What is the Bible?

Perhaps, as we are starting our series on the Bible in a Year, it is good to get a better idea of what the Bible, as a Book, itself is. You can go directly to the site that we will reference here, for your convenience.

The Word of God, the Bible, is like no other book:

• It was not authored like other books


• It has been compiled and preserved for accuracy like no other book


• In spite of it's enormous amount of historical content, it has never been refuted by the many archaeological discoveries.


• No other ancient document has been studied and commented on and translated into as many languages as the Bible.


• No other book has been published as much, and in as many far and different places as the Bible.


• No other book is quoted from and referenced as much as is the Bible.


• No other ancient book comes even remotely close to having the number of prophesies that are contained in the Bible, and that have come true.


• No other book contains as many prophesies that have come true concerning one person, that person being: Jesus Christ.


• No other book contains the words so powerful as to transform the lives of even the most wicked despots, into humble, holy, faithful and obedient servants of God.


• No other book requires a person to be truly repentant of sin, with a sincere, broken, humble and contrite spirit to enable them to be able to read its contents and understand the true meaning.


• In the end, at the judgement bar of God where all shall stand - the only word that will matter is the Word of God, and that will be used to judge the lives, hearts, and actions of everyone.

And although many may not have fully comprehended it, they still have had to acknowledge the value, power, authority, and Divine inspiration that has authored and preserved the Bible:

Abraham Lincoln: "I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated to us thru this book."

George Washington: "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."

Napoleon: "The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all that oppose it."

Daniel Webster: "If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures" "If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our prosperity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."

John Ruskin: "Whatever merit there is in anything that I have written is simply due to the fact that when I was a child my mother daily read me a part of the Bible and daily made me learn a part of it by heart."

Charles A. Dana: "The grand old Book still stands; and this old earth, the more its leaves are turned and pondered, the more it will sustain and illustrate the pages of the Sacred Word."

Ferrar Fenton: "In the Hebro-Christian Scriptures we have the only key that unlocks the Mystery of the Universe to Man, and the Mystery of Man to Himself."

Thomas Huxley: "The Bible has been the Magna Charta of the poor and oppressed. The human race is not in a position to dispense with it."

W. H. Seward: "The whole hope of human progress is suspended on the ever growing influence of the Bible."

Patrick Henry: "The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed."

U.S. Grant: "The Bible is the sheet-anchor of our liberties."

Lord Tennyson: "Bible reading is an education in itself."

Horace Greeley: "It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the ground-work of human freedom."

John Quincy Adams: "So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society." "I have for many years made it a practice to read thru the Bible once every year."

Immanuel Kent: "The existence of the Bible, as a book for the people, is the greatest benefit which the human race has ever experienced. Every attempt to belittle it is a crime against humanity."

Charles Dickens: "The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world."

Sir William Herschel: "All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of the confirming more and more strongly the truths contained in the Sacred Scriptures."

Sir Issac Newton: "There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history."

Goethe: "Let mental culture go to advancing, let the natural sciences progress in ever greater extent and depth, and the human mind widen itself as much as it desires; beyond the elevation and moral culture of Christianity, as it shines forth in the Gospels, it will not go."

William McGuffey, compiler of the McGuffey's Readers - early American textbooks: "For the copious extracts made from the Sacred Scriptures, he makes no apology. Indeed, upon a review of the work, he is not sure but an apology may be due for his not having still more liberally transferred to his pages the chaste simplicity, the thrilling pathos, the living descriptions, and the overwhelming sublimity of the sacred writings." "The Bible is the only book in the world treating of ethics and religion, which is not sectarian. Every sect claims that book as authority for its peculiar views."

The Bible is not sectarian. It does not belong to any religion. The Bible belongs to God - it is His Word and no one else's. No one has a privilege to modify, take away from or add to it, and all who do bring the judgements within it upon themselves. God's Word never changes, nor does his opinion about how he feels about it. Contained in his Word is a multitude of long-suffering and mercy to change any heart, so there is no excuse for anyone not reading, understanding, and obeying his Word.