The Bible

Throughout the Bible we can read God's plan taking shape slowly but surely from stage to stage over thousands of years. As important as the Bible is to Christianity, it would be a mistake to think that Christianity is all about a book. Rather, Christianity is about God and His plan to save humanity through Jesus Christ from their dire circumstances.

Whenever a king sends a written message to his subject, the messenger carries the letter and declares to the subject that he carries the king's decree in his hands, and the subject responds by getting on their knees and begin to listen. In that scenario we can see that the king's letter carries with it the authority of the king just as though the he was present. Such is with the Bible, it is God's written message to His people. Christians use it as the instructive guide for their lives, as well as a source of never ending discoveries into the wonder of God that brings hope, joy, relief and peace in this life and beyond.

At the centre of the message of the Bible is Jesus Christ. Although there are thousands of other historical writings that support what the Bible says, the Bible is above the rest of the other books in terms of its accuracy and reliability for reasons we will discuss below.

Structure

The Bible is a book that itself is a collection of 66 smaller books. The first 39 books are grouped together into what is called the Old Testament. The last 27 books are also grouped together into what is called the New Testament.

The Old Testament was written before the birth of Jesus Christ. It started with a description of how God created everything in the universe. Then it portrays how human betrayed God's trust causing all manner of wickedness to permeate the world. Following that it starts with a long historical account of a man whose descendants would later become the nation in which Jesus' coming was prophesied and fulfilled. The myriad of events in these historical accounts reveal a great deal about what God is like - His inherent attributes and character.

The content of the New Testament starts with quadruple historical accounts of Jesus' birth, death, resurection from the dead and rising up to heaven. Then the New Testament continues with a history of Jesus' followers, instructions for living and prophecies about the future.

This extremely short summary doesn't do justice to the extremely rich content of the Bible. It contains history, wars, famines, miracles, victories, sufferings, poetries, proverbs, prophecies and so much more. It does not hide the sordid details of the failings of its many characters because it is not a made up story but a historical record. And most importantly, it depicts the amazing love of God for anyone who chooses to trust and obey Him.

Effective Communication

Let's suppose that you want to record the events of your life for your descendants 3000 years in the future, and you want to make sure they get the most accurate and trustworthy details. How would you do it?

Would you write it down on a piece of paper and store it somewhere safe? When they find it in the future, how would they know for certain that it's accurate and trustworthy? How would they know it's not a prank or a made up story?

Or would you write it down on a rock because of its durability and give it to your friend as a witness? When they find it in future, how would they prove that your friend was telling the truth?

Any other ways you can think of?

Well, in the distant past God had a message He wanted to convey to us today. It's a very important message as it could either secure or destroy our future. Therefore, the method of communicating this message must be:

Accurate - it cannot contain any mistake.
Full of authority - the reader must know that this message is from God himself.
Authentic - the reader must know that the message is the original true message, it's not somehow changed along the way.

How did God do it? The way that God has done it is so effective and profound. Instead of dropping the entire message onto someone's hands which might attract doubts in the mind of the readers. He did it this way:

God intertwined His message by delivering a publicly available historical account. A historical account is a piece of writing that seeks to accurately capture a record events that happened in the passage of time. The events it describes are usually verifiable by comparing with other historical accounts. Further, these records are publicly available for people to verify themselves.

What it is not: is is not a message that's detached from reality, or some kind of secret message.
God started His message by describing how He orchestrated the origin of the universe, thus by way introduction **He tells a little about who He is and what He is like - **enough for the readers to get a glimpse of His of power, knowledge and supremity over all things. He then described the pivotal events that were the reasons for the rest of the message.

What it is not: it is not a message with an unknown author or that has no background or reason.
Public speaking teachers say that the best way of conveying a message is through a story. They use a story to convey a memorable and powerful message. God also uses a story, but instead of just telling personal or made-up stories, God created an entire nation from scratch, then used that nation to convey His message to the world.

He started with a man named Abraham. To this man, God made a promise about his future that he would become a nation. It's not a mythical nation or a nation that cannot be found in the world today. That well known nation is still very much with us - the nation of Israel. There is a vast number of writings that capture the historical events of this nation - the best of which can be found in the Bible.

What it is not: it is not a mythical account about a long forgotten story that has no credibility.

