General Introduction of the
Bible. 1. INTRODUCTION: The Bible is one book, one story, written by God regarding Jesus Christ.
Bible: 66 books
OT (Old Testaments): 39 books
NT (New Testaments): 27 books
Chapters: 1189 chapters Verses: 31,173 verses Words: 77,4746 words (KJV) Characters: 2930 characters Language: 3 languages Nations: 10 nations Authors: 40 people Duration 1500-1600 years (BC 1445 Moses to 100 AD) 2. BODY
I. What is the Bible? (2 Tim 3:16-17; 1 Cor 2:9-10; 2 Peter 1:21) 1> The Scripture is the Book of
God.
A. It is written by 40 authors who were inspired by the Spirit, about the Word of God’s revelation, Despite written by so many writers who lived at different times, at different places, and in different cultures, in different languages and different literary forms, the Scripture showed its harmony and consistence in the theme of the Scriptures as if it was written under the direction of one conductor. B. Therefore we believe this scripture is written by God. Since, it is the book of God, it is Perfect, Sufficient, Absolute, True, Sure, Everlasting, sole standard for life. 2> The Scripture is the Book of Revelation. A. Revelation means act of revealing or disclosing what was hidden in the past. The Scripture is God’s self-disclosure through the Holy Spirit to the human authors. God revealed Himself in the Scripture. God revealed His Kingdom, His plan for salvation, His purpose, to us in this Book. B. Man could not know God’s identity, attributes, and commands if God did not revealed them to him. God has to reveal himself to man. Christianity depends on revelation of God. Nobody would know the truth about God unless God revealed himself to us. Nobody is able to have relationship with God unless God make himself known. 3> The Scripture is all about God. A. The main focus of the Scripture is God Himself. The Scripture is about His Kingdom, His laws, His reign and His people. B. The main focus of the Scripture is God’s plan for salvation. The Scripture is all about God’s Salvation C. The ultimate focus of the Scripture is for the glory to God. The Scripture reveals the glory of God. The Scripture demands us to bring all the glory to God. 4> The Scripture is the Book of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit inspired the human authors when they wrote this book. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we cannot understand it correctly. We must be absolutely humble before God and ask His grace to understand the Bible. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. (Jn 16:13) 5> The Scripture is the Book of Men.
God used men, who are diverse, (40 authors) God used them according to their own experiences, situations and characters. Authors lived in different century, different cultural background and languages. We need to consider 4 things in order to interpret the Bible accurately; Language, cultures, geography, history. Without understanding these 4, we might misunderstand what God says in the Bible. We might see what we want to see, not what God wants us to see
II. What should we do with the Bible? (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2) We should meditate on it day and night. (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2) Meditation; Hebrew meaning of meditation includes reading, listening, and obeying 1> We should read it. We should read it with fear and trembling daily, repeatedly, carefully and persistently. 2> We should listen to it. We should listen to what God says to us in the Bible with absolute attitude, 3> We should think about it deeply. We should think about the meaning of it, the application into our practicaly lives with prayerful minds. 3>
We should obey it. (act it; do it)
We should obey it as God commanded us to do.
3. Conclusion: The
Bible is the Word of God. What the Bible
says is what God says to us. Therefore, we must receive it and obey it with absolute attitude. We must revere the Bible as God’s own Word with fear
and trembling. The Bible is food for our soul. The Bible is instruction for our life. The Bible is
the wisdom for us. The Bible is light for those who are in the darkness. The
Bible is the life for our spirit. We should be grateful to God for this gift of
his written word. We can fully trust this book and our life should be entirely
and exclusively based on this book. Through the Scripture, we can come to know God, Jesus,
His kingdom, His laws and His plan for salvation. We can have the Eternal life
with God in His Kingdom through faith in Jesus. (Jn 3:16) |