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Can I believe my Bible? Many people ask this question either publicly, or privately to themselves. Actually, it is a very valid question. If we are going to depend on the information contained in the Bible as our source of information on how to be saved. Then of course we must have the fullest utmost confidence in it. That it is the 'Word of God' and it contains the 'way of salvation'.
So, let us look at this question very briefly.
This question brings about two other questions which must be answered.
#1. First of all we need to know, "Where does our Bible come from?", or "How did we get it?" First and most importantly, It came from God (
2 Timothy 3:16-17
). But then how did we get it into this 'book' we call the Bible? Well, please get your Bible out and look in it and chances are there is a section in there that will give you this information. But in case your Bible doesn't have this section in it, don't worry, it is not part of the 'inspired scriptures'. So I will tell you in brief what it says.
It is something called "The Canon". Which means "Measuring Rod" or "Rule". It is a rule of authority, or criteria, that each of the books that make up our Bible must meet in order to be accepted as part of the 'inspired word of God'. These rules included such things as "Who wrote the book or letter?", "What was the content of this writing?", "Was it accepted by the early church as being inspired by God?", etc.
So, what does all this mean? Well, without going into a lot of detail, it simply means that the early church collected all the manuscripts they could find and put each one of them 'to the test', the canon, to see which ones should be accepted as scripture. The end result was the 66 books that now make up our Bible.
So, that brings up the next question on answering, "Can I believe my Bible?"
#2. "Is the Bible complete?", or "Is there any missing books in the Bible?"
My answer to this is, "I don't know!". And I think that if anyone is going to be honest with themselves (remember rule # 5), then they are going to have to answer this question the same way.
So, why study the Bible if we don't know whether it is all there, or not? Well, just like each of you that is reading this and asking themselves this question. I too, must ask myself this same question. So I will tell you how I answer this question myself, and hopefully, just maybe, It will help you answer it too.
First of all, I believe (accept as fact) that God created man and told him what he needs to believe and do. Also, that He will one day hold man accountable for this.
That being the case, I also believe that our judgment will be just (
John 5:30
and
1 Corinthians 4:4-5
). But what about any missing books or parts? Well, I also believe in what Jesus said when He told us His word will 'never' pass away (
Matthew 24:35
&
Matthew 5:18
). Therefore I believe (accept as fact) that God had a hand in the selection of these 66 books in order to preserve the word in accordance with what Jesus said (
Luke 21:33
).
So, what about those that say, "I am not going to waste my time studying the Bible if it may not be complete." Believe it or not, there are people that actually feel this way. Fine! That's their right. So what are they going to do? Well, they will end up not studying the Bible and sitting around doing nothing. And how will they answer God when He ask them, "have you not read?" (
Matthew 12:3
,
12:5
,
19:4
,
22:31
)? These are just a few examples I took just out of 1 book, Matthew.
Or another option would be, to go to Israel with a shovel, pick out a spot, and start digging. Being sure to dig deep enough, oh let's say 30 meters down, in one spot and then expand out until they have dug up the entire country looking for any missing scriptures that would teach something different than what we have contained in our 66 books of the Bible. And don't forget about canonizing them. This should only take them about 1,840 years or so, give or take a few hundred years. Absurd? Of course it is.
So, what are 'you' going to do? I hope that it is the same as me. Accept our Bible, as we have it, as the 'Holy Inspired Word of God' and go by what it says.
Which brings us to one other point we must look at in determining, "Is our Bible Reliable?". That point is= What translation is my Bible? There are several translations that are reliable such as King James, American Standard, etc. But at the same time there are several that are not reliable, such as some of the 'modern' ones that attempt to ignore any gender reference (male/female). When the Bible says 'men' (
Acts 6:3
) or 'women' (
1 Timothy 2:11-15
), or 'husband' or 'wife' (
Ephesians 5:22-23
and
1 Timothy 3:2
) that is what it means. And also those cute little children's Bibles. You know, the ones that have the cute drawings showing the forbidden fruit (Adam & Eve story) as an apple and Noah's ark looking like a boat with all the animals on deck looking over railing, instead of looking like an enclosed box with the animals inside. These type of things only tend to teach error instead of truth. Nit-picky? YES I AM!! I also believe in (
Deuteronomy 4:2
,
Galatians 1:6-12
, and
Revelation 22:18
).
Now all of this, to some of you, might seem a bit trivial, but remember this:
"GOD MEANS WHAT HE SAYS, AND SAYS EXACTLY WHAT HE MEANS".
If you are at the top of a cliff, How far do you have to step over the edge before you fall?
So, Is Your Bible Reliable? Is It?
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What do you think about this lesson ???
Go to the COMMENTS link and enter YOUR COMMENTS so we can SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH together.
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