Rather, it is a message that is tangible and current. More and more historical artifacts are found that prove the validity of the things the Bible speaks about. The culture, geography and interactions with the Israel's surrounding nations are very real.
Using the historical events of that nation and also through the work of Jesus Christ and His disciples, God marked His universally identifiable fingerprints on His message. He did this by repeatedly putting together impossible problems that He later miraculously resolved. The method that these problems were miraculously resolved are universally recognisable as the work of God. The reader of the message can detect that only God would do, could do and even thought of such things. This happened numerous times, but here are two examples:
- God let Abraham unknowingly mary a woman who could not bear a child and let them continue that way until they both grew very old. Then God told Abraham and his wife, that soon the wife would be pregnant - an impossible proposition. But because God is all powerful, He miraculously let the wife be pregnant and have a child named Isaac.
- After all that, God then asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac - a very difficult proposition. What would happend to the nation God promised if Abraham killed this hard gotten child? Yet, Abraham obeyed and at just the moment before he plunged the knife into Isaac, God audibly stopped Abraham and provided a sheep to sacrifice instead.
What it is not: the message is not something that could be mistaken for just another great philosophical piece.

Rather, it has the tell-tale sign of a supreme being.
God wrote the message over a very long time span to establish its authenticity. God is not bound by space and time, He uses that to His advantage. God wrote His message through the writings of about 40 selected writers through a span of about 1500 years in 66 books.
1. One can say that the testimony of one individual carries some weight. The testimonies of 2 individuals have more weight. The testimones of 40 individuals have a significantly far more weight that it's validity is beyond any argument.
2. The testimony of 40 people at one time has a lot of weight. The testimonites of 40 people across 1500 years is even more trustworthy.
3. As these 40 writer lived in different generations, God could reveal a little about His future plan to one generation of writers (they call it prophecies) and fulfilled it in a future generation, recorded by other writters. This validates who He is - the God who is beyond time and space, who is supreme over all things.
What it is not: the message is not a message that is devoid of historical accounts of the miraculous power of a supreme being.

The completely accurate fulfilments of prophecies is like "the period at the end of His signature". It undeniably establishes God's authority in this message.
God was in complete control over the message delivered by the writers. God used His power to control the minds and course of action of the message writers such that what they wrote is the message He intended to deliver to His people.

What it is not: the message is not a random collection of historical accounts and literary works.

Rather, every sentence is imbued by God's intent and precision. One passage in the Bible says that God breathed out the Bible, just as words need to be pushed out using breath to make a sound. It contains all that is needed for a person to know God and be completely equipped to live a Christian life.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. - 2 Timothy 3:16-17
God was in complete control over putting the pages of His message together into one single collection - the Bible. The 66 books were already used by the people who really needed it most - the early Christians. When they met together regularly, they recognised and affirmed the authority of these 66 books as scripture, equivalent in authority to the Old Testament as the word of God. Around 240 AD, the 66 books were compiled together for the first time and further formalised in 325 AD.

Even today after so many other writings have been discovered the 66 books still stand on solid ground. This is because God gave the people wisdom, intelligence, objectivity and spiritual discernment to be able to go through thousands of writings and indentify the ones that actually came from Him. This is not as difficult as it might seem when a set of objective rules is established. For example, for the New Testament, for a piece of writing to be taken into consideration it must be written by one who came in close contact with Jesus or a close associate of one. That rule alone removed thousands of writings from consideration. There are other objective rules like it. Together it resulted in the filtered essence of God's word that we call the Bible today. It is an amazing and valueable inheritance we have been given.

What it is not: it is not a collection of books determined by a 16th century council through a private process.

Rather, God was in control over the compilation of the Bible into one book.

Different Stages of God's Plan

God's plan spans across millenia. At each stage of the plan, He uses the most suitable method of communication to His people.

The Old Days

At a time when His people were few and the plan was at the early stages, He spoke directly to selected individuals who subsequently conveyed the message to others. These individuals were called prophets.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. - Hebrews 1:1-2

False Messengers

As you can imagine, anyone who is to be God's mouth and voice to His people carries a heavy responsibility to speak very accurately - not more and not less. God takes the accuracy of His words very seriously.

The following verses show God's response to one incident when a group of prophets claimed to prophesy in His name falsely. It draws a very severe punishment.

And the LORD said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come upon this land’: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. - Jeremiah 14:14-15

Behold, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly. “I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. - Jeremiah 23:19-21

Beware when someone says "God told me...". This does not mean God cannot speak audibly or directly to individuals today, the question is "did He?". The messenger must be aware that if the message was false or turns out to be false the punishment is severe. God does not like anyone putting words into His mouth. Likewise the hearer should carefully analyse the truthfulness of the message by comparing it to the proven text - the Bible.

The Silences

Throughout history, God did not speak continuously. For example, He was silent for a period of about 400 years before Jesus' birth, there was no recorded prophecy. God was silent for about 5 generations. Imagine that we have never heard God speaking anymore since our great great grand parents last heard from Him - that would have made many felt that God had abandoned us, but of course He had not. The silence was broken with news about the imminent birth of the Saviour - Jesus Christ.

Early Christians

After Jesus arose from the dead and spent 40 days with His people, witnessed by about 500 individuals, He commanded His people to spread the good news of salvation that He has brought so that many may be saved. He promised that He would soon send a helper in the form of a Spirit to every believer. That helper - the Holy Spirit of God, soon came.

