
different authorities today, it can be clearly seen that this passage is easily applied in our
lives today by obeying the government and living by the laws of the country we live in.
Sometimes understanding and applying what you read is easy, sometimes hard. The key
is to read the Bible regularly, asking God to help you understand, and reading
commentaries and other such works by gifted Christian scholars when the meaning and
application of the text is not immediately apparent. Finally, the Bible is God's word to
us, we are supposed to live by it, and grow in godliness by obeying it. We must do all
that we can to understand it and apply it as God wishes.

ARTICLE 6
"So great is my veneration for the BIBLE that the earlier
my children begin to read it, the more confident will be my
hope that they will prove useful citizens to their country
and respectable members of society" John Quincy Adams
HOW BIBLE CAME TO BE?
The Bible is one of the great books of the world. However, there have been those who continually
misunderstand just what it is, and how it came to be, and some of the problems inherent in the
Bible. Fundamentalist Christians have the utterly mistaken idea that the Bible is perfect, that
every word in it came from God directly to man and that all that God has ever spoken, done,
seen, or felt is written and contained in the Bible. This is utterly and simply naive and worthless in
getting to the truth of the Bible, or God, how he acts, thinks, feels, etc.
"There are at least 36 different authors, who wrote in three continents, in many countries, in three
languages, and from every possible human standpoint. Among these authors were kings,
farmers, mechanics, scientific men, lawyers, generals, fishermen, ministers, and priests, a tax-
collector, a doctor, some rich, some poor, some city bred, some country born - thus touching all
the experiences of men - extending over 1500 years." On one thing most serious Bible scholars
agree on, is that the Bible is not a perfectly written, grammatically correct, historically 100%
accurate, perfectly preserved book. Does it need to be in order for it to be God's word though?
Granted God, by definition is perfect, but men and women are not. And God chooses to go
through human mediums when giving his instructions. In the process of editing, translating,
transmitting the records, things get lost, shuffled around, changed, added to and deleted from.
Not only do we have to do with this type of issue, as to what is added into the scriptures from later
perspectives and what is left out, but we also have got to begin to realize that there is nothing we
have concerning the original autographs of ***ANY*** of the New Testament writers. There is
even question as to whether the evangelists themselves were eyewitnesses to Jesus' life!
Realistically, the Bible is a human made document. Sure it deals with God's dealings with men
and women, but it is written by men. It is transmitted by men, and lest we forget, we are told
"copying is a source of both survival and corruption for a text." We must remember that in early
Christian times the manuscripts looked like this:
INTHOSEDAYSALMOSTEVERYTHINGWASWRITTENINCAPITALLETTERSWITHOUTPUNCTU
ATIONANDNOSPACESBETWEENWORDS.
The Bible will not mean what it is meant to mean until we begin to have something of an
understanding of just what it is and what it is not. Fundamentalist Christians miss this crucial
concept completely and strain at gnats but swallow camels when they declare the Bible to be
something other than what it itself says and displays. Without some sort of reality check, the
Fundamentalist Christians are building their foundation of scriptural exegesis on sand and will
never, worlds without end, convince the rest of the world about just what the Bible means,
whether discussing salvation, grace, the law, or God.

ARTICLE 7
"The Bible is God’s chart for you to steer
by, to keep you from the bottom of the
sea, and to show you where the harbour is,
and how to reach it without running on
rocks and bars" Henry Ward Beecher
Bible History based on important figures
The much of the history of the Bible may be divided up into simple segments around the lifetimes
of five important Biblical figures: Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel and Jesus. Once you commit to
memory the general time frame of the lives of each of these men, you can begin to view other
time information you read in the Bible in relation to the lives of these men. It is not necessary to
find out or remember the "exact" birth date or death date of each of these men. In fact, that
specific information for most of them is shrouded in the mists of ancient history. But it is possible
to pinpoint a more general focal date in each of their lives that will be very helpful for our
purposes. For each of them lived along a timeline which can be conveniently divided up into five
hundred year segments. We do not intend to suggest that the dates below are an exact mid-point
in each of the men's lives. We merely suggest that by focusing on these dates which did occur in
their lifetime, you can more easily memorize the sequence of events in the scripture.
Here are the general, simplified Biblical dates connected with these five:
Abraham 2000 BC, Moses 1500 BC , David 1000 BC, Daniel 500 BC
Note: In our common calendar system, there is no such year as "0" either B.C. or A.D. The year 1
B.C. is immediately followed by 1 A.D.
If you will make it a project to memorize just these five dates and the men connected with them,
you will find that the effort was well worth it! Here is one possible method: Rather than memorize
the facts given here in "pairs"... that is, "Abraham + 2000 B.C."... You may find it helpful to
memorize the names as a unit first - "Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, Jesus". This kind of list
is usually easy to memorize, as it almost sounds like a little poem when stated out loud
rhythmically! You can "divide" it up into two sections, perhaps... "Abraham, Moses.... David,
Daniel, Jesus. Then clarify in your mind that the first date in the series is 2000, followed by
intervals of 500 years. As soon as you have these five names and their associated dates
memorized, it is also very helpful to visually lay them out on a "time line" such as the one above.
Then as you find other names, events and dates in the scriptures, you can place them on that line
in their relative positions. By actually picking up a pen and paper and creating your own time
line, you will impress upon your subconscious the facts you are writing down. And by writing down
the list of the five names-perhaps several days in a row until you have them solidly in mind-you
will reinforce your memory.

