Page 2708 - 1970S

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world~s

Most controversial Book

by

Jo.hn R. Schroeder

The Bible is nearly alw8ys mis–

understood, often maligned. ·mis–

usad, ridiculad, twls ted and

even,

to some, 8 source of embarrass–

ment. Yet the

·

Western world

owes moré to this misundtl'stood

book than most rulize or would

care to admit. ·Be/ow ere

•

few

specific keys to help you lmprove

your Bible perspective. On the op–

posite page are erticles on the

Bible's origin and selecting 8

tr8nslation that's right for you.

W

hat would the world be like

today without the Bible?

•

What if there were' no collec–

tion of book.s callad the Holy

Scriptures? What if there were no

written revelations to set moral and

spiritual standards for man 's various

activities?

....

~w--er

think of the BibÍe as a

practicar book. few ever pause to

consider the profound and very posi–

tiva impact of the complete Bible on

both the early and contemporary his–

tory of our Westem wortd. Some

claim. and rightly so, that biblical

passages have been continuously

misused and misappropriated to j us–

tify almost every evil known to man

- including the use of scripture as

a shield for murder: i.e.. the "Chris–

tian" Crusades and the Spanish ln–

quisition.

But whose fault was that?

lt

has

been men. not God, who misunder–

stood or

mis~ed

scnpture.

The Legacy of Jesus

Without the Bible we would pos–

sess vinually no written record of

Jesus Christ! Scanty secular ac–

counts are only significan! because

the tour gospels amplify Christ's bi–

ography. He is the Son of God, and

our ultimate Christian example..

"The character of Jesus has not

only been the highest pattern of vir–

tue, but the strongest incentive to íts

practice, and has exened so deep an

influence, that it may be truly said,

that the simple record of three shon

years

of

active lile has done more to

regenerate 8J1d soften mankind.

than all the disquisitions of philoso-

8

phers and .than all the exhonations

of moralists"

ryv.

E. H. Lecky,

Hls–

tory of European Morsls ,

vol.

11,

p .

88).

lt

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 .

The Two Testaments

Many wt>o read popular pans of

th.e Bible ' content themselves with

purchasing .and possessing the ·New

Testament ·alone, but without the

Old Testament, the New Testament

is robbed of its real roots. Much of

the New Testament is composed of

both direct and paraphra.sed cita–

tions from the Old. On the other

hand. the Old Testament. by itself.

stops considerably shon of the full

and complete revelation of God' s

plan and its central character. Jesus

· Christof Nazareth.

Th,e Jewish documents forming

the Old Testament, though com–

posed and edited over a period of

nearly

1,500

years. are remarkably

related to one another. Vital ponions

of the Uiw, residing in the Pen–

tateuch (the first five book.s of the

Bible). are repeated in different ways

in the proptiets and INritings which

follow.

'

Jesus put his unqualified stamp of

approval on the Old Testament . "8e–

ginning with Moses (the Pen–

tateuch) and all the prophets. he

interpretad to them

in

sil

the

scrip–

tures

the things concerning him–

self . . . . Then he said to them.

'These are my words which

1

spoke

to you, while

1

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 thei r minds to un–

derstand

the scriptures

(meaning

1he Old Testament. Not a single

New Testament book was written al

the ti"'e Jesus spoke these

words) . . .' " (Luke 24: 27. 44-45;

Revised Standard Version used

throughout this article).

Jesus Foreseen by Moses

Jesus Christ is the tie that binds.

the Old and New Testaments to–

gether. " . .. there is a unity that

binds the whole [of the Bible] to–

gether .... 'The unifying principie

which makes the 8ible a·living book

has already been pointed out: it is

Christ Himself. the bringer of salva–

t ion" (Bruce.

Ths Boolrs snd

the

Parchments.

p.88) .

A true understanding of the re–

corded role of Jesus bsglns with

Moses. Luke writes of

it

in Acts ·

7:37:

,"This the Moses who said to

the ·tsraelites [about"

1-450 · ·8 :(1;.),

God will raise up for you a prophet

(Jesus·Christ] from your brethren as

he raised me up" (cf. Oeut.

18 :15).

Moses set a pattern of predictive

prophecy about Christ that runs con–

tinuously through the threads of the

Old Testament . Wíthout Moses. and

especially without David (in the

Psalms) and all the prophets, tha

coming of the Messiah would have

been totally unexpected and com–

pletely unheralded. The Magi of

Matthew and the shepherds of Luke

(see Matt.

2

and Luke

2)

would

hardly have bel ieved the angels and

come to worship the young Jesus

had they not first undersiood the

Messianic prophecies of the Old Tes–

tament.

The Wisdom Books

Even hard-headed, tough-minded

bu$inessmen who freely admit that

the spiritual theme of the biblical

record escapes them' have bsnefitecj

immensely from the practica!, day–

to-day wisdo_m of King Solomon.

Who in business could deny the

principie that "a slack hand causes

poveny, but the hand of the d iligent

makes rich " (Prov.

10:4)?

What

thinking banker or tender would

honestly quarrel w ith: "The rich

rules over the poor. and the bor–

rower is ttte slave to the tender"

(Prov.

22:7)?

Or in today's sea of book.s ema–

nating from the publishong ex–

plosion, what student would gainsay

that: "Of making many books. there

is

no

end,

and much study is a wea–

riness ofthe flesh" (Eccl.

1 2 : 12).

Bible Prophecy

Without the prophetic books of

lsaiah. Jeremiah. Ezekiel, Daniel.

Revelation and the twelve " minor"

prophets, we would know compara–

tively ñoth.ing of the sequence of

events prece<ling the second' coming

and the utopian conditions of the

wortd tomorrow. But through these

prophetic book.s. we are ·given a

skeletal framework of futura event.s

- and they are accurate. There are

keys

to understanding Bible proph·

eciés ·-as •tóntained" in·"th"ese-·l!>ooks.

-and they are not at all mysterious or

hard to understand.

1t

just takes

a

little of your time - but it's study

time well spent.

Man's lnstruction Book

The Bible. in its trua perspectivo,

is an instruction manual

lrom

the

Creator

ro

the created - humanity.'

God. through his word, tells us

what we are, how 'o live, and how

and when we can achieve our ulti–

mate human poten_tial. He spells out

the way to peace and happiness for

all hui'T)anity. T.fie Bible contains re–

vealed knowledge for which there is

no substituta.

True, no man understands the

8ible perfectly and completely.

There are claimed contradictions

that theologians have not resolved to

every atheist's satisfaction. There

are textual difficulties with which

scholars are still wrestling. Only a

Bible illiterate would deny these and