Responding to such a question as the one stated on responding to a friend who asks you why you believe in the Bible, and asks "Isn't it a book just like any other piece of literature?" would be a difficult question, but let alone a very plausible question to be asked to a Christian in a one's lifetime. I have personally been asked this question before on multiple occasions, and there are many responses I have given as according to being sensitive to the circumstances upon which the question was asked. I believe in the Bible as being the authoritative word of God, and the divinely inspired, and breathed out word of God (2 Timothy 3:16). To use a response that would allow this message to portray itself accurately, I would likely use 3 main tactics in covering the basics of this question. Firstly, I would use an account of personal testimony of my life and the lives of others, since testimony cannot be proved wrongly unless there is a reason to believe the person is not a truthful person. Secondly, much of what I would use, would be an apologetic response, and finally, I would put into context the legitimacy of the Bible as in compariasson to other literatures in which they believe it is similar to, or no different from.
TESTIMONIAL RESPONSE
Using testimony to prove belief in the Bible, has always been a strong point in my being able to effectively share the truth with those who are questioning, or are unsure. I would probably firstly approach the situation by explaining to them how the Word of God saved my life. I would be sure to give them a testimonial account of my life going through times of utter despair of sickness, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, brokenness in the family, drugs, the death of my father and the abandonment o...
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...nesis 1:27, and Psalm 148:5 that reveal God as the creator of the universe, and the creator of purpose as having sent His son (John 3:16) to die for our sins, claiming victory over our broken, shattered, and confused lives. Since my life has been affected by an encounter with God, I know that God is a God of purpose and intention in creation, giving us meaning and rational prospect, and this would also be emphasized in what I would tell my friend. Finally, I believe it would be important to express the significance in God's word to my life today, and I would likely talk about how in life, we are constantly being refined and transformed by God, and how Biblically we read to become transformed instead of simply informed. Understanding my faith, and reading and meditating with an open heart and submission to the word, would also be something I would talk to them about.
The Bible for many has several interpretations, and meanings. There is not one interpretation or meaning in which Christians all believe identically. Each part of the Bible has its own symbolic meaning to each faith, and their ways to interpret those meanings may differ from other Christians. In Having Words with God: The Bible as Conversation by Karl Allen Kuhn, Kuhn describes the Bible as a conversation between several and God. In this essay there will be a different approach to the same metaphor effect describing the Bible but, as a Pizza. The Bible is like a Pizza in the ways of having many toppings (topics) and layers (depths within the text), not to mention the types or styles just like there are many styles of scripture
Believing in God is a pretty big deal, just once it would be nice for someone to give full frontal proof that God existed. None of that “you just have to believe” talk, just hardcore evidence. Well the bible does just that. How much more proof would someone need than legit stories of the truth? Prime examples like Moses and the burning bush, God reveals himself to Moses in a remarkable way, that shows his full power and beyond humanity abilities. Just like this he makes it known again with Elijah when he proves his existence by bringing his flame to the offering to show the other citizens that the only God they should be worshiping is him.
The Bible is the basis of truth in Christianity. If the Bible says something then Christians typically consider it is true. Just like how most atheists believe that the big bang and
The author maintains that the Christian counselor must not only utilize these practices in their counseling sessions, but must also live a Christian life, modeling the attributes of Christian values and core concepts to their clients (McMinn, 2011). The book begins with a discussion of prayer and scripture, and the way these elements can be successfully integrated into the counseling relationship, providing several models for the use of prayer as a counseling technique (McMinn, 2011). The book also outlines ethical dilemmas associated with the use of prayer and scripture as counseling techniques, including misinterpretation, overuse, and lack of training (McMinn, 2011). When applying Christian counseling techniques, McMinn suggests comparing techniques to scripture to ensure that therapeutic techniques are found in scripture directly, or are implied (McMinn, 2011). The counselor should use caution to avoid implementing techniques that are inconsistent with Biblical teachings (McMinn,
In my aunt’s case, she, too, was completely turned off to the gospel. At her husband’s funeral, two or three nuns came up to her and attempted to witness to her. Attempted mind you. What may or may not shock some people (however not surprising to me), was that they blatantly told my aunt that her husband went to hell. Again, this is at her funeral. I do not know if he did or did not believe in Christ as his Savior-I was too young at the time-but what an unfortunate way to let her know about the grace of God. It is no wonder she is still turned off to the gospel to this day.
