Basic Elements of Christianity
Enjoy Your Holy Bible
Rev. 24(03/24)
Basic Elements of Christianity
Enjoy Your Holy Bible
Rev. 24(03/24)
Unless otherwise noted, all Holy Scripture is KJV or AKJV.
Most of us have loving memories of our parents or those who took care of us. I do not know about you, but I can still hear my parents telling me to look both ways before crossing a street. I also remember being told how to wind a watch. Sad to say, not all people have had such blessings. But, even so, one can find written instructions for many things. Most times if you buy a watch, or just about anything else, instructions come with it.
Does it not make sense then that the same holds true for our spirit, which will last forever? For our spirit, which is the most important part of our being, there are vocal and written instructions, viz., the Holy Spirit (John 10:27) and the Holy Bible (Psa. 119:33-40). Some might say our conscience is to be our guide, but we have to keep in mind that the Holy Bible tells us there can be problems with our conscience (1 Tim. 4:2), as well as our own spirit (heart, Jer. 17:9).
So it makes sense that God in His merciful wisdom would give us written instructions to follow and a sure marker (standard) for us to determine whether or not our conscience and spirit is in line with His will. That marker and those instructions are the Holy Bible, the written Word of God (Psalm 119:11, 105).
Later in this lesson you will learn how the Holy Bible came to be in human time (Psalm 119:89). Suffice it for now to say that the Holy Bible is comprised of the ancient documents by holy men who were moved upon by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21), and preserved in ancient copies which exist in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Much of the world has, or has available to them, these writings translated into many current languages. The disciple needs to be aware that many translations fall short of being literal, and there are a number that should never be considered as the Word of God. To the best of my knowledge, the safest choices for a translation include the New King James, Young's Literal Translation, and any work by Jay Green. You will learn more about this later.
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Terms Used In This Series books- In reference to much of the subject matter here, in the ancient languages "books" is actually "scrolls." brand- I might not use this word, however in terms such as "Nelson Study Bible," I would like you to know that "Nelson" denotes the publisher. One might consider this as a brand. concordance- A list of selected words with selected verses that contain those words listed underneath them. This is a very important tool. Let us say you want to find where Jesus says, "My yoke is easy, . . . ". You go to the concordance, look under "yoke," and if the publisher felt there was enough room, you should find the verse listed. Some Holy Bibles are published with a concordance in the back of them. One may also purchase concordances. Also, there are exhaustive concordances which contain a listing of every word in the Holy Bible with all the verses containing that word. For the KJV there is the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance. In addition, if one has a computer or access to one, there are programs available with the Holy Bible text on them, often with a concordance and other helps. Many of these contain subprograms that will run word and phrase searches in the Holy Bible. There are places on the Internet where these things can be done. Just be careful where you go. manuscript- Generally, a document containing text. In the study of the Holy Bible, the term manuscript can be understood as a copy of the original text or possibly a copy of a copy of the original text. A manuscript might only contain a portion of Holy Scripture, even a mere fragment. notes / notations - Some Bibles may contain cross references of points so you can compare other verses and translations. Newer translations often make us aware of variants (you will learn about these later) amongst the copies. Keep in mind that cross-references or notes may not be correct in their deductions (only the Word of God Itself is to be trusted completely). Case in point, the Amplified Bible erroneously identifies the "wisdom" of Proverbs 8 as the Christ. Wisdom however is referred to as a she and the female gender is never applied to Messiah. Wisdom also has a sister in Pro. 8:12, "prudence." If wisdom equals Christ then who is prudence? In the NT, Christ is referred to as the Wisdom of God. But if we read carefully we will see the wisdom of Pro. 8 is the created wisdom inherent in mankind. paraphrase - A work that gives the gist of a copy or a version. These are helpful to some degree in understanding certain difficult passages, but one must be more wary of error and bias in paraphrases. Denominations, fellowships, and churches should not support their fundamental truths by using verses from a paraphrase. publisher- There are scores of publishers, offering various translations and types. Some publishers are Zondervan, Nelson, Thompson, and Kirkbridge. revision - This term usually denotes an "update" of a translation due to any number of factors including, but not limited to, correction of errors in translation or printing and new information. type- Again, I might not use this word directly, but in an example above, "Study Bible" refers to the type of Holy Bible. Other types of Holy Bibles include, but are not limited to, red letter editions (words of Christ in red), devotional, sermon, annotated, chain reference, and self-pronouncing. If you would like a study Bible I would recommend a "Scofield Study Bible." version - The Holy Bible, or parts thereof, translated from the ancient manuscripts into another language. Hence, the King James Version is a particular translation of the whole Holy Bible into the English language that was in use during the 17th century. The term, translation, can be considered synonymous at times with the term version. |
So, how do we know that the Holy Bible is the written Word of God? While, to a degree, we base that claim upon faith (trust), our faith is not "blind faith" as some allege but has its basis in facts. We can know the Holy Bible is the Word of God because (these are just some of the reasons) . . .
