The Bible
The Bible Is Unique
1 Peter 1:25
But the Word of the Lord (divine instruction, the Gospel) endures forever. And this Word is the good news which was preached to you.
Amplified
What is or should be unique about the Bible to distinguish it from other writings?
- There is the Spiritual factor mention earlier. The Bible itself teaches that only spiritual man may properly interpret and understand its meaning.
- The entire Bible is our inspired text, not just parts of it. God does not lie (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2) so either all of the Bible is inspired and is truth, or else all of it is suspect. The words of Satan may not be true, but they are accurately and truthfully recorded as his words.
- The whole of Scripture best interprets specific parts. Do not create an entire doctrine on a single passage. They all fit together and have meaning.
- Scripture's meaning is plain and clear, else how could the book be understandable, even to children?
- The supernatural is affirmed by the Bible.
- The Bible is a theological book.
- most importantly for our understanding, the bible is a book about jesus christ.>
- "We have not completed the interpretive task until we have determined how a text does or does not correspond with Jesus' ministry or the ministry of the church. The writers of the New Testament seem to have looked for patterns of God's working in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the life of Jesus, and in their own experience. Our reading of the Scriptures should do no less." (1)
In addition, one must consider the continuing existence of the Bible, the external evidence that this "book" is the written Word of an Almighty God. Consider the following:
- the translation of the Bible
- Septuagint - a Greek translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew undertaken around B.C. 250 is the first known translation
- the circulation of the Bible
- the revelation of the Bible
- the nature, condition, and cure for sin
- ethics and morals
- fulfilled prophecy
- your own life
- the survival of the Bible
- 1 Peter 1:23-25
23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,24 because "All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, 25 But the word of the Lord endures forever." Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. NKJV
1. Hubbard, Page 144 quoting Snodgrass.
