THE BIBLE

 


WHERE DID IT COME FROM?


"Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path"
Ps 119:105

The question we are examining is a broad one which can be approached from several different viewpoints as follows:

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A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
Ultimately, Christians believe that the Bible is The Word of God.
By this we mean that the Bible is the product of God's working with his people in such a manner that his instruction to mankind is in a written form that contains truth and is presented in a manner that is trustworthy.

Christians speak of the Bible being handed down to man by the
inspiration of God through his Holy Spirit.

By inspiration Christians believe that God has through his Holy Spirit empowered men to record His will and message in a manner that conveys His will accurately.
Inspiration does not mean that God has dictated the words recorded, but that he has empowered the writer to communicate God's will accurately in the writers own chosen language.

Thus we have the Apostle Paul writing to the Romans in his own chosen language, Greek, but in that writing being empowered by the Holy Spirit to express the truth of God's will and message accurately.

The same principle applies to the books of both Testaments, the Old and the New.  The chosen language of the Old Testament having been Hebrew (with some sections coming to us in Aramaic, a language derived from Hebrew).
The chosen language of the New Testament having been Greek.
These languages are not some form of Holy Spirit language, but the common language of the people receiving the writings.

Jewish and Christian scholars believe that God has worked through his faithful people to evaluate, treasure, and collect the Sacred Writings that manifest God's will and purpose into Sacred Collections (the Jewish Collection and the Christian Collection).
The process of this evaluation and collection we call the canonization of the Scripture.
Canon is a technical term that refers to those books that have stood the test of religious accuracy and wide spread use, that manifest God's will and purpose, and that have become the standard of faith for the Jewish and Christian communities.

The net result of this process we refer to as the Bible, a collection of Sacred Writings from both the Jewish and Christian communities of faith.

Christians thus refer to the Bible as the inspired Word of God in that in the Bible they believe they can learn God's will and instruction for faith and life.

Theologically, Christians believe the Bible to be the joint product of God working through His Holy Spirit in the lives of men who recorded God's will carefully and accurately in the language of their day.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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