Lovin’ the Word

Forty-three years ago, I got my first Bible for Christmas, just three days before my sixth birthday. ‘My very own Bible!’ I thought.
How I loved to hold it in my little hands, turn the pages, look at the
few colored pictures, and try to understand the meaning of the King
James text.

I think I have been at a distinct advantage in my life because I grew up believing and accepting the Bible as the Word of God. I never really doubted it. Oh sure, in college, I tested it in
different ways; I asked myself ‘how could this or that be?’ questions,
and ‘is it really possible—creation in seven days?’ and that sort of
thing. In short order though, my conclusion was the same: the pages of
Scripture contain the thoughts and words of God, and because I
believe that is true, no other book on my shelf compares! Later in
college, I took theology classes, Old and New Testament survey classes, and those
served to shore up my thinking. But the Bible really began to ‘pop’ for
me when I began to boldly share my faith experience with someone, and
he would shoot back at me with some skeptical or scoffing statement. It
was then that I saw the Bible was defensible and solid, and when
combined with apologetics, is an indomitable force. (‘Apologetics’
simply is a logical, reasonable defense of the gospel.)

Take for instance, one night when I had gone to the home of a businesswoman in our community diagnosed with stage-four cancer . . . I went there to pray for healing . . . well, that all went
swell until her attorney husband came home, and thought that the little
visiting pastor woman deserved a some heckling. ‘You Christians—you’re
so arrogant, believing that Jesus is the only way to God…’ How amazing
that I knew what Jesus had said to such a statement—and so I said,
‘Well, actually, I didn’t say it, Jesus did—“I am the way, the truth,
and the life, and no man comes to the Father except through me.” So,
Joe, I didn’t say it; he did. I guess that’s good enough for me.’ You
see, Friends, we all live our life on some kinda’ standard, ‘ya know
what I’m saying? In my family, we play a lot of Scrabble, and the gold
standard for Scrabble is the dictionary. For my life, the standard is
the Bible. My retort to him was just the beginning--for me, for him,
and her too.

The Bible is defensible, supported by scientific, archaeological and historic evidence. “Examined objectively, the claims of the Bible are rational
propositions well supported by reason and evidence.” Charles Colson, Christian It is
really valuable to have a basic understanding of what you are holding
in your hands, the Bible is:

Old Testament

-It is a written record of the history of Israel, written between 1440 b.c. and about 400 b.c.; it is not ordered chronologically.

-There are 39 books in the Old Testament which can be classified as:

The Law of Moses – first five books – the Torah

The Prophets – Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel + 12 minor prophets

The Writings – Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles

-The Protestant church accepts identically the same Old Testament books as the Jews had, and as Jesus and the apostles
accepted. The Roman
Catholic Church, since the Council of Trent in 1546, includes 14 books of the Apocrypha

-There are 400 years between the testaments—sometimes called the ‘400 years of silence’

New Testament

-finished before 100 A.D. (knowing that is critical to supporting the veracity of Scripture)

contained in 27 books:

The Gospels – the four gospels record the birth, life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ, and his
training of the disciples

History - the establishment of the early church and its spread through Mediterranean lands

Letters – After Paul’s conversion on the Damascus Road in Acts 9, we are able to read his letters to the churches—the ‘epistles’

Apocalypse – the book of Revelation, written by the apostle John when he was on the Isle of Patmos

The NT was written by the apostles of Jesus Christ, or companions of the apostles. This means that
the authors were either eyewitnesses of the events they described or they recorded eyewitness
firsthand accounts (2 Peter
1.16; 1 John 1.1-3; 1 Corinthians 15.6-8; John 20.30,31; Acts 10.39-42;
1 Peter 5.1; Acts 1.9; Acts 2.22; Acts 26.24-28)

It is valuable to know that the first three gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) were written at a time when many were alive who could remember the
things Jesus said and did. . . and many would still be alive when the
fourth one was written as well. They would have been refuted and the
writers discredited if they recounted or represented falsehoods.

While the Bible is inspirational and useful for instruction and application to our lives, it can be defended! Regarding the life
of Jesus, remember, the gospels were written when people were
alive who could have refuted them, their claims about Jesus’ life,
death, miracles and resurrection. Do not be mistaken . . . the Bible is
one marvelous book.

Christine