1. Its Principles Work: While many of its principles deal with a person who is truly saved (regenerated), there are multitudes of others that affect the unsaved whether they apply them or not (Isa. 55:11).
2. Its Prophecies Literally Come To Pass: There are thousands of prophecies in the Word of God, many of which have been fulfilled, and fulfilled precisely as they were written. You will get a whole lesson on basic prophecy, but here are a few examples. Daniel 9:26 stated Messiah would be "cut off" (killed) and then Jerusalem would be destroyed. Just before He was crucified (in fulfillment of Dan. 9:26) around 30 AD, Christ prophesied that the Jewish Temple would be completely destroyed (Matt. 24:2). When asked by His disciples (Matt. 24:3d YLT), "Tell us, when shall these be? and what is the sign of thy presence, and of the full end of the age?," the first thing He said (Matt. 24:4c-5) was, "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." In 70 AD Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed and the Jews scattered. However, one of the earliest and best known1 fulfillments of Matt. 24:4c-5 was an uprising in 132 AD led by self-styled Messiah Bar Cochba (Son of the Star, see Num. 24:17). Lars P. Qualben writes, "In 135 A.D. the rebellion was crushed by the Roman government after more than a half million Jews had perished. Jerusalem was rebuilt as a pagan city and called Aelia Capitolina." Israel ceased its political and geographical existence. However, Isaiah 66:8 indicated it would be born in one day. This prophecy came to pass2 May 14, 1948, when the British mandate over Palestine expired and the Jewish People's Council approved a proclamation declaring the establishment of the State of Israel. That same night the United States recognized Israel as a country. As an extra point, the United Nations (UN) was founded in 1945. The founding of the UN and the re-establishment Israel most likely sets the stage for the literal fulfillment of Joel 3:1-2.
3. Lives Are Miraculously Changed By It (Psa. 19:7-9): There are multitude thousands of testimonies to this fact. Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic priest in the 1500s, was powerfully drawn to its sacred text which shaped him to receive the saving grace of God, being transformed from a nervous, confused and depressed person into a bold unswerving leader who upheld the truth of God's Word. More recently in our time I can briefly mention a lady who checked herself into a hotel room one night, determined to kill herself with a gun. For some reason she pulled open the drawer to a nightstand next to her bed and found a Gideon Holy Bible in it. She read it. God moved upon her, and she was drastically changed by His power — changed to continue on living, and live that life for Him! Among thousands of other testimonies the Gideons reported that an atheist surrendered her life to God through Christ after reading the entire Holy Bible.
4. Christians Are The Most Persecuted Group: When someone becomes a true Christian, their life has been dramatically changed and they continue to change as they obey the Holy Bible. Immediately they are in conflict with the spirit of world (John 15:18-20). While it is true other religious groups are persecuted, Christians get persecuted the most and the persecution is worldwide. The persecution ranges greatly – from occasional mockery to imprisonment and even tortuous death. True Christians remain faithful, in part, because they feed upon the Holy Bible and Christ lives within them, enabling them to obey the Word of God.
