UNDERSTANDING OF THE BIBLE

ABOUT THE MEANING OF THE BIBLE'S SAYINGS.

The testimony of the Bible is the most valuable information. Well-known evangelist Wilhelm Paals rightly emphasizes: "The Gospel is the best tidings ever reported to people. Never before have we, the people, been preached anything like that". Psalm 118 repeatedly glorifies the meaning of the Word of God: "The law of Thy mouth is better than thousands of gold and silver" (p.72). "I rejoice in thy word as having received great profit" (p.162). 

Those who disregard the word of God will be condemned. As the hearing of the word leads to faith (Rome 10.17), and thus to salvation, so the rejection of the word.

Leads to destruction: 

1 Samuel 15.23: "For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and he has rejected you".

John 8.47: "Who is from God, he listens to the words of God; You do not listen because you are not from God".

Acts 13.46: "You were the first to be sermon the word of God; But how do you reject him and make yourself unworthy of eternal life".

The Bible consists of the old and New Testaments.

Both parts are equally the word of God and one cannot be used against another. The New Testament often cites excerpts from the dilapidated. Note that this is not always done verbatim, but God links them to new revelations.

In the New Testament the basic prophecies of the old are fulfilled: "and all these (people of the Old Testament), attested in faith, have not received the promised, because that God has provided for us something better, that they should not without us attain perfection "(Hebrews 11.39). The Lord Jesus is already present in the Old Testament: "Explore the Scriptures, for you think through them to have eternal life; And they testify of Me" (John 5.39).

In the Bible: 

- History and narratives should be perceived literally

- also literally must be perceived laws and commands

- The prophecies sometimes use a symbolic language. Symbols of the same biblical

Prophecy explains the Bible itself: 

1. "Sea" and "Water" means peoples (Rev 17.15).

2. "Winds" mean Wars (Jer 51