Just wondering how many of you pick and choose.
Friend of mine crossed out scriptures with a big fat black pen.....
Do you get to rip out the pages that are confusing, or the parts that you don’t understand?
And yet to be we are called to believe, by faith. You do? Or not?
How would you as a Christian define the Bible?
When being tempted by Satan the Devil in the fall of 29 C.E., after having not eaten for 40 days following his baptism, Jesus Christ told Satan who had just said that if Jesus was a son of God, "tell these stones to become loaves of bread", to which Jesus responded: "It is written (at Deut 8:3): ‘Man must live, not on bread alone, but on every word that comes from Jehovah’s mouth.’”(Matt 4:3, 4)
And what is "every word that comes from Jehovah’s mouth" ? Sixty-six "books" of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, but not the Apocrypha, the non-inspired "books" that the Catholic church put in the Latin Vulgate in 1546 C.E. at the Council of Trent, which are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom (of Solomon), Ecclesiasticus (not Ecclesiastes), Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees, supplements to Esther, and three additions to Daniel: The Song of the Three Holy Children, Susanna and the Elders, and The Destruction of Bel and the Dragon.
Jerome, who translated the Latin Vulgate in about 405 C.E., took a definite stand against such Apocryphal books and was the first, in fact, to use the word “Apocrypha” explicitly in the sense of noncanonical as referring to these writings, calling them "mud".
Thus, in his prologue to the books of Samuel and Kings, Jerome lists the inspired books of the Hebrew Scriptures in harmony with the Hebrew canon (in which the 39 books are grouped as 22) and then says: “Thus there are twenty-two books . . . This prologue of the Scriptures can serve as a fortified approach to all the books which we translate from the Hebrew into Latin; so that we may know that whatever is beyond these must be put in the apocrypha.”
In writing to a lady named Laeta on the education of her daughter, Jerome counseled: “Let her avoid all the apocryphal books, and if she ever wishes to read them, not for the truth of their doctrines but out of respect for their wondrous tales, let her realize that they are not really written by those to whom they are ascribed, that there are many faulty elements in them, and that it requires great skill to look for gold in
mud.”—
Select Letters, CVII.
The first-century Jewish historian Josephus (37 ?-101 ? C.E.) shows the recognition given only to those few books (of the Hebrew canon, commonly but inaccurately called "the Old Testament") viewed as sacred, stating: “We do not possess myriads of inconsistent books, conflicting with each other. Our books, those which are justly accredited, are but two and twenty [the equivalent of the 39 books of the Hebrew Scriptures according to modern division], and contain the record of all time.”
He thereafter clearly shows an awareness of the existence of Apocryphal books and their exclusion from the Hebrew canon by adding: “From Artaxerxes to our own time the complete history has been written (in which Nehemiah and Malachi closed out the Hebrew Scriptures in 443 B.C.E.), but has not been deemed worthy of equal credit with the earlier records, because of the failure of the exact succession of the prophets.”—
Against Apion, I, 38, 41 (8).
And of the Christian Greek Scriptures, commonly but inaccurately called "the New Testament", they are 27 "books", from Matthew through Revelation. The apostle Paul (who penned 14 of them) wrote: "All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, so that the man of God may be
fully competent, completely equipped for every good work."(2 Tim 3:16, 17)
Hence, for a person to become a true Christian, they must accept all 66 "books" of the Bible, realizing that God, whose personal name is Jehovah (Isa 12:2; 26:4), intentionally made the Scriptures
almost impossible to understand accurately by ourselves, for Jesus said in prayer to Jehovah God: "I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have
hidden these things from the wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to young children (or humble ones). Yes, O Father, because this is the way you
approved."(Matt 11:25, 26)
Daniel 12 says that during the "time of the end", that "many will rove about, and the true knowledge will become abundant.”(Dan 12:4) But who are the ones who can make ' true knowledge of the Bible abundant ', such as explaining Genesis 3:15 of the "woman" and her "offspring" as opposed to "the serpent" and his "offspring", whereby the "woman" is seen again at Isaiah 54, 60, 62, and Revelation 12, and of which Genesis 3:15 is the center point or theme of the Bible ?
At Daniel 12 again, it says: "Then he (or the "man clothed in linen", verse 6, an angel) said: “Go, Daniel, because the words are to be kept secret and sealed up until the time of the end. Many will cleanse themselves and whiten themselves and will be refined. And the wicked ones will act wickedly, and
none of the wicked will understand; but those having
insight will understand."(Dan 12:9, 10; Note: at Matthew 13, Jesus used the Greek word
syniemi six times, that means "to mentally put the pieces together", concerning understanding God's Kingdom)
Again at Daniel 12, Daniel is told that "there will occur a time of distress such as has not occurred since there came to be a nation until that time. And during that time
your people will escape, everyone who is found written down in the book (of life)."(Note: the "time of distress" is the "great tribulation", Matt 24:21, that is a two phase event, first the destruction of Babylon the Great [Rev 17:5] or the religions of the world by the political "ten horns" [Rev 17:12] or member nations of the United Nations ["the scarlet-colored wild beast", Rev 17:3], Rev 17:16, 17, that is immediately followed by "the war of the great day of God the Almighty", called Armageddon [Rev 16:14, 16], a world situation whereby the political nations and their supporters "face off" against God's Kingdom and are "crushed", Dan 2:44)
So, who are Daniel's "people" ? Originally, the loyal Jews who did as spoken of at Malachi 3: "At that time those who fear Jehovah spoke with one another, each one with his companion, and Jehovah kept paying attention and listening. And a book of remembrance was written before him for
those fearing Jehovah and for those meditating on his name."(Mal 3:16)
So, Daniel's people is "everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah (and) will be saved."(Rom 10:13)