THE BIBLE
Hey there! What is the Bible? What does it say? Can it be trusted? Where did it come from? Can a book that old be relevant for today? These are all amazing questions, and I am glad you are seeking answers to them. So, lets dive right in.
What is the Bible? The word bible means “book or books.” This document we call the Bible is a collection of many books from various authors from various historical times and settings all the way back to creation and up to the time of Christ and a collection of letters from a number of men who lived in the first century C.E. (A.D.) that had encountered Christ Jesus. The Book is divided into two different sections called testaments, The Old Testament and The New Testament. Testament is another way of saying Covenant. A Covenant is a legal agreement. The Bible is a legal agreement that God has made with humans. God promises to do certain things if we agree to keep our end of the deal. The Old Covenant was an agreement with the nation of Israel and their descendants, and the New Covenant is the agreement God made with anyone will believe and follow the stipulations laid out in this new agreement.
What does the Bible say? It gives an account of creation, the fall and demise of man, the entry of sin in the human race and the world and God’s remedy for the malady of the human condition. The Bible is God’s redemptive story told and experienced through the eyes and writings of men and women throughout history. The Old Covenant tells of the institution of God’s law-civil, moral and spiritual and man’s failure to keep it, again confirming the fact the sin entered the world like a disease and spread through the whole race of man causing eternal separation from God and eternal doom for those who are outside of the covenant. It introduced the idea of a Kingdom to rule over the whole earth and bring every other Kingdom under its dominion led by none other than God Himself through his Virgin born Son Jesus the Christ who was not genetically defiled by sin but yet feels the pain of sin and bears the scars of sin. It is a story of God’s love for his creation and the price he was willing to pay in order to redeem or buy back all who were sold into the slavery of sin by giving His one and only Son as a ransom for all through his death on the cross where he bore in his body the sins of the whole world and his triumphant resurrection from the grips of death and the grave. Since the grave was held powerless to hold him, Jesus is able to save (rescue from sin, eternal death and the grave and give back the Eternal life God intended for his creation) all who accept his new covenant. The New Covenant is a covenant of divine exchange, He left heaven and gave up his divine privilege and died a sinner’s death to give us all that God has intended for us. The Bible teaches us how to live out this New Covenant and how to overcome every trial and struggle between now and eternity through the power of the gift of his Spirit that will live in every new believer.
Can the Bible be trusted? Well, my friend that is a decision that you will have to make on your own. I can say this though, I have been trusting in the Author of this book and his son Jesus for over 40 years and there is nothing to be compared to the joy, freedom, and miracles that I have experienced during this time (in the middle of all of life’s toils and trauma). I would love to go into detail, but I will save that for another day and another blog.
To be continued….
Can I pray for you?
Prayer page — Vineyard Moss Bluff (vineyardmb.org)
~ Pastor Tim