The Good Book for Bad Times
The Bible is unique among “Holy Books;” it is rooted in and intertwined with actual human history. The Bible claims to be “the word of God” and most born again Christians believe it to be so. It records the interaction of God with historical people and nations. It reveals the meaning of life and the responsibility of human beings to their Creator.
The Bible is actually a collection of 66 books, some long, some short. This book of books is the world’s all-time best seller and the world’s most translated book. The Bible’s two major sections are the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament is sometimes published as a separate book.
The documents of the whole Bible consist of real-life historical accounts, law books, poetry, wisdom writings, prophecies, eye witness accounts and letters. The whole Bible was written and compiled over a period of about 1,200 years. The authors of the documents were from varied backgrounds including statesmen, historians, leaders, prophets – who were priests, shepherds and farmers; governors, kings, a tax collector, a physician, a business man, a fisherman, and a theologically trained academic. Most of these people never met and yet there is a fundamental unity about the whole Bible. This is most remarkable and very compelling, and leads to the conclusion that the Bible is much more than just a human document.
If you open the Bible you will find each document (book) divided into chapters and verses. These were not in the original documents but were inserted later to make it easier to find your way about. A sequence of verses is often referred to as a ‘passage’. A particular verse in the Bible may be referred to by a shorthand form, as follows – Name of Book (then a space) number of the chapter (then a colon) the number of the verse or verses.
The Bible is available in several translations and in many languages. The translations are from the original texts in Hebrew (for the Old Testament) and from the Greek (for the New Testament) into modern English (and other modern languages, of course) to make the Bible easier to read. The most popular current English translation is the New International Version (often abbreviated to the NIV) and is used throughout this website. Other versions include the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) and the English Standard version (ESV). There are also what are known as ‘paraphrases’. These are not word-for-word translations but include much interpretation using modern types of phrase to show the meaning. ‘The Living Bible’ is a good example of this type.
The Bible can bring you encouragement and strength during hard times. Passages such as “With God all things are possible”, and “If God is for us, then who can be against us?” give us hope and courage during hard times. I would like to encourage you to dust off your bible or come to my website Bible Verses About where I have broken down bible verses into topics such as love, faith, hope, strength and friendship. There you can see what the Bible says about these subject.
I hope to see you there.
You can find out more about Bible Verses About a certain subject by following the links here. I suggest theBible Verses About Love. It is my favorite.
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