5. Despite The Fact That The Holy Bible Is The Most Attacked Book, It Still Survives And Thrives: Because the Holy Bible reveals the fact we are sinners and that God has lovingly provided His remedy for our sin, most people instinctively stay away from the Holy Bible and many attack it in various ways. Their sin nature considers the Word of God as a threat to it, and rightfully so! The Holy Bible has been banned and burned. If you study Church history you will learn the fake church tried very hard to prevent the translation of the ancient texts into the languages of the common people in various nations.
In a number of localities in the United States large groups of people can gather into someone's home or apartment for a party, or to watch sports, or for some other reason without any problem. However, trouble occurs if half or even less gather for a Holy Bible study.
Another way the Holy Bible comes under attack is when certain translations – or “translations” – and versions are published. Some examples are the New World Translation, The Century English Version, and the Message Bible. And, there will be much more than that before Christ returns. Also, some notes and comments (like those in study Bibles) are very biased on some points and, as result, tend to warp or negate certain teachings of God's Word, especially when it touches upon marriage.
Nevertheless, the providence of God has seen to it that decent translations exist as well as the ability for many of us to see what the ancient texts actually say in the original languages of the Holy Bible by using various programs (apps) and online resources like blueletterbible.org. The Holy Bible is available not only in book form but also in electronic form. The Holy Bible is thriving in many ways.
No other work has come under this much attack, has survived through the ages, and still thrives. Certainly this is proof that the Holy Bible is the Word of God. It is written in 1 Peter 1:24-25, “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass wither, and the flower thereof falls away: But the word of the Lord endures for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached to you.”
A. It is inspired by God. In the verse you are about to read you will see "inspired by God" means far more than simple inspiration as when one is inspired to write a poem or paint a picture. In the American King James Version 2 Timothy 3:16 states, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” The image in this section shows the following. Using YLT to see the actual Greek, we read that the word for “given by inspiration of God” is “God-breathed”. That entire phrase is actually one word in the Greek, “theopneustos”, which is a compound word. The first part, “theo”, is derived from the Greek word for God. The second part, pneustos, is derived from pneuma. Pneuma is used to express the term “spirit.” “Holy Spirit” is “hagios pneuma.” Pneuma is also used to express the term “breath.”
With this, it is a blessing to know that we are created as body, soul, and spirit (1 Thess. 5:23). When someone receives Christ as their King and Savior their spirit is made alive. It could be said that they start to spiritually breathe. As a result, the Word of God becomes alive to them because it is God-breathed.
So, the Holy Bible is lovingly God-breathed for us. God directed His servants, like Moses or Peter, to write, or in some cases (like Paul) dictate to another, exactly what He wanted us to know. God selected the words and grammar these men were to use. Since God did it, it was without error.
B. Looking at the balance of 2 Tim. 3:16 and at verse 17, we see the Holy Bible is the supreme rule for our faith and the Christian life, relevant to every facet of our lives.
C. The Holy Bible is not a work of man, but a work of God through man (2 Pe. 1:20-21).
D. The Holy Bible is God's revelation of Himself and of His will to man (John 5:39).
E. The Holy Bible is not a science or history textbook. However, whenever it touches upon these topics, you will find it without error (Ps. 119:160). In a later lesson we will take a look at some false accusations that people bring against the Holy Bible, such as claiming it teaches the world is flat.
