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The Bible. What is it?

In 1976, I graduated from high school and was getting ready to go to a Christian college in Oklahoma.

I grew up believing in God, church and the Bible and wanted to be a preacher and teacher of the Word. I had a few months to go before I left for college and so I got a job working at McDonalds.

One day I was standing at the counter taking and handing out orders and the lobby was full of customers. As I was waiting on one customer, I noticed an elderly lady enter and began working her way up to the counter where I was. I noticed that she was wearing a very unique hat. It was actually a coffee can and it was decorated with can tabs and ribbons.

I had never seen anything like it in my life. When she finally made it to the front of the line, I asked her what she wanted; and she immediately answered so that not only I but everyone in the store could hear: “The bible is nothing but a bunch of made-up stories and nasty words.

Before I could collect my composer and respond, she reached into her purse and pulled out a deck of cards; not playing cards, but cards with pictures and words that mocked religion, God and the Bible. She held up each card one at a time so everyone could see and commenced to poke fun at God and all religion. She cleared that store faster than COVID 19 or the plague, customers and employers alike. Soon it was just me, her and my manager, and I gave him a few seconds to handle the situation, but he couldn’t say a word.

From that point on I began to do my best to understand her viewpoint of the Bible and to share with her my viewpoint. I learned an important lesson that day. We don’t all see the Bible in the same way. This woman saw the Bible as fiction, fantasy, and nasty; while I saw it as historical, true and godly.

Whether you or I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, it is probably the most accurately historical book ever written and has been the best-selling book of all time; read more by more people than any other book. Presently I am studying and teaching the book of Daniel. Daniel is seen as a book of prophecy but it is also accurately historical. In chapter 2 of Daniel, we read of Nebuchadnezzar, who was king of the Babylonian empire at that time. He had a vision that shook him up and he believed to be prophetic. Daniel tells him that the vision was prophetic and true.

The vision involved a statue and a stone, the statue represented four worldly kingdoms that would rule over the known world and the stone represented a spiritual and eternal kingdom that God would set up during the days of the fourth kingdom represented by the statue.

Historically, this vision is played out beginning with the Babylonian empire (600 B.C.) and ending with the Roman empire and the coming of the kingdom of heaven/church that Christ built (Matthew 16:16-18). The Bible is the inspired word of God, accurately historical and trustworthy; it proves itself from Genesis to Revelation.

The two most important teachings of the Bible are: the salvation from sin and the reality of eternal life.

 

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