General Meditations on the Bible

Ed. Note: Our friend John Mincy started a project of daily Scripture meditations on his FaceBook page. For your edification, we would like to share them from time to time. This first piece contains thoughts on the Bible itself, our precious word from God.

Revelation (the Bible is revealed by God to prophets and apostles); Inspiration (the process by which God made sure that His exact words were recorded); Preservation (the process by which God has preserved thousands of manuscripts of the Scripture.)

OLD TESTAMENT OUTLINE (taking the OT books in order — derived from J. Sidlow Baxter)

5 Basic History

9 Pre-exile History

3 Post-exile History

5 Poetry

5 Basic Prophecy

9 Pre-exile Prophecy

3 Post-exile Prophecy

Note: the nines and threes are somewhat parallel.

CHRONOLOGY (These, of course, are approximate, but I like to have hooks to hang dates on)

2000 BC – Abraham

1500 BC – Moses

1000 BC – David

500 BC – Daniel

0 – Jesus

AD 500 – Mohammed

AD 1000 – Dark Ages

AD 1500 – Reformation

AD 2000 – Our generation

Infallible, Inerrant in everything they teach — 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The Bible is not a science book, but when it speaks about things in science, it is always correct.

The Bible is not a history book, but it is the only book always totally historically accurate.

We must be careful not to say that the Bible says something when it really doesn’t. For example, it does not tell us whether Adam had a belly button. Some have argued that he did not because he was created, not birthed. This may be a logical conclusion, but God did not reveal it.

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John Mincy was a church planter in Singapore and California and is now pastor emeritus of Heritage Baptist Church in Antioch, California.