F. The word "bible" comes from the Greek word biblia3, meaning "books" (scrolls). While there have been many books (scrolls) written in ancient days, over the course of time, due to their power and authority certain books held by true Christians as inspired by God came to be known as the Holy Bible, or simply, the Bible (capitalizing the "B"). Those writings included the ones the devout Jews of the Promised Land (not the ones remaining in dispersion) held as the Word of God which are the 39 Old Testament (OT) books as found in most (at the time of this writing) Protestant Bibles. Most true Christians by the end of the fourth century had agreed by the Holy Spirit that 27 more writings, composed in the first century, were Holy Scriptures. These are the New Testament (NT). To us this makes a total of 66 books in one. However, it is interesting to note that numerous books in the OT are counted together as one. For example, Hosea through Malachi were considered one book by the Jews. So were Ezra and Nehemiah. Also, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles are really just one book each, viz., Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. This arrangement then has 24 books for the OT, 51 for the whole Holy Bible.
B. For the OT, the Jews had a different scheme as to order and classification of the books than what is commonly accepted today in true Christendom, theirs being more simple. In general, they classed the Books into three groups, viz., the Law, the Prophets and the Writings6.
C. For the layout predominately used in true Christendom, in the OT the first five Books are the Law, followed by the books of History (Joshua to Esther), followed by the Poetical (Job to Song of Solomon), the Major Prophets (Isaiah to Daniel) and then the Minor Prophets (Hosea to Malachi).
D. The NT begins with the four Gospels, (Matthew to John), then one Historical book which is Acts, the Pauline Epistles (Romans to Philemon), the General Epistles (Hebrews to Jude) and last, Prophecy, The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
E. The term epistle means letter. Another term for the General Epistles is the Catholic Epistles. That has nothing to do with the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic is another term for universal.
F. Just as a way to help you locate the books of the Holy Bible, discounting any helps in the back of your Holy Bible, the middle book is Psalms. The first book is Genesis and the last is The Revelation.
G. Practice memorizing the order of the books. One reason I have numerous references in these studies is to help train you where to find each book. Knowing where to find each book of the Holy Bible will greatly aid you in your service to God and man. Additionally, many today have smart-phones and can read and study the Holy Bible from their phone. This is good. God's child should be able to use many tools. However, still get a paper copy of the Holy Bible so you will learn to be proficient either way.
1. The first five books can be remembered by thinking of a fictitious location: Gel, ND: Gen., Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
2. The next three form a simple sentence: Joshua judges Ruth.
3. So does the next three: Samuel "kings" Chronicles.
4. The first letters of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther form the abbreviation ENE, for east northeast.
5. I memorize Job through Song of Solomon by using a short sentence, Job "psalms" (like "sings") proverbs. Then I just tack on Ecc. and SS. You might make a sentence for all five.
6. I simply just have the Major Prophets memorized. You might make a sentence though. Perhaps, "I jump, laugh and excitedly dance," to memorize Isa., Jer., Lam., Eze., Dan.
7. For the Minor Prophets, the following sentence (you might want to write your own) will help you remember the order in which these books come: Holy Jesus And Only Jesus Makes you New, Having Zeal, Holy Zeal, with Might.
8. The order of the NT books have been learned by putting them to the chorus of the song, "Bring Them In": Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Acts and Romans and Corinthians, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians; Thessalonians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, Peter, Peter, John, John, John, Jude and Revelation. Click here for demo of this song.
B. I recommend just reading for a while. Young converts are often encouraged to read "anything with John in the title." I strongly recommend you start at 1 John, then go to the Gospel of John. Eventually read the whole NT, at least twice or thrice. Reading the NT before you get to the OT will help you to understand the OT. Once you get to the OT your understanding of the NT will increase! As you begin to read the whole Holy Bible, I suggest you alternate between the OT and NT. There is more text to the OT books than the NT, so vary the reading like two OT chapters to one NT chapter until you see it will work out even reading one to one. Once I read a book I make a notation next to that book in the table of contents. Once I read through the whole Holy Bible, I switch markings. One time it might be a heart, the next time a cross, etc. When reading the Psalms, I make a mark at each psalm I read.
