Why I quote Bible Scripture re. firearm ownership and self defence.

[Gil223]

This is not really true. Prosecutors and police are in the business of convictions, and the truth doesn't always enter into this process. Frequently, their judgement is clouded by the need to convict or mistaken belief that they are correct. Sometimes a logical leap is made in the wrong direction. The process is corrupted by the presence of certain lawyers who game the system in both directions.

As I said:

police officers, judges, juries, attorneys are all human beings, and as such they are imperfect. Society (perhaps I should have said "The jury", as the representatives of society) does it's best to convict only those found guilty by a jury of their peers, as flawed as that may be.

If you want the perfect conviction, you must find a minimum of 15 perfect individuals. I have heard of only one, but He was killed a bit over 2,000 years ago.

We should never chance a wrongful conviction in the name of "saving lives". Think Tom Selleck in An Innocent Man. Blind belief in the judicial process is not the way to go.

The judiciary is all we have to work with, noname, and keep in mind that courts no longer dispense "justice"... they dispense law, frequently at the expense of justice. Is it right? No, but it is what it is. (Blind belief in the movies is not the way to go, either) Pax...

 

[Venator]

Like I said VW_, I tried and failed. As an athiest I found this an interesting read.

Scientific Evidence of God
By Bob DutkoWhile Intelligent Design skeptics may claim there is no evidence of God, the actual scientific evidence for God's existence is overwhelming, scientifically answering the question, "does God exist?".

In science there is a Law of Physics called the 1st Law of Thermodynamics. Within it is a Conservation of Energy Law that states, as a key principle that all energy in a closed system must be conserved. Okay, fancy language, but what does that mean? It means that while energy can convert into matter (physical “stuff”), and matter into energy, however much total “stuff” there is (matter and energy), there can never be an increase in that total amount or a decrease in that total amount. So however much total “stuff” there is in the universe, (matter and energy combined), there can never have been more and never have been less. All it can do is convert to different forms, like matter to energy or energy to matter, but the total amount of all of it has to remain the same.

The “closed system” is a scientific term that refers to a system or an “area” that has no outside influence, like the universe. Now, as believers we know, of course, that God does influence the universe, so many believers would consider the universe an “open system”, (one that does get outside influence), but for the atheist who says there is no God, the universe is all there is, so from their perspective and for the sake of conventional science, the universe would get no outside influence and would therefore be considered a “closed system”.

Back to the 1st Law of Thermodynamics. If it states that you can never have an increase or decrease of energy/matter, which means that matter/energy can not be created from nothingness, how did we get all the matter and energy in the universe? If science is all there is and there is no God, then the 1st Law of Thermodynamics reigns supreme and therefore it would be impossible to have matter and energy in existence right now. Simply put, when you open your eyes and see matter and experience energy, what you see is impossible according to the known Laws of science if, in fact, there is no God. Therefore, science itself says there must be a God.

Plain and simple, matter/energy can not come into existence. It is scientifically impossible, yet here we see everything around us, so how can that be? There are really only 3 possibilities.
Option A: Everything came into existence by itself anyway, without the help of God, (even though science has proven that impossible).
Option B: Everything in the universe has always existed for all of eternity, (which, by the way is also scientifically impossible, or
Option C: There must be a God, a Being greater than science, who created the Laws of science and has the ability to disobey them. Not only is a belief in God the only logical conclusion to draw, it's the only one scientifically possible because remember, if there is no God, the first two options are scientifically impossible according to the actual Laws of Physics.

Believe it or not, a 5 year old child could be an atheistic scientist's worst nightmare by merely asking him “where did everything come from if God didn't make it?” What that child is actually asking in scientific terms is “how do we have a violation of the 1st Law of Thermodynamics by the creation of energy and matter in the closed system of the universe if there is no Creator capable of doing that?”
Many times people who do not believe there is evidence of God have claimed that a faith in God is only a matter of faith and that it can not be proven scientifically. They say "does God exist ?....if so, prove it to me". When confronted with this, we must fully understand what it means to “prove” something. The fact is that none of us were there when the universe came into being, so technically, none of us can “prove” what happened. We can't “prove” God did it and the atheists can't “prove” everything came into being on it's own, so what we have to do is examine the evidence based on science to determine the most plausible explanation. For example, if I see a beautiful sand castle on the beach with intricate design, but no one there along with it, I can not “prove” someone made it, just as someone else can not “prove” the sand castle made itself from the wind, waves and sand randomly interacting with one another, and where and how did the sand come from?? so we have to determine what logic and reason tell us is the most plausible explanation, based on scientific evidence and examination.

