Bible Basics - 1

What is the “Bible”? Interestingly, the term “Bible” is not found in the Bible. The English word Bible is derived from the Greek word biblion (book), which came from the word for the bark of the papyrus plant which was used as writing material in ancient times. “Bible” refers to the collection of books that make up “the Scriptures,” writings that are considered to be of divine origin. “In Jerome’s time the whole collection was known as the divine library (Bibliotheca), which draws attention to the diversity within the whole. The Bible is simultaneously ‘the book’ and ‘the books,’ both a single volume and a library” (Zondervan’s Pictorial Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 553-554).

What is the Old Testament? The Old Testament – a term offensive to modern Jews, as “old” implies a now-defunct status – is a collection of books written and preserved by the Jewish people. The Old Testament (cf.2 Cor 3:14) covers two basic periods of ancient history:

• The Patriarchal Age – This is the earliest phase of human history when God interacted with mankind through heads of households/clans. There is no written account of God’s commands during this period, but in the historical record (chiefly the book of Genesis, and also Job) there are many references to known expectations/laws among ancient people.

• The Mosaic Age – This comprises the bulk of Old Testament material and reflects a special covenant and relationship that God had with one particular nation, Israel, or the Jews. Moses was a special leader and mediator between God and the Jews, and the law he instituted is often called the “Law of Moses,” even though there were many other “amendments” to the law through writing prophets (i.e., Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, etc).

Why is the Old Testament so hard to understand? Any book would be hard to understand if you mixed up all the chapters and then tried to read the story straight through. This is what many people do with the Bible. They don’t realize that the books are, for the most part, not arranged in chronological order. The Jewish people, who compiled the writings, arranged them by subject matter. So, it will help to commit the following numeric sequence to memory: 5, 12, 5, 5, 12. This sequence represents the topical headings of the 39 OT books:

5 – Books of law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy). These contain the written laws between God and Israel.

12 – Books of history (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther). Some of these are chronological, but the last three actually come at the end of the OT time frame.

5 – Books of poetry (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon). Don’t think of modern poetry; Jewish poetry isn’t based on rhyme and meter.

5 – Books of major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel). These are “major” prophets only because they are generally longer books than the “minor” prophets.

12 – Books of minor prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi).

Again, these are shorter books, but the word of God is just as powerful and authoritative no matter how numerous the prophecies or how prominent the prophet. The most important aspect of understanding the OT is learning the story line in proper sequence. All of us have the ability to follow a plot, and when learn where each of the OT books fits into the plot, the meaning of the OT will become much clearer to us.

HARD PREACHING

Everyone probably has their definition of what “hard preaching” is. Preachers who are serious about the truth are finding the very task of preaching to be harder and harder because so many have lost real love for it.

It is not uncommon to hear somebody say about a visiting preacher, or someone of whom they have received report, “He sure does preach hard.” Possibly you are acquainted with statements heard about a preacher conducting a Gospel meeting, “Do you preach that hard at home?” as if there should be a conscious effort by the preacher to preach “hard” away from home but “softer” at home.

What is this thing called “hard preaching?” It might depend upon how applicable the sermon is to the life of the one doing the measuring. If the sermon called for something the hearer has already done, that is not too hard. If it condemned something of which the hearer is not guilty, that is not too hard. But if the lesson presented God’s requirements in a matter that the hearer has not obeyed, or condemned some sin of which he is guilty, then that sermon might be labeled by him a “hard sermon” and the preacher a “hard preacher.”

In our day, there seems to be a lessening desire for certain sounds, sound speech, sound doctrine and clear distinction between truth and error. Some are repulsed by anything that shows the line God has drawn. They often insinuate that the preacher has drawn the line of his own authority rather than what he has actually done; namely, brought attention to the line God has drawn. But such preaching is called “hard.”

