The Misconception of a Well Known Folklore
The Bible is not one big book, but is a collection of books all with a same purpose and theme. I am not a Christian or a believer yet it has made a big impact on my life. Growing up with an Atheist father and a Christian mother has put me on the fence regarding my belief of religion. I don't look at the Bible for teachings on how to live, I perceive it as old stories with good morals, just like any other folklore.
The Bible is split into two sections. One called the Old testament and the other called the New Testament. The Old Testament is filled with stories about the Israelites, a scattered people roaming the middle east. It's sometimes amusing to see how the group of people acts. As I read I kept thinking to myself why they acted childish. In one situation they complained to their leader right after being liberated from Egyptian slavery. The Israelites were going hungry and cried out saying that there was food in Egypt, and they were better off there. The leader, named Moses, had to make bread fall from the sky just to satisfy the hungry. Then there is the New Testament. This part of the book is where Jesus Christ gets in the picture. Jesus is is the son of God and a prophet that does many miracles. Although these miracles usually consist of spiritual and physical healing, he also walks on water,
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On multiple occasions God kills people directly and indirectly for things as common as teasing. In 2 kings Chapter two verse twenty three, some kids tease the prophet Elisha, and God sends bears to dismember them. Scenes like this confuse me because God is portrayed as a loving father yet he kills kids. In addition, there is also events where God kills thousands of people and can be seen as genocide. One of the most known genocides, referred to as the flood, is when God drowns the entire population of the
Many argue that the bible is out of date and unhelpful for humans today. This is not the case though. The bible is essentially the guidebook to leading a perfect and happy life, and just like you would need to read some sort of manual before constructing a product, so to should you read the bible for guidance on your own life. This is what Jehovah's Witnesses try their best to do, though it is not easy because all humans are imperfect.
The book of Luke, found after the books Matthew and Mark, focuses on the ministry of Jesus Christ but it also gives us a look into His birth and growth in totality. In this chapter we see a historical account of some of the journeys that Christ experienced. It is important to keep in mind that the Bible and all of its books do serve as historical accounts but each book is unique in the fact that they incorporate a theological timeline. The Bible is, conceivably, the most important book that has ever been written. It gives the world eyewitness accounts to historical events that helped not only shaped a region of the world but the whole entire world. It is nearly impossible to go through some formal societal education and have never once read a part of the bible or have heard a story that adapts from the stories within the bible. The bible has helped formed institutions, associations and so much more. By reading the Gospel of Luke we are truly reading what is meant for us to read as Christians. The principal plot in the book of Luke is the life of Jesus Christ, his sacrifice, His ability to beat death and remain perfect as the son of GOD despite being human as well. Jesus is seen as the perfect savior for humans in the book of Luke. Luke not only gives multiple examples of the power of Jesus but also it gives us a look at The Lord’s triumph over temptation. Luke also depicts Jesus as a man/GOD who had a very deep concentration on people and relationships. The book of Luke gives Jesus a loving characteristic but doesn’t shy away from showing that at times Jesus got angry too. Jesus showed a great deal of compassion to the sick, those in pain, the poor, and unambiguously the sinful. Jesus had genuine love for everyone. Throughout this...
Jesus was different than other human being because he was the Son of God and p the second person in the Trinity. The Trinity consist of the Father (God), The Son (Jesus) and the Holly Sprit. The bible has many verses on the Trinity and is largely in the in the New Testament there are places in the Old Testament a few of texts are Genesis 1:26-27,Isaiah 43:10-11 and Psalm 2 (The Trinity in the Bible Thomas K. Johnson).
The Christian Scriptures is the entire Christian Bible. It is composed of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) is composed of several books all containing stories about Jesus, and the Christian Testament (New Testament) which contains the stories of Jesus and the earliest Christian Communities. Although these stories cannot confidently prove to us that they are true there are several distinct similarities, which are contained in nearly all of the books. These similarities are so frequent that their constant occurrence seems more than coincidence. Although these similarities occur often in the books of the Hebrew Scriptures, there are four short books included in the Christian Testament, which we must rely on to understand Jesus’ ministry and life.