This is not science.

 

[Venator]

I understand your mixed emotions over the death penalty, however, police officers, judges, juries, attorneys are all human beings, and as such they are imperfect. Society does it's best to convict only those found guilty by a jury of their peers, as flawed as that may be. The rest may simply fall under the heading of "Collateral Damage", as sad as that may be. I know I'd be upset if I were part of the collateral damage! Pax...

Then these fallible people should not be deciding the death of a person.

 

[Venator]

QUOTE=Freedom1Man;1808516.The bible is for Racists, Rebels, and Tax Protesters.

Race means origin. So if someone is of a different race then they are not of the same origin.

.
The Council of Nicea took place in 325 A.D. by the order of the Roman Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantine. Nicea was located in Asia Minor, east of Constantinople. At the Council of Nicea, Emperor Constantine presided over a group of Church bishops and leaders with the purpose of defining the true God for all of Christianity and eliminating all the confusion, controversy, and contention within Christ’s church. The Council of Nicea affirmed the deity of Jesus Christ and established an official definition of the Trinity—the deity of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit under one Godhead, in three co-equal and co-eternal Persons.
Constantine, a converted Christian (debatably), called for a council meeting to be held in Nicea with the bishops of the Christian church to resolve escalating quarrels and controversy mounting to a bitter degree of disunity among the church leadership concerning theological issues. The failing Roman Empire, now under Constantine’s rule, could not withstand the division caused by years of hard-fought, “out of hand” arguing over doctrinal differences. Like men today, lets ban or get rid of things we dont want, like, or dissagree with. In fact, the early Catholic Church banned the Bible alltogether for fear that if the people found out the truth of the Scriptures and what they taught, they would leave the church in droves.

.
Flavious Josephus, a Roman Historian wholived at the time and who never hung with Jesus wrote; "Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.[47] ”

Have you read the writings of Josephus? The Testimonium Flavianum (meaning the testimony of Flavius [Josephus]) is the name given to the passage found in Book 18, Chapter 3, 3 of the Antiquities in which Josephus describes the condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus at the hands of the Roman authorities.[48][11] The Testimonium is likely the most discussed passage in Josephus and perhaps in all ancient literature.

.
The Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel. This is how serious may Jews are about keeping the Sabbath. They try and come up with any means possible to break the day pretending to keep it.


Jews now use their teeth to work mobiles
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25621096-5012895,00.html
ULTRA-orthodox Jews have come up with a way to operate their mobile phones on the Sabbath and religious holidays - by using their teeth.

Many of the ultra orthodox volunteers and workers at Israel's Magen David Adom emergency services work on the Sabbath and were confronted with the dilemma of how to activate their mobile phones without violating religious rules, IPU.com reported. To confirm response to dispatch, workers are permitted to hold a small metal pin between their teeth and press the necessary buttons on the phones.
In the New Testament, which many Jewish sabbath keepers ignore, sabbath keeping was done away by Christ himself. he rose from the dead on Sunday, he first appeared to His disciples on Sunday, Pentecost allways falls on a Sunday. I can give many scriptural references in which God said He would do away with sabbaths, new moons feast days and holy days of Jewish worship.

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There is no mention of Jesus having anything to do with Plato in any Scripture. However he was castigated for keeping company with sinners, tax collectors and publicans. he Himself said to His detractors,I have come to save sinners not the self rightious.

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Thats you opinion and you are entitled to believe it with no argument from me.



As did this post.



I dont recall ever mentioning anything regarding the Mark of the beast?

Know your enemy is one of my motto's. They are always mostely within. They use every possible tactic to get their way. They won a major battle Down Under with their $500,000,000 steal back and ban, they havent won the war, yet! Dont let them get a toe hold in your neck of the woods.

Flavious Josephus writing is questionable and scholars on both sides have stated such. Jesus was a common name and most likely not the Jesus. Also the time frame for the writing is off. To date there are no contemporaneous writings about a man called Jesus. So there are scholarly doubts that there was even a Jesus.

 

[slowfiveoh]

Haz,

By attempting to state that you have "not found" anything to "disprove" Christianity (your specific faith, and an argument posed by other faiths not related to your own), all you are attempting to do is gain confidence of your audience by ensuring your level of expertise. It is an emotive appeal, and is disregarded as such.

