APPROACHING THE BIBLE

What Is the Bible? The word Bible come from the Greek word biblios, which simply means book. This one book is actually composed of sixty-six separate books.

What Is the Bible? The Old Testament was written over the period of a thousand years. The New Testament was written within the span of one century.

Why Should We Study the Bible? The Bible is the most important literature of the Western world. The Sovereign God has chosen to speak. We should listen.

Hindrances to Listening 1.God's revelation did not come in the English language or through Western culture. 2.We have a tendency to be selective about what we hear 3.We try to make the message conform to what we want to hear.

The objectives of the biblical authors must not be subordinated to our own objectives, however worthy the latter may be.

“The Bible is primarily a religious book.” It is a book written from the perspective of faith. It is through the books of the OT and NT that a person can come to know about Judaism and Christianity.

SELF-REVELATION The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself. Through the Bible the reader comes to know God better. The Bible is God's invitation to hear his story.

Quotes about the Bible

The Bible is a harp with a thousand strings. Play on one to the exclusion of its relationship to the others, and you will develop discord. Play on all of them, keeping them in their places in the divine scale, and you will hear heavenly music all the time. --William P. White

Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. --Mark Twain

Here, then, is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God's Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy. --R. C. Sproul

It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible. --George Washington The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world. --Charles Dickens The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all that oppose it. – Napoleon

In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.--Robert E. Lee I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this Book that you can by reason and the balance by faith, and you will live and die a better man. It is the best Book which God has given to man. -- Abraham Lincoln