The Bible

Let’s start with what the Bible says about itself: “…from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, ¹⁷that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15-17)

So we can see that this verse reveals in Paul’s letter to Timothy that the purpose of the Scriptures are for revealing God’s redemptive plan for salvation and that they are inspired by God; not by man whom God created, but by the Creator of all things, God, who by divine revelation inspired the writers of the Bible.

If the Bible was written by the creativity of mere man, “then our faith would rest on the men, and for their sake we would believe their message. But our faith rests on a Divine testimony, and our authority is the authority of God. Peter and Paul believed the testimony they received from God, and so do we, in believing through their writings, accept a Divine testimony.”¹

It may be hard for natural man to believe this by his own logic, but God is invisible, and the fact that He is our Creator and knows all things means we cannot possibly comprehend anything about Him unless He chooses to reveal it to us, can we?

The various books of the Bible include history, law, psalms, prophecy, wisdom literature, four Gospels, epistles, and apocalyptic literature. Could He have made it any more interesting than that? Even to those who think the Bible is fiction, I don’t think anything has ever been written that can compare with the supremacy of its contents. It is the most fascinating Book ever written, it is the greatest story ever told. Keep in mind that it is not an account of the history of the world, but the revelation of the will of God to reach out to man with His redemptive plan for our lives.

When it comes to learning about God, you will find as you study the Bible that He is very deep and personal; just about everything deals with the condition of your heart and learning how to bring it into full restoration. This is not going to be a light reading. The Bible is the living Word of God, it has the power to change your life and give you eternal life. I recommend reading it meditatively with your heart, so that it will minister to you personally and not just intellectually with your head.

Because the Scripture is inspired by God, (God-breathed), it is the living word of God and its message is timeless. You may have made attempts before to read the Bible and found it too complicated and hard to understand, and for good reason. To understand it requires the guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit, as promised in the Bible (John 16:13). If we try to understand it with our own knowledge then we would end up with many various versions of Christianity.

A Bible Handbook can be very helpful in getting you started to navigate through the various books in the Bible, giving you a concise overall big picture and bringing God’s story all together in one unified message.

Some Bibles will give a brief synopsis of the Bible’s purpose and may include advice on how to read through it, and include the historical background preceding each book, such as the MacArthur Study Bible.

In their book “How to Read the Bible Book by Book,” Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart include a brief, simplified explanation of the Bible titled “The Biblical Story: An Overview” which you can view here (after the preface page): https://books.google.com/books?id=xw9o4bxZVOoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

Here is an article that gives overall information of the Bible to get you started if you are new to the Bible called Basic Bible by Daniel J. Lewis: http://troychapel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Basic-Bible.pdf

To hear or watch the Scripture taught verse by verse you can listen to Joe Focht of Calvary Chapel Philadelphia: https://resources.ccphilly.org/teachinglibrary.asp

Some authors have written books that cover the overview of the Bible such as “The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses,” by Chris Bruno and “Gods Big Picture,” by Vaughan Roberts. Here is a very easy and enjoyable explanation of the Bible from the Bible Society called “The Bible Story” at this link: https://biblesociety.org.nz/discover-the-bible/what-is-the-bible/the-bible-story/

And if you want to watch a good quality animated summary of the Bible in three minutes you can watch “The Greatest Story Ever Told – The Whole Bible in 3 Minutes” on Youtube at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VysrZYa7bEI

Bible versions – I read the New King James (NKJ) version which is one of the more accurately translated versions, although the original King James Bible is the most reliable,² so they are a good source for Bible study. But if you want to read an easy to understand version, as if someone was explaining it to you in modern times, I would suggest the New Living Translation (NLT), The Message (MSG) version which is an extreme example of this, or the New International Version (NIV) which is very popular. I usually read these when I need clarity in understanding a Bible verse, but do not rely on them for Biblical accuracy.