Bible
The Bible is a single book which is a collection or
compilation of ancient writings, also known as "books", as in
"books of the Bible". In the Bible, there are 66 books which were written by 40+
writers over the span of 1500 years.
The word “bible” does not appear anywhere in any of the
writings as the writers had no idea they would be compiled into what we now know as
the “Bible” or “Holy Bible”.
The 66 books were gathered to form The Bible sometime before 400 A.D. by the
churches that existed at the time.
The
Bible is the one true guidebook for Christians and Christians believe it was
“inspired” by God. Inspired means that God Himself worked through the writers to
put in print something He knew would be compiled later, and used by His
followers as their written guide. He also knew we would use it to gain a
clear understanding of the relationship
between Himself and His children…us.
The Bible defines the relationship between man and God from
the beginning, where God created the Earth and everything on it, including man.
Through stories, poems, songs, books of prophecy and personal letters,
the Bible tells the unfolding story of God’s plan for man.
So that mankind could understand the completed plan, God matured His plan
over the course of a few thousand years, and documented it in the biblical
records for all to read and understand.
In its complete form, it is the foundation for belief and the only guide book
for Christians.
To understand Christianity, you will need to understand that
Christians believe everything in the Bible to be absolutely true.
Any compromise would leave the gate wide open for everything to be
compromised. If you grasp this one
fact, you will understand why Christians hold so strongly to their belief in
every written word. Is this blind faith?
No, not by any means. Is
it a requirement to forget what you have been taught about science or world
history when reading it?
No, although the Bible is an ancient document, it has been
proven accurate on all subjects by historians and scientists alike.
In light of what we know today, if it were wrong, do you think mankind would have
followed it to the extent it
has? On the subjects of science
and history, the Bible is the most astounding book ever written.
Considering the age of some of the writings, it would make human sense
that there would be scientific problems, but there are not.
The only explanation for its
accuracy on all accounts is that the writers were assisted by God.
Its accuracy could not have been an accident, for if it is, it is the greatest one
in the history of man.
The Bible is segmented into two main sections, the Old
Testament (which means Old Promise, or Old Contract) and the New Testament (New Promise, or New Contract), The
defining moment that separates the two is the death of Jesus Christ.
Upon His death and His return to life three days later, a new promise or
contract was established between God and Man, thus the New Testament. This
new contract is the culmination of God's plan for man. It is this new
contract that changed the course of mankind, and gives us hope.
Finally,
it should be mentioned that the Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic,
and
Greek, the languages at the time. Since
then, and especially in the 20th century, it has been translated into
English, as well as many other languages. With
respect to English, it has been translated into different reading levels for
easier understanding. It is the
recommendation of this church that you chose one of the following versions in
your initial studies, New International (NIV), American Standard, or the New
Revised Standard. Some people like
the formal language and sentence structure of the King James Version and the New
King James version, however they are difficult for most people to understand as
the sentence structure and words used are ancient.
Faith
“Faith is being sure of what
we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
If you distill
Christianity down to its smallest component part, you will find Faith.
Faith is belief, and belief is what God asks from us.
During our time here on Earth, each of us must come to grips with our
belief regarding God. Those who
determine to not believe in God are said to not have faith, those who believe in
God are said to have faith. Not
true.
Since faith is belief,
then the belief that there is, or is not a God constitutes a form of faith unto
itself, just faith in different things. One
has faith there is a God and acts accordingly, the other has faith there is no
God and does likewise. In both
instances, their faith provides hope. For
the one with faith in God, it is for a better life both here on Earth in this
life and life everlasting with God in heaven.
For the one who has faith that there is no God, their hope is only in
what this world has to offer. They
also hope they are right because the down side of being wrong is not something
they want to even consider. One is
a long term hope, the other is short term.
With respect to belief in
God, each person must make their own leap of faith that God does indeed exist.
The distance of the leap between believing there is a God and not
believing is different for everyone. For
some, making this leap is easy. For
others the gap between what they know to be true and what they want to believe
must be closed to a manageable distance before they can allow themselves to
really believe in something they cannot see, touch, or find in any way, other
than by faith. For this reason, if
you feel the God given desire to believe, but cannot yet, keep searching.
God will help close the gap for you as long as you keep looking.