As to your child, that's great! It's too bad, however, that you place more assurance in the intervention of a mythical, imaginary being than to express your undying gratitude and full thankfulness to the medical staff that likely healed or stabilized your child to a state wherein he/she could physically recover. Our existence is a miracle all right, but not one of some petty, jealous deity who is purportedly omniscient and all-powerful but is intently fixated on whether you masturbate or not. Instead it is a miracle of all natural, 100% evolutionary beauty that is currently beyond our full understanding, but we are catching up!


Had you prayed to Krishna, Horus, or any other myriad of deities and the outcome were the same with your child (and it would have been), you likely would be a professor of that faith, and we would be sitting here talking about how your faith in said religion is absolutely sound and "factually substantiated", even though it is with absolute certainty, no such thing.

What you clearly don't know is that during the period of Christianity, the story of the "resurrected savior" was en vogue. In fact, Christianity, with absolute certainty, copied its resurrection story from religions such as Egyptian, or Hindi. The story of the "resurrected savior" is tragically copycat in nature, borrowing terminology and stories ("The lamb of god", Attis's resurrection story, baptism, etc.) directly from other popular religions.

Most of the New Testament was, as another user pointed out, hodge-podged together by the council of Nicea. This is the origin of the Bible, and if you knew anything whatsoever in any way about this council, you would know that they all had drastically different beliefs, were constantly at each others throats, and operated with treachery and guile to get their "beliefs" included by virtue of one of the books.

I, myself, would be far more Marcionist in my outlook, but you probably have no knowledge whatsoever what I mean by that comment without googling it, so I will just let it slide.


Haz, this world is a beautiful, unbelievably wonderful place when you realize that 2000 year old religions preaching hatred, racism, intolerance, and embracing pagan rituals has no place but as a historical marker for us to move away from in our age.

Religion was one of many things to come out of our sociological evolution, as was morality.

If you want to profess to be a practitioner, then fine. That's your prerogative, even if it is flatly wrong.

Also, we are not a Christian nation. Never were.

Our government has no religious affiliation. (Treaty of Tripoli, Letter to Danbury Baptists etc.)

 

[Freedom1Man]

Flavious Josephus writing is questionable and scholars on both sides have stated such. Jesus was a common name and most likely not the Jesus. Also the time frame for the writing is off. To date there are no contemporaneous writings about a man called Jesus. So there are scholarly doubts that there was even a Jesus.

Thank you for beating me to it.

I am not going to try to educate the OP though. If she/he wishes to believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster I will not attempt to stop him/her.

Interestingly enough the story of Jesus has been told over and over again one time the name was Hercules. Father was a the king of kings, knocks up a virgin, he preforms miracles, birth was announced by a star in the sky, was visited by 3 wise men. yada yada yada.

 

[Gil223]

Then these fallible people should not be deciding the death of a person.

The accused frequently have no trouble deciding the death of a person - perhaps to be fair, the jury should be composed of homicidal sociopaths! And you are not the one perfect person to whom I was referring in a subsequent post. :lol: Pax...

 

[HandyHamlet]

Blah, blah, blah , blah... think you are reading WAY too much into it.

Yah, the death penalty was abolished in IL because they hate the bible.

:banghead:

Illinois Abolishes The Death Penalty

by NPR Staff and Wires
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn speaks with reporters after signing legislation abolishing the death penalty in the state at the capitol in Springfield on Wednesday.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn abolished the death penalty Wednesday, more than a decade after the state imposed a moratorium on executions out of concern that innocent people could be put to death by a justice system that had wrongly condemned 13 men.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/09/134394946/illinois-abolishes-death-penalty

And now we have this...

Convicted defendants left uninformed of forensic flaws found by Justice Dept.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...justice-dept/2012/04/16/gIQAWTcgMT_story.html

Failures at the FBI crime lab
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...ad-to-reform/2012/04/20/gIQAe6lYWT_story.html

Prosecutors Knew Of FBI's Forensics Flaws For Years, The Washington Post Reports
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...of-forensics-flaws-for-years-the-post-reports

So maybe the good Christians have stomached enough innocents wrongly convicted and it has nothing to do with scripture.

 

[georg jetson]

Haz,

By attempting to state that you have "not found" anything to "disprove" Christianity (your specific faith, and an argument posed by other faiths not related to your own), all you are attempting to do is gain confidence of your audience by ensuring your level of expertise. It is an emotive appeal, and is disregarded as such.

Or he's expressing exactly what he states and has come to his conclusion based on his assesment of the evidence.

