2006年8月15日星期二
My quiet entries will be based on "The Ascent to Truth", the deep teaching that John will be preaching for these 2 months.
Chapter 1: The Word of God - The Bible
If you didn't know, the Bible in the Old Testament is placed in three broad categories. Jesus mentions these categories in Luke 24:44, namely:
a) Law - Genesis, Leviticus, numbers and Deuteronomy
bi)Former prophets - Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings
ii) Later prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve books of the Minor Prophets
c) Writings - Psalms, proverb, Job, Songs of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, I and II Chronicles.
New testament:
a) Five books of history - Matthew to Acts
b) Twenty one books of doctrine - Romans to Jude
c) One book of prophecy - Revelation
Have you wondered why every Christian believes in the Bible? Here's it.
The Bible has come far. For the New Testaments, in the beginning, it's only known to be manuscripts and it ca n be broken down to uncial and miniscule manuscripts. All in all here are over 5000 Greek manuscripts and over 10000 Latin ones, 9300 in other early version (some 2000 in Ethiopic, 4000 in Slavic etc). This brings the total to over 24000 manuscripts of the New Testament today. Besides, of the many manuscripts, it was proven facts as the 24000 manuscripts matched each other.
So again, you might be thinking why were there so many variations. Easy. English Language has changed. The different copies were caused by spelling changes, variations in grammar and slips of pen during copying process. Examples can be found in John 7:53, Mark 16: 9-20
Old Testament. The manuscripts of the Old Testament are not as vast as the New Testament, reason being, the Jewish scribes would any copies that were old or worn out and make new copies thereafter. The oldest Hebrew manuscript available is known as the Cairo Codex and is dated around AD 895. (There are still many other codexs)
Jesus said in Matt 5: 18:"I tell you the truth, untill heaven and earth disappears, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law untill everything is accomplished."
Bible was first written in Latin. Started off with John Wycliffe, a English educated man graduated from Oxford who translated the Latin Bible into English and found the teachings and practices in the churches were ridiculously wrong were ostracized and hunt down by people. This posed a real threat to the church as it would lose its monopoly of the Bible and its more shaky practices would be exposed as fraudulent. The church would not be able to justify its unbiblical finance centered doctrine of selling the forgiveness of one's sins or to receiving donations to purchase souls out of purgatory. The strength of hatred for Wycliffe was evident in the fact that fifty years after Wycliffe died, Pope Martin V ( 1417-1431) commanded that his grave be dug up and his bones crushed and dumped in the river. However, Wycliffe paved the way to the light.
Some 50 years later, Johann Gutenberg invented PRINT! (revision for EXAM! haha) Gutenberg worked on the Latin Bible and was finally published in 1456. Up next comes William Tyndale, known to be the true father of the English Bible, translated many different tongues into English. All done by 1534. At that time in England, translating Bibles into English is seemed to be heretical. Anyone found possessing and English Bibles will be convicted and put in prison or public execution. Sadly, Tyndale was caught and found guilty of heresy. 1536, he was strangled and burned at the stake while he prayed, "Lord, open the eyes of the King of England."
Thank God, he answered Tyndale's dying prayers as it became the desire of King James I(one) to have a copy of the Great Bible(it's named GREAT because it's really big in size and it's chained to the lectern, haha) in every church in the land. Later, he made "King James Version" which we are still familiar with.
The Bible has survived through many centuries of persecution, heresy and peach, with many twist and turns. It's available to us today, more readily then in any other century before. What a day we live in. The Bible survived from times of persecution to become what is now the best seller of all time.
1st Peter 1: 24-24: "For, all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flower falls 25but the word of God stand forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.
Having the word at our disposal means we should be even more careful to adhere all the fundamental teachings. Follow what the Bible says. Knowing, there are always rooms for variations, on matters where the Bible is silent, we still should not compromise on the basics, as it justifies in Proverb 30: 5-6: "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 6Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.
The parable of the Uzza and the Ark should serve a chronic reminder to us to obey the WORD.
See 1 Chronicles 13: 1-14, 15: 1-15
In this quiet time, we've touched on the history of the Bible and stated evidently why the Bible is the only book Christian will listen to. Also, we've learnt to believe, trust and rely in the Lord that he will guide us and prosper us. We also learnt that what we do should, we should refer back to the Bible. Look and dig into the Bible and see if what we do are right or wrong. If it's what God wants us to do.
Trust and Obey.
God-above-all.
Brothers and sisters of CCC, some factual materials may seem familiar to you because it's in the BOOK! ( no harm re-reading again!=)))
Hoping people who knows or don't know me, would get a chance to read it too. Thus, some exact words/evident by John is used.