The world proclaims the
existence of a supreme creator. The evidences of God's reality are
everywhere. Science more easily proves His presence than it does a Godless
universe. A real search for the Lord will uncover insurmountable evidence
that he does indeed exist. Check it out, look for both the evidence and
the holes in both arguments and you will see this for yourself. The gap
will close and soon you will find that God is obvious, not hidden.
There is a secret to faith
that does need to be told here though. Once
you have faith in God, you will begin to see evidences of His reality that you
never saw before. It is God’s way
of making sure you do not jump back across the gap that you just leapt.
For Christians, the Bible
also asks that we have faith in Jesus the Christ.
In fact, the Bible goes on to say that if we are to receive the reward we
hope for, we must have faith in Jesus as the culmination of God’s plan for our
being eligible for the rewards He has promised.
It is our faith in God, and Jesus that shapes our lives such that we
respond to Him and each other with Love, Trust and Obedience.
God
“God is Love”.
This is the answer given by one of the Biblical writers, and once you
come to know God for who He is, you will draw the same conclusion. It is as unmistakable as the sound of the ocean, only His
love is deeper and wider than all of them put together.
God is the original being, the creator of all things.
This universe and everything in it are the fulfillment of His imagination
and belong to Him. He created the heavens and all the heavenly beings.
He created Man and Woman, and all the things that inhabit the Earth.
Therefore, we are His. Make
no mistake about this, He is the owner, the Master, the King of everything seen
and unseen.
God made plans and set them in motion.
God knows all, sees all, and is everywhere at all times.
He is constantly active in His creation, moving forward His agenda both
in the realm of “heaven” where He “lives” and in His universe where He
makes His presence known and we walk by faith.
God listens to our prayers, searching our souls for
faith in Him as the almighty presence upon whom we depend for guidance,
substance, assistance, and assurance. He
strengthens the weak, and humbles the proud.
He hears the voices of children and gives peace to the aged.
He is the Master with whom there is no equal, God is God.
His will, will prevail. It
is more certain than the spinning of the Earth, the movement of the planets, or
the expansion of the universe.
But more than all these, God is love.
His warmth provides refuge, His strength gives hope.
He cares for all mankind and rejoices mightily when we draw close to Him. It is His desire that every man, women and child spend
eternity in His presence, in His courts, in His house, in His heaven, where we
will no longer walk by faith, but in the light of His love.
Heaven
Heaven is both the place where God is and the place our
spiritual body will be if we are faithful and obedient to His will. Heaven
is our promised reward, and it is the place where God wants every person born to
live in eternity.
As Christians, we believe that Heaven is reserved for those
who have put their faith in the Lord God and His son Jesus, the Christ. It
is a permanent residence for those who live striving to know God, who build a
personal relationship with Him, who glorify our Lord Jesus, who are loving and
forgiving of others, just as we want to be loved and forgiven by God Himself,
and who obey the pattern of obedience He has given us through His word, the
Bible. For those who have not placed their faith here, or those who
believe but do not live as children of God, there is another place, a place
where they will no longer be in the presence of the Lord, nor will they receive
His protection. The Bible calls it Hell. The Bible does not provide
any other alternatives. We will all reside in either Heaven or Hell based
upon how we lived our own lives. Nothing else will have any
bearing upon the destination.
Although the Bible tells us that our reward will be
"with God", and that it will be "wonderful", and promises
that we will be happy beyond understanding in many places in scripture, God does
not reveal too much about what Heaven will be like. Hmmmm, you say, why
would that be? We can only guess, but let me give it a try. Follow
this line of thinking for a minute and see if it makes sense to you.
If asked what would make us happy for eternity, we would
all give different answers. What makes me happy, may not make you happy,
and what made me happy when I was a kid, certainly is not what would make me
happy now, nor will what makes me happy now be what would make me happy when I
am older. For kids Heaven would be Ice Cream every day, for adults it
might be peaceful times, and for the elderly, Heaven might be being youthful
again, without the infirmaries of growing old.
When our physical bodies die, and we are left as our
spiritual selves, what will make us happy is in all probability something
completely different than what we would expect. If God had written it down
for us, we might not understand just how much we will love it, because we are
currently blinded by the needs of our physical bodies in our physical
world.
My thought is that God knew we needed to know it was a
wonderful place, a place where we would want to spend eternity, but He also knew
we might be confused by what it is. Therefore, instead of trying to
explain it, He just said it is someplace we will want to spend eternity.
