OUR INERRANT BIBLE

1. OUR INERRANT BIBLE The first, and foremost, tool that God has given us to strengthen our faith is the Bible…..

2. The first, and foremost, tool that God has given us to strengthen our faith is the Bible……….The Bible is essential to our spiritual growth. It is so essential that lasting spiritual maturity is impossible without it. If one's faith isn't rooted in the Bible it is like a plant pulled up from the soil.

3. Only a strong faith, based on God's Word, will protect us from temptation and doubt. This is the reason that God's Word is so critically important: your personal knowledge of God's Word will be your best protection against the deceptions of Satan and his evil disciples. Discipline yourselves to be discerning in this area.

4. Without this strong anchor we will be "tossed about by waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by cunning craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming" (Ephesians 4:14). The Bible is not an option ~ it is a necessity.

5. The word of God, the Bible as a whole, is the only proper guide for discerning whether or not a teacher is "kosher". When a mesmerized audience or congregation are not thinking in a critical manner about what a pastor with great charisma is saying, they can accept without question statements that cannot be verified by the Bible as absolute truth.

6. This is why knowledge of the Bible is so critical to the well being of every Christian and congregation. For each of us, our earthly well being and our eternal address depends, absolutely, on our ability to discern the Biblical truth about what we are hearing. (1 John 4:1-4)

7. It is crucial that all believers spend time absorbing God's written revelation of Himself ~ the Bible. The Bible not only forms the foundation of effective Christian life, it is foundational to every aspect of our relationship with God.

8. While prayer is our primary way of communicating with God, the Bible is God's primary way of communicating with us. Nothing should take precedence over getting into the Word and getting the Word into us. If we do not regularly feed on the Word of God, we will starve spiritually just as surely as our bodies would starve should we fail to provide them with food.

9. Having said all of this, there is a great need to warn the unknowing that all versions/translations of the Bible are not equal. Many versions have been corrupted by special interests, such as the Jehovah's Witness cult. Others by liberal theology, such as the NIV or New International Version.

10. The NIV is missing 17 verses in the New Testament, which significantly changes the context of the overall passage. References to Hell have been omitted more than 50% in the New Testament and 100% on the Old Testament. Jesus' teaching of the LORD'S Prayer has been re-worded to the point that one could be praying to Satan or to the pope when using it.

11. The most reliable version is the KJV, or King James Version, and the most reliable of these were published before 1912. How can we know the truth? Among reliable versions, the Old Testament comes from Jewish scriptures which have been well preserved as described below.

12. In studying the words of God and Jewish traditions and customs we can learn to spot irregularities in the New Testament. Operating in the knowledge that God does not change His mind about anything, the thoughts expressed in the New Testament can be found in the Old Testament if they are true.

13. There is also the consideration that much of the New Testament is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy. When a person accepts Jesus as their Christ, ''God with us in the flesh'' (1 John 4:3-4), the Holy Spirit begins to reside within and work within them and He opens their eyes, ears, and hearts to the truths of the Bible. Obviously, it must be read cautiously and with great discernment.

14. The Bible is the heart and foundation of Christian life. In a very real way it contains all of the really valuable information in the world. It is this reality that renders the Bible useless if it is just a fashion accessory for Sundays and, otherwise, just sits on a shelf or props open a door.

15. It has to be opened up and studied with an open heart and mind so that the Holy Spirit can guide you into the reality of the wisdom of God, our Heavenly Father and Great Shepherd.

16. The Bible, and the Gospel it contains, is something objective and outside of us - complete and finished in Jesus Christ. The Bible and the Gospel are not established by our feelings, moods or changes, however valid they may be.

17. The Bible is not a collection of documents recently dug up from the sands of Egypt. Although many of its detractors do so, it is exceedingly "unscientific" to treat it as if it was. The Bible comes to our hands as the book of a community and neither the book nor the community are properly understood except in their proper reciprocal relationship with each other.