Through the gaze of systematic theology, I find it to be true that there is authority in scripture, for all words in scripture are Gods words. Scripture is truthful and without error. Is inerrant and clear. And Scripture is necessary for knowledge of the gospel, and sufficient for our spiritual needs. Through studying Bible doctrine: essential teachings of the Christian faith, along with scripture itself, I have found the above doctrinal statement to be accurate.
Every Christians today knows the story of Jesus birth. The story of how Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem for a censes declared by the Roman Empire. While not being able to find an inn to stay in and Mary getting ready to give birth, they stow away in the cave where the animals were kept. While there Mary gave birth to a son and called him Jesus. While Jesus was in a manger a heavenly host of angles came down and also Shepard’s from the field came and rejoiced the savior was born. This is where the typical nativity scene comes from. Unless you have a Doctorate and teach a History of the New testament class and go into fine detail about the story, then story this is what people hear. Well this is for History of the New Testament so the fine details are what we are looking for. Most people do not realize that the story they tell every Christmas is actually a combination of two stories. The birth story is told in the Gospels of Luke and the Gospels of Mathew but each tell a very different version of what actually happened and that is what leads to people questioning the accuracy of the bible today.
The most highly referenced and revered as sacred are The King James Version, considered a masterpiece of English literature, The Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, The Aprocrypha, the books believed left out of some bibles, The Vulgate, the Latin Bible used for centuries by the Roman Catholic religion, and The Septuagint, the first ancient Greek translation of the Tanakh (Geisler and Nix 15, McCallum 4). The Bible is considered a sacred text by three major world religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Many believers consider it to be the literal truth. Others treat it with great respect, but believe that it was written by human beings and, thus is often contradictory in its tenets.
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
References Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. (n.d.). http://carm.org/what-is-friendship-evangelism Effective Evangelism Training. (2011). http://www.effective-evangelism-training.org/door_to_door.html Jesus is Savior. (n.d.). http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Basics/romans_road.htm
Throughout history, people and entire societies have heard of the Gospel. The Gospel is the considered to be the “heart” of the Biblical Narrative. In other words, the entire Bible centers around the Gospel and what the Gospel entails. Many have heard of the Gospel, but what lies deeper within the context of the Gospel message? People have heard of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John which are Biblical books in the New Testament that discuss Jesus’ life. They bring the reader from Jesus’ birth to His death in a chronological order. We can read about the miracles he performed and about all of the trials he faced in these books. However, the Gospel is about more than how Jesus lived and what he did. It is about why he came to earth and sacrificed himself and why this is important to us as humans. Through Him, we have been given the chance at eternal life. The Gospel is incredibly imperative to all lives and we must know how to interpret it before we can truly embrace it.
In another attempt to defile the integrity of scripture, critics have found what they believe to be flaws in the Old Testament. One example of this is a theological flaw. They propose that Christians create an entire idea or philosophy based merely on a singular verse or phrase. A great example of this is that the idea of original sin can only be supported by Psalm 91:5. (Suttile, 2008) This notion proposes that the Bible is not supportive of itself and also leads many to jump to conclusions and make uninformed assumptions. The idea marking its consequence by creating the stereotype of bigotry and uninformed decision making which deters credibility for the Christian religious institution as a whole. Another attack, and a very threatening
The Biblical cannon is the complete, inspired, and inerrant Word of God, inspired and preserved by God, including the construction of the cannon. It is composed of 66 books written by over 40 different authors over a thousand-year time span. The first set of writings were the Old Testament, complete approximately four centuries before the birth of Christ. The first book to be completed was the Torah, written by Moses approximately 1400 B.C. His writings were considered authoritative because of his authority as a prophet, backed the miracles God performed through him (Cartwright, Jonathan, Gutierrez & Hulshof 2016). The Torah, known in the English Bible as the Pentateuch, or five books, comprised the cannon to which all other books would be compared.
I am a young lady with faith, a born again Christian and practicing my faith in line with God’s word, the Holy Bible. This unusual introduction is imperative because it has largely influenced my life, perception and general outlook. It further emphasizes my absolute confidence in God. Whilst I may not win all arguments with my mates, I have always endeavored to trust God on what to say, how to say and when to say for full impact. Luke 21:15 says “For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict
The method of evangelism that I used for my witness report was the “Four Spiritual Laws.” I chose this method because it is simple straight to the point, and has facts that I believe cannot be disputed. It is also quick and simple to explain. How I started the conversation was simple actually, for a while one of my family members has been confused about if there is a god or not and the last time I came home we spoke about what I have learned down at Liberty. Thus I thought it would be a good idea to bring up what I learned during these past few weeks from this class. of course what I have learned from this class are different ways to evangelize and that is how the conversation started.