ARTICLE 8
The Word of God well understood and religiously
obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection.
And we must not select a few favorite passages to the
exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible
can make a whole Christian. --AW. Tozer
Bible Study - Paying Attention to the Context
One important aspect of personal Bible study is trying to understand the situation that
God’s people were in when the writer of a particular Bible book or letter wrote to them.
Understanding the context is important because it helps us to understand the message of
God clearly and accurately. Let’s take a look at an example. Imagine in your Bible
study you are working through the book of Revelation and read in Revelation 3:15,16:
“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or
hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my
mouth.” (ESV). We are accustomed today to talk about a lukewarm Christian as
someone who might go to Church occasionally, but isn’t all that enthusiastic about the
gospel or Bible study. If we use today’s understanding of lukewarm to understand the
passage in Revelation 3, it seems to be saying that God would prefer that we were either
spiritually dead (cold) or full of zeal (hot) rather than being lukewarm.
But if we find out a little about the people this letter is addressed to, some Christians
living in a place called Laodicea, we’ll see that this isn’t what God is saying at all. A
good commentary can be a great tool to help you in this aspect of your Bible study.
After doing some study in your commentary, you’ll discover that Laodicea received its
water from an aqueduct that carried hot water from some mineral springs in Hierapolis
about five miles away. But the time it arrived in the city, the water had cooled down
and become lukewarm – a very unpleasant temperature for drinking. The hot mineral
springs of nearby Hierapolis were useful for medical purposes, and the cold water in the
nearby city of Colossae was valued for its purity. But the lukewarm water of Laodicea
was good for nothing.
We can see then that God’s message isn’t that he’d prefer that his people were
spiritually dead than half-hearted in their faith – what we might have thought without
having done our Bible study. But instead, we see that God desires his people to be
useful in his world rather than “good for nothing.”
Careful Bible study requires hard work and effort, but it is also rewarding work. When
we take time to pay attention to the context, we are able to hear God’s message to us
more clearly. And that, after all, is the reason why we study the Bible.

ARTICLE 9
"The BIBLE holds up before us ideals that are
within sight of the weakest and the lowliest, and
yet so high that the best and the noblest are kept
with their faces turned ever upward. It carries the
call of the Saviour to the remotest corners of the
earth; on its pages are written the assurances of the
present and our hopes for the future" – William
Jennings Bryan
Different Kinds of Literature in the Bible
Most books fall into one particular category of literature or another. An instruction
booklet for making something uses technical language. A novel will use some kind of
fictional narrative language. A book of poetry may use rhymed or non-rhymed verse;
and a book of history uses factual narrative writing. The type of book almost always
determines the kind of literature used. The Bible is bound as one large book, but it is
really made up of many different books written using many different kinds of literature.
This makes the Bible both challenging and exciting to read. When studying the books of
the Bible, it is important to look not only at the information a book contains but also at
the literary form that the author has used.
The kind of literature used can give clues about what the author was trying to say. For
example, look at 1 Sam 1.1-28 and compare it to 1 Sam 2.1-10. These passages from the
same book use two different kinds of writing. The first section is more like prose, or
story, while the second section is a prayer or song in poetic form. Noticing the change
from prose to poetry can give a reader more to think about regarding the text.
A brief example from the New Testament is the story of Jesus' birth. Luke 2.1-21 tells
of the events of Jesus' birth and gives many details regarding the birth itself. In contrast,
John does not use a story to tell about Jesus' birth. Instead, it begins with a poem (1.1-
14), which refers to Jesus as "the Word" and "the true light" that became "a human
being." How do these different kinds of literature influence the way we think about who
Jesus is? Why has the writer of each of these Gospels emphasized different aspects of
Jesus' birth and identity? Looking at the way a writer chooses to share information can
open the way for new ways of understandings what the Bible has to say. The Bible
includes a great number of types of literature. Some forms of literature describe an
entire book. In the Bible the most important of these forms are laws and rules, history,
poetry and songs, wisdom sayings and proverbs, Gospels, letters, and apocalyptic
writings. Other forms of literature describe sections within a book. The most important
of these forms are prose narrative, prayers, parables, prophesies (oracles), and long
family lists (genealogies).