At that time God had chosen some to be His chosen messengers to be sent out. They were called apostles, the word means "one who is sent". The Spirit of God came upon the apostles and then to everyone who truly repent and put their trust in Christ alone.

Christians were heavily persecuted during those times. Many died terrible deaths on the hands of the persecutors. Encouraging reminders from God was much needed, but the Bible was not perfectly completed yet, it only had 39 books which did not cover the teachings of Jesus, nor any specific instructions on what they were to do. The New Testament of the Bible was not there yet. As the Bible was not completed yet, guided by God the Apostles sent letters to Christians to instruct and encourage them. These letters later became part of the New Testament of the Bible.

In the abesence of the New Testament, God gave miraculous abilities (gifts) called prophecy and tongues. Prophecy was God speaking directly to a Christian to be forwarded to the other Christians. Tongues was the ability to speak a foreign language without prior leaning to speak it. Unlike prophecies, tongues was useful in conveying God's message of salvation to those in other languages, although in addition it also had to be interpreted by someone who has the ability to interpret so others who did not understand the foreign language could also benefit. Those with the gift of tongues were also able to offer prayers for those who understood the foreign language by praying in tongues. In both cases, the purpose is to strengthen the Church who were heavily persecuted so that it can be fully established.

For almost 2000 years, we no longer encounter anyone speaking in a foreign language that they do not previously learn. So, it's natural to conclude that the ability of speaking in tongues has served its purpose and stopped at large. But can God make a person speak another language they never learn today? Of course He can. We just don't see it around. One unverified event told about a pastor from a large reformed church who at one particular time was able to tell the entire gospel to a fellow passanger on an aeroplane, but he does not speak the language of his fellow passenger. One thing is clear that speaking in tongue was a real human understandable language of a nation of this world.

With the early Christians, God also communicated through a demonstration of His power through the apostles whom He selected by giving them the ability to perform miraculous healing. These were not easy tricks we often see in the past century. For example, the Bible has an account of a 40+ year old man who were crippled since birth. He was well known by the public because he spent a lot of his time begging for money in a public place. One day he met apostle Peter and John. Peter said to him "rise up and walk" and the crippled man instantly leaped up and walk completely 100% healed, and verified by many witnesses. Too many witnesses in fact, because the people opposed to Christianity also took notice and seeked to apprehend the apostles. At another occasion Peter brought a girl whom many had known to be dead in the room back to life again. This was also verified by many witnesses. Those are just two of many miraculous powers that the apostles had.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. - Ephisians 2:19-22

Today

Today, the church has grown and spread worldwide. We today also have the completed 66 books of the Bible. We no longer have to wait for miracles to happen to be guided or encouraged in our Christian walk as the written text of the Bible is widely available. God's Holy Spirit who is in each believer powerfully illuminates Bible passages to the believer, thus giving insight, instruction, correction and wisdom to the reader.

God never changes, He is able to speak to His people directly, or give a person the gift of performing miraculous healing if He chose to do so. However, looking back at the history of His plan, God works His plan in stages. He chooses a suitable method of conveying His message for the right stage. In one stage He chose to do it one way, in another He did it a different way or even in silence. Whatever He did, it was the best for that stage of the plan.

In this days between Jesus' first and second coming, we are called to repent from our bad deeds (sin) and live in faith by trusting Jesus as our one and only Saviour. This is a stage of the plan when the main communicating vehicle is: us. How do we know what to say? It's clearly written in the Bible. It's not meant to be easy. Rather than continually seeking assurance through miracles, we are called to have more faith than those who were in physical contact with Jesus. Remember what Jesus said in the days before He left:

Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” - John 20:29

This doesn't mean we should not expect miracles. The ability of certain individuals who can call upon miracles at will is what we should not expect. Countless of Christians have prayed asking for healing and been healed. Countless others have prayed for help and received help. In fact, this is a very common thing in a Christian walk with God. God is no less able to help you today than He ever was. He is the God whose rescue plan unexpectedly involved sacrificing Himself, because He knew that it was the absolute best way. Likewise, His best way of answering our prayers may not be what we expect because He always wants what's best for us.

It is profound that God in His wisdom chose the written text to be the primary means of communication today. If early in the first century some people already misused the miraculous gift that they were given, today with thousands of churches around the world it would be a complete mayhem if people were misusing such miraculous ability. Rather, something that is written in black and white has a quality that settles differences and a quality that lasts for the long term. This is especially important today because after over 2000 years, God is still collecting souls into His kingdom of heaven and we wait patiently, readily and expectantly because Jesus said:

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come. But understand this: If the homeowner had known in which watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect. - Matthew 24:42-44

How to Read it?