With some, only the mushy, ambiguous, “yo” type of sermons (those kind where you can take it either way, yes or no, whatever you like) is judged to be preaching “in the Christian spirit.” Even among many brethren this attitude of choosing what you like and discarding what you do not wish to accept, (the same attitude that has dominated the denominational world throughout history), is very much in evidence. A growing number just would prefer nothing that is demanding or that possibly could offend anyone. As one elder once told me of a sermon(?) he heard from a preacher(?), “It was wonderful. Nobody was upset and nobody felt guilty. Nobody was aroused and all left feeling good.”

I challenge anybody, if they really “preach the word,” to offend nobody. What can you preach? You will not preach Jesus Christ as the Son of God because that will be too hard for the unbeliever. You cannot teach that salvation is only in the church because non-members may become offended. You certainly cannot teach the moral standard of Christ because that would offend liars, the dishonest, the adulterers in multi-married relationships, drinkers, swearers, on and on. To them, moral purity is hard preaching. Just sit down and try to figure it out and see if there is much of anything in the Bible that you can preach that somebody does not call “hard preaching.” You will find you have no material left.

You really cannot even preach the truth on the lovely theme of love because so many have the distorted impression that love means acceptance regardless of what you do, that it is only an emotion that prevents objecting to any doctrine whether false or not, crossing anybody despite their conduct. Few subjects have been as maligned in our time as the subject of love. That love demands obedience is “hard preaching” to many people even though Jesus said we show our love by our obedience. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).“And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say” (Luke 6:46)? The inspired apostle John wrote, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3).

While there is no excuse or justification for deliberately abusive speech from the pulpit or anywhere else, we need to “get our heads on straight” before we cast stones at what some have called “hard preaching.” It just could be that the truth is being preached just as the Word of God has revealed it and what is “hard” is the heart of the one who is hearing it, who does not really want it, and therefore will simply reject it, hoping to someway cast some discredit against it by calling it “hard preaching.”

Give Attendance to Reading

Now since the New Year has begun how many resolutions have you broken, changed or fudged on? It one of your resolutions was to read the Bible through this year may I encourage you to do so. A big task, where do I start, where will I ever find the time are concerns but can be overcome by realizing that it will only take 20 minutes a day. This will allow you to read four chapters and thereby the entire Bible in 298 days.

But reading is not the problem. Time or rather the proper allocation of time is. It used to be when greeting someone with how are you they would reply fine, but now it’s busy. Busy is only found once in the Bible, 1 Kings 20:40 “busy here and there” and he let a prisoner escape. Time is the most precious commodity we have and no one wants to waste it. John in Revelation 1:3 said “Blessed is he that readeth”. Jesus asked several times about reading: Matthew 19:4 “have ye not read”, 21:6 “have you never read”, 21:42 “did you never read”. When the Lord asks us that question in the day of judgement hopefully we will be able to answer in the affirmative - yes, Lord we spent time reading.

We must not just own a Bible, carry a Bible, display a Bible but we must read it. “Seek ye out the book of the Lord and read….”, Isaiah 34:16. An unread Bible is as useless as an uncashed check, an unredeemed coupon, unclaimed inheritance, untaken medicine, or uneaten food. The Bible is, as one has said like a telescope - look through it and you see worlds beyond, look at it and you see a telescope. Most only look at the Bible as a dead letter and see old words, a dead book.

Besides being “too busy” another excuse is it’s too difficult. That I think is the lamest of excuses in our sophisticated age of technology. People seem quite capable of mastering all kinds of electronic gadgets and besides there are many study helps to glean the full meaning from the pages of God’s word. Quite possibly the real problem is we are just plain lazy. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:12 “Much stud is a weariness of the flesh”. Yes it takes effort.