18. The book has always been in the hands and understanding of the community and the multiplicity of this community makes it highly unlikely that the book has been corrupted by "special interests". Indeed, there have been various attempts at corruption for various reasons but the Christian community at large has quickly spotted and branded as heresy these corruptions, making most of them well known and short lived.

19. The Gnostics, the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witness and the first edition of the "NLT" versions are examples of such "outings". The NLT was withdrawn and almost satisfactorily corrected.

20. God the Father Almighty, the creator of everything, the only God, revealed Himself to the human race through the Holy Spirit inspired writings of the Hebrew people. As Christians, we know these writings as the Holy Bible.

21. It is the final authority for absolute truth and righteousness. It is Christianity captured in print and bound between two covers. It is the ONLY place Christian doctrine can be found with any certainty. Any doctrine which cannot be found in the Bible is NOT Christian and is, thus, false teaching.

22. There are only two Words of God: the Word of God written: the Holy Bible; and the Word of God incarnate: Jesus Christ. Both Words are intimately and forever inter-related. Whenever one is denied, denigrated or diluted, the other suffers as well.

23. From the first moment that Moses started writing, until today, the world has scoffed at the Bible. World leaders down through the ages have tried to destroy the Bible. They have all failed and died and passed from memory while the Bible remains the best selling book in history.

24. The attack continues as people of the world deny the Bible's divine authority. They have tried to destroy it intellectually. They ridicule, mock and laugh at believers. These attackers have ALL been impotent because God is omnipotent.

25. The Bible is obviously either the most important book in the world or the most useless. Useless books tend to have an exceedingly short life. The Bible as we know it has remained a consistent best seller through its more than 2,000 years of existence.

26. Many people have tried to discredit the Bible from an intellectual stand point. Every single person who has attempted this has failed because they have failed to discredit every ancient document ever written,

27. as they must do to succeed, because the Bible is the most authenticated and most reliable of all ancient books and the Bible is, exponentially by far, the most authenticated and reliable of all "holy books“.

28. The Bible is unique in at least seven ways: 1) It alone of ALL of the books in the world, has genuine prophesy. 2) The Bible ALONE contains an intricate system of "types" in the Old Testament which are fulfilled down to the tiniest detail in the New Testament. (A "type" is a divinely created illustration of a spiritual truth.

29. A person, place, thing or series of events becomes, by divine foresight and planning, an object lesson -a picture with corresponding details- of its anti-type[fulfillment].) 3) The Bible ALONE contains the record of genuine, credible miracles, fully attested by abundant eyewitnesses.

30. 4) of all of the books in the world, the Bible ALONE presents the perfect character, the Messiah. 5) The Bible ALONE of all natural history books, portrays its characters without bias and presents them as they are, with their weaknesses and failures for all to clearly see, along with their strong points.

31. 6) The Bible ALONE of all ancient books, is in agreement with the facts of nature and true scientific discoveries to which it refers, even though it was written thousands of years before the modern scientific era. 7) Although written by 40+ human authors, the Bible has a phenomenal unity which shows the superintendence of its divine Author.

32. The Bible is an orderly, progressive, unfolding revelation from God of the blood covenant He made with Himself for us through Jesus Christ. (This happens even though the Bible is NOT in chronological order, a fact that confuses many.

33. It would also happen if the Bible is re-worked chronologically.) This is the master theme of the Bible. It is the story of redemption connecting Genesis to Revelation.

34. "God caused the Bible to be written for the express purpose of revealing to man God's plan for redemption. God caused this Book to be written that He might make His everlasting laws clear to His children, that they might have His great wisdom to guide them, and His great love to comfort them as they make their way through this life.

35. Without the Bible, this world would indeed be a frightening place without signpost or beacon. The Bible easily qualifies as the only book in which God's revelation is contained. There are many holy books of many religions: there is the Mohammedan Koran, the Buddhist Canon of Sacred Scripture, the Zoroastrian Zend-Avesta, and the Brahman Veda...