Translations

The Bible was written in the Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek languages consisting of many manuscripts. As God instructed His people to convey the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ to the whole world, it would be most inefficient if people around the world had to learn these languages before they could benefit from reading the Bible themselves. So, the Bible has been translated to many languages.

Some Bible translations seek to stay as close/faithful as possible to the original text's sentences (a.k.a literal translation), other translations try to rephrase the sentences to extract the interpreted meaning (a.k.a. paraphrase translation).

Which one should you choose? First you need to look for what version is available in your prefered language. You might find that there's only one choice.

Second, if you do have more than one choice then use this as a guide: On the spectrum of literal to less literal, use a translation that's most literal that you can still understand. In either case, it's recommended to use a Study Bible version of that translation if available as it would help you get the right meaning of the text and therefore avoid misinterpreting passages which could lead to all kinds of trouble. A Study Bible has historical background, context and explanation on each verse.

For an English speaker:

If you are a new Christian or have little knowledge of the Bible, use a paraphrase type of translation. You will find it easier to read. For an English speaker this would be the New Living Translation (NLT) Bible. Avoid translations that are so heavily paraphrased that the richness of the original text has become completely maligned.
If you are a mature Christian in the English speaking world, use the English Standard Version (ESV) Study Bible or New American Standard Version (NASB).

How to get one?

The Bible is widely available around the world. You can get one from a Christian bookstore. If you have an internet connection you can even read it online. Here are three examples:

https://www.crossway.org/

https://Biblehub.com/

https://www.Biblegateway.com/

How to interpret it?

To get the most out of the deep wealth of truths and wonder in the Bible, we need to study it properly. Remember that the Bible you have is more than likely translated from the original languages. Not only that, it was written in a different culture and a different time in history. So, there is a right way and a wrong way to interpret it.

Know that every sentence of the Bible means one thing, not many things depending on the reader's circumstances. The meaning is only one, it is the application of that one meaning to your circumstances that can be many. Before reading your Bible, pray. Ask God to help you understand what He has to say to you. Whenever possible use a Study Bible to understand more challenging passages.

For illustration, imagine you and your sister received a letter from your father who lives in a different country. As you read the paragraphs of that letter, you know already that you would:

Check the context of what's being said. If the father says "Sell the house if you haven't already". Don't read it at face value and sell your house. Read the entire paragraph, if not clear, the preceeding paragraph. If still not clear, read previous letters. Whatever it is, your father meant one thing and you need to get to that meaning.

The same is applicable in reading any textual material, including the Bible. This is where a study Bible is useful for understanding the verses.
Check if what's being said is applicable to you. Some paragraphs may be addressed to you, others may be addressed to your sister only.

In the Bible, some passages are meant for the Israelites only, or to the individual in that context and time only. Anyone wishing to have a child should not read God's promise to Abraham and falsely conclude that God just promised a child. Neither should you expect to read the prophet, Jesus and apostle being able to raise a dead person and expect you can do the same.
Check for cultural differences. The six o'clock news that your father wrote in the letter might not be available in your country, but it might also be available on the internet news sites.

The Bible uses many illustrations related to the farming culture as that was the primary culture at that time in history, you need to get the meaning and see how it applies to you.
Often, some sentences require a good study to understand properly. Suppose you're reading the letter from your father in March, and in that letter your father says "I'm coming in February to visit you". Instead of concluding that your father will visit you in February next year, go the extra step of checking the date of the letter and the date of on the letter's stamp to find out whether the father means February the following year or whether the letter arrived late. It could never mean both, the father meant one thing only when he wrote the sentence.

Some passages in the Bible can be difficult to interpret. We need to use reasonable rules to interpret it correctly. The study of interpreting the Bible is called Hermeneutics which we will not cover here. It has a set of logical methods for interpreing, such as: one part of the Bible never contradicts another part of the Bible. If you read a passage and come to a particular interpretation of that passage, and that interpretation is in contradiction to another passage of the Bible, then chances are you have interpreted the passage incorrectly. This is where a Study Bible is useful so you can understand the passage without having to study Hermeneutics, although nothing is stopping you if you wish to.

Where to begin?

If you have never read the Bible before, start by reading the book of Mark. Here is a link to read it online if you do not have a Bible: https://www.Biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+1&version=NLT

After that you can read one of the other three gospel books (Matthew, Luke or John).

Then read the book of Acts whilst also reading the book of Psalm. Psalm is a book of poems, it's suited for contemplation instead of chapter by chapter from beginning to end.

You can then start with the book Genesis and another of the remaining two gospel books.

The Bible is so rich and deep. After reading it cover to cover 11 times, there's still more and more valuable insights that was not discovered before. It is an incredible inheritance that Christians have today. All Christians today have access to feed on the marvelous treasures contained in the Bible by prayerfully and carefully studying and contemplating on it.