As to your child, that's great! It's too bad, however, that you place more assurance in the intervention of a mythical, imaginary being than to express your undying gratitude and full thankfulness to the medical staff that likely healed or stabilized your child to a state wherein he/she could physically recover.

Your assertion that his beliefs are mythical have no more or less foundation in fact then his beliefs.

Our existence is a miracle all right, but not one of some petty, jealous deity who is purportedly omniscient and all-powerful but is intently fixated on whether you masturbate or not. Instead it is a miracle of all natural, 100% evolutionary beauty that is currently beyond our full understanding, but we are catching up!

Your powers of presumption are only surpassed by your faith in your religion.

Had you prayed to Krishna, Horus, or any other myriad of deities and the outcome were the same with your child (and it would have been), you likely would be a professor of that faith, and we would be sitting here talking about how your faith in said religion is absolutely sound and "factually substantiated", even though it is with absolute certainty, no such thing.

Well… maybe… but we really don’t know this now do we… unless of course we PRESUME that we do.

What you clearly don't know is that during the period of Christianity, the story of the "resurrected savior" was en vogue. In fact, Christianity, with absolute certainty, copied its resurrection story from religions such as Egyptian, or Hindi. The story of the "resurrected savior" is tragically copycat in nature, borrowing terminology and stories ("The lamb of god", Attis's resurrection story, baptism, etc.) directly from other popular religions.

This is not a fact and may or may not be supported by some evidence depending on the interpretation of such evidence.

Most of the New Testament was, as another user pointed out, hodge-podged together by the council of Nicea. This is the origin of the Bible, and if you knew anything whatsoever in any way about this council, you would know that they all had drastically different beliefs, were constantly at each others throats, and operated with treachery and guile to get their "beliefs" included by virtue of one of the books.

This is a valid argument ONLY if you have godly powers of presumption which allows you to presume how an omniscient and all-powerful Being may or may not decide to communicate with its creatures.

I, myself, would be far more Marcionist in my outlook, but you probably have no knowledge whatsoever what I mean by that comment without googling it, so I will just let it slide.

Surely you wouldn’t presume that there are those on this forum less educated than yourself?

Haz, this world is a beautiful, unbelievably wonderful place when you realize that 2000 year old religions preaching hatred, racism, intolerance, and embracing pagan rituals has no place but as a historical marker for us to move away from in our age.

Religion was one of many things to come out of our sociological evolution, as was morality. SNIP

I understand that you think your religion is the correct one… and it’s typical to see other religions as less than yours. However, calling another religion hateful does nothing to advance your own… it may even place a stumbling block in front of those you may be trying to convert.

 

[nonameisgood]

When part of your religion relies on the idea that "lack of proof is proof of faith", nothing else matters. You cannot disprove an idea for which there is no physical basis.

And atheism is not a religion, it is the understanding that there is no deity. Please stop referring to our lack of belief in your idea of a god as a religion.

 

[Jack House]

is intently fixated on whether you masturbate or not.

Not true! No where in the bible does it state masturbation is a sin. In fact, it's purely the product of religious leaders.

And atheism is not a religion, it is the understanding that there is no deity. Please stop referring to our lack of belief in your idea of a god as a religion.

Sorry bub, atheism is a religion. It requires the same amount of faith to believe there are not deities than to believe there is one.

 

[georg jetson]

When part of your religion relies on the idea that "lack of proof is proof of faith", nothing else matters. .

Not necessarily. Though I would qualify the word "proof" if I were to use it in this context.

You cannot disprove an idea for which there is no physical basis.

True. This is a limitation of science.

And atheism is not a religion, it is the understanding that there is no deity. Please stop referring to our lack of belief in your idea of a god as a religion.

First, I have not stated my idea of a god.

Secondly, I decline your polite request. Religion is defined as a system of beliefs. Everyone has a religion though not everyone is involved in an organized religion.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion

Atheism is a "belief" that there is no god and is usually accompanied by a belief that the process of evolution explains the existance of species and even the existance of life itself. Such an explanation is not fact, but comprises a belief system. Some may consider this the most logical belief system, though I don't, but the fact that it is a belief system is inescapable.

 

[nonameisgood]

No. As an atheist, I can tell you unequivocally that I do not believe in the existence of a god. There is no set of beliefs that goes along with that. Lack of belief is not a belief of its own, any more than lack of light is just a different kind of light.