ARTICLE 10
“Of the many influences that have shaped the
United States into a distinctive nation and people,
none may be said to be more fundamental and
enduring than the Bible.”
President Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States
ORIGINAL LANGAUGE OF THE BIBLE
The Bible (from Greek biblia "the books") is the collections of the primary religious texts of
Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books
(Biblical canon), their contents and their order vary among denominations. Mainstream Judaism
divides the Tanakh into 24 books, while a minority stream of Judaism, the Samaritans, accepts
only five. The 24 texts of the Hebrew Bible are divided into 39 books in Christian Old Testaments,
and complete Christian Bibles range from the 66 books of the Protestant canon to the 81 books in
the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible,[1]
to the 84 books of the Eastern Orthodox Bible.
The Jewish Bible, or Tanakh, is divided into three parts: (1) the five books of the Torah
("teaching" or "law"), comprising the origins of the Israelite nation, its laws and its covenant with
the God of Israel; (2) the Nevi'im ("prophets"), containing the historic account of ancient Israel and
Judah plus works of prophecy; and (3) the Ketuvim ("writings"): poetic and philosophical works
such as the Psalms and the Book of Job.[2]
The Christian Bible is divided into two parts. The first is called the Old Testament, containing the
(minimum) 39 books of Hebrew Scripture, and the second portion is called the New Testament,
containing a set of 27 books. The first four books of the New Testament form the Canonical
gospels which recount the life of Christ and are central to the Christian faith. Christian Bibles
include the books of the Hebrew Bible, but arranged in a different order: Jewish Scripture ends
with the people of Israel restored to Jerusalem and the temple, whereas the Christian
arrangement ends with the book of the prophet Malachi. The oldest surviving Christian Bibles are
Greek manuscripts from the 4th century; the oldest complete Jewish Bible is a Greek translation,
also dating to the 4th century. The oldest complete manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible (the
Masoretic text) date from the Middle Ages.[3]
During the three centuries following the establishment of Christianity in the 1st century, Church
Fathers compiled Gospel accounts and letters of apostles into a Christian Bible which became
known as the New Testament. The Old and New Testaments together are commonly referred to
as "The Holy Bible". The canonical composition of the Old Testament is under dispute between
Christian groups: Protestants hold only the books of the Hebrew Bible to be canonical; Roman
Catholics and Eastern Orthodox additionally consider the deuterocanonical books, a group of
Jewish books, to be canonical. The New Testament is composed of the Gospels ("good news"),
the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles (letters), and the Book of Revelation.

ARTICLE 11
The longer you read the Bible, the more you
will like it; it will grow sweeter and sweeter;
and the more you get into the spirit of it, the
more you will get into the spirit of Christ.
--Romaine
Who Wrote the Bible?
Many people contributed to the writing of the Bible. Actually the Bible is a collection of
writings from about forty contributors, thirty in the Old Testament and ten in the New
Testament. For example, the Psalms are a collection of the works of several authors, of
whom David, the "sweet singer of Israel", is the best known. But psalms were also
written by Moses, by Asaph, by a man named Ethan, and by the sons of Korah.
The accounts which have been preserved in the Old Testament date from the earliest
times, and were both written down and transmitted orally. As time passed they were
collected together and received by the Hebrews as coming to them by God's mandate.
The prophets transmit God's message to humans, while many of the Psalms articulate
cries of people to God. Yet these psalms are also preserved in the Bible as part of God's
message to mankind.
The New Testament stories and teachings were widely circulated among the early
Christian churches. The letters of Paul to the Christians in several cities were likely the
earliest writings now found in the New Testament. But many other letters and epistles
were circulated as well. Gradually it became clear to the early churches which writings
were truly inspired and which were spurious or simply edifying messages from pious
authors.
It is truly amazing that all forty of these authors, spread out over 1600 years, have such
a unified message in spite of their great diversity in language, culture and time. There is
a reason for that! The reason is that these forty or so writers are all secondary authors.
There is actually only one primary author, the one who inspired all the human authors,
the eternal God.
Christians believe that the Bible came to us from God himself, who used all these
human authors to give us his message, through the presence and inspiration of his Spirit.
He did not simply give dictation to these authors, because we observe their unique
personalities and varying styles of writing shining through. But God's message, God's
authorship, is always there, providing in the end through all the years, exactly what he
wanted us to have. In this way the Bible is our own ageless treasure.

