The Bible Put To Test!!!

As Christians we know that the Word of God is authoritative, inspired, inerrant final source that we look to all the time. The Bible is the source of truth and guidance at up's and down's of our life . Even so, the Bible has gone through a process of sifting, questioning and discrimination to determine the test of genuine. So there has been much critical study on the Bible involving even technology to reveal its authenticity.

For your information, if we survey into the Christian world or "market", there are many forms of criticism made made by scholars, theologians and so on. Below are the types of criticism:

A. Textual Criticism - is the attempt to determine the original text of the biblical books. This is done by comparing the various extant manuscripts. Also in the past has been referred to as the lower criticism.

B. Literary-Source Criticism - is the effort to determine the various literary sources upon which books of the Bible are based or from which they derive. 

C. Form Criticism - is the endeavor to get behind the written sources of the Bible to the period of the oral tradition, and to isolate the oral forms that went into written sources. Insofar as this attempts to trace the history of the tradition, it is known as tradition criticism.

E. Redaction Criticism - is a study of the activity of the biblical authors in shaping, modifying or even creating material for the final product which they wrote.

F. Historical Criticism - in a sense employs all of the above and, in addition, draws upon the data of archeology and of secular historical sources. It has as its aim the determination of the authorship and date of the biblical books, and the establishment and interpretation of what actually occurred historically. 

We could create a new criticism in a scholarly manner but the Question is, is there a guideline that I think one could evaluate such critical methods? 

Think About It...Who is GOD?!

The question of who God is can be expressed and explain in depth also to put it in words that carries on endlessly but to begin with, the bible clearly states that “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, all who follow his percepts have good understanding” – Psalms 111:10. In simple words, it means one who takes God seriously. Taking this as the central idea, the Bible says in Genesis that God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. God is omnipotent and omniscient. God is transcendent yet immanent. God is supreme yet inherent and dwells within us. To narrow it down and put it structurally;

Spirituality - God is spirit, is not composed of matter or posses a physical nature as John 4:24 states “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”.

Life – God is alive. The very words mentioned by God saying “I AM” in Exodus 3:14 indicates that God is alive.

Personality – God is an individual being, with self-consciousness and capable of feeling even mutual relationship with other personal or social beings. The picture at the beginning of time in Genesis 3 when God comes and relates with Adam and Eve.

Infinity – God is infinite. God is infinite in terms of space, time, knowledge and power. Scripture even backs these statements up.

Constancy – God is unchanging and constant. Matthew 24:35 says that “heaven and earth will fade, but his words will still remain”.

As stated above, the question is do we know this all powerful, all loving, ever present, righteous and justice, grace and merciful, genuine and faithful GOD? Are we experiencing GOD daily in our lives? Who is GOD to you?