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Friday, May 18, 2012

Why the Holy Bible is the Holy Bible

Romans 1:1-3 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,

Why is the Bible called "The Holy Bible"?
In the past few days we have been exploring the subject of holiness.  In some translations we see the Bible or the scriptures referred to as being "sacred" - i.e the sacred scriptures. (2 Timothy 3:15)  If we review for just a moment what we've learned about holiness or "sacred", we can better understand what is meant by the phrase "holy" or "sacred" scriptures:

1. The scripture is a unique piece of literature, in a class by itself.  It is separate.  No other book in the world, religious or otherwise, has the quality of being Divine revelation.  All other would-be contenders are the responses of men to their thoughts about God.  Only the Bible is the thoughts and words of God about Himself revealed to men.  Only the scripture can convert the hearts of people in the presence of its hearing and reading. (Psalm 19:7; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23) 

No other body of literature has been attacked and withstood each of its opponents like the Bible.  A prime example of this is from the words of the Atheistic French Philosopher Voltaire who stated that within 100 years after his death, his words would live on and the Bible would no longer be around.  Yet 100 years after his death, his very home became a small publishing house wherein copies of the Bible were produced. 

2. The scripture is holy due to both its authorship and its subject matter.  It is a dual authorship.  That is, there are 40 human authors on three continents over 1500 years - i.e human authorship.  Then there is the "Author" behind the "authors" - The God of all Eternity.  Anytime we see an intersection between the human and Divine, that is what we call sacred.  Furthermore, Romans 1:3 tells us what the chief concern is of the scriptures - "His Son", the Lord Jesus Christ, God in human Flesh. 

3. The scripture is pure and undefiled, qualifying it to predict events accurately.  Holy or sacredness also includes purity.  Theologians refer to the scriptures as being inerrant and infallible - that is, without error and incapable of error.  It says in the verses above that "the Gospel of God" was "promised before hand" through his servants "the prophets" "in the Holy Scriptures" "concerning His Son."  In order for the Bible to predict events accurately, it had to be without error.  Tomorrow we will elaborate on why inerrancy is necessary in order to demonstrate the Bible as "The Holy Bible".