Christianity was supposed to be about becoming like Jesus. | |||||
We went in the wrong direction. |
Can the Bible really be true? |
Bible = βίβλος = books The Bible is comprised of 66 books written by over 40 men over 1500 years. They were inspired by God to write what He wanted written. It is the word of God. |
People ask, "Can the Bible be true?" The answer is not only yes, but the Bible is truth. God plants in us a spark of truth. We are driven as if by incredible thirst to search for truth. As we read the Bible our "thirst" is satisfied. It leads us to know Jesus, who also is truth. |
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Old Testament - 39 books | New Testament - 27 books | Future |
The first 15 chapters of
Genesis deal with creation and the flood. The rest deal with the history
of the nation of Israel.
The New Testament tells us the Old Testament was kept for our benefit so we would learn from their mistakes. |
Mathew, Mark, Luke, John -
gospels - Tells who Jesus is, what He said, What He did, and where He
went.
Acts - Tells about the start of the church Letters to churches - Tells about problems of churches and Christian life. |
In both the Old and New
Testaments are many declarations about the future. Many have already been
fulfilled. For example, Daniel foretold the division of the empire of
Alexander over 200 years before it happened.
The book of Revelation is almost all prophecy about events yet to come. |
What God tells us in His word is our own history and how we came to be born into a world that doesn't work right and cannot work right. All of our problems come from sin. The only solution is to accept the way out He has provided. When we trust in Jesus, we receive a new nature. This connection to Jesus is our lifeline. When we die, we are kept from the penalty of sin through our connection to Jesus. It is through this connection that we can be changed in this life and show His light and love to others. | |
Facts about the Bible from the Bible |
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1. The Bible is foolishness to those who are perishing 1 Cor. 1:18 | 7. Help us "clean" up our act Ps119:9 |
2. The Bible can only be understood spiritually 1 Cor. 2:14 | 8. It is the sword of the Spirit Eph 6:17 |
3. The Bible helps us to resist sin Ps 119:11 | 9. What the Bible says will happen Mat. 5:18 |
4. The Bible is truth John 17:17 | 10. The Bible is eternal Isa.40:8 |
5. The Bible lights our path Ps 119:105 | 11. The Bible sustains life Luke. 4:4 |
6. The Bible is the word of God 2 Pe. 1:20-21 | 12. The Bible is active and vital Heb. 4:12 |
What about the dinosaurs? |
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Before the flood people lived a lot longer than they do now. The animals also probably lived longer. Reptiles keep getting bigger the longer they live. Noah took some younger (smaller) reptiles with him on the ark. After the flood, God gave man permission to eat meat. Not all of the species have survived until today. We might imagine that the mastodon was just a little slower than the elephant. |
Charges made against the Bible |
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The Bible is not scientific | This is probably the biggest charge
against the Bible today. What is sad is that what passes for
"science" today is little more than political activism. Even
when so-called science like "global warming" is exposed as
contrived political manipulation, the media and "scientists"
continue to push the ideas. This is because they are not interested in
truth but in getting what they want.
Evolution is such bad science that it is embarrassing. Fields as diverse as geology, the study of ice cores, and the accumulation of dust on the moon all are predicated on certain assumptions. All measurements are made with a view of having to fit these assumptions. They all use "fudge factors" to make the measurements "prove" their original assumption that the earth and the moon are billions of years old. Originally science was the study of God's creation and His majesty as revealed in and through His creation. Science was the pursuit of truth. Now what is called science has as much relation to truth as Pravda did. "Science" is now a closed shop of ardent secularists who only allow those acolytes of demonstrated fealty to their gods of tenure and grant money to be ordained to practice their art of supporting their established dogma. Their similarity to medieval theologians is rather ironic.
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The Bible is not relevant to today's society | People who see a disparity between the
type of life described in the Bible and modern life described by shopping
malls, cell, phones, and fast food do not see how the Bible could have
anything useful to say to the people of today. In short, the Bible is old
fashioned.
This might be a valid charge if the Bible was concerned with fashion. However, the Bible speaks to the heart of man which is unchanged and filled with sin. It the distance from God and the desire to sin that brought trouble on the people of the Bible and still brings trouble today. The solution to problems both old and new lies in trusting in Jesus and surrender to the will of God. While modern life offers so many distractions that the Bible seems old fashioned, nothing could be more important than the Bible in exposing the deceptions of modern life and solving the problems these deceptions bring.
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The Bible is full of contradictions | The proverbs, "He who
hesitates is lost" and "Look before you leap" can seem contradictory.
We do not have to argue as to which is true. Claims of Bible contradiction
can be resolved one at a time. However, the process can be a little
tedious and accusers often lose interest as they were never interested in
what was true to start with.
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Support for Biblical accuracy |
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Archeology |
One unusual feature of the Bible is that it stands alone among ancient documents in
that places and names are spelled correctly. This characteristic is seldom
found in other ancient documents. The Bible has declared the existence of
nations and empires that were considered mythological until they were
unearthed and found to be as described in the Bible. The finding of the
Dead Sea scolls was a boost for Biblical reliability when it was
discovered that manuscripts of Bible portions written between 200 and 100
BC are the same as we have today.
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Prophecy | The Bible has predicted numerous events that have already
come to pass. There is no other book that has done this. It is difficult
to think of anything more impressive to "prove" the Bible is
true than to predict the future.
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Miracles | The Bible documents periods of astounding supernatural
events. Skeptics like to claim that such things (like the plagues of
Egypt) either didn't happen or were greatly exaggerated. However, we have
a record of them happening that would have been impossible to maintain as
a fraud. Two to three million Jews coming out of Egypt all had the record
of the events passed down through their families. This is not the sort of conspiracy
a few clever scribes or priests are able to orchestrate.
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The resurrection | Jesus was raised from the dead. Roman soldiers verified He was dead by piercing His side and observing that the blood in His body had already separated. His death was real. His resurrection was real also. Paul writes to people that had not seen the resurrection that many people had met Jesus and talked with Him. He said that Jesus was observed once by 500 people many of whom were still alive and could testify to the reality of the resurrection. The fact the Jesus did not remain dead is proof that death had no hold on Him and He is able to offer us an escape from death and punishment for our sins. |