Bible
Relevance of the Scripture
In the histoyr of the church there have been three great doctrinal controversies, all three cnetering on Jesus christi who is the theme of the bible.
The first occured in the early church over the person of christ
the second happened during the middle ages over the work of christ (how we’re saved)
the thrd is happening today over the word of christ. Is the bible the word of god? fif one can reduce the bible to words of man it does not matter since it is just opinion
s the bible as relevant as it was 2000+ years ago. heaven ad earth will pass away but it will never pass away
the bible is based on principle, the why behind the precept, we use principles every moment of every day therefore makign the bible adaptable
the bible gives us everything you need to know for faith and practice. It doesnt tell you everything just what we need to know “ the bible is our infalliable rule for faith and practice”
we say that the bible is gods word because it makes that claim for itself, this is called circular reasoning
the bible is sinpired. God inspired the bible to be written. inspired means god breathed. This makes the bible special. God spoke all the universe into existence. He breathed man ad his word into existence. This makes them specal and significant. Some critics suggested this word means.
natural ability: like a painting or song or literature, inspired like any great art
partial inspiration: suggested the bible was only inpsired in areas of faith/practice not hisotyr and science. Wrond (God is perfect, it wouldnt be possibe for him to produce a work or allow his name les than perfect)
conceptial inspiration: words not inspired, just the idea
encounter theory: bible contains the word of god but isnt the word of god. aka, neo-orthodoxy, if you read the bible and it impacts you, you had an encounter with god and it becomes the word of god. If you read the bible and it doenst impact you the bible isnt the word of god to you.
Biblical definition of inspiration
inpsiration: god working through fallible man, breathed his word to existence through the holy spirit
he did inspire
he did not dictate
he worked with each writer from birth to prepare them to write the exact words he wanted while allowing each writer to write in their own style and with their own avalible voabulary. Key to inspiration is prepartion
semantics- science of the meaning of words and how they change over time. 2nd meaning, to intentionally change the meaning of words to deceive or divert.
this is part of why pre evangelism makes sure everyoene define their terms. critics of the bible have changed the definiton of inspired to mean one of the above (natural, partial, etc)
clarify inspiration
verbal: each individual word is inpsired
plenary: every word, whole thing is inspired
infallible: can only teach the truth
inerrant: it is without error
the holy spirit also worked through the transmitters ad translators
2 the bible is unique
the bibe was written by over 40 wrters over 1500 years of time. in many different places amount different cultures and in 3 different langugages. yet there are no contridctions and it is in complete harmony with each other
the bible has been translated in more languages and more copies have been produced and sold; more people have read this book than any other in history. in addition, more acccompanying books have been written in support of the bile. it is the best seling book every year
the bible has survved the ravages of time (200+ year) and persecutions (attempts to kill it) and judge its value and authority
predicitve prophecy: over the years those who have predicted the future have done so that i could come true in many ways and times that it is possible for them in any particualr circumstance
isiaha, 100 years before, a guy named cyrus would let israleites to return home and build the temple, the time and name were unpresidented
daniels predicton of the birth of the messiah
the bibles use of hsotyr
gives historical info not found anywhere else. ciritics question valididty due to this. it hasnt been confirmed but time and time again critics were proven wrong
sodom and gamorah: after the hitties were take care of the critis jumped onto this even today the ruins of these two great citie have not been found ( beleived by same to be buried under the dead sea) this year the city may have been found. archlogsts dug a tunnel north of syira which had records of trade deals with sodom and gamaroh
many more continued. today archelogiy does no confirm the bible is the word of god but does confirm its accuracy
secular events are also covered and accurate the biblicatal dating makes more sense with known hsotical fact
personaltie: all historians of ancient writing say things in some way. even OT scrptures. in most hisotircal records, important persons were always seen in positive light. the bible doesnt do this, only the bible shows all aspects. EX: david is a man after gods own heart but also comiited adultery and killing
influence on the world: the bible is unique in its influence on the world and hisotyr. no other book has had the impact on the world, even other religions. See it as an authertative book
people continue to get saved every day
as a world view the bible alone does what it is supposed to do, answer the questons of life and help us understand the world around us and wh the world is how it is