*Special thanks to my hubby who helps me with compiling the data and more for this series.

Lets imagine for a moment that you’ve decided among all the books ever written throughout time that there is still missing *a book that contains the answers to life’s most important questions. Along with yourself you see people everywhere asking the hard questions but never really coming to any clear conclusions that answer these issues. So you decide to do something about it. You invite 40 of the  most brilliant educated individuals known in all the world and ask each of  them to write one chapter that not only addresses these questions but provides answers to them as well. (Of course, you don’t tell them what the topics are, they will just write from their heart and own experiences). What do you think you will get?

I guarantee you it won’t be …consistency. Everyone’s writings will be based on their own personal beliefs and experiences.

Now take the Bible. It is comprised of…

• 66 separate books

• written by 40 different authors

• written over a span of  aprox. 1500 years

• written in three different languages: Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic and finally preserved in English (KJV 1611). *Notice it is written in the world’s major languages according to different times in history.
  

• written from three different continents…for example…Romans was written by Paul when he was in Europe,  Daniel written in Asia, and parts of Genesis and Exodus were written by Moses when he was in Africa

• written through times of peace (such as King Solomon’s reign) and war (see Joshua and I&II Kings)   *The point here being that emotions change during such events and yet the bible is consistent.

• every book has the same under-lying theme… “THE DAY OF THE LORD” (Acts 3:20-21 testifies of this by saying…”And he {God} shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” By the way, The Day of the Lord includes the time of the rapture of the church and the 7 year tribulation which will be a bit like hell on earth. You don’t want to be here during that time.

And yet the entire Bible fits together as if written by one man. There are no contradictions, though some think there are {just because something appears to be contradictive doesn’t make it so. It just means more study is required.} The Bible is the inspired Word of God. God made this happen. Its the only possible conclusion. And besides, He says so…II Peter 1:21 “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

Now you may be thinking, “why should I care”? Good question. Here is why…

• the whole Bible, all 66 books are about one Messiah, Jesus Christ, who is God ~ and here’s the rub on this one… according to the Bible, it isn’t possible for there to be any other God’s or Messiah’s. To the Jew I say, your Messiah has come- its recorded by eye witnesses in the Bible and this is the record God requires you to believe (read the Old Testament accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). To the Buddhist, Hindu’s, Muslims etc I say, …your prophets and the like have all died and remain dead till now. Only Jesus Christ has an empty tomb (Luke chapter 24). To the Catholics I say, the Bible says in I Timothy 2:5 ” There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”  You don’t need the Pope or the “Saints” you pray to, nor do you need to confess to a priest and Peter is not the rock of the Catholic church.  To the athiest’s I say,  (Psalm 53:1) “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.”  To the agnostic I say, to not choose Christ is to reject him. You are making a choice by not making a choice.  Isaiah 45:21… ” and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.”
  

• the answers to eternal life are found in here…Jesus himself said in John 5:39  “Search the scriptures:  for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”  See also John 14:6

*That “missing book” I mentioned above? Well, its not missing. It is the Bible. God made sure that we had a preserved copy of everything he thought was important enough for us to know- just like he promised in (Psalms 12:6-7). It is our responsibility to read it. We will, after all, be judged by the things that are written in there.

If you have a personal relationship with God through Christ, the Holy Spirit will help it all make sense as you compare spiritual things with spiritual. That is, compare scripture with scripture. It will take work. Anything  of value can be expected to take time and diligence in studying. Do you know him?

*II Peter 1:2-4 “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

If you have questions about anything I shared here please feel free to leave me a comment. We have 11 more Saturdays to go in this summer series. I may completely surprise you with next week’s topic. I hope you’ll come back! Subscribe here to make sure you don’t miss anything.