Tag: Bible

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What is the Purpose of the Church?

What is God’s Purpose of the Church? Is it a place of worship? Is it a place of Christian fellowship? Is it a place where believers can be strengthened and equipped for the work of ministry? Is its purpose to make disciples and evangelize a lost world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Yes, to all the above and lots more, too.

One of our daughters attended a Christian university in Illinois. On one of her school breaks she asked my input about an assignment given by one of her professors: “Define the Purpose of the Church”. We spent considerable time over her school-break discussing and debating possible answers. We came up with two main ideas:

  1. To carry out the Great Commission given by Christ; i.e., to carry the gospel to a lost world.
  2. To serve as a place of worship and to equip the saints for ministry.

Maybe it depends upon one’s doctrinal and theological views and Biblical interpretations to insightfully answer that question. If one’s view of the Continue reading “What is the Purpose of the Church?”

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He’ll Do to Ride the River With

“He’ll Do To Ride The River With” In the days of the old West, that was the highest compliment one cowboy could give another: “Here is a man you can depend on . . . A fellow you can count on . . . A guy you can trust! . . . A man who has your back!

In fact, when that is said about another, nothing else needs to be said. It speaks of his character, his integrity, his honor.

I’m not sure where that saying came from, but I assume it came from the days of the long trail drives when drovers were pushing cattle to railheads in places like Abilene, Dodge City, Wichita and Cheyenne. It was hard and hazardous work with long hours in the saddle. To survive the cowboys had Continue reading “He’ll Do to Ride the River With”

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What are the Divisions of the Sixty-Six Books of the Bible?

The Bible is divided into two major divisions: The Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament consists of thirty-nine books and the New Testament is made up of twenty-seven books, a total of sixty-six books all together.

Both testaments, or covenants (old and new) are divided by a grouping of the various books into different kinds of literature, time frames of history, poetry and wisdom literature, prophecy and so forth. So, lets’ begin with the Old Testament division or grouping of books . . .

Old Testament

The Old Testament was written over roughly a thousand-year period and is divided into five sections:

The Pentateuch

Pentateuch is a Greek word that  literally means “five books” or “five scrolls”. It refers to the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus. Continue reading “What are the Divisions of the Sixty-Six Books of the Bible?”

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How did the Bible Come Together?

Who decided which 66 books would go into the Bible? Well, the short answer is God did. And, why 66 books? Why not 65 or 67? Again, it was God who determined the number of books that would make up the Bible. You see, the Bible is a Divine Book, not human.

  • It is Divinely Inspired–II Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God.”
  • It is of Divine Origin–II Peter 1:20-21 “No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
  • It Has and Will Stand the Test of Time–Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of God stands forever.”

In the same way God inspired men to write His Word, He also chose to use human instrumentality to gather the sixty-six books into one book that we call the Bible. The gathering of the sixty-six books that were considered to be inspired and authoritative did not come all at once. It was a result of Continue reading “How did the Bible Come Together?”

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How Did we Get our Bible?

The Bible that you hold in your hand is an amazing book.It is a book that has been preserved and unchanged through the centuries. Forty different authors from different walks of life, different vocations, different social standings and from different geographical areas were the human instruments God used to write the Bible. Their lives covered a span of  over  1400 years and most did not know each other. Yet the stories and prophesies they wrote had one unifying thread running throughout, from the first verse of Genesis to the Amen of Revelation. It is the story of a loving Father who seeks the redemption of a fallen and lost mankind by sending His Son as the one and only way of salvation.

Moses was likely the first human author of the Bible. But the stories he wrote and recorded in the Book of Genesis were events that happened long Continue reading “How Did we Get our Bible?”