Whether you grew up in church and memorized the books of the Bible in a little jingle or you've never opened the cover of the book, the Bible is for you!
The Bible is a vital piece of the life of a believer in Jesus. It is the Word of God and the whole book, from cover to cover, is a love story from God to you. It's the truth about who He is and the truth about who He has called us to be as believers. It's one congruent story telling us how God created the world and detailing His rescue plan to bring the world back to Him.
There are a lot of different understandings of Scripture, so let's all get on the same page: The Bible is the infallible Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit and written down by dozens of authors over the course of centuries. Whoa. That was a loaded sentence. Let's break it down.
THE BIBLE IS INFALLIBLE
This means that there is no flaw in it. There is no piece of it that is incorrect, untrue, or inapplicable. While the Bible has been passed down over centuries and translated into many different languages, the message delivered by God to His people remains the same. There is actually significantly more historical evidence in the accuracy of the translated Scripture than any other historical document. For more information about this, check out The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.
THE BIBLE IS GOD'S WORD
How? We're glad you asked. Every word written in Scripture was inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is one of three persons of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit's role is to be the Advocate for those who believe in Jesus. In John 14:26, Jesus tells His disciples that "when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative--that is, the Holy Spirit--he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you." So the Holy Spirit, working in people like Moses, Jeremiah, Paul, John, and Luke, taught them the words and character of God and they wrote it down for us to read and learn from.
THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN BY DOZENS OF AUTHORS OVER THE COURSE OF CENTURIES
This is pretty self-explanatory, however, we have to remember that the words we read in the Bible are a retelling of real events by real people. The authors of some books are unknown, but scholars have been studying and analyzing the Scriptures for years to determine the authorship and credibility of each of the books. So that's a crash course on the Bible for you! And remember, every piece of the Bible is useful for our lives (2 Timothy 3:16-17) so it doesn't matter where you start, just pick it up and get to reading!
Want to learn more about faith in God? Check out our Start Here Handbook.
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