 

[Jack House]

No. As an atheist, I can tell you unequivocally that I do not believe in the existence of a god. There is no set of beliefs that goes along with that. Lack of belief is not a belief of its own, any more than lack of light is just a different kind of light.

You believe there is no god. That is a belief, one which requires faith at that.

 

[georg jetson]

No. As an atheist, I can tell you unequivocally that I do not believe in the existence of a god. There is no set of beliefs that goes along with that. Lack of belief is not a belief of its own, any more than lack of light is just a different kind of light.

I don't think this analogy helps your argument. What you would be arguing is that you have no beliefs... did you get that... you believe nothing. Kinda hard to believe... especially when you admit that you believe there is no god.

 

[twoskinsonemanns]

No where in the bible does it state masturbation is a sin.

Of course not. It's more like a favorite past time. Right? Am I right?.....Hello?..........Uh-oh. :uhoh:

 

[OldManMontgomery]

Basis for deciding a life style

I am a Christian believer. ('Belief' in English is a much weaker word than the words used in both Hebrew and Greek, but that's a larger discussion for another place.)

From this beginning I can decipher a moral code based NOT on my own immediate desires or agenda, but on a permanent and transcendent structure of morality - right and wrong. It is a permanent structure and not subject to the whims of societal collective thought or political correctness. Without a permanent and independent frame of reference - that bothersome 'God' person, for instance - any moral determination is subjective.

I don't cite a lot of scripture in these various forums I frequent, but I use them in my own life. Since I deal daily with the ultimate God behind them, I'm pretty comfortable relying on them.

At the same time, I understand others do not. (I also see there is a vast amount of ignorance and outright falsehoods bandied about by people who claim to 'know' the Bible. On both sides of the believing fence, I might add.) So, my reasons for defending myself and my family are quite valid for my stance, but they do not have much effect on a non-believer. Therefore, non-believers will have to work out their own reasons for justifying self-defense. And everything else in life, for that matter.

 

[nonameisgood]

I disagree with your assessment of my beliefs or lack there of, but we have deviated from a proper discussion of guns and open carry. In keeping with the spirit of the website, I'll desist.

I violated Noname's first rule of civility, namely, to not discuss religion or politics.

 

[georg jetson]

SNIP... Therefore, non-believers will have to work out their own reasons for justifying self-defense. And everything else in life, for that matter.

The OP would be wise to consider these wise words carefully.

 

[Haz.]

Hi everyone. Please forgive me if I have caused any dissention or animosity between members here. This was not my intent. I believe in the personal freedom for everyone and especially freedom of expression.

This is what I found in the Bible that I cannot, try as I did, refute.

The Bible was given piecemeal, here a little and there a little, to many men through eighteen centuries or more (Isa. 28:9-11). And in spite of this it formes a perfect unity. Many men have gone outside the Bible searching for their brand of religion and many more have tried in vain to disprove it, and all have failed to do so. "me included."

Just one classic well documented example: In San Francisco in 1921 Robert Dick Wilson, Ph. D., D.D., professor of Semetic Philology in Princeton University, said these words. "As a young man I began to hear criticism of the Bible. I made up my mind that i would consecrate my whole life to finding out if the Bible was genuin and authentic. For fifteen years I studied and mastered the ancient languages and dialects so I could examine all the ancient versions and manuscripts of the Bible. I spent another fifteen years in Bible textual study of these ancient documents. I spent another fifteen years in writing out what I had learned so that the whole church might share them. After forty-five years I am fully convinced that the Bible, as we know it, is genuin and authentic. No man knows enough to assail the truthfullness of the Old Testament upon which the New testament is based. Once in order to answer a single sentance of a critic of the Bible, I read all the extant literature of that period in numerous languages, and collect together no less that 100,000 citations from that literature in order to get at the facts and disprove the argument of the critic of the Bible."

Prophecy alone proves the inspiration of Scripture. This alone is indisputable proof, for there are hundreds of prophecies spoken centuries before fulfillment which exclude all human posibility of fulfillment. They are in such infinate detail as to be beyond all human power to predict. There were 333 prophecies fulfilled in the life of Christ. Hundreds have been fulfilled in the rise and fall of nations and numerous other events. There are many now being fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled. About 3.268 verses of the Bible prophecies of thousands of details have been fulfilled. not one detail of any prediction that should have been fulfilled up to 1948 has ever failed. Those that have not been fulfilled will be in due time. Only God could fortell such future events, thus proving the Bible to be a revelation of God by inspiration. According to the laws of simple compound probability, the 333 prophecies of Christ could have only one chance in one and ninty seven ciphers of fulfillment. Not one man has ever found one failure in prophecy after trying a whole lifetime to do so, so I can at least rest assured that the Bible is God's Divine Word.

