Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Being born a Christian, to be exact, 19 years of being a Christian, I did not realise the importance of Bible knowledge and the fact for a Christian to really believe that the Bible is true is rather essential until recently. People questioned my faith and belief has made me speechless and being unable to reply to their questions. This feeling of realising how shallow my Bible knowledge is I guess many cannot understand since it is just a religion afterall. But to me (and all Christians), Christianity is a relationship, not just a religion.
Obviously, I’m feeling guilty now. (extremely)
Well, I found this book that gives answers to questions about Christian faith and reasons why we should consider Christianity. Basically, it shows evidence that the Bible can be proven true in many areas, mainly using scientific facts. And it started off with this topic.
What makes the Bible so special?
Christianity believes and teaches that the Bible alone is revealed Word of God. Even though it was written by men, the ultimate author was God Almighty. This claim was not invented by the Church, but is the claim the Bible makes for itself.
The Bible claims to be a record of the words and deeds of God, thus the Bible views itself as God’s word. The mere fact that the Bible claims to be the Word of God does not prove that it is such, for there are other books that make similar claims. The difference is that the Scriptures contain convincing evidence as being the Word of God. One reason that the Bible is different from other books is its unity. Although this book was composed by men, its unity reveals the hand of the Almighty. The Bible was written over a period of about 1500 years by more than forty different human authors. These authors came from a variety of backgrounds, including Joshua ( a military general ), Daniel ( a prime minister ), Peter ( a fisherman ) etc.
The authors of the various books wrote in different places, such as the wilderness ( Moses ) and prison ( Paul ). The biblical writings were composed on three different continents ( Africa, Asia and Europe ), and in three different languages ( Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek).
The contents of the Bible deal with many controversial subjects. Yet, the Bible is a unit. From the beginning to end, there’s unfolding story of God’s plan of salvation for mankind. This salvation is through the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself testified that He was the theme of entire Bible. The Bible is all about Jesus.
The entire Bible is a unity with each part needing the others to be complete. Lest anyone think this isn’t something marvelous, we’d like to give you this challenge. Find 10 people from your local area having similar backgrounds, who speak the same language as you, and all are from basically the same culture. Then separate them and ask them to write their opinion on only one controversial subject, such as the meaning of life.
When they have finished, compare the conclusions of these 10 writers. Do they agree with each other? Of course not. But the Bible did not consist of merely 10 writers, but 40. It was not written in one generation, but over a period of 1500 years, not by authors with the same education, culture and language, but with vastly different education, many different cultures, from three continents ad three different languages, and finally not just one subject but hundreds. And yet, Bible is a unity! There is complete harmony, which cannot be explained by coincidence or collusion. The unity of the Bible is a strong argument in favor of its divine inspiration.
The unity of the Scriptures is only one reason among many which supports the Bible’s claim to be the divine Word of God. Others which could be explained in detail are testimony of the early church, the witness of history and archaeology, and the evidence of changed lives throughout the centuries.
These factors led the great archaeologist W. F Albright to conclude, “The Bible towers in content above all earlier religious literature; and it towers just as impressively over all subsequent literature in the direct simplicity of its message and the catholicity of its appeal to men of all lands and times”
The Bible is special and unique. No other book has such credentials. No other book even comes close. “England has two books, the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare, but the Bible made England” ( Victor Hugo )Labels: Josh McDowell and Don Stewart - Answers and Reasons
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