The Bible
| Teachings |
Core doctrines - The Bible
1.0
The Bible, consisting of 39 books of the Old testament and 27 Books of the New testament is God's Word to us.
1.1
The Bible is inspired by God, revealed by God and completely true in everything that it asserts.
2.0
The Bible is completely unique.
2.1
It was written over 40 generations, over a 1500 year time span.
2.2
Written by more than 40 authors including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, statesmen and scholars.
2.3
Written on 3 different continents; Asia, Africa, Europe
2.4
Written in 3 languages; Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic
2.5
The Bible has been read by more people than any other book in history, and continues to be read more than any other book.
2.6
The Bible has been translated into more languages than any other book in history ( 240 different languages and one or more books into an additional 740 languages (as of 2005).
2.7
The Bible has survived through persecution, time and criticism.
2.8
Despite being written by numerous authors on many controversial topics they tell the single consistent and unfolding story of God's plan of salvation for mankind.
3.0
The Bible has been proved to be reliable through manuscript ysis. The Bible we now have is 99.9% identical to the first manuscripts.
4.0
The Bible has been confirmed to be reliable through archeological discoveries confirming its record of historical events.
5.0
The Bible has been confirmed to be reliable through the measurable fulfillment of prophecy in history.
6.0
The Bible is God's Word, or revelation, to us His people. It is true in every respect.
6.1
The Bible is the basis of all other teaching and doctrine concerning God and His Kingdom.
6.2
The Bible is the standard against which all other teaching or beliefs are judged. Wherever there is conflict the Bible must prevail.
7.0
The Bible requires careful ysis and interpretation to avoid error.
7.1
The Bible is written in many different literary forms. For example, poetry, stories, parables, history, genealogy, doctrine, etc. We must be careful to discern the type of writing and interpret it in the way it was meant to be understood.
7.2
Wherever possible we should interpret the Bible by means of the Bible. So that where a scripture is unclear we should search for other scriptures on the same subject to provide greater understanding.
7.3
We should never put a `doubtful scripture` (i.e. one that is ambiguous or difficult to understand) ahead of a clear one. In other words, we should use the obvious teaching as the foundation for doctrine and not the obscure or difficult scriptures.
7.4
We must be open to constructive criticism from other Christians as to where we may have interpreted the scriptures wrongly. Heresy (holding wrong beliefs about God) is extremely dangerous and we must do all we can to avoid it.