Remember, God created us, both our physical and spiritual
selves, and He knows what will make our spiritual selves happy for
eternity. He tells us we want to be there with Him and with all His
Heavenly family.
There will be no tears in Heaven, no sorrow there.
"In my Father's house there are many rooms...I go to prepare a place for
you" - Jesus
What
must I do to please God?
Some
would tell you that pleasing God is difficult, others will tell you that it is
easy. The real answer lies
somewhere in between, and can only be found in one place, the Bible.
The Bible is the only source that provides God’s words and teachings on
this subject, and He makes it very clear. All
other sources are the ideas, opinions, logic, and feelings of people (just like
you) regarding this very important question.
Whom will you trust?
God
gave a simple answer to this question in His Bible when He said:
“If
you love me, you will obey what I command”
What
are His commandments? That too is a
pretty short list. It goes like
this.
According
to God’s book, ALL of these items are required in order to please Him.
There is no skimping or skipping.
Once you begin your
walk with God, He will forgive your imperfections.
And because of Jesus, once He forgives your failings, He remembers them
no more. In His eyes, you are
perfect.
We
would love the opportunity to show you, in God’s Bible, in plain English, what
you must do in order to please God. Please
contact Jay Thornell, our Minister, or ask any member of the Grand Strand Church
of Christ. We would be overjoyed to study with you.
No
matter what your life has been like, you can be pleasing to God!
In
doing so, you will receive gifts of acceptance, love, happiness, peace and joy.
You will also receive the promised reward of eternal life with Him in
Heaven.
Jesus
To
understand who Jesus was, you must understand the value He brought. This answer has been written to provide both.
When
God authored the blueprint for Mankind, he knew that everyone of us would
destroy our relationship with him regularly by our sin.
He created us knowing that our relationship with Him would have to be
repaired in order for us to gain the reward of living eternally in His presence
in heaven. God hates sin because it
separates us from Him, but He loves us and wants every one of us to have a
perfect relationship with Him.
Initially,
God showed Man how much He hated sin by requiring Man to repair the broken
relationship through the sacrifice of animals, but not just any animal.
It had to be a perfect animal, one without any defects, one that would be
of great value to the owner. To
part with such a prized possession truly was a sacrifice to the owner.
Just as the sin had hurt God, the repair price for forgiveness was
painful and expensive for the man who wanted to fix his relationship with God.
God’s requirement of a sacrifice to repair the damage done by our sin
set the stage for His greatest gift to mankind; Jesus.
The
Bible tells us Jesus is part of God and was present when the universe and
mankind were created. With respect
to Jesus, the Bible says all things (including us) were created “by Jesus and
for Jesus”. Sending Jesus
was not a knee-jerk reaction by God because man sinned.
God knew from before man was created that He would send Jesus to perform
the final and permanent fix for our relationship.
Jesus
was a man, born of a woman (Mary), but fathered by God Himself. He lived as a man, was tempted like every man, and had all
the same physical requirements of a man. He
hungered, was thirsty, felt anger, had a sense of humor, felt physical, mental
and spiritual pain. He was in all
ways a physical man, but he was also God. He
was God experiencing His own creation first hand. Although He was capable of sin, and was tempted to do so
throughout his life, He never did. He
was perfect, without any spiritual defect in God’s eyes…He was worthy of
being the final and perfect sacrifice for mankind.
During
His life as a man, Jesus showed us how to please God.
He taught people what God really wanted from us by clarifying what God
expected. He performed miracles as
proof of His being God in the form of man.
He loved people and showed His love through His words and actions.
He made it clear who He was and people followed Him.
His
teachings and claims upset the religious leaders at the time, and they convinced
the authorities to kill Jesus by crucifixion.
This was not an accident or a flaw in the way the world reacted to Jesus;
it was God’s plan. Before God
created the world, He knew Jesus would die as the perfect sacrifice to repair
the relationship between mankind and Himself.
As a
final proof of His claim of being from God, Jesus walked out of the grave,
alive, three days after his confirmed death.
He showed He had power over death, even His own.
After many days and many interactions with people, He ascended into
heaven.
Even
though man damages their relationship with God by sinning and should fairly pay
the price for forgiveness, God paid it for us.
God made the sacrifice. God
felt the pain of our sin. God felt
the pain of payment. God loves us
this much. We call this gift of
payment “Grace”.
