Erwin W Lutzer introduces his book “Seven Reason Why You Trust the Bible” by portraying a common belief that the Bible could not possibly be from God because it was clearly written by men. With the culture we live in now, there are countless religious options to put your beliefs in, so how is Christianity any different from the others? Christians say that the Bible is inspired by a God which makes it unlike any other religion, but who says there is a God? Lutzer’s mission with this book is to present the evidence to support the authenticity of the Bible. To actually prove that the Bible is the Word of God, ultimately, would lead to an argument of definition and always leave a gap for faith; so instead, Lutzer will answer many common questions about things that seem to invalidate the Bible such as scientific and historical points.
He begins by discussing the dual authorship of the Bible. The Bible is called “The Word of God” but that doesn’t mean that God told the human authors every word to write verbatim. Each author had in their own way of transferring the message of the Lord to paper commonly differing in style, grammar, and assembly of each book. For
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He also writes that even though the Bible is an inspiring book that does not mean that all of it inspires us, rather that God inspired it and it carries his insignia. Which also means, it is inspired in the scientific and historical areas as well not only the doctrinal aspects of it. Each word is important to keep the original meaning; one might need to look at the original words in the older manuscripts to find the accurate meaning. Although today, we only have the copies of copies it was originally free from error so we can say with confidence that the Bible is the “Word of
Robert A. Krieg uses modern English to explain the Bible that make easier for people to understand the contents of the Bible. The first chapter, Creation and salvation is really good for beginners who does not understand or does not have any background or concept of Christianity, and it is interesting to read the stories, although some descriptions are not logic or have several inconsistencies. Krieg uses creation for beginning that opens up the mystery of the world, which make more sense for human’s daily life and people who wonder how everything happened. God is the creator of this world, and he/she used six days to create, and the seventh day is resting day, which is our Sunday now. The seven days a week is God’s creation, and also the human, men and woman.
In, “True and Living Word”, Gomes introduces the readers to a variety of topics and attempts to explain how the Bible relates to them. These topics are: The Bible and...The Good Life, Suffering, Joy, Evil, Temptation, Wealth, Science, and Mystery. The Good Life is a slightly more detailed repetition of Gomes’ main point. This section again explains how the Bible is a living text, as it withstands the test of time and applies to all those who read it, and how people are scared of admitting their Biblical illiteracy. Gomes makes a broad statement in this section that everyone feels drawn towards the Bible, subconsciously know it is holy, and want to read it but do not know how. He also states that the Bible is difficult to read and requires great analysis to truly understand it’s message. The other seven sections discuss how the Bible connects to each of them. These seven section are essentially a “crash course” on the Bible’s
William C. Plachers’ article, “Is the Bible True?” explores deeper into the subject of the Bible and if it content it contains is credible information. Through Plachers’ statement, “We need to understand the genre to understand a text. Reading a text literally is not always reading it faithfully,” we are able to reach the idea that the Bible is in fact true, but it all depends on how the individual interprets the text.
Moreover, the fact that the reference to the term “Word” in the Gospel is a re...
...nature of God, the world, and human beings, the Bible is a source from which a reasonably comprehensive worldview may be constructed. Many narratives or teachings of Scripture speak directly to the various elements of a worldview” (Palmer, pp 93) .
“We know now that text is not a line of words releasing a single ‘theological’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author-God) but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash. The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture.” (188) 文本的多重解读First reading material’s quotation
“The Bible is a special revelation from God to man of truths concerning Himself, His purposes, His plans, His will, man and his sinful nature, and God’s redemptive plan for man.”
Harris, Stephen. Understanding The Bible. 6 ed. New York City: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2002. Print.
God’s written law is something that is and should be continuously turned, to not only when Christians find themselves in need, but also throughout in one’s daily life. The four gospels tell to story of Jesus’ life and his teachings he gave while on the earth making it possible for there to be a true example of Christ-like faith. The proposition that there are differences in the story of Jesus and in his teachings seems to question the basis upon which the Christian faith is found upon. Rather than proclaiming the gospels as falsehoods because on the differences they possess, by analyzing the differences in the context of the particular gospel it can be understood that the differences are not made by mistake, rather as a literary device. While the four gospels have differences and similarities, they cannot be regarded as an argument against the faith because their differences are what point to the many aspects of Christ.
As part of revivals in Christian faith during 18th century onward three practices evolved into their own interpretation on the place and authority of Scripture in the Christian faith. The first of these were the Liberals who “viewed themselves as the saviors of a defunct out of date Christianity” (Bingham 149). Their founder, Friedrich Schleiermacher an 18th century pastor, “did not view traditional, authoritative doctrines, creeds and biblical texts as the preeminent sources in theology (150). Instead the Liberal perspective of Christianity put more emphasis on the doctrines of sin and grace and less attention on the holiness of the trinity (Kerr 213). Jesus was viewed as a historical figure that we can learn from spiritually and the Bible is used as a source of knowledge on Christian history (Bingham 152, 153). In this theological movement being a Christian is considered “nothing but feeling and experience” (Lane 238).
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
The author of this book, Lee Strobel, struggled for almost two years, sometimes jumping from one issue or topic to another and then back again, investigating the facts of Jesus for himself. He traces his journey from skepticism to faith.
Spanning fifteen hundred years with over 30,700 manuscripts, extensive archaeological evidence and 2000 prophecies that have been fulfilled, the Bible is God 's word to us. (Yohn, 2013). In the Bible, the Father is essentially giving us a picture of the history of the world and is also leading us to a place where we must make a decision that involves whether we choose to accept his son or reject him and remain guilty. Additionally, the Word of God tells us what happened that caused this breach between us and God, the result of this and how God has rectified it through the blood of his son. In fact, from the beginning of the Bible (written 1400 B.C.) to the last book (A.D. 96), God is showing us why we need Jesus and how to find him. Just as a plant’s root system propagates and occupies the pot that encloses it, Jesus permeates the entire Bible. Therefore, the motif of the Bible is the story of the redemption of mankind and it all points to Jesus as the messiah and savior who secures this for all.
He does not feel that always of oral communication are bad just that they can misconstrue the message that needs to be sent at times. The written language is very clear into the point when it is expressed into the reader the truth about God’s word. “This way was more precise, more permanent, more subjective, and more easily disseminated and any other media he utilized” (Geisler & Nix, 2012, p.164). In the written form the writer can go into great detail thanks for the whole story without leaving anything out. In regards to oral communication often times there are parts that are missed because there is not time to fit them all in. “In addition, it militates against misinterpretation and mistransmission of the message” (Geisler & Nix, 2012, p.165). The written language will always be more accurate, because there is less of a chance for the words to be altering as they are during oral communication. “No matter how careful and oral communication is related, there is always a greater chance for corruption and alteration then with recorded words” (Geisler & Nix, 2012, p.165). When someone is translating a message they will always put things in their own words or alter it to fit the audience in which they are speaking to at that time. This can alter the meaning of that message that needs to be conveyed to the
Answering these questions is the purpose of this essay. I begin by arguing that the Bible cannot be adequately understood independent of its historical context. I concede later that historical context alone however is insufficient, for the Bible is a living-breathing document as relevant to us today as it was the day it was scribed. I conclude we need both testimonies of God at work to fully appreciate how the Bible speaks to us.