Aug 30, 2008
God said everything he wanted to say about ultimate reality in under 2,000 pages.
If you compare the length of his complete works to the breadth of his subject matter, God’s the most concise author ever.
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Theme based on Derek Punsalan's Grid Focus.
The Bible was written by men. The Bible was
censorededited by men. The Bible was translated by men. The Bible is interpreted by men.Chamblee… It’s so early on a Saturday morning to spew such heresy. Wait until after lunch, at least.
Abraham… An excellent reminder on this Saturday morning, as I work through my sermon for tomorrow. God never wastes a word, and each word He chooses and uses, accomplishes the exact purpose for which He used it.
Pretty sweet.
That’s a very interesting thought.
I like this reflection/reminder. Thanks for it!
Great point, the picture says it all.
Gavin –
If you think that’s heresy (except for the strikethrough ‘censored’ — and that’s only spin) then you need to check your theology of inspiration a bit.
Besides, it was also a little early on Saturday morning for heresy hunting, too.
Aside from that, when you think about the holy spirit’s guidance, all those still small voices, inspired but not canonical prophecy, teaching, leadership, etc., God might have had quite a lot to say :-)
I’ve heard that the Bible would actually be a much larger, possibly multi-volume work if it were printed with the same typesetting, margins, etc…. used for most books. They use tricks like double columns, narrow fonts, smaller point type and many others to make it fit in as small a space as it does.
It may be interesting to see how long the Bible would be if, say, it were printed with exactly the same settings as the books in the Left Behind Series.
I appreciate the way God speaks so directly and honestly, unlike so many human authors. When we read the Bible, we see everything just as it was and is–the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, the shame and the forgiveness, the sorrow and the joy.
For school this year, we’re working on stating a book’s message in one sentence (or a couple of sentences). And I often like to pick a quote from a book that really represents why the book was written.
So this post has made me think about how we’d apply that to the Bible. I’d be curious to see what your readers would choose as a sentence (or a couple of sentences) from the Bible that represents it’s essential message.
No right or wrong answers. As the teacher’s guide always says, “Answers will vary.” It would just be interested to see what people think.
I’d pick:
“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
oh, no, Abraham.
Don’t tell me you need ANOTHER reason for writing 22 words.
*sigh*
are you comparing yourself to God, now?
KIDDING! :-D you know i love you!
Chris: “I appreciate the way God speaks so directly and honestly, unlike so many human authors.”
The Bible is at NO point without human authorship. Like the mystery of the incarnation in print, the bible is 100% human and 100% divine.
We’ve made this mistake in Evangelical-Fundamentalism for too long now. We are mostly closet docetists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docetism) in our hermeneutics.
What about creation?
Keri,
There are different ways of “saying.” God definitely speaks through creation, but not in the same way he does when he uses language.
Brent,
The Bible has about 775,000 words. A normal book has about 300 words per page.
So that’s about 2,600 pages if the Bible were typeset like a grocery-store novel.
Still not very many, I’d say.
I’ve always wanted to have a ‘Bible’ with each book bound seprately. It just seems more … oh … I dont’ know … ‘authentic’ (evne though I KNOW that’s not the case.)
Someone should do a print run
[...] God said everything in under 2,000 pages The World’s Best Bible-Reading Program Preaching Notes: Tim Keller Youth Ministry Social [...]
Interesting thought. A friend once asked me this one, “Are there things about God that we know to be truth, that are not [directly] contained in the Bible?”
I’ve never been happy with any of my responses to that. Suggestions?
I checked out the website suggestion, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docetism
I was not implying anything like docetism. Sorry if anyone misunderstood.
It is as if God the Father is saying to us: “Since I have told you everything in My Word, Who is My Son, I have no other words that can at present say anything or reveal anything to you beyond this. Fix your eyes on Him alone, for in Him I have told you all, revealed all, and in Him you will find more than you desire or ask. If you fix your eyes on Him, you will find everything, for He is My whole word and My reply, He is My whole vision and My whole revelation. –Anthony M. Coniaris
This is so true… i was reading one of the Gospels and it was the 40 days of fasting then the temptation from the devil and if you take time to think about all that happened what with him going to the hightest point in the world and a desert and the temple roof… its amazing to think how much is put in the bible but how it is so clear…
Despite all the temptation Jesus decided to take the hard way… and not give in to what could have been so easy… Jesus could have easily done some incredible things to please man and earn their kingship but instead he decided to take the hard root and go through so much ultimately leading up to his death on the cross.. Jesus could have just taken mans world there and then maybe ontop of Everest but he had greater plans to redeem us and give us an opportunity for eternal life in heaven… he could have been so selfish but he chose to die for our sins so that if we believe in him we would have eternal life…
please check out my blog for a longer post on this http://trcwest.com/blog/
[...] This is so true…Taken from 22 words [...]
thats it, brother