Summary: In Luke 5, we learn about the amazing meaning of the word "Gospel," which means the good news about Jesus. In this story, Jesus meets three fishermen named Simon Peter, James, and John. He asks them to follow Him, and they become His very first disciples. A breathtaking moment occurs when Jesus helps Simon Peter catch an incredible number of fish. This miraculous event reveals Jesus' extraordinary powers. Because of this miracle, Simon Peter decides to follow Jesus after repenting his sins. Jesus tells Simon Peter and his friends, James and John, that instead of catching fish, they will now be "fishers of men," which means they will help share God’s love with others. This story shows us how Jesus started His important work of teaching and helping people! (Ava): What did Simon Peter do with all the fish? When the Bible says, "they left everything and followed Jesus" (v. 11), does it refer to all the fish they caught or their occupation as fis...
Question 1 (Emerson): How can we really know if the Bible's context has changed from what went down during Jesus' time? Back then, people relied on word of mouth to share stories. Is it possible that some details got lost or mixed up as people talked about what they saw?
ReplyDeleteThis is a great great question! If the Bible was just the product of human beings, that is, its source and origin in merely human, then the argument that "some details got lost or mixed up as people talked about what they saw" would make perfect sense! After all, there is the saying, "to error is human"!
But the Bible claims that it is more than just a human product. The Bible is a dual authorship, namely, it is the product of both human and divine. The origin or the source is divine, but the writing was done using human personality, their education, and experience. The key Bible verse that talks about his supernatural work of God through "flawed" human beings is found in 2 Peter 1:20-21.
"Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
The Bible was not initiated by the desire of the prophets to give his own ideas: "no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things...never had its origin in the will of man..." In other words, the Bible is not about human beings seeking after God! In fact, it quite the opposite. It is God seek after sinners and revealing himself to various prophets and telling them to write his will for our benefit.
Second, the prophets who write the Bible was "guided by God", that is, "they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." To be carried along means to be influenced and under the power of the Holy Spirit such that without removing the gifted-ness of each of the writers, the Holy Spirit was able to use their gifts to communicate perfectly God's will.
After all didn't our Lord Jesus promise his disciples that they would "remember" everything Jesus had taught them? John 14:26 says, "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
If the Bible is merely a human product, it can most certain have errors and often has errors, but the Bible has two authors, a human author (Moses, Isaiah, John, Paul, etc.) and a divine author (God the Holy Spirit), which makes it possible for it to have "NO ERROR."
Question 2 (Jeremy): How can we be sure the stories in the Bible are true?
ReplyDeleteGreat question Jeremy! There are many ways we can know if the Bible stories are true.
First there is the objective test. The Bible is a historical book, referencing people's names and places, and customs and many others things can be historically verified. The genealogy and the many tongue twisting names and places in the Bible, may seems boring to us but it has tremendous importance, because it shows that the Bible is a historical book that describes what happened in the world at a particular time and place. The significance of that is that we (archeologist and historians) can verify the assertion that are made in the Bible.
For example, the New Testament tells us that Pilate ordered the execution of Jesus. Until the 1960's there was no evidence of anyone by the name of Pontus Pilate as governor of Judea. Then in 1961, there was an inscription in Latin that was found: "Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea." This is just one example of the many ways in which we can verify the historical accuracy of the Bible.
There is also a subjective test to verify the truthfulness of the Bible. Read the Bible for yourself and see and experience the power of God's word. As you study the Bible, ask yourself, does the Bible really explain the world and our experience of life, in a way that makes sense? Is its description of sin and God and salvation make sense in terms of human experience?
And finally, there is the ultimate test, namely, the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, we can know that the Bible is God's complete word for our salvation because of the internal verification of the Holy Spirit within the human heart. Jesus refers to this as "being born again", or being born of the Spirit.
So these are three reasons, all working together to reveals to us that God's word is true and can be trusted and be the foundation for our lives.
Question 3 (Nora): How did the Bible authors come up with the names for each book they wrote? Who decided on the titles like Lamentations, Psalms, Genesis, Deuteronomy, and 1 & 2 Corinthians?
ReplyDeleteGreat question, Nora!! Let me say that we don't know if the authors of the books of the Bible came up with the names of their books. It would make sense that they did, but we can't be sure. If they did not come up with the title, their disciples did.
So how did they come up with the names of their books, like Lamentation, Psalms, Genesis, Deuteronomy and 1 & 2 Corinthians.
Lamentation means "to lament", to weep and cry. And if you read the book of Lamentation, it is about Jeremiah the prophet weeping for God's people who would face God's judgment when the Babylonians came and starved the city and sacked it in 586BC.
Psalm means "song" and we can see why. The Psalms were sung by the Israelite in their worship. It was the prayers and songs of God's people. That's why it's called the Psalms.
Genesis means "origin or beginning" in the Hebrew language and that makes sense because the book tells us about how everything began, the origin of the world, the origin of the earth, the origin of man, the origin of sin, the origin of marriage, the origin of God's salvation, etc.
Deuteronomy means "second law". And that also makes perfect sense. The first law was given in Exodus to the old generation that left Egypt and received the original law at Mount Sinai. They were judged by God because of their disobedience and had to wander in the Sinai desert for 40 years.
Then a new generation is ready to enter the Promised Land and to that generation (Joshua' generation) God reiterated the original command that he gave to the 1st generation that left Eqypt. That is why Deuteronomy means "second law". It's actually the same law that is found in Exodus, but now "updated" to the current generation that was poised to conquer the Promised Land.
Then we have 1 & 2 Corinthians. Both letters were written by the apostle Paul and send to churches in and around the coastal city of "Corinth" (modern day Greece). The apostle Paul had invested lots of time in the church at Corinth and so he writes to them twice instructing them of issues that they wanted him to address.
So the names of the books of the Bible is rather simple and straightforward. It tells us something about the book itself!