This is an important point, because if our understanding of God is that He is purely good, then why would so many of this heinous events occur. “Theist reply that because God is necessarily good, He would never do anything morally reprehensible Himself nor command us to preform heinous acts.” (Anderson, 2007). However, God is seen punishing not only those who are considered to be evil, but also those who are innocent, He causes floods, plagues and death to many people because of one person’s act, or if He was angry. This is completely opposite to our understanding of God loving us all and to our most important idea that God is perfectly good. Even if these acts were seen as punishing those who are considered evil, then God would have not done any act that would harm someone, nor would He permit us to do so. The bible is filled with these inaccuracies, is God loving of all, or just the few that follow Him, it states different allowances in stories (Infidels.org, 2016). It is my understanding that these stories are proof that God is not purely good, which itself is an argument for Him not to exist or that the stories themselves or false. Murder was perfectly fine for the soldiers of the First Crusade, who slaughtered every man, woman, and child, however it is written in the bible that murder is prohibited, it is a sin. Many other events like this occurred. When we look
Throughout Exodus, he shows his consistent love for the Israelites when he continues to help them after they have disobeyed. Because God is both eternal and good this is the best thing anyone could possibly want. Therefore anyone who doesn’t want god doesn’t really know what the good life is. His use of violence to correct those who are falling of the straight and narrow line is in no way to hurt them. But is used to remind them of how to get to the good life they desire. It seems as if god posits that if you love me and do what I tell you, everything will be fine and I 'll give you eternal life. But if you don 't, I 'll have to destroy you. However, it should be seen as I will do whatever I can do in my power to guide you to the good
He is God incarnate who became flesh to take away the sins of the world. He was a poor servant, an obedient child who grew up with wisdom and understanding and became man so that the Word became flesh to dwell among humanity (Weaver, 2014). For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus’ ministry was to preach and teach about the Kingdom Of Heaven and these teachings are the revelations that mankind are to live by in order to get into Heaven and find salvation (DiVincenzo, 2015). The teaching about the Kingdom was for God to restore his creation into the right relationship with himself (DiVincenzo, 2015). This was established so that he and his people can be together in peace, justice, and truth (DiVincenzo, 2015). This identity of Jesus and the work that he did on earth is important to the Christian worldview because it shows that God fulfilled his promise of the Messiah to save the world and it also fulfilled the scripture of the one that was to come. This is an essential element to the beliefs as a
In the days of Christ’s life on this earth, believers did not have access to the Bible in its entirety as we know and are familiar with today. Believers in this ancient time period only had access to the Old Testament. However, through their access to the Old Testament, believers were provided a foundation for New Testament times. This foundation provided New Testament believers with the Lord’s established principles of right and wrong they were expected to follow. In addition, the Old Testament is overflowing with accounts of people whose lives exemplified the future life of Christ on this earth. These pictures allowed the Israelite nation to begin to have an understanding of why Christ needed to come as their Messiah and the work He needed to do on earth. Finally, there are common themes that are interwoven throughout the entire Old Testament. Three of these themes: transgression, redemption, and consummation point to the purpose of Christ’s atoning death on the cross. These themes portray God’s work both in the lives of Old Testament believers, but they also foreshadow God’s desire and plan for believers in New Testament times and beyond.
The Bible contains two parts, which are the Old Testament, the so-called the Jewish Bible, and the New Testament. Though many different writers involved in writing the Bible, the two Testaments are not independent; they are cross-referenced to each other. Christians often treat the Old Testament not only as the historical documents or literatures of the Israelites, but also as an important element of the foundation of the New Testament, because the writers of the New Testament lay strong emphasis on the relationship of Jesus with the prophecies of the Old Testament, which includes "the birth of Jesus, the place of His birth, the flight into Egypt, the return to Nazareth, the role of John the Baptist in preparing Jesus for His public ministry," the crucifixion of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus.
Christianity started as a missionary religion and has now become the world's most widespread faith. It focuses on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The traditional story of Jesus tells of his birth in a stable in Bethlehem in the Holy Land, to a young virgin called Mary who had become pregnant with the son of God through the action of the Holy Spirit. The story of Jesus' birth is told in the writings of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament of the Bible. The New Testament, a collection of twenty-seven books written in the century after Jesus' death in 30 C.E., has had importance by shaping the church's teachings, ethics, ritual, organization, and mission in the world (Van Voorst 245). His birth is believed by Christians to be the fulfillment of prophecies in the Jewish Old Testament which claimed that a Messiah would deliver the Jewish people from captivity ("The Basics").
Spanning fifteen hundred years with over 30,700 manuscripts, extensive archaeological evidence and 2000 prophecies that have been fulfilled, the Bible is God 's word to us. (Yohn, 2013). In the Bible, the Father is essentially giving us a picture of the history of the world and is also leading us to a place where we must make a decision that involves whether we choose to accept his son or reject him and remain guilty. Additionally, the Word of God tells us what happened that caused this breach between us and God, the result of this and how God has rectified it through the blood of his son. In fact, from the beginning of the Bible (written 1400 B.C.) to the last book (A.D. 96), God is showing us why we need Jesus and how to find him. Just as a plant’s root system propagates and occupies the pot that encloses it, Jesus permeates the entire Bible. Therefore, the motif of the Bible is the story of the redemption of mankind and it all points to Jesus as the messiah and savior who secures this for all.
Secondly, I would take the Bible as a covenant in my life. God gave the Bible for his people as a Covenant, in order to live a holy life according to Bible. Therefore, God’s children should read scripture daily to study what God’s commands and to apply in daily life. As a child of God I usually read the Bible daily for my personal spiritual growth.
Studying the Bible is extremely important in understanding what a Christian believes and why they believe it. Gods speaks to his people all the time through many ways. He used to speak through prophets, but then God came down to earth as a man called Jesus Christ to speak directly to the people of the world. Jesus Christ is God’s right hand man and above even the angels in heaven. Jesus is part of the Trinity, prime reality in a Christian worldview, and he is the Savior of all mankind at the end of history. Jesus’ place and role in the lives of people as a speaker, teacher, and savior is discussed in Hebrews 1:1-2. God once spoke through prophets, but then He spoke through Jesus Christ, the sovereign ruler of the universe who died for the sins of all people and now sits at the right hand of God.
All these points lead up to one thing. The bible is a wonderful book that can help many people today, and should be available on all shelves, even yours.