INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE BIBLE - THE SUPERBOOK The Bible is NOT a systematic treatise on Theology, or Morals, or History, or Science, or any other topic. It is a REVELATION of God, of the Fall of Man, the Way of Salvation, and of Gods Plan and Purpose in the Ages. It treats of- 1. Four Persons - God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and Satan. 2. Three Places - Heaven, Earth and Hell. 3. Three Classes of People - The Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God. The Scriptures were given to us piece-meal, at sundry times and in divers manners. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, during a period of 1600 years, extending from B.C. 1492 to A. D. 100. The Bible consists of 66 separate books; 39 in the Old Testament, and 27 in the New Testament. These books were written by about 40 different authors. By kings such as David and Solomon; by statesmen as Daniel and Nehemiah; by priests as Ezra; by men learned in the wisdom of Egypt as Moses; by men learned in Jewish law as Paul. By a herdsman Amos; a tax-gatherer, Matthew; fishermen, as Peter, James and John, who were unlearned and ignorant men; a physician, Luke; and such mighty seers as Isaiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah. It is not an Asiatic book, though it was written in that part of the world. Its pages were penned in the Wilderness of Sinai, the cliffs of Arabia, the hills and towns of Palestine, the courts of the Temple, the schools of the prophets at Bethel and Jericho, in the palace of Shushan in Persia, on the banks of the river Chebar in Babylonia, in the dungeons of Rome, and on the lonely Island of Patmos, in the Aegean Sea. Imagine another book compiled in a similar manner. Suppose, for illustration, that we take 66 medical books written by 40 different physicians and surgeons during a period of 1600 years, of various schools of medicine, as Allopathy, Homeopathy, Hydropathy, Osteopathy, etc., and bind them all together, and then undertake to doctor a man according to that book, what success would we expect to have, and what accord would there be in such a medical work? While the Bible has been compiled in the manner described, it is NOT a heterogeneous jumble of ancient history, myths, legends, religious speculations and superstitions. There is a progress of revelation and doctrine in it. The judges knew more than the Patriarchs, the Prophets than the judges, the Apostles than the Prophets. The Old and New Testaments are not separate and distinct books, the New taking the place of the Old. They are the two halves of a whole. The New is enfolded in the Old, and the Old is unfolded in the New. You cannot understand Leviticus without Hebrews, or Daniel without Revelation, or the Passover or Isaiah 53 without the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. While the Bible is a revelation from God, it is not written in a superhuman or celestial language. If it were we could not understand it. Its supernatural origin however is seen in the fact that it can be translated into any language and not lose its virility or spiritual life giving power, and when translated into any language it fixes that language in its purest form. From Dispensational Truths by Clarence Larkin. (When next we return, The language used in the Bible)
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 11:39:19 +0000