The Christian Bible is a selection of books, separated into two parts; the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the Jewish Bible, The Torah (or the Pentateuch). Each book written between 1200 and 165 BC. It is in The Old Testament that you can find well - known stories such as the story of Adam & Eve, Noah's Ark, Moses, David and Goliath...to name but a few. The Old Testament records the history of the world and of God's people, from creation to Jesus. The New Testament books were written by the early Christians in the first century AD and starts with the Gospels, which record the life, death and resurrection of Jesus,and move onto to the early church being formed, the Holy Spirit coming, and ends with Revelation...Jesus' return.
The bible is God- breathed, which means that through the Holy Spirit, God has inspired the people who wrote the bible to include everything that he wanted to be in there. Atheists believe that the bible was completely man- made, made to control the masses. I'm unsure what these men would gain for themselves by telling people to love and help each other. The bible is so full of perfectly written, amazing teachings which could not have come from man alone. Romans 15:4 says "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope".
The bible gives us hope through Jesus. The stories in The Old Testament tell us how people got it wrong, how they failed God and ruined His plans for us. The Old Testament gives us sneak peeks of what is to come, the Prophets saw Jesus coming. Jesus came and paid the price for all of our failings and set us free...we don't have to do anything in return other than believe in Jesus.
In the 14th century, the bible was only available in England in Latin, for only the learned scholars to read. That is until a man named John Wycliffe and his friend John Purvey translated the bible into English and made it available to all...much to the distaste of the authorities at the time...they didn't want the average Joe and the women to have access to such sacred texts. So much for wanting to control the masses, eh?
The bible has inspired some well known sayings in the English language, such as "bite the dust", "The blind leading the blind", "by the skin of your teeth", "a leopard can't change it's spots", "eat, drink and be merry", "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", "go the extra mile", "see eye to eye", "the root of the matter", "put words in one's mouth", "scapegoat", "rise and shine", "straight and narrow"...I could go on and on! I won't tell you where to find these, try spotting them as you read through your bible, like a type of scripture version of "Where's Wally". The bible is so important and it is so widely read that it's sayings have been integrated into our language and our lives without us even knowing it!
It's a common misconception that the bible isn't relevant to our lives today, if you read through it, you can find passages that will inspire, amaze and comfort you. God speaks to us through his word; you can read the same chapters or books over and over again and each time a different passage or verse might jump out at you, depending on what is happening in your life and what He wants to reveal to you at that time.
The reason that I love the bible is this; God wrote us a survival guide to life! There is literally a piece of scripture for every single moment of our lives! His word is read at our Baptisms, our Weddings and our Funerals. God gives us advice and instruction on ALL things, so we can turn to Him and His word for everything. He loves us so much that He made sure that we weren't left to wander blindly through life...though He made it possible to do so if we choose.
2 Timothy 3:14-17 "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
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I am delighted (and shocked!) to announce that The Bible Lover has been featured in the list of Top 60 Bible Study Blogs 2019!
God is amazing, and through us He does amazing things!
https://blog.feedspot.com/bible_study_blogs/
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