The Bible

"The Word of the Lord holds true and we can trust everything He does."

Psalm 33:4

The Bible is Trustworthy

Bible word meaning: Book

In short, the Bible is a large book about relationship. We believe the Bible, but, a common question many people have asked, is, why? Why do we believe the Bible? There are 100's of other religious books, so why do we believe the Bible?

I'm here to tell you that the Bible is trustworthy, but you don't have to trust my words alone. Here is some scientific proof that that the Bible is true.

First, the Bible has more substance than any other religious text. How do we know this? All the books in the Bible line up in agreement with each other, even though there are more than 35 different authors, 66 books, written over a time span of 1,500 years! Scientists have found that the books of the Bible are scientifically proven to be written over the time span of 1,500 years. What is so amazing, is that all the books line up in agreement with each other, even though, like I said before, there are more than 35 different authors. Other religious texts are written by only one person. The book of Mormon was written by one man, Joseph Smith, and look at any other religious text and I almost guarantee it to be written by one person.

Then there are prophesies. In the book of Daniel it was predicted that Alexander the Great would defeat Israel some 200 years before it happened.

There are over 300 prophesies predicted about Jesus, some of which, being born in Bethlehem, being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, his hands and feet being pierced, having His clothes gambled away, being born of the tribe of Judah, being called out of Egypt, and being buried in a rich man's cave. The odds of one person, any person, fulfilling just those eight prophesies in their lifetime, is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. To put it simpler, imagine covering the province of Saskatchewan (and a bit more) or the state of Texas in silver dollars, 100 trillion to be exact. The province or state would be buried 2 feet in coins. Now imagine you pick one of those coins up and color it red. Then you throw it back and let it be stirred into the pile. The red coin could be anywhere. Now you're blindfolded and we give you one chance to pick up one coin. What's the chance of you picking up that red coin? The chance of picking up that one red coin is the chance of Jesus fulfilling just eight prophecies. But Jesus fulfilled over 300. The Bible is trustworthy.

Fun Facts About the Bible

-- The longest chapter of the Bible is Psalm 119

-- The shortest chapter of the Bible is Psalm 117

-- The shortest verse of the bible is John 11:35 or Job 3:2 (depending on the Bible's version)

-- The longest verse is Esther 8:9

-- The New Testament quotes Isaiah more than any other Old Testament book (419 times!)

-- The Bible has 66 books, 1,187 chapters, 31,092 verses - and one big story!

The Bible's Sections

The Bible has eight major sections/different types of writing. This is how it's split up:

Pentateuch ~ (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.) The Pentateuch means "five scrolls" and is often called "The Law" because these first five books describe how God personally delivered His commands to the Israelites, His chosen people. It also is the beginning of God's special plan leading to our salvation.

Historical books (Old Testament) ~ (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.) The twelve Old Testament historical books tell the story of Israel's conquest of the Promised Land, through the kings.

Poetry ~ (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.) There are five books of poetry which talk about worship, suffering, work, and romantic love.

Prophetic books ~ (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.) This includes the major and minor prophet's books. These were written during the time of the Historical books by prophets sent by God to comfort or warn God's people.

Gospels ~ (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.) The four gospels tell the story of Jesus' ministry and life, helping us understand why Jesus came and our need for salvation.

Historical book (New Testament) ~ (Acts.) This section includes only one book. Acts of the Apostles, telling the story of the birth of the church and the spreading of the Good News about Jesus.

Letters ~ (Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians Colossians, 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1&2 Peter, 1--3 John, and Jude.) Also known as the epistles, this section includes all of Paul's letters and the general letters written by church leaders. These letters were written to help Christians live faithfully for Christ.

Prophesy ~ (Revelations.) This section, like the Historical book, only consists of one book, Revelation, which gives us a picture of what will happen in the future, when Jesus returns and more*.

First Ever Bible Reading Plan!

Over the next few blog posts, we will be looking at God's amazing story from Creation through His ultimate Return. It is a Bible reading plan that I call, "The Big Story Reading Plan". I hope you will join me in studying God's amazing book, the Bible.

-Shadow

*If you want to learn more about the Bible, I suggest looking into the Bible project. Here's a link: thebibleproject.com

If you don't own a Bible, I encourage you to get one. I mainly use the NLT, New Living Translation, which is easier to understand and flows when you read it.