36. They all begin with flashes of true light, and end in utter darkness. Even the most casual observer soon discovers that the Bible is radically different. It is the only Book that offers mankind redemption and points the way out of our dilemma." (Billy Graham).

37. "The Gospel to me is simply irresistible. Being the man I am, full of lust and pride and envy and malice and hatred and false good...to me, the Gospel of the grace of God, the redemption of Christ and the resurrection and sanctification of the Holy Ghost, that Gospel is to me simply irresistible.

38. And I cannot understand why it is not equally irresistible to every mortal man born of a woman." (Blaise Pascal). This should be so for all who call themselves a Christian.

39. "The only true book you can trust to tell you all you want to know about Jesus is the Bible. The Bible is the incomparable Book. It is the Word of God. Its author is God, who worked through chosen vessels to give us a Book we can trust in all of its parts.

40. The Bible is the touchstone against which we can measure the words and opinions, as well as the works, of men. Its main purpose is to bring us face to face with Jesus. He, along with his Father, and the Holy Spirit, are the major persons revealed and made known to us in this Book." (God's Incomparable Word by Harold Lindsell).

41. "A man has deprived himself of the best there is in the world who has deprived himself of this: a knowledge of the Bible... This book is the one supreme source of revelation, the revelation of the meaning in life, the nature of God, and the spiritual nature and need of men.

42. It is a book which reveals every man to himself as a distinct moral agent, responsible not to men, not even to those men whom He has put over him in authority, but responsible through his own conscience to his Lord and Maker. Whenever a man sees this vision, he stands up a free man, whatever may be the circumstances of his life." (Woodrow Wilson)

43. Too many people try to read the Bible as a series of disconnected stories telling us how we should live our lives. It is not. The Bible is a single story telling us how mankind got into its present predicament and how God, through Jesus Christ, has come and will come again to put things right, even though we don't deserve it, and all that is required of us is simply to participate in this magnificent plan.

44. All 66 books of the Bible are necessary to accurately and fully explain God's love for us and the effort He has expended in the attempt to gather His followers to Himself, in Heaven, in spite of our sinfulness. Each book has its necessary and vital place. The better we come to know and understand the message of each book the better we will understand God and His immeasurable love for us.

45. The Bible is God's letter of reconciliation to us. It should be read thoroughly and often. The Bible has also often been referred to as 66 Love Letters from God. He has always been proactive in reaching out to mankind in an effort to establish a relationship with us.

46. There are no variations or aberrations between the Old Testament prophesies of the coming Messiah and the New Testament's record of the fulfillment of these prophesies down to the tiniest detail. It quickly becomes abundantly obvious that the mind that molded the prophesies also shaped the historical portrait that has unfolded.

47. This leads to four inescapable conclusions: 1) This state of affairs proves that the Bible is the inspired Word of God because no man has the ability to write or fulfill such a miraculous work of literature. 2) It proves beyond doubt that the God of the Bible, the only One who can know the end from the beginning, and who alone possesses the power to fulfill such prophesies, is the true and living and only God the Father Almighty.

48. 3) This state of affairs proves that God is omniscient and omnipotent because only He could bring such a plan to fruition using such a seriously flawed and unco-operative tool as mankind. 4) This state of affairs proves beyond any possibility of doubt that Jesus of Nazareth, the Galilean Carpenter, was and is the son of God, our Emmanuel, the Saviour of the world, the Christ, the Messiah; because He, alone, fulfilled so perfectly, every single prophesy unto the tiniest detail.

49. As the year of this writing is A. (anno)[the year] D. (Domini)[of the LORD] 2009 or 2009 A.D.; as recorded on every internationally recognized official and business document in every corner of the world; Jesus is the center of ALL of human history. This remains so even though many have tried to remove Him from sight by re-labeling the years C. E. or Common Era. The fact remains that they years are based upon His existence.

50. Adam and Eve blew it when they chose the tree of knowledge of good and evil over the tree of life. As Christians, we can choose to partake of the tree of life, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, to regain what we have lost through Adam. We are alive, so this remains a possibility for us for as long as we live.