The Christian Religion / Holy Bible And The Bible

Understanding the bible, both in its inspiration and authority, shapes how we decipher the stories in the bible and how we receive messages and revelations from God. Fundamentalists and Contextualists have profoundly different assumptions and perspectives when reading bible stories which impacts the messages they receive. In this essay I will address the point of views taken from a Fundamentalists and Contextualist in regards to the world and the human creation accounts, the miracle stories told in the Gospel writings and the story of Mary near the cross at Jesus’ crucifixion.

Christianity is the most widely practiced religion in the world, with more than 2 billion followers. The Christian faith centers on beliefs regarding the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to the text, Jesus was born to a young Jewish virgin named Mary in the town of Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem in modern day Palestine. (Ancient History Encyclopedia) Christians believe his birth was a supernatural event, with God impregnating Mary through the Holy Spirit.

Let’s talk about the world about 2,000 years ago. It was a world where the mass of people were illiterate, taxes were extremely high, and the leaders would cheat and kill to feed their ever growing need for power. We all can relate to having a good storyteller in our lives, most were read to at night by their parents or are parents themselves that read to their children. What is the purpose of storytelling? It’s simple, comfort. A good story can ease your psychological unrest as well as offer a moral purpose. Sometimes you can even relate a story to your own life and offer an explanation to something you may be experiencing. This is exactly what the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were. They told their stories of Jesus to offer comfort to their people in a time when people could not pick up a story and read it themselves. It is part of human nature to have the desire for a good story. This paper will describe several events that were written by great storytellers in the bible.

Over the centuries, Christianity has organised its beliefs into a systematic theology that draws from its sacred writing and tradition. While the main beliefs of Christianity are shared by all Christian variants, there are degrees of different in the interpretation of these beliefs and how they are lived out in everyday life. This can be seen in the important of sacred text, principle belief of the concept of salvation in John 3:16, principle belief of divine and humanity in ‘John 1:14’, principle belief of resurrection in ‘Mark 16:1-8’, principle belief of revelation in ‘1 corinthians14:6’, and beliefs through the Trinity in ‘2 Corinthians 13:14’. This essay will explain the important of the sacred text and the principal beliefs of Christianity.

N.T. Wright releases “How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels” with the affirmation that the church has come to emphasis almost exclusively on Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection. Although, the gospels devote the majority of their time on Jesus’ life. Jesus’s life, death, resurrection and rise did not hint the end of the old Israel story, but redirected it further to a worldwide effort of adaptation. Wright addresses several New Testament documented interpreters who present the gospels as simply “the prognosis of early Christian faith, reflecting the disputes and predicaments of the early church,” something Wright calls a “half-truth”. Wright argues that notwithstanding the gospels countless differences, none of

The two gospels, The Old Testament and The New Testament provide mirror images of Terrestrial Humans mentality Evolution and the comprehensive overview of the mental developmental trends over a span covering last five millennia. The Old Testament moral norms served in establishing a legal system with base in an absolute, irrevocable right of private ownership. Incontestable proof of continuous process of Evolution in this micro-segment of Spiral is an emergence of ‘The New Testament’, as a herald of a new mental era on the Earth, which naturally succeeds ‘The Old Testament’. Needless to remind, that The Old Testament also inspired adherents to vehemently follow the principle "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth", a total ‘defence of ownership’ “…based on the superstition or the illusion that one was ‘God 's chosen people’ and was superior to all ‘heathens’ ". (Quote from ‘Livets Bog’, Vol IV #1310)

Whilst the bible does not specifically mention euthanasia, it does address closely related topics. Euthanasia is essentially killing out of mercy, hence the name ‘mercy killing’. The bible tells us that we are not to murder (Exodus 20:13) and any form of taking a life is seen as killing. It says that we die when God chooses us to, and to murder is an attempt to deny God his right of appointing death. Therefore, ‘mercy killing’ is going against God’s will and is a sin. The sixth commandment is “You shall not murder”, and that justifies what is previously said. However, in the beatitudes, it says “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”. If we show mercy by killing,

As a person throughly studies the Words of God found in the Bible, one would find that there are many topics and doctrines contained within. One of the major doctrines or teachings found in Scripture is prophecy. Around 28 percent of the Bible is classified as prophecy. The men who wrote these prophecies did not write based off what they thought would happen. Neither did they write them after the events that were predicted took place as some critics of the Bible would claim. These men were inspired by an omnipotent, omniscient God Who knew the events that would take place in the world. After all, “Prophecy is written foreknowledge of the omniscience of our omnipotent God”

Questions about the authenticity of the Holy Bible have been interrogated since the first circulation of the Word. Nonbelievers dispute the entirety of the actuality of the Holy Bible. While skeptical believers along with some nonbelievers question the accuracy of recorded events within the Holy Bible, specifically the Gospels. Individuals debate the issue if the Gospels are historically reliable, claiming there is no tangible evidence and the books contradict themselves. Mark D. Roberts, in his book, Can we Trust the Gospels? was able to provide reliable evidence and reasons on why people can trust the Gospels. His book gives an overview on the subject of the gospel reliability and trustworthiness.

It can be argued that the similarities and differences of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke can cause the reader to either see both of these accounts to complement one another with their different perspectives or that they contradict one another by certain events being mentioned in one birth narrative but not the other. Different aspects of both of these birth narratives such as the way Matthew and Luke treat Mary, the extent to which they use the Old Testament and the audience to whom they are writing to reveals the authors’ agenda as they allow their culture and own personal beliefs to influence what they write. These factors could be argued to have an effect on the historical authenticity of these texts as it could be possible that they could have caused the authors to twist the truth to fit in with their own beliefs.

Several years ago, I too “lost the historical Jesus as a credible human being” (p. 8) after reading Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code. Although I have recovered from that momentary crisis, I have developed a “hermeneutic of suspicion” (p. 18) in that I do not appraise value to events in the bible as factual, but I find truths within the texts. I appreciate Borg’s separation of the pre- and post-Easter Jesus while exploring a sense of the historical Jesus (p. 7). However, both are unclear at best due to the formation of the sacred texts. The oral traditions circulating prior to the written forms cannot be reclaimed, at least not entirely. As oral traditions were collected, the written forms artistically combined these traditions to create the Christian

The term “worldview” refers to an accumulation of core beliefs, which influence the understanding man has of the world. Because a worldview refers to individual beliefs, everyone’s worldview is different. The Christian worldview is based off of the Holy Bible, and because of that, God shapes the way Christians understand the world around them. However, the Bible is not the only influence that Christians are exposed to, and they must constantly monitor their worldview to be certain that it does not stray from the truth in God’s Word. If Christians are able to identify some key beliefs that are in the Bible, it can make the task of monitoring their worldview easier. The beginning of the Bible, the Creation, is one of these foundational beliefs

The book “Deuteronomy”, of the Hebrew Bible, describes the reiteration of laws that the people of Israel are to follow upon entrance to the Promised Land. Upon reviewing Deuteronomy, the people of Israel versus Moses and why Moses was refused entry to the land raises interesting questions. By predominantly focusing on the behavior of the people of Israel, the behavior of Moses, their interactions with the God, and the language used by the author(s) it provides some insight into how and why events unfolded as they did. Moses is considered to be one of the most iconic prophets of the Hebrew Bible, yet he is forbidden from entering the Promised Land whereas the consistently sinning people of Israel can enter the Promised Land.

When studying any piece of literature there are many different methods and techniques that can be used. The Bible, in specific, is often referred to as a source of moral code, hope, and answers to social, ethical, and political questions. However, this incredibly influential book can also be read as if it were any other novel. The events, settings, and characters can all be evaluated for what they are, forgetting the notion that they are from a religious text. This approach is called narrative criticism. When regarding to the Bible in this way, we do not need to know any historical information or focus on seeking a deeper theological meaning. Instead, the stories are evaluated in terms of how

The names “Old Testament” and “New Testament” are inherently theological in nature. Because there is a difference distinctly built into giving them different notations, it implies that there are differences between each the Old Testament and the New Testament, whether it is subtle in nature or obvious in nature. To Christians, the difference means that the Old Testament contains dealings between God and the world and even some of the rules made are made irrelevant by the interactions of Christ Jesus with the world. One of the differences between the New Testament and the Old Testament is the way each of the Testaments describe God and God’s nature. The Old Testament describes an angry God, one who only created the world and was obsessed with laws and rules. The New Testament describes a loving God who redeemed the world. The different ways the Old Testament and New Testament describe God and his nature are very much influenced by their perspective of God. By the rules, actions, and laws God made, the early writers of the Old Testament made their judgements about God and wrote those perspectives into the books of the Old Testament. The writers of the Old Testament did the best they could with the information they had and got some things about God right, but also got things wrong. The writers of the New Testament and therefore, Christian believers understand God better.