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Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure with turmoil. - Proverbs 15:16 HCSB

There once was a tzaddik who continuously praised the Lord for His great providence. “Blessed art thou, Yawheh Yireh, the Lord Who sees and provides for all my needs.”[1] It seemed that his prayers were always answered. People would come from miles around to receive one of his blessings, or to ask this blessed elder to pray for them.[2] However, he never was heard to pray for himself.[3] “I have no need for anything,” he would claim, “everything…  ( Click for more )

But He answered, "It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." - Matthew 4:4 HCSB

Imagine that I built a beautiful deck for my wife. I carefully chose the most select quality lumber and painstakingly ensured that every cut was exactly on the line; each cut to within a sixteenth of an inch. Oh – only one problem. I forgot to put any sealer on our deck.

You would rightly cry out, “Fool! Don’t you know what will happen to all your work if you don’t preserve it somehow?” I would…  ( Click for more )

So then, in this way, my dearly loved brothers, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord, dear friends. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I also ask you, true partner, to help these women who have contended for the gospel at my side, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. - Philippians 4:1-5 HCSB

Euodia and Syntyche were leaders of the Philippian church. They still attended the worship…  ( Click for more )

History of the Bible

Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, either by our message or by our letter. - 2 Thessalonians 2:15 HCSB

To discuss the history of the English Bible is to discuss languages. You must realize that only 1,000 years ago, English didn’t even exist. But the Bible is so much older than that. In fact, while some parts of the Bible are estimated to be over 3,500 years old, the most recent addition to it is 2,000 years old. That’s the modern part! So, in order to develop a proper understanding of where…  ( Click for more )

Not that I have already reached [the goal] or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, all who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this to you also. – Philippians 3:12-15 HCSB

There is a deeply twisted…  ( Click for more )

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been outwitted by the wise men, flew into a rage. He gave orders to massacre all the male children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, in keeping with the time he had learned from the wise men. Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be consoled, because they were no more. - Matthew 2:16-18 HCSB

[1] So many innocent children killed for the sake of political expediency! We shake our heads…  ( Click for more )

The Law of God

Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throats. Those who make them are just like them, as are all who trust in them. - Psalm 115:3-8 HCSB

Two men in my church build cars for a living that are not like your father’s Neon. Their cars are sleek, powerful and wonderfully classy.…  ( Click for more )

Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD, so that when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth again because of your disgrace." This is the declaration of the Lord GOD. - Ezekiel 16:61-63 HCSB

There once was a man who had inadvertently committed a sin. He was mortified by his mistake and approached a righteous…  ( Click for more )

The History of the Bible

He said to them, "How unwise and slow you are to believe in your hearts all that the prophets have spoken! Didn't the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into His glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. - Luke 24:25-27 HCSB

About 500-400 BC, papyrus, a kind of paper that was made from the Papyrus plant, started becoming popular. The outer rind was cut off and the sticky inner pith was cut into strips that were laid side by side with…  ( Click for more )

…no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid--that is, Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one's work. If anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire. – 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 HCSB

The sages like to…  ( Click for more )

"Two men went up to the temple complex to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee took his stand and was praying like this: 'God, I thank You that I'm not like other people--greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.' "But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, 'God, turn Your wrath from me--a sinner!' I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone…  ( Click for more )

Special Revelation – Interpretation and Animation

But as it is written: What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, and what has never come into a man's heart, is what God has prepared for those who love Him. Now God has revealed them to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the concerns of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows the concerns of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, in order…  ( Click for more )

Then He told them, "These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you--that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. - Luke 24:44-45 HCSB

There were several principal criteria that determined whether or not the early church considered a book to be canonical. The first was “authorship.” Was the book written by a prophet, an apostle or an accredited spokesperson of God? This stemmed from the view that God is the ultimate authority,…  ( Click for more )

Special Revelation – Inspiration and Illumination

Also, this is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the message about God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the message of God, which also works effectively in you believers. - 1 Thessalonians 2:13 HCSB

The Thessalonicans understood that the letters they received from Paul were no mere human message. From the beginning, the letters were believed to be the message of God; sacred Scriptures that effectively worked in the hearts and minds of…  ( Click for more )

Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Haven't You placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions are spread out in the land. But stretch out Your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse You to Your face." - Job 1:9-11 HCSB

The apostle Peter warned us about the devil, saying that our adversary prowls around like a roaring lion seeking anyone he can devour.[1] The term Peter used was “diabolos” which means slanderer, traducer or malignant…  ( Click for more )

"If there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers within any of your gates in the land the LORD your God is giving you, you must not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him enough for whatever need he has. Be careful that there isn't this wicked thought in your heart, 'The seventh year, the year of canceling debts, is near,' and you are stingy toward your poor brother and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty. Give to him, and don't have a stingy…  ( Click for more )

"If there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers within any of your gates in the land the LORD your God is giving you, you must not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him enough for whatever need he has. Be careful that there isn't this wicked thought in your heart, 'The seventh year, the year of canceling debts, is near,' and you are stingy toward your poor brother and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty. Give to him, and don't have a stingy…  ( Click for more )

"If there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers within any of your gates in the land the LORD your God is giving you, you must not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. 8 Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him enough for whatever need he has. 9 Be careful that there isn't this wicked thought in your heart, 'The seventh year, the year of canceling debts, is near,' and you are stingy toward your poor brother and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty. 10 Give to him, and don't have…  ( Click for more )

Internal consistency and inerrancy – Evidenced in Science

God is enthroned above the circle of the earth; its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth and spreads them out like a tent to live in. - Isaiah 40:22 HCSB

The Bible abounds with references to nature and natural processes and thus, frequently touches on the various sciences. Those who say the Bible is not a book of science have not read it closely enough.

However, the writers of the Bible do not attempt to formulate these statements in the terminology of a modern…  ( Click for more )

Internal consistency; inerrancy - Evidenced in Archeology

The one who gives an answer before he listens--this is foolishness and disgrace for him. - Proverbs 18:13 HCSB

Two friends met on the street. One said to the other, “I saw a terrible accident yesterday.”

The other responded, “Really? What happened?”

The first man said, “A little old lady ran a red light and got clipped by a white pickup!”

Suddenly a voice spoke up behind them, “That’s not how it happened at all!”

They turned to see a man sitting…  ( Click for more )

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will find it. - Matthew 16:25 HCSB

A paradox is a statement or concept that leads to a counterintuitive conclusion. Tthe Scriptures are full of them. The very concept of a divine and eternal being contains paradoxes. How could such a being be both transcendent and immanent? How can He retain sovereignty while granting free will? How could He be holy and yet put up with us?

However, the Bible does not encourage irrationality. It does not demand a “blind leap of faith.”…  ( Click for more )

Immediate and mediate general revelation

For the choir director. A Davidic psalm. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge. There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard. Their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the inhabited world. In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun. - Psalm 19:1-4 HCSB

King David taught that every human is continuously surrounded with evidence of God’s…  ( Click for more )

Internal Consistency; Inerrancy - Evidenced in Prophecy

But the prophet who dares to speak in My name a message I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods--that prophet must die.' You may say to yourself, 'How can we recognize a message the LORD has not spoken?' When a prophet speaks in the LORD's name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him. - Deuteronomy 18:20-22 HCSB

Besides his claim to fame as the author of…  ( Click for more )

Internal consistency and inerrancy – assumed by the Scriptures Moses came and told the people all the commands of the LORD and all the ordinances. Then all the people responded with a single voice, "We will do everything that the LORD has commanded." And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose early the next morning and set up an altar and 12 pillars for the 12 tribes of Israel at the base of the mountain. - Exodus 24:3-4 HCSB

Every human must make a decision concerning the nature of the Scriptures. Like our Master who clearly taught that He was…  ( Click for more )