C. You eventually should try to read the whole Holy Bible in one year. That should be close to four chapters a day, but keep in mind that the chapters are various sizes. There are some less than ten verses! So you want to go by how many pages. Note the number of pages your Holy Bible covers and divide it by 365. If you read about 5 chapters a day that should take 9 months and 7 to 8 chapters a day would be six months. If you have a scientific tweak to your mind like I do, you may be curious as to what percentage of the Holy Bible a certain book may be. I will list that under the OT and NT surveys.
D. In marking your Holy Bible, you might want to write notes in blank areas. You can use symbols next to verses or passages to easily reference that section. For example, if you read a section that specifically deals with salvation, you might use a cross to mark that area. For resurrection, perhaps an upward arrow piercing through a line. Feel free to underline phrases and passages. Some people use lightly colored markers to highlight the text using different colors for different topics.
E. It is also good to have a notebook to jot down some things. One way to do this is to select symbols that you can place in the margin of the pages so you can easily find a topic in your notes. For example, a cross can stand for salvation, a heart for love, fishing hook for evangelism, a capital D in a circle to note the deity of Christ, a dollar sign for money, and so on. List those symbols in a legend at the front of your notebook. When recording your thoughts, jot down the chapter and verse number(s) before your comments.
F. There are different types of Holy Bible studies you can do. Here are just a few:
1. Biographical - Pick someone, i.e., Job, Jacob, Enoch (that would be brief), etc. Check the concordance (term defined to the left) and read what you can find about them.
2. Geographical - Pick a place and do the same.
3. Simple Word or Phrase Study - Pick a word and see where and how often it occurs in the Holy Bible or in a specific Book of the Holy Bible. Some phrases you might try are “come up here”, “but God”, and “the fear of the Lord”.
4. In-depth word study – For an in-depth word study you will need a tool, like Strong's Concordance, to help you determine what were the words in the applicable ancient language, and the meaning of those words, that our English (or whatever your native language) terms come from in the Holy Bible. Here are some examples:
b. Life: There are six Greek words that may be translated as “life”. However, the three main words are bios, psueche, and zoe. It is interesting to note that pseuche may also be translated as “soul”.
c. Kill: Ten OT Hebrew words may be translated as “kill”. There are seven Greek words for “kill” in the NT.
Near the end of this lesson you will find a number of authors of word study books. It is to be kept in mind the Holy Spirit moved upon holy men of God to write the Holy Bible, moving them to use certain words at all times.
5. Combination Word Studies – Discover where two or more words occur together throughout the Holy Bible, like, bread and wine; mercy and truth; body, soul, and spirit; flesh and blood, flesh and bone, and so on.
6. Topical - Like sea, kingdom of heaven / God, hell, oil and more.
7. Book analysis - Make a general outline of a Holy Bible book and note interesting aspects. With that will naturally come item 3 above. For example, if you did a book analysis of the Gospel of John you would see the term “truth” occurs twenty-one times in the New King James Version. And, very interesting is the fact that 21 is the multiplication product of three times seven.
8. Associations – Quite helpful in this area would be terms and phrases that make a connection between YHVH God and Jesus Christ. Some examples are “rock / stone”, “light”, “shepherd”, “first and last”, etc.
Chapter and verse numbers were added for easier referencing. However, these chapter and verse divisions are not always accurate in displaying the proper places where themes and sub-themes begin or end. A case in point is Isaiah 53, where the theme for this great passage really begins at Isa. 52:13. So when you read the Holy Bible, do not let chapter numbers interrupt your flow of thought. Do not give them the same importance we do today in modern literature. Use it only as a tool to locate certain passages. Otherwise you might get occasionally baffled like I did in the first year or so of my salvation when I read Matt. 16:28, "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." I knew very well that all the original apostles and disciples had died, but the Christ had not yet returned. Someone explained to me I needed to read on, and sure enough Matthew 17 speaks of Peter, James and John seeing Christ transfigured and speaking with Moses and Elijah.
