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THE
BIBLE
THE LORD JESUS
AND YOU
by
John Roberts
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The
Bible
Chapter 1
"IT'S
like wallpaper paste," she muttered.
"It's semolina," I told my daughter.
"Salmonella," retorted her older brother, "that's
food poisoning."
"Well I don't like it," she said. "But you
haven't tasted it," I reasoned.
"I haven't tasted it," she replied, "because
I don't like it."
We laugh at childish reasoning to unsampled food. Yet our
attitudes as grown ups are not very different. So many people
adopt exactly the same attitude to the Bible. They do not
believe it so they haven't read it!
This book asks you to be fair. It asks you to set aside preconceived
notions. It asks you to give the Bible a "hearing".
It is not the intention of this book to "defend"
the Bible. We shall not present proof for its reliability
and accuracy, for two reasons. One is that other books do
that and do it very well. The second is that you do not defend
a tiger. A tiger speaks for itself. The Bible claims to be
the word of God. It too speaks for itself.
The object of this book, then, is first to urge you to open
the Bible. It asks you to take a look, or another look, at
what it says. Sample it. Become more familiar with it.
Some years ago there was a series of talks locally about the
Bible. Several people came and asked if the series could deal
with the contents of the Bible. They had read the gospels
often enough. They Were familiar with some of the other well
known stories too. Yet they did not feel that they knew the
book as a whole.
"Tell us about some of these more obscure books,"
they said. "What are they about?" "Give us
a summary so that we can see what the Bible is saying."
"We want to know where its teaching leads." So that
was what we did.
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The
first section of this book is going to do that too. Then it will
examine very briefly some of the reasons people give for not reading
it. "It's full of contradictions," they say. "It's
not reliable:" "It's out of date:" "It's too
long. I don't have time."
Some of these complaints must receive attention, but later. We would
not dream of criticising the works of Shakespeare if we had not
first read them. Nor would we accept the opinion of anyone else
who hadn't studied his subject first.
We shall therefore concentrate on getting a good general picture
of the Bible. Then we shall be in a better position to evaluate
its claims.
The Bible is the only surviving history book about the life and
work of Jesus Christ. It is the only source of information about
the Son of God.
For this reason the second part of this book is about the Lord Jesus
Christ. No other single person has made such a mark on history as
Jesus. He is unique. He is not the far-removed figure of stained
glass. Neither is he party to a "live and let live" society
where anything goes. Jesus was a real man, yet he is the glory of
God. His devotion to the standards and will of his Father have won
him a place at God's right hand.
The simple Bible truth concerning the Lord can help us to find ourselves.
Stripped of its mystique and the fables of many years it can help
us identify with him. It can give peace of mind for the present
and firm hope for the future.
The Bible is also the only book which offers an escape route from
death. There is scarcely nothing that men and women will not do
to save life. Yet in the Bible the issues of life and death are
fully explained - and largely ignored.
That is why our third section looks at You. It examines some of
today's values and attitudes. It suggests that we should take a
long hard look at our priorities in the light of the Bible's teaching.
The word of God and the life of Jesus demand that we rethink, and
perhaps restructure, our lives.
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THE BIBLE
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