The Bible, comprised of 66 books, is probably the most maligned book that ever has been written. It has been attacked as no other book has ever been attacked. Yet it has ministered and does minister to literally millions of people around the globe and it has been doing this now for several thousand years. A book of this nature and with this tremendous impact upon the human family certainly deserves the intelligent consideration of men and women.
In many ways the Bible is a most unusual book. For instance, it has a dual authorship. In other words, God is the Author of the Bible, and in another sense man is the author of the Bible. The Bible was written by about 40 authors over a period of approximately 1500 years (15 centuries). The writers lived at different times, were from diverse and contrasting cultures and backgrounds, lived under different governments and systems of philosophy. A few of the writers were separated by hundreds of years and some of these men never even heard of the other and in many cases most were strangers to each other. The writers of the Bible were businessmen or traders; others were shepherds, fishermen, soldiers, physicians, preachers, kings— from all walks of life. There was no collusion among the 40 and yet they have presented a book that has the most marvellous continuity and unity of any book that has ever been written. No other religious writings have 40 different witnesses who were credible. Their writings has one witness, the person who wrote it.
As the great scholar F. F. Bruce noted: “The Bible is not simply an anthology (collection of writings); there is a unity which binds the whole together.”
The Bible writers gave God’s messages by voice and pen while they lived, and when they died, their writings lived after them. These prophetic messages were then gathered together, under God’s leading, in the book we call the Bible.
The Scripture says in 2 Peter 1:20-21, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The Holy Bible affects human beings so profoundly, because the entire Bible is “God-breathed.” It’s more than a nice collection of moral principles; it’s more than a great book; it’s an inspired document, God’s book.
The Bible, as originally given through human agents of revelation, is infallible. The Holy Spirit revealed to the prophets the messages of Scripture. The writers of the Bible wrote not according to their own will or whim, but only as they were inspired by the Spirit of God. The Bible is God’s own book! It is a God-book. In the Bible, “God said…the Lord has said…thus saith the Lord,” etc. is expressed 2,500 times. God has made it very clear that He is speaking through this book. The Holy Scriptures, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, are the inspired and inerrant Word of God and does not contradict itself. It is a crucial article of faith with implications for the entire life and practice of all Christian people.
“The Bible’s truth does not depend in any way on whether or not a person believes the truth”. R C Sproul
The Bible is different from any other book. It is both divine and human. The Bible is God’s communication to man and just as God is eternal, the same can be said concerning His Word, it too is eternal, cannot be destroyed, will never change and is relevant to mankind yesterday, today and forever. The Bible is comprehensive and sufficient for everything pertaining to life and death. Psalm 119:89 says, Forever O Lord, Your Word is settled (fixed) in heaven [stands firm as the heavens] Psalm 119:89. The doctrines contained in the Holy Scriptures divides light and dark, right and wrong, life and death.
Sir Walter Scott, on his deathbed in 1832, asked his son-in-law to read to him. As he scanned Scott’s library of over 9,000 volumes of books asked, “What book shall I read?” Sir Walter replied, “there is but one, the Bible.” How true that is – there is but only one book for mankind – in life and in death.
“The Holy Scriptures are the Word of God written—I might say, lettered—and formed in letters, just as Christ is the eternal Word of God veiled in human nature.” “You are so to deal with the Scriptures that you bear in mind that God Himself is saying this. “The Scriptures have never erred.” Martin Luther
“The full trustworthiness of sacred Scripture must be defended in every generation, against every criticism”.
“If the Bible is the Word of God and if God is a God of truth, then the Bible must be inerrant – not merely in some of its parts, as some modern theologians are saying, but totally, as the church for the most part has said down through the ages of its history”. R C Sproul
“I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from The Saviour of the world is communicated to us through this Book.” – Abraham Lincoln
Finally, the teaching and study of God’s Word should educate the mind, stir the heart and motivate the will, inspiring us to represent the Kingdom of God here on earth. James 1:25 reads: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”