Bible/Scriptures

What Kind of Book is the Bible?

The Bible is considered the word of God. However, who complied the books in the Bible and how can we be so sure that they are authored by God and transcribed through men, versus merely books written by men?

Is there are way to measure the Bible for divine authorship in a concrete manner as one measures a building?

Other questions:

What is the Bible about?

What kind of literature is the Bible? For example, it is a law book, or a science book, or a novel, or a history book, or a set of biographies? This will determine how we read it and how we are to interpret what it says or how to understand what we read?

The books of the Bible were written in years past in the context of past cultures and during past kingdoms which were affected by past conflicts and crisis. How does this influence what is written and how can we be certain that what is written has any relevance to our current culture, political kingdoms, conflicts and crisis'?

Is the Bible of Divine Origin or is it Authored by Man?

I. Related questions that naturally follow:

1) Does the Bible actually claim to be the Word of God?

2) When were the books of the OT and the NT written?

3) Why did God give the Bible to the world?

4) How were the human authors selected?

5) Were the original manuscripts perfect? Why is the answer to this question so crucial?

6) Who determined what books would be in the OT and the NT groups?

7) Since we don't have any of the original Bible manuscripts, how confident can we be that the copies are true to those originals?

8) What is a literal translation? What is a "free" translation?

9) Is something lost from the originals in the translation?

10) What is a paraphrased Bible and how dependable is it?

11) What is a Study Bible and what are its values?

12) Why does the Bible remain to be the "most-read" book in the world?

II. Stages of Biblical Journey:

III. Reception of all Truth:

Preparing our own hearts to receive a true answer. Are we ready to receive and be honest with ourselves about what we hear? Are we ready to hear from our Creator God? Are we ready to accept that God has not spoken? Are we ready to know the Truth? If we have not prepared our hearts to hear or trained our minds and consciences to judge righteously what we hear, we are capable of stubbornly refusing to hear or believe anything different from what we simply want to or choose to believe.

Romans 1:18 An unrighteous heart will suppress the truth.

John 3:19 A man whose ways are right loves the light

John 7:17 If any man is willing to do the will of God he will know if a teaching is of God or of man.

IV.Testing the Divinity of the Bible: