Church of God, New World Ministries

The Bible - World’s Most Controversial Book

What would the world be like today without the Bible? What if there was no collection of books called the Holy Scriptures? What if there were no written revelations to set moral and spiritual standards for man’s various activities?

Few ever think of the Bible as a practical book. Few ever pause to consider the profound and very positive impact of the complete Bible on both the early and contemporary history of our Western world. Some claim, and rightly so, that biblical passages have been continuously misused and misappropriated to justify almost every evil known to man, including the use of scripture as a shield for murder: i.e. , the “Christian” Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition.

But whose fault was that? It has been men, not God, who misunderstand or misused scriptures.

Without the Bible we would possess virtually no written record of Jesus Christ! Scantly secular accounts are only significant because the four gospels amplify Christ’s biography. He is the Son of God, and ultimate Christian example.

“The character of Jesus has not only been the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice, and has exerted so deep an influence, that it may be truly said, that the simple record of three and one half short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind, than all the influence of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists” (W.E.H. Lecky, History of European Morals, vol. II, p. 88).

It is basically through the “mini-biographies” of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that the resplendent character of Jesus Christ can shine through to anybody who bothers to pick up a New Testament, open its pages and begin to read.

Many who read the New Testament alone, but without the Old Testament, is robbed of its real roots. Much of the New Testament is composed of both direct and paraphrased citations from the Old. On the other hand, the Old Testament, by itself, stops considerably short of the full and complete revelation of God’s plan and its central character, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The Jewish documents forming the Old Testament, though composed and edited over a period of nearly 1,600 years, are remarkably related to one another. Vital portions of the Law, residing in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), are repeated in different ways in the prophets and writings which follow.

Jesus put his unqualified stamp of approval on the Old Testament. “Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Then he said to them: “These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures” (meaning the Old Testament, not a single New Testament book was written at the time Jesus spoke these words) (Luke 24:27, 44-45).

“Jesus Christ is the tie that binds the Old and New Testament together. There is a unity that binds the whole (of the Bible) together. The unifying principle which makes the Bible a living book has already been pointed out: it is Christ Himself, the bringer of salvation” (Bruce, The Books and the Parchments, p. 88).

A true understanding of the recorded role of Jesus Christ begins with Moses. Luke writes of it in Acts 7:37: “This is that Moses who said to the Israelites (about 1465 B.C.) God will raise up for you a prophet (Jesus Christ) from your brethren as he raised me up” (Deut. 18:15).

Moses set a pattern of predictive prophecy about Christ that runs continuously through the threads of the Old Testament. Without Moses, and especially without David and all the prophets, the coming of the Messiah would have been totally unexpected and completely unheralded. The magi of Matthew and the shepherds of Luke would hardly have believed the angels and come to worship the young Jesus had they not first understood the Messianic prophesies of the Old Testament.

Even hard-headed, tough-minded businessmen who freely admit that the spiritual theme of the biblical record escapes them, have benefited immensely from the practical day-to-day wisdom of King Solomon. Who in business could deny the principle that “a slack hand causes poverty but the hand of the diligent makes rich” (Prov. 10:4)? What thinking banker or lender would honestly quarrel with “The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave to the lender” (Prov.22:7).

Or in today’s sea of books emanating from the publishing explosion, what student would gainsay that: “Of the making many books, there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh” (Eccl. 12:12).

Without he prophetic books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Revelation and the twelve “minor” prophets, we would know comparatively little of the sequences of events preceding the second coming of Christ and the utopian conditions of the  New World to come. But through these prophetic books, we are given a skeletal frame work of future events, and they are accurate. There are keys to understanding Bible prophesies as contained in these books, and they are not all mysterious or hard to understand. It just takes a little of your time, but it is study time well spent.

The Bible, in its true perspective, is an instruction manual from the Creator to the created, humanity. God, through his word, tells us what we are, how to live, and how and when we can achieve our ultimate human potential He spells out the way to peace and happiness for all humanity.  The Bible contains revealed knowledge for which there is no substitute.

But God exhorts us to “grown in grace and knowledge” - and through this process our understanding of his Word also grows.

The Bible remains the most unique book in all of history! Many books written about the Bible are now forever out- of-print. But the Bible itself remains the best seller in the Western world: it remains in more different languages than any other single book; it remains the guiding document of the true Christian faith.

This website contains many articles written to explain and expound basic principles found in the Bible. We have articles on faith, resurrections, baptism, Holy Spirit, Kingdom of God, Jesus Christ, the Father and many more. You will find articles explaining prophecies for our day and the immediate future from the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Revelations. You will find articles and sermons on Christian Living.  If you are one of those who have read the Bible but simply could not understand it, you need to visit this website, cognwm.org, and study its contents diligently. If you have wondered why you were born and why you are on this earth, you can find the answer to those profound questions.

It may be that you need assistance in understanding the scriptures. If you sincerely seek God’s intervention in your life, and ask God to open your mind to understand the scriptures, he will. (Mat. 13:11-17, Luke 24:45). Perhaps you need assistance as the Ethiopian eunuch.  He said, “How can I understand unless some man should guide me?” (Acts 8:31). If you sincerely desire understanding of God’s word, he will give it to you. To some, the Bible is a controversial book, but to others it reveals a new way of life.

 
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