The Bible - 101
How to read the Bible • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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1. Who wrote the Bible?
1. Who wrote the Bible?
Answer: A - Humans, guided by the Holy Spirit
God revealed things He wanted us to know
He prepared scribes for the task of writing down all of these things. The Spirit guided & motivated the human authors, throughout the centuries, to communicate what God intended
Would you have a problem if the Bible we have today is not word-for-word the same when God first inspired it?
Why or why not?
This is a real critique from non-Christians, especially muslims. They claim the Koran is word-for-word the same as when it was first revealed. Not true, but that isn’t today’s topic
2. The Bible was written to:
2. The Bible was written to:
Answer: D - Ancient Near-Eastern Israel
11 For I know the plans that I am planning concerning you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘plans for prosperity and not for harm, to give to you a future and a hope.
The Bible was written for us but not to us
Was this verse written to you, today, in 2026 America?
There is a lot of cultural imagery throughout the Bible
Example, the “One who rides the clouds” was commonly understood to refer Baal. Baal was the was of the primary spiritual rebels of the OT. Riding on the clouds identified him as a divine being, lower case “g” god.
3. When reading the Bible, I should:
3. When reading the Bible, I should:
Answer: B - Try to understand it as the original audience did
Find a good study Bible with good historical and cultural notes
Remember the acronym, CAAP: credit to BLK SHP Scott, “How to Study the Bible”
Context, Author, Audience, Purpose
Dive deeper by reading primary ancient texts
Show The Ancient Near East Volume 1 and The 54 Book Apocrypha
4. The Bible teaches that the shape of the Earth is:
4. The Bible teaches that the shape of the Earth is:
Answer: D - None of the above
See some notes from Question 3, the original audience
See these references, one from the OT and one form the NT:
4 “You shall not make for yourself a divine image with any form that is in the heavens above or that is in the earth below or that is in the water below the earth.
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth,
Describes a 3 tiered cosmology the ancient peoples believed
However, know that the Bible is not teaching science
God did not create a new culture to dispense revelation.
God communicated revelation in terms familiar to the existing culture so they could understand
The worldview of the Bible may be pre-scientific, but the truth claims are correct