ARTICLE 12
"To what greater inspiration and counsel can
we turn than to the imperishable truth to be
found in
this Treasure House, the BIBLE?"
Queen Elizabeth
Why do some Bibles have a section called the Apocrypha?
During the period between the completion of the Old Testament and the first writings included in
the New Testament (i.e. the period between 450 BC and 50 AD), many essays, psalms and
historical accounts circulated throughout the synagogues and early churches. Some of these
documents gradually came to be regarded by certain of the believers as actually inspired and
deserving of a place in the canon.
We usually date the first definite listing of the accepted books of the Bible as occurring around
367 AD. However, a second set of booklets had been assembled through the years, and these
were given the name Apocrypha (meaning "hidden"). Though they are all from the time before the
birth of Christ, they were never included in the Hebrew Bible. However, many Christians regarded
them as valuable for reading and edification, and in some editions of the Bible they were
interspersed among the Old Testament books.
Then Martin Luther, in his Bible translation of 1534, extracted the apocryphal books from their
usual places in the Old Testament, and had them printed at the end of the Old Testament. He
stated that they "are not held equal to the Sacred Scriptures and yet are useful and good for
reading." After that, many Protestant Bibles omitted them completely. However, in 1546 the
Roman Catholic Council of Trent specifically listed the apocryphal books approved by the Roman
Catholic Church as inspired and they are always included in Roman Catholic Bibles and are
usually interspersed among the books of the Old Testament.
The Apocrypha generally consists of 14 booklets of which 1 and 2 Maccabees and 1 Esdras are
the main documents and form the bulk of the apocryphal writings. First Maccabees is an historical
account of the struggle of the Maccabee family and their followers for Jewish independence from
167 to 134 BC. Second Maccabees covers the same ground but dramatizes the accounts and
makes moral and doctrinal observations. Other books are Tobit, Judith, Baruch, Ecclesiasticus,
and The Wisdom of Solomon.
Since neither Jesus nor the apostles make any reference to the apocryphal books, most
Christians have regarded their authority as secondary to that of the 39 books of the Old
Testament. Yet within these apocryphal books are passages of great piety and historical
information. We should therefore approach the Apocrypha with a discerning mind and heart, and
carefully discriminate between that which is in harmony with the essentials of the Christian faith
and that which deviates from what is taught in the 66 books of the canon. We have the Lord's
promise that he will lead us into the truth, and we live by that promise in everything we read.