And; We the undersigned, Students of the Natural Sciences, desire to express our sincere regret that researchers into scientific truth are perverted by some in our own times into occasion for casting doubt upon the truth and authenticity of the Holy Scriptures. We concieve that it is impossible for the Word of God written in the book of nature, and God's Word written in the Holy Scripture, to contradict one another . . . physical science is not complete, but is only in a condition of progress."----Signed, by eight hundred Scientists of Great Britain, recorded in the Bodelian Library, Oxford, England.
The Bible is God's inspired revelation of the origin and destiny of all things. It is the power of God unto eternal salvation and it is the source of present help for the body, soul, and spirit (Rom. 1:16; John 15:7). It is God's will and testament to men in all ages, revealing the plan of God for man here and now and in the next life. It is the record of God's dealings with man; past, present, and future. It contains God's message of eternal salvation to all people who believe in Christ and of eternal damnation to those who knowingly and willingly rebell against the gospel.

The Bible is a literary composition, and the Bible is the most remarkable book ever written. It is a divine library of sixty-six books, some of considerable size, and others no larger than a tract. All these books include various forms of litrature, history, biography, poetry, proverbial sayings, hymns, letters, directions for elabourate ritualistic worship, laws, parables, riddles, allegories, prophecy, drama, and all other forms of human expression. The Bible never has been excelled from any standpoint. This book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the reward and happiness of believers. Its doctrins are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories true, and its decisions immutable.

The Bible is a mirror to reflect (James 1:23); a hammer to convict (Jer. 23:29); a fire to refine (Jer. 23:29); seed to multiply (1 Pet. 1:23); lwater to cleanse (Eph. 5:26; John 15:3); a lamp to guide (Ps. 119:105); and food to nourish, including milk for babes (1 Pet. 2:2), it is bread for the hungry (Matt. 4:4), meat for men (Heb. 5:11-14), and it is honey for dessert (Ps. 19:10). It is rain and snow to refresh (Isa. 55:10); a sword to cut (Heb. 4:12; a bow to revenge (Heb. 3:9); it is gold to enrich (Ps. 19:7-10); and it reveals the power who creats life through faith (1 Pet. 1:23; Rom. 10:17).

The Bible is not an amulet, a charm, a fetish,or a thing that will work wonders by its very presence without any volintary agency. The Bible does not claim to be any such thing. What the Bible does claim is that if one will study and practice it that it will work wonders in the life now and hereafter. The Bible does not benifit men by its presence, such as in hotel rooms, by a bedside, in a home, or a factory, any more than a spring of cool water benefits a thirsty man who refuses to drink.

The Bible is not a book of chronological events or one unbroken series of divine utterances. The Bible was given piecemeal, here a little and there a little, to many men through eighteen centuries or more (Isa. 28:9-11). And in spite of this it formes a perfect unity. The Bible is not a book of mysteries, of supernatural languages, of heavenly utterances. It is God's revlation in the most simple human language possible. It explains the so-called mysteries and it is self-interpreting, so that no mystery remains in it. It does not say one thing and mean another. It has generally only one simple meaning. If a few passages have a double meaning, that is quite clear from the passage itself or from parallel passages. One cannot, as is commonly believed, get a thousand different meanings, from any one passage. The Bible is not a specimin of God's skill as a writer or logician. It is a book written by men whom God used to record His revelation. God used the men by giving them freedom of expression to use their own language and ways of expressing thruth. The writers were God's penmen, and not God's pens. All that inspiration guarantees is unity of thought, not the sameness of words and expressions.

The Bible is not a book of systematic discourse on any one subject, but it does give divine information on practically every subject. One must collect together here and there all God's information through the various writers in order to get the whole truth. When this is done, there is perfect harmony, and everything agout the whole subject that man really needs to know is clear.

The Bible is not a book that conforms to tasts, customs, or habits of any one nation or people, or for any one age or period of time. It is a book to which all people in all ages can conform, and yet retain their own peculiar customs andhabits that are not sinful and contrary to the will of God.
I found out that here are 100 million bibles sold each year worldwide. The New Yorker confirms that it is the best-selling book in history and it outsells all other books every year. Many men have died refusing to deny belief in its contents. I know of no other book for which any man has died for?