The Bible is the oldest book on the planet. You could say it’s the ultimate library; a collection of books that reveal God to mankind.
From ancient times to modern times its contents have been meticulously studied and copied and preserved in the different languages of the world. Its original source languages of Hebrew and Greek (and some Aramaic) are thousands of years old. Still, there are some even older.
A few of the oldest writing systems known to man are Egyptian hieroglyphics, Sumerian cuneiform and the Babylonian (Akkadian) version of cuneiform-script. *
Personally, I find history fascinating. And how cool would it be to walk among ruins thousands of years old and to search for artifacts and buried treasure — this is real Indiana Jones stuff.
And, sure, we have learned much about the Egyptians from their writings. But after all of our searching for answers from Godless and lost civilizations, what we find at the end of the tunnel… still leaves us in the dark.
These sources do not teach us anything about earlier peoples of the ancient world that pre-dated them. It’s as if there was no history before them. And so they do not answer any of the great questions about early human history.
Writings by ancient Egyptians focus on only one subject — ancient Egyptians. They lived in their own little world.
From ancient times to modern, I guess people have not changed all that much. Many people today, especially those on social media, mostly just talk about themselves.
Like it or not, extra-Biblical knowledge of ancient history drops off a cliff at the time of Noah’s Flood around 2,400 B.C., roughly 4,400 years ago. Outside of the Bible we do not have a detailed and accurate account of locations and lineages of previous generations of peoples and what their world was like. Truly, recorded history begins with the generations that lived shortly after the Flood. And it’s no coincidence that these oldest of known civilizations on Earth—ancient Egypt, ancient Sumeria, and ancient Babylonia—all appeared in a region not too far south of where Noah’s Ark came to rest.
Also, there remains old relics and ruins from the different periods and dynasties of these failed and vanished civilizations. Even the locations of discovered artifacts cannot be completely relied upon. After the Flood everything did not exactly get put back in its proper place.
Archeologists have found fragments of some busted clay tablets as well as engravings on temple walls and pillars. Secular historians may have exaggerated the ages of some of these artifacts. Making educated guesses, the mainstream narrows their origins down to within half of a millennium, give or take several centuries.
The truth is – experts really don’t know exactly how old the oldest things in the world are, but nobody wants to admit it.
Early civilizations that existed in and around ancient Mesopotamia did not keep totally accurate records or continuous calendars that bridge the gap between the very first pre-flood peoples of the ancient world and recorded history. Giant pyramids and old tombs made of stone do not tell us the mystery of where we came from. The Bible does.
Down through the centuries no other book has been more tested by time and proven to be true than the Bible. You may have heard that “history was written by the winners.” But God did the exact opposite through Jewish authors of the Bible.
He told the truth about everybody and everything that happened, even exposing the colossal failures and sins of this people. Both their good and bad experiences with God were written down as examples and warnings to the rest of us. And their stories span centuries.
The prophet Moses wrote the book of Genesis around 1,400 B.C. The apostle John wrote the book of Revelation in 96 A.D. A total of sixty-six separate books complete the Biblical Cannon, which was written by some forty different authors over more than 15 centuries. Nothing is missing, and all of them fit together perfectly. In the natural, that’s impossible.
But this is no ordinary book. It’s not the product of man’s intellect or imagination. The Bible is a supernatural book unlike any other writings from antiquity. It reveals things in the spiritual realm that we do not see with our natural eyes. It was written by men of God who heard from the Holy Spirit and spoke by divine inspiration. It records both history and prophecy. It reveals the past and future.
The Old Testament was written by prophets. The New Testament was written by apostles. The “Old” was written in Hebrew, the language of a nation. The “New Covenant” was written in Greek, the language of the known world that existed 2,000 years ago. Greek is also the most accurate language in history.
Think maybe some things got lost in translation over the centuries? I don’t. The meaning of the words and the truth that they contain did not change or fade away. Paper breaks down over time, but the truth doesn’t. The original scrolls were preserved and copied and translated into the different languages of the world.
These separate languages also serve as separate witnesses. The Bible is in Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, German, Spanish and English, just to name a few. And all of them say the same thing — Jesus is Lord.
Audio Bibles are easily downloadable to your smart phone or iPhone. Biblegateway.com offers 231 different online Bible translations in 74 different languages for free. It is estimated that more than 6 billion copies of the Bible have been printed. It is the most published book in history, and its message of hope has been made available to the world.
The Bible reveals the creation of the universe, the commandments of God, and the history of one small nation called to be His holy people. It’s filled with songs, prayers and praise to the Lord. It contains spiritual principles and sound instruction that impart wisdom and discipline for Godly living. It is the words of the prophets to warn and correct us. It is the words of Jesus and the good news he came to bring us. It is personal testimonies and eye witness accounts of the life and ministry and miracles of the Messiah. The Bible reveals Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of the world. It tells the story of how Christianity would reach the nations. It is apostolic letters showing us how to live this Christian life of faith in God, obedience to His Word, and the discipline of treating your neighbor as good as you treat yourself. It unveils the Spirit Realm, Heaven and Hell, the Last Days, Christ’s return, the end of the world and the age to come.
It is written…
For whatever God says to us is full of living power: it is sharper than the sharpest dagger, cutting swift and deep into our innermost thoughts and desires with all their parts, exposing us for what we really are. He knows about everyone, everywhere. Everything about us is bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God; nothing can be hidden from him to whom we must explain all that we have done. (Hebrews 4:12,13 Living Bible)
The Bible contains the words of our Creator. That’s why it is living, active and powerful. Its pages are filled with eternal and unchangeable truths that contain lifesaving power from God for all those who choose to believe His words.
As believers we don’t worship the Bible — we worship the God who wrote it. In the same way that He used men to write it, He uses His people to preach it. Because the Bible is God’s message to mankind. And this life-changing Book is His message to you.
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