The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy “give attendance to reading”. Give attendance to what Paul? Reading. Reading the scriptures that make us wise unto salvation, 2 Timothy 3:15. Not all religious material will give us such wisdom however. In our age of multiculturialism and tolerance there is a trend to consider any and all religions of eternal benefit. So, the thinking is I can take some from the Quran, the Veda, the Book of Mormon and any New Age fluffy philosophy or even from one from outer space and be pleasing to God. No. Keep in mind the admonition Paul writes in Galatians 1:8,9 that even if and angel brings another gospel let him be accursed. That requires one to know (which comes by reading) what the Gospel is. It is the Bible, the good news “once delivered”, Jude 3, that arms one against the religious hoaxes passing themselves off as the word of God.

During the Dark Ages the Roman Catholic Church as much as chained the Bible to the pulpit requiring the “lay” person to get their knowledge from some man or “clergy” (a Catholic term). Any person or religion that takes one away from the Bible is a false religion. The Bible today is unchained and available to be read by anyone. What is lacking? Two things. A realization that the Bible is the source of truth, John 17:17 and second, a love of truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:11,12. Begin now reading and learning the Bible. Your destiny is within it’s pages.

Thanks For Coming!

Thanks to everyone that came to our Gospel Meeting, we appreciated it! If you didn't make it you can listen to it here on our site!

Don't forget to to listen to the other lessons we have posted!

New Sermons!!!!!

Things have been busy but we finally got some new sermons uploaded so go ahead and check them out and tell us what you think!

Have you ever wondered about coming up short?

Leaving a store after making a purchase you count the change, and if you come up short, you go back. If in getting directions, a few turns are omitted, you arrive late, or not at all. Your recent eBay purchase didn't have all that was advertised, you file a claim.

No, we don't like to come up short. We want all that was advertised or promised, no surprises. What about being shorted on spiritual information; the promise of eternal life, but with just a few "tidbits" of information left out?

This is the greatness of God's word in that it gives us all we need to know for life and godliness, 2 Peter 1:3. No other book is needed, but at the same time we must have the "whole counsel of God," Acts 20:27. What we might be told may be good, but just incomplete, as valuable as a 6ft. ladder in a 20ft. flood --- it comes up short.

information such as "How one can be absolutely certain of going to heaven" needs to include all the information from God's word, the Bible. The apostle Peter addressed that issue in Acts 2:37, 38. Did those Jews believe? Yes. Did they acknowledge they were sinners? Yes. Did Peter then tell them to be thankful God had forgiven them? Counted them as holy? Assured them of eternal life? Not until they had complied with Acts 2:38.

Jesus said in Mark 1:15 to repent and believe the gospel, but one will come up short by ignoring Jesus' remarks in Mark 16:15, 16 (as Paul Harvey says "And now the rest of the story") because here Jesus says one must believe and be baptized to be saved. The words of Jesus and Peter are ignored or explained away because they don't fit what we have been told, or they make us uncomfortable. Consequently one will come up short on the day of judgment having no excuse for not having personally searched the scriptures to see if what is being told is the truth, all the truth, and nothing but the truth.

Are people born naturally inclined to do wrong??

The common term is "original sin" when referring tot his theory. The Bible verse that is often used is Ephesians 2:3 "And wereby nature the children of wrath." Interestingly the Greek word for "by nature" is defined as "a mode of feeling and acting which by long habit has become nature." It has nothing to do with how one is born or the inherited quality but one's environment and the habits learned from it.

"Oh, but look how that baby is inherently selfish. He cries when he wants something that doesn't have, is not bothered that it doesn't belong to him, or that he disturbs others in the process." This they say, is an indication of an "inherent sinful nature," but did Adam and Eve want the forbidden fruit and demonstrate these qualities called "inherent selfishness" BEFORE the fall? Sin had not entered the world, therefore their acts were not sin.

What apparently is missing is a distinction between desire to gratify self, which is God placed in man and is not wrong, and selfishness, which is exclusive regard for one's own interests at the expense of another or in disobedience to God.

Man (Adam and Eve) was created in the image of God, Genesis 1:27 with self interest, the fallen nature was developed, as it is today, by responding to the Devil's temptations. Consequently, babies are not born win sin but learn it from their environment.