ARTICLE 13
“I believe that the existence of the Bible is the
greatest benefit to the human race. Any attempt to
belittle it, I believe, is a crime against humanity.”
Immanuel Kant, German idealist philosopher, 1724-1804
What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Are new parts of the Bible still coming to light? How is this possible?
In 1947 in an obscure cave west of the Dead Sea, Bedouin shepherds discovered some scrolls
carefully placed in ten tall jars. They did not know what they had come upon, but they sold the
scrolls to a nearby dealer. This was the opening chapter to an astonishing archeological find;
eventually some 800 different manuscripts would be found in eleven caves near the valley called
Wadi Qumran. In all, some 60,000 fragments, portions, or complete scrolls of these 800
manuscripts were retrieved, covering many subjects.
Many of the documents contained biblical texts. Either fragments or complete copies were found
of every book in the Old Testament except Esther. They had been placed in these caves around
the middle of the first century AD, and the amazing fact is that they had lain there undisturbed for
1900 years! But why are these Dead Sea Scrolls so important for us? The reason is that before
this discovery the earliest manuscripts of biblical texts dated from the ninth century after Christ.
They were copies of earlier copies which were long lost.
But now, for example, we have a scroll of the complete book of Isaiah dating from the second
century before Christ. It is a thousand years older than any previous Hebrew Scripture document
that we had before 1947.
So as these scrolls were painstakingly unrolled and translated, biblical scholars and Christians
everywhere wondered what the results would be. Would the new finds provide contradictory texts,
quite different from the text of our Bibles? Would the Bible have to be altered or expanded?
Even though not all of the scrolls are unrolled and translated more than half a century later, the
answers are coming clear. The texts are amazingly similar to the documents we already have.
The variations are less than two percent, and not a single teaching or doctrine of the Bible we
have is altered. Rather than posing a threat to the Christian faith, the Dead Sea Scrolls have, in
fact, provided convincing support for the genuineness of God's revelation as given to us in the
Bible.
Nevertheless, Bible scholars are having intense debates about some of the texts. For example,
some new Bible translations have added approximately 70 words to the end of 1 Samuel 10. The
passage tells us that a certain king Nahash gouged out the eyes of the Israelites. While the text
itself is of little consequence, it raises some very basic questions. Are new parts of the Bible still
coming to light? Don't we have God's complete revelation? How is this possible? Such questions
need a forthright answer, and that answer is to trust in God's provision. This trust embraces our
faith in His plan for the universe, and in His sending of His son to our needy world. Therefore, it
also certainly embraces our trust in His revelation. If we trust Him with our destiny, we can trust
His provision of exactly what we need to know and receive from Him.
The Dead Sea Scrolls have provided enormous light for Bible translators. The Scripture text we
have today is clearly reliable and substantiated from these ancient scrolls. The challenge we face
in responding to this marvelous find is to place our faith in God's Word and in His provision of light
on our path for time and eternity.

.
ARTICLE 14
The book to read is not the one which
thinks for you, but the one which makes
you think. No book in the world equals the
Bible for that. --Mccosh
Search for Revelation
Man throughout history has searched for God and has argued, discussed, and philosophized
about the Supreme Being. This has led to a multitude of explanations. If one studies these, he will
soon realize that man can never understand God through his own reasoning. To know God and
what He does must come from a source outside of one's own thoughts -- God must supernaturally
reveal Himself to mankind. God has revealed Himself in two ways. The first is natural revelation,
which comes from nature. Examples of this are the cause and effect, and the design and purpose
arguments that point to a First Cause and a Great Designer. This type of revelation can only give
partial knowledge of the attributes of God. For instance, since the First Cause existed before the
universe, God must be self-existing and eternal. The immensity of the universe shows God's
unlimited greatness and powerfulness. The simplicity and yet intricacy of material and energy
points to God's unlimited knowledge. All these show the glory of God.
There is little need to dwell on what can be learned from natural revelation since it is limited and
imperfect and can tell little of God's purpose in creating the world or of His moral character. But
this aspect of revelation is still valuable because it reveals enough of the nature of God that men
want to seek revelation from Him. To seek to know God is a proper thing to do if the search
centers on finding whether God has revealed Himself, and if He has, where this revelation is
found. It is reasonable and probable to expect that God would reveal Himself to man. It is unlikely
God would have created such a wonderful universe without revealing the Who and Why behind it.
The second way of God’s revelation of himself is known as special revelation. This revelation has
occurred through direct communication from God and His working through historical events
directed to Abraham, Moses, and the other Old Testament prophets, and supremely through His
Son, Jesus Christ, and His apostles. This is supernatural revelation because its source is God.
This type of revelation given by God's messengers is called special revelation to distinguish it
from natural revelation. Special revelation is limited to those who receive it, and their record of it,
and it is more detailed and specific than natural revelation. According to Christian teachings,
special revelation is recorded in the Bible--the Scripture of the Christian religion.
No one is asked to believe the Bible is God's revelation without evidence that it is factual and true.
No one is asked to accept this by "faith" only. Faith is a central Christian teaching, but this does
not mean Christianity must be believed without evidence or reason. One aspect of Faith is the
persuasion and conviction of the truthfulness of Christianity, but this does not mean Christianity is
not based on factual evidence. There is adequate evidence that God has revealed Himself
through special revelation.

