The Purpose of the Bible

These studies are designed for believers in Jesus Christ only. If you have exercised faith in Christ, then you are in the right place. If you have not, then you need to heed the words of our Lord, Who said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten [or, uniquely-born] Son, so that every [one] believing [or, trusting] in Him shall not perish, but shall be have eternal life! For God did not send His Son into the world so that He should judge the world, but so that the world shall be saved through Him. The one believing [or, trusting] in Him is not judged, but the one not believing has already been judged, because he has not believed in the Name of the only-begotten [or, uniquely-born] Son of God." (John 3:16–18). "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life! No one comes to the Father except through [or, by means of] Me!" (John 14:6).

Every study of the Word of God ought to be preceded by a naming of your sins to God. This restores you to fellowship with God (1John 1:8–10). If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9). If there are people around, you would name these sins silently. If there is no one around, then it does not matter if you name them silently or whether you speak aloud.

The study was taken out of Genesis 10 (HTML) (PDF) (WPD).

Preface:	When I first came upon the genealogies, one of the things that immediately popped into my head was, why is this chapter in the Bible? Often the answer to that question will become key to understand a particular chapter or section of the Bible.

The Bible is filled with a number of things—some of them quite unexpected. I often find myself asking, "Okay, why is this in the Bible?" Answering that question often is the key to understanding the passage itself.
Some of the links below note related studies which we have already done. Many of those studies did not cover this or that topic completely.
What is the Purpose of the Bible?
1)	First of all, the Bible is a product of God the Holy Spirit and man. Several dozen human authors from all walks of life, from various nationalities, on 3 different continents, record the Word of God, over a period of time I believe is more than 3000 years (even the most conservative estimates have this occurring over a 1500 year period of time). What we have are the writings of men, in their style of writing, reflecting their thoughts, vocabulary and emotions; and yet, simultaneously, the Bible is the Word of God. Although there is some dictation in the Bible (God dictating directly to man; which passages are mostly found in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers), most of what is written in the Bible is clearly written by man. Yet, simultaneously, the Scriptures are God-
breathed. In this way, the written Word of God is a reflection of the Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God, fully man and yet, fully God.

2)	The primary purpose of the Bible is to reveal Jesus Christ. We encounter Jesus Christ in Gen. 1–2 as the Creator of all things; in Gen. 3 as both a Promise (the Seed of the Woman) and a Judge (the revealed member of the Trinity Who spoke to Adam and the woman). The very nature of the Bible itself—being God-breathed and yet, completely a product of man—illustrates the nature of Jesus Christ, the God-man, equal to both God and to man. Therefore, both the Bible and Jesus Christ are called the Word of God (see John 1:1–14 and Heb. 4:12 13:7 Rev. 19:13 20:4).

3)	The Bible reveals the character and essence of God.

4)	It reveals God's plan.

5)	The Bible teaches dispensations, which is how God interacts with man during various periods of time and how God moves His plan forward in each epoch.

6)	The Bible reveals the Angelic Conflict.

7)	The Bible reveals our purpose on this earth, which is to resolve the Angelic Conflict.

8)	The Bible is given to us so that we have food to grow spiritually from. We grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2Peter 3:18).

9)	The Bible contains proofs of its divine nature. I have already given examples of this:

(1)	Statements related to the science contained in Scripture.

(2)	There are a host of unusual topics found in the Bible, which stand out much more prominently than found in other books.

(3)	The historical nature of the Bible.

(4)	Fulfilled prophecy of the Bible. These include prophecies about Israel, about other nations and trends and about Jesus Christ.

10)	Prophets spoke to Israel during very problematic times. They told the people what they were doing wrong and what they needed to do in order to reverse their historical decline. This was often closely associated with prophecies, some of which were very short term (to come true in the near future) and some of which would come to pass in the far future (and some remain unfulfilled even to this day). Often these prophecies were parallel; that is, the same words could be understood to describe both the near and far future.

(1)	Although these prophetic words are not addressed to us, we learn from the historical trends found therein.

11)	The Bible contains real historical incidents and actual historical figures, many of which point toward the Person and work of Jesus Christ. These are called types and Jesus is called the antitype.

(1)	We first covered the concept of type and antitype back in lesson 39.

(2)	Animal sacrifices were a type, which was mentioned in the Doctrine of Atonement.

(3)	Both the Ark of God in the Tabernacle (spoken of in Doctrine of Atonement) and Noah's Ark are types.

12)	The Bible reveals the creation and restoration of the earth (Gen. 1), something we would know nothing about, apart from the Bible.

(1)	No other religious book or human tradition has any sort of origin of the earth and man which anyone takes seriously.

(2)	The most popular scientific theory of origins is the Big Bang theory, which is very likely, the scientific explanation of what God did in Gen. 1:1.

(1)	Gen. 1:1 reads: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

(2)	The verb created is in the perfect tense, indicating a past event and an event seen (in most cases) as a singular event, as opposed to an ongoing event.

13)	The Bible reveals important human history.

14)	The Bible contains the accurate history of man as related to God and God's plan.

15)	There are many chapters and passages which are directed toward a specific audience, long-
dead, but which has some application to us. The five cycles of discipline, for instance, found in Lev. 26, is very important for the members of a client nation to understand (a client nation is a nation through which God works).

16)	We understand God's view of history and the interrelationship of nations; and how God has dealt with nations in the past. This gives us an idea of how we ought to relate to other nations. The keys to when we ought to, as a nation, go to war, are found in the Bible.

17)	Sometimes, the words we find in one verse, and how they are used, help to explain the meaning of these words in another verse.

18)	One of the most instructive aspects of the New Testament is how Old Testament verses are quoted and used. Even though many verses from the Old Testament are cited as being fulfilled in the New, the NT writers use OT Scripture in far more imaginative ways than that.

19)	The Bible is our guide, whether from a personal standpoint, from a family perspective, or as a nation.

20)	And Gen. 10 tells us which nations came from which sons, so that we would be able to trace out in history, the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth, and how they continue to fulfill the Noahic pronouncement: "Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God will enlarge Japheth, and he will dwell in the tents of Shem. And Canaan will be their servant." That is what Gen. 10 is all about.

21)	The Bible contains the complete linear genealogy from Adam to Jesus (Gen. 11:10–26 is an example eof one of these genealogies). What is fascinating about this is, there are no linear genealogies given to us in the Bible which take us to a dead end; all of the linear genealogies, compiled by perhaps a half-dozen different authors living hundreds of years apart, lead us directly from Adam to Jesus.
I assume that I (or someone else) will add to this list in the future.

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