I remember as a late teenager reading authors much older than me who described the wonders and beauties of the Bible, and thinking: "Somehow I believe what they're saying is true, but I have not yet fully seen those beauties with my own eyes." Well, now I'm one of those old guys. Please hear me when I say: what I once had only heard of, I now have seen. The Bible is a wondrously beautiful Word from God, unsurpassed in its stunning riches and awesome sweetness. It is unrivalled among all the writings on earth.One facet of its beauty that never ceases to amaze me is the sixth reason why I believe the Bible is the Word of God: the message of the Bible is a unified whole which, despite God’s use of 40+ human instruments, presents from start to finish a single story line of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration/recreation .
The idea that some have that the Bible is no more than a collection of loosely connected religious musings penned by various people cannot be further from the truth. The Bible tells one story, sings one song, heralds one message. It's a story of how God made Man to live in Paradise, how that Paradise was lost, how a Redeemer-Deliverer-King would (and has) come to rescue Man and re-create that Paradise, and how that Paradise will be fully restored for all who belong to God by faith.
It is no accident that Genesis begins the Bible with an account of Paradise first made, and Revelation 20-22 concludes the Bible with a description of Paradise restored. That is the story line of the Bible, and everything between Genesis and Revelation is the record of how God gets it done.
More than forty writers over 1, 500 years were moved by God to author the various parts of the Bible, and as they wrote they were moved to tell this same story. Through historical narratives, exquisite poems, personal letters, epic sagas, war stories, love songs, detailed geneologies, stunning metaphors, spell-binding images, soaring prophecies, and down-to-earth parables, the writers of Scripture, despite all their varied personalities and styles, were nonetheless single-minded in what they wrote.
This unity is not just observable in the big themes and story line of the Bible; it is found in the details as well. God's Word presents one moral law, one way of salvation, one view of God, one way to do family, and one model for relationships, for communication, for love, for integrity, for work, for social justice, for how men and women are to relate in complementary roles, and for a whole lot more.
Look ladies and gentlemen: I defy you to put 40 people in a room and tell them to tell one story about the meaning of life and to make sure that they get not only all the big ideas the same, but all the details too. Good luck!
Yet over 15 centuries, three and a half dozen very different men of incredibly diverse peronalities, cultures, and times were called of God to write His story. This they did with a unified voice. Such oneness of thought suggests powerfully a Unifying Mind behind it all.
Fifteen hundred years. Forty writers. Dozens of styles. Thousands of details. Hundreds of sub-plots.
One Book. One Story. One message. One Author. One Mind inspiring it all. One God.
Another reason why I believe.
Excellent! The incredible situation you describe is what makes the book so credible! Thanks Tim...
ReplyDeleteI immediately thought of several passages that share the main characters in this "One Single Story"
ReplyDeleteLuke 24
25And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Philippians 2
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
One might say, "With characters like these this must be one amazing story!" I dare you to take the reading challenge and find out for yourself! Many have done so before you and have been thoroughly captivated!