ARTICLE 15
You may as well quit reading and
hearing the Word of God, and give it to
the devil, if you do not desire to live
according to it. -- Martin Luther
The Bible, Human and Divine
When one takes up the Bible, however, he discovers a paradoxical truth. The Bible contains
many promises, warnings, and instructions from God. But it also records the sinful schemes of
men, their boastful words of unbelief, and even the sad story of many a major act of sin and
shame. Furthermore, the entire Scripture was written in the living languages of Israel (mostly
ancient Hebrew, with a small portion in Aramaic, another Semitic tongue) and of the Graeco-
Roman world of the first century, A.D. (Koine Greek). So the Word of God is recorded in man's
languages, with all the limitations which that places upon the Scripture. Furthermore, the Bible is
not only a Semitic book, for the most part; it is also an ancient book, with the characteristics of
ancient writings. For example, the speeches which the Bible records are certainly not generally
full and verbatim accounts of the addresses made, but are good and true summaries of what was
said. And when ancient writers quoted sources, they made no difference between direct and
indirect quotation. (Note, for example, the way the Old Testament text is quoted in the New. The
apostles sometimes made accurate translations from the Hebrew original, sometimes they simply
gave the sense of the original, and most frequently they quoted from the Septuagint, whether or
not the Greek version was a careful translation of the Hebrew text which we have.) Weights and
measures and numbers are given in round figures as a general rule, and even such rough
estimates of distance are given as "a sabbath day's journey." Often we find "about" this or that
distance, "about" such and such a time, and the like. And even when the "about" is not stated, it is
to be understood, for the Bible does not give data with the scientific precision of the twentieth
century. Hence Solomon's temple laver was [about] thirty cubits in circumference and [about] ten
cubits in diameter. II Chronicles 4:2. This is only one of the many aspects of the "humanness" of
the Bible. (Had God desired to do so, He certainly could have had all observations and records
made with infinite precision, but He chose to allow good and honest witnesses to put down their
observations with the rough approximations of common people.) With conscious exaggeration the
Book of Exodus reports that "all" the cattle of the Egyptians died--which meant simply that there
was a fearful loss of cattle, not that none survived at all. And so the writer can tell us later in the
chapter that the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word of Yahweh. provided shelter for their
cattle during the plague of hail. Exodus 9:6,20.
It is worthy of careful notice that in general the Bible contains no revelations of what man can
discover by scientific research--by the use, for example, of such refined instruments as the
Hubble telescope and the electron microscope. For God spoke through the prophets and through
His Son, not to make human research unnecessary in any field of human knowledge, but to bring
men into a saving relationship with Him through repentance and faith.

ARTICLE 16
"The secret of my success? It is simple. It
is found in the BIBLE,
"In all thy ways acknowledge Him and
He shall direct thy paths"
George Washington Carver
BIBLE TRANSLATIONS AND THE GREEK TEXT
The Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language and the New Testament in the
Greek. Must we therefore study the Scriptures in their original languages to understand
them or can translations accurately convey the meaning of the Old and New Testament
Scriptures?
The answer to this perplexing question can be found in Christ and the apostles' use of
Scripture. Eighty percent of the Old Testament quotations found in the New Testament
are from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) Old Testament translation (which is far from a
word-to-word translation), not from the Hebrew text. These Septuagint quotations were
treated as Scripture and were accepted as trustworthy. Today our translations stand in a
similar place as the LXX did in the first century.
The New Testament was written in the common, ordinary language of its day so people
could understand the gospel and thus believe in Christ. Paul said, "How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of
whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? . . . So then
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:14, 17).[1]
Preaching and hearing the gospel means the Bible must be in the hearer's language;
there must be translations.
In summary, people must be able to understand Scripture, and to do so they must have it
in their own language.
Translations
Of the many translations available, how can we know which one to use? There are some
general facts to consider when choosing a version of the Bible.
1. Modern English translations have value since words become obsolete, ambiguous,
misleading, etc., due to language changes.
2. Newer translations are based on more thoroughly researched Greek texts than the
older ones, but this is no guarantee that their Greek texts are better.
3. More than one version should be used, especially when studying difficult passages.
4. Some versions are mainly paraphrases (not following the original wording very
closely but interpreting it), and their use should be limited.

ARTICLE 17
The New Testament is the very best
book that ever was or ever will be
known in the world. --Charles Dickens
The Old Testament
Are we under the Old Testament today? Are we required to offer burnt animal sacrifices as David
was required? In Psalms 66:15 we read, “I will offer you burnt sacrifices of fat animals, with the
sweet aroma of rams, I will offer bulls with goats.” Are we today to offer the burnt animal
sacrifices as is specified here in the book of Psalms? No. The Old Testament has been taken out
of the way when Christ died on the cross. We read in Colossians 2:14, “Having wiped out the
handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it
out of the way, nailing it to His cross.” In speaking of the New Testament we read in Hebrews
9:16, “For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.”
So after Christ died the Old Testament was taken out of the way and His testament, the New
Testament, took effect for us today.
We are no longer under the Old Testament. The Old Testament was then replaced for us today
with the New Testament. The Old Testament is still useful for us today, because without the Old
Testament the New Testament would be difficult to understand. There are also many good
lessons in the Old Testament. But today we do not go to the Old Testament to learn what to do to
be saved and how to worship God. In speaking of Christ and His New Testament we read in
Hebrews 8:6-7, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also
Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first
covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for the second.” So we see
here the New Testament is a better covenant with better promises. And then in Galatians 3:24-25,
"Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after
faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor." We are no longer under the Old Testament.
Then in speaking of the Old Testament law in Romans 7:6 we read, “But now we have been
delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the
newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” Since we have been delivered from the
Old Testament law we should not try to serve God by its regulations. Why?
In speaking of the Old Testament law we read in Galatians 5:4, “Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; you are fallen from grace.” If we try to justify
ourselves by the Old Testament we will fall from grace and will be lost.

ARTICLE 18
"For more than a thousand years the BIBLE,
collectively taken, has gone hand in hand with
civilization, science, law… In short, with the moral
and intellectual cultivation of the species, always
supporting and often leading the way"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Is the Bible at odds with science?
The Bible tells us that miracles happen! The birth of Jesus to a virgin, and His resurrection from
the grave are cardinal elements in the faith of Christians. The origin of life itself stems from the
mind and act of God. Incredibly, some scientists teach that we evolved from single cells, which in
turn developed over billions of years from electrical charges. In the face of the amazing
complexity of living beings, they still find no evidence of intelligent design in the universe. Thus
science is often pitted against the Bible, but everything depends on what we mean by science.
Science is based on careful observation, on precise description of natural events and
phenomena. Every Christian should have great respect for the scientific method and accept its
validity. However, some well-meaning Christians take the position that science and the Bible are
enemies. This attitude contributes nothing to anyone's understanding. Unfortunately, some
scientists regard the Bible as an antiquated collection of myths and primitive nonsense. The two
sides appear to be locked in endless conflict. Both sides could use a dose of humility.
Clearly science has made astonishing discoveries and benefitted humanity. Every Christian
should support the quest of science as it seeks to uncover and understand the amazing mysteries
of the universe. One's sense of wonder at the complexity and enormity of the universe can only
be deepened and enriched. At the same time some scientists fall into the trap of calling theories
facts when they are only theories. This actually violates the scientific method. Among these
enormous and unproved assumptions are those concerning the origin of life and the denial of the
supernatural. For such Scientists the conclusion is that we got here by chance and will end up in
nothingness. This position is fundamentally unsupportable, and the Bible provides a wonderful
and totally reasonable alternative. It is an alternative that involves faith in the timeless existence
of the being the Bible calls God.
There is a very sinister idea making the rounds these days, that idea is that science is grounded
only in facts and religion is grounded solely in faith in the Bible. The truth is that both of these
views are grounded in a huge leap of faith. The creationist indeed places her faith in intelligent
design. However, the evolutionist also operates by faith: faith in the inexplicable and wholly
random origin of something out of nothing! This also is a leap of faith. For Christians, faith in
intelligent design as explanation for the origin of life is far more reasonable than faith in
randomness and blind chance. When it comes to miracles, it is fair to conclude that they lie
outside of science, but are not opposed to science. God can and does intervene in history, so
scientists (and all of us) do well to be humble in the face of miracle..
Let's remember, too, that the Bible is not a scientific textbook. Although the Bible is not a
scientific treatise, it is our guidebook for life. It teaches us amazement in the face of life's
mysteries. On our sickbed when all the answers of science have been exhausted, we throw
ourselves on the hope so wonderfully described in the Bible. We live here by faith and reach for
life beyond the grave. In its pages we find the story of our origin and destiny. Has it become your
guidebook, too?

How to Build a Firm Foundation on God's Word

How to Build a Firm Foundation on God's Word

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