Chapter 1: The Word of God - The Bible
If you didn't know, the Bible in the Old Testament is placed in three broad categories. Jesus mentions these categories in Luke 24:44, namely:
a) Law - Genesis, Leviticus, numbers and Deuteronomy
bi)Former prophets - Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings
ii) Later prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve books of the Minor Prophets
c) Writings - Psalms, proverb, Job, Songs of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, I and II Chronicles.
New testament:
a) Five books of history - Matthew to Acts
b) Twenty one books of doctrine - Romans to Jude
c) One book of prophecy - Revelation
Have you wondered why every Christian believes in the Bible? Here's it.
The Bible has come far. For the New Testaments, in the beginning, it's only known to be manuscripts and it ca n be broken down to uncial and miniscule manuscripts. All in all here are over 5000 Greek manuscripts and over 10000 Latin ones, 9300 in other early version (some 2000 in Ethiopic, 4000 in Slavic etc). This brings the total to over 24000 manuscripts of the New Testament today. Besides, of the many manuscripts, it was proven facts as the 24000 manuscripts matched each other.
So again, you might be thinking why were there so many variations. Easy. English Language has changed. The different copies were caused by spelling changes, variations in grammar and slips of pen during copying process. Examples can be found in John 7:53, Mark 16: 9-20
Old Testament. The manuscripts of the Old Testament are not as vast as the New Testament, reason being, the Jewish scribes would any copies that were old or worn out and make new copies thereafter. The oldest Hebrew manuscript available is known as the Cairo Codex and is dated around AD 895. (There are still many other codexs)
Jesus said in Matt 5: 18:"I tell you the truth, untill heaven and earth disappears, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law untill everything is accomplished."
Bible was first written in Latin. Started off with John Wycliffe, a English educated man graduated from Oxford who translated the Latin Bible into English and found the teachings and practices in the churches were ridiculously wrong were ostracized and hunt down by people. This posed a real threat to the church as it would lose its monopoly of the Bible and its more shaky practices would be exposed as fraudulent. The church would not be able to justify its unbiblical finance centered doctrine of selling the forgiveness of one's sins or to receiving donations to purchase souls out of purgatory. The strength of hatred for Wycliffe was evident in the fact that fifty years after Wycliffe died, Pope Martin V ( 1417-1431) commanded that his grave be dug up and his bones crushed and dumped in the river. However, Wycliffe paved the way to the light.
Some 50 years later, Johann Gutenberg invented PRINT! (revision for EXAM! haha) Gutenberg worked on the Latin Bible and was finally published in 1456. Up next comes William Tyndale, known to be the true father of the English Bible, translated many different tongues into English. All done by 1534. At that time in England, translating Bibles into English is seemed to be heretical. Anyone found possessing and English Bibles will be convicted and put in prison or public execution. Sadly, Tyndale was caught and found guilty of heresy. 1536, he was strangled and burned at the stake while he prayed, "Lord, open the eyes of the King of England."
Thank God, he answered Tyndale's dying prayers as it became the desire of King James I(one) to have a copy of the Great Bible(it's named GREAT because it's really big in size and it's chained to the lectern, haha) in every church in the land. Later, he made "King James Version" which we are still familiar with.
The Bible has survived through many centuries of persecution, heresy and peach, with many twist and turns. It's available to us today, more readily then in any other century before. What a day we live in. The Bible survived from times of persecution to become what is now the best seller of all time.
1st Peter 1: 24-24: "For, all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flower falls 25but the word of God stand forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.
Having the word at our disposal means we should be even more careful to adhere all the fundamental teachings. Follow what the Bible says. Knowing, there are always rooms for variations, on matters where the Bible is silent, we still should not compromise on the basics, as it justifies in Proverb 30: 5-6: "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 6Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.
The parable of the Uzza and the Ark should serve a chronic reminder to us to obey the WORD.
See 1 Chronicles 13: 1-14, 15: 1-15
In this quiet time, we've touched on the history of the Bible and stated evidently why the Bible is the only book Christian will listen to. Also, we've learnt to believe, trust and rely in the Lord that he will guide us and prosper us. We also learnt that what we do should, we should refer back to the Bible. Look and dig into the Bible and see if what we do are right or wrong. If it's what God wants us to do.
Trust and Obey.
God-above-all.
Brothers and sisters of CCC, some factual materials may seem familiar to you because it's in the BOOK! ( no harm re-reading again!=)))
Hoping people who knows or don't know me, would get a chance to read it too. Thus, some exact words/evident by John is used.
what we could have been, 12:19 上午.