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Yikes! While I was teaching a series of Holy Bible studies in the 1990's at an apartment complex for the disabled and senior citizens, I decided to bring in a copy of the NT in Greek for those who had never seen something like that before. Though the Biblical text was in Greek, the publisher placed subheadings throughout the text in English. So I passed it around and after a while an unhappy elderly couple walked over to me and handed me my Greek NT, pointing to a paragraph. As I stared at what they were trying to show, they walked out of the room. I soon figured out what they were concerned about. I saw a subheading that read, "Your Father the Devil." The passage they had turned to was John 8:39-47. Satan, and not Abraham, was declared by Christ to be the father of the unbelieving Jews that hated Him. So, the subheading was correct, but only God knows what that couple was thinking about me and the text I had passed around! However, I think that subheading should have been worded differently even if it were an English text. |
B. Likewise, do not put much stock in a publisher's headings and subheadings for the text. While some are helpful at times, they can be misleading (see story to the right).
C. You will most likely find words in italics, or sometimes in brackets, in your Holy Bible. This usually occurs for two reasons. When they occur in parts of sentences they are not there to express any emphasis, but usually express words in our native tongue that do not appear separately in the actual text, but are needed for us to better understand the meaning in the text as expressed by the ancient language it was translated from. However, be very aware that some versions have been published by cults, people with ungodly agendas, and so on, where they will add words, sometimes using italics or words within brackets, that really should not be there. In upcoming lessons you will learn how to recognize such shams.
The second reason is that the publisher, revision committee, translation committee, and others wanted to show portions of Holy Scripture written as poetry, a quotation, or for some other reason. Poetic passages are often indented by publishers. Much of prophecy was spoken and written with poetic meter and many times you will find prophetic passages in italics.
Bible dictionaries such as Smith's Bible Dictionary
Concordances such as Cruden's, Strong's
Bible Handbooks as Eerdman's, Unger's
Topical Bibles (listing passages by topic)- Nave's Topical Bible is NOT RECOMENDED because of its anti-Pentecostal bias.
Word Study Books authored by such folk as Trench, Vine (NT Greek) and Wilson for Hebrew.
Guide books such as "A Look At The Old Testament" by Henrietta Mears. That was a great help to me in the earlier years of my Christian walk.
Commentaries- But, keep in mind, that is what they are. Anyone can have a comment, and anyone can be right or wrong.
Computer programs containing search engines with a variety of ways to search. I have the Online Bible downloaded from the Internet. If I ask it to find all forms of the word mercy I can enter merc*. If I want to locate all verses 5 verses near "mercy" I enter mercy5@. It permits me to use word combinations and phrases.
Books on archaeology
Bible Atlases- Get acquainted with the areas the Holy Bible speaks about.
Just remember some books can be wrong or contain anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish bias. I have a book in my library that contains photographs of sites in Holy Bible lands. One page mentions Amman, east of the Jordan. The authors of the book said the town was called Philadelphia in Jesus' time and connected it with the Philadelphia mentioned in Revelation. However, the Philadelphia mentioned in Revelation was in Asia Minor (currently called Turkey).
Read? Set? Take a quiz! English only.
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1Qualben, Lars P.:A History of the Christian Church (Thomas Nelson and Sons: New York, 1968) pp 72-73
2From, Declaration of Establishment of State of Israel
3Unger, Merrill F.: Unger's Bible Handbook (Moody Press: Chicago, 1967) p1
4People prominently active in the work of the Church in the earlier Christian centuries like Tertullian, Clement, and Ignatius, are commonly referred to as "Church fathers." While I recognize the important contributions to our knowledge and understanding that these men have made, based on our Lord's admonition in Mt. 23:9, I tend to shy away from the term "father(s)," and refer to such as "leader(s)."
5To my knowledge and from the time of writing this lesson, the information I have here indicates he was the first to name the 27 books as the NT. There might have been other documents that have been since discovered that could indicate someone earlier than Tertullian used the term, or one similar to it.
6Unger (same) p2
7Bible Society of South Africa
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Understanding the Holy Bible - part 1
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