Luke Carbis It’s more complicated than 42.

The Bible, The Word Of God by Ronald Fabri – Introduction

My Nonno was a great man, and a great pastor. I remember staying up late with him and Nonna and talking all night about the bible. I was particularly interested in end times then.

Recently, I’ve been writing  a few of my own thoughts on some of the scriptures (here, and here). After reading them, Nonna sent me through a document written by Nonno, which helps explain them a little better than I can.

I’m going to publish this document on my blog as a series of studies, so that you and I can read through them together.

His first, below, is an introduction to the Bible. I hope you all find this as interesting and important as I do.

The Bible – The Word Of God

By Ronald Fabri

Introduction

The Bible, the English form of the Greek word BIBLIA, meaning “books”, is the name which in the fifth century was given to the entire collection of sacred books, known as “The Library of Divine Revelation.” It is the greatest book that has ever been written. The composition of the Bible is a miracle in itself. It is a library of 66 books; 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. This does not include the books of the Apocrypha, which are only accepted by the Roman Catholics, the Anglicans and the Eastern Orthodox.

The Bible has been composed by many different writers, in three different languages and under different circumstances.

The writers represent a cross section of humanity: educated and uneducated, Hebrews, Jews and Gentiles. They are writers of almost every social rank: kings, fishermen, public officials, farmers, teachers and physicians. Most of them are unknown to each other and are writing throughout various periods of time which span approximately 1500 years. The Bible makes comment on such topics as religion, history, law, science, poetry, drama, biography and prophecy. For so many writers, of such varied backgrounds, to cover such a wide variety of subjects over such a long period of time in absolute harmony appears impossible.

So, how then do we account for the Bible? We must keep in mind that the Bible is not purely a book of philosophy, although it is philosophical. We should not go to the Bible for a scientific study; however there is no discrepancy between certain facts of science and the Bible.

Nor is the Bible simply a book of history, even though it is found to be accurate when recording history. The Bible was given to man from God, revealing Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God the Son, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the only Saviour and giver of eternal life.

The Bible alone truly answers the greatest questions asked by man:
Where have I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? How can I know the truth? It is the Bible which reveals the truth about God, explains the origin of man, directs the only way to salvation and eternal life and clears up the age-old problem of sin and suffering.

The most significant writings in the entire Bible are those which tell of the Lord Jesus Christ and His work of redemption for mankind. The person and works of Jesus Christ are promised, prophesied and pictured in the types and symbols of the Old Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ is revealed, in all of His truth and beauty, in the Gospels and the full meaning of His life, His death and His resurrection is explained in the epistles. His glorious second coming to this earth in the future is unmistakably foretold in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, including the book of Revelation.

The great purpose of the written Word of God, the Bible, is to reveal the LIVING WORD OF GOD who is THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

As mentioned before, the Bible is divided into the Old Testament, containing thirty-nine books, and the New Testament which contains twenty-seven books. In the New Testament, the Old Testament is referred to as “the Scriptures” and they are regarded as being given by God by divine inspiration. From time to time God raised up men to commit to writing the revelation which He gave them. The “Scriptures,” or collection of sacred writings, was enlarged as God saw necessary. Thus, it was God’s purpose to perpetuate His revealed will.

Before we go any further, we would like to emphasise what God Himself, by divine revelation, inspired the writers to proclaim:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”.  (Heb. 13:8)

 “And like a mantle You will roll them up; Like a garment they will also be changed.
But You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end”.  (Heb. 1:12)

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Next: The Bible Has Special Power

View more from this series.

Bali – Day 9

What’s all this? 

Don’t forget to check out the new feature on my blog: lightbox. Click on one of the images to see!

16.10.07 – Luke

DVD Day.

Basically we sat in bed all day eating Oreos, Krispy Kremes and treats from a bakery, drinking sprite and coke, and watching DVD’s on the DVD play we rented (rp50,000 for the day).

We watched (in order):

• Oceans 13
• Marie Antoinette
• The History Boys
• Transformers
• Donnie Brasco
• Hairspray

T and I both liked Oceans 13 the best, and I reckon Donnie Brasco is a close 2nd.

We went out to dinner at a great restaurant – the best yet. Mostly because its food most resembled food at home, which we dearly miss.

16.10.07 – Talia

Movie day 2day. I went for a walk by myself in the morning 2 try and get supplies, but nothing was open.

No breakfast @ the hotel 2day – I nearly threw up just @ the thought of it. Plus there is  NO healthy food in this entire country. So I am doomed to have gained kilos by the time I come back.

All the junk food today doesn’t help, but I was v. restrained (much 2 Luke’s annoyance actually) and only had one oreo and 2 Krispy Kremes.

Soft Drink and Salt & Vinegar chips were my weakness though, but I justify it by the fact that I had been wanting them for a few days now and hated food in this country.

Even @ dinner (nice restaurant, nice food) I tried to get something healthy and everything was either fried, full of white, refined wheat, or covered in cheese. I ended up getting calamari and chips, which even included some cooked beans and carrots (yuk 2 the carrots but I ate them for fear I might be getting scurvy or similar due to lack of nutrients received since coming to Indonesia) .

But it wasn’t deep friend, and not even coated, so I was pleased!

We watched some good movies – Oceans 13 being one of the best and Hairspray also being fun and dance and singable. Good time.

xox

We Dig Christmas

Talia and I are going to see one of our favourite bands – Scat, perform their new Christmas album live on Wednesday night.

We’re huge fans of Scat’s swingin’ Jazz, and ever since we heard them play a sneak preview of their Christmas album, entitled ‘We Dig Christmas’, during their gig at the Brisbane Jazz Club a few months ago, we’ve been hanging out to get our hands on it!

You can book now for a ticket to their album launch at Alhambra this Wednesday night, and the $25 also includes a free copy of their album. Click here for your tickets.

Here’s a quick youtube video promo of their new album ‘We Dig Christmas’ for your enjoyment. It’s really very funny.

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Here’s hoping that Scat notices this post and comments me… Or, for that matter, anyone at all comments me.

Catch me later.

How to use an Australian English Dictionary as Spell checker in Firefox

Today I’m going to teach you how to use an Australian English (or any other language for that matter) dictionary in firefox, instead of the default US English.

Very handy when it gets to words like analyse, criticise, or memorise.

New Blog Design

As you can see, I’ve updated my blog theme to something a little more… me.

I really like it! How about you?

Another new feature – the Lightbox plugin. What’s that? Click the picture below and look for yourself!

Down Time

Sorry for the downtime guys – we're back up and running again now, so all is sweet! I figured this MySQL thing out! So hang around, some neat posts coming your way.

How Should I Vote

The Federal Election is this weekend, and for many of us (including myself), it’s our first time voting!

Luckily, there’s this great new site called HowShouldIVote.com.au.

Basically, enter in your postcode, choose your electorate, and answer a short (but well rounded) quiz about issues that are or aren’t important to you.

The candidates also fill out the same quiz, and by matching their quiz results with yours, on election morning, you’ll know who to vote for.

My personal results were Debbie Blumel, for the ALP – we had a 76% match.

Why don’t you go ahead and try it for yourself, it’s a quick and easy way of finding out which candidate best suits what’s important to you. HowShouldIVote.com.au.

Old Testament Law vs New Testament Law

I wasn’t going to write about this again for some time, but I’ve had a lot of questions, and today I have found a lot of answers.

The question was this: Should we follow the law of the old testament? Or did Jesus break it when he died for our sins on the cross?

Again, this is a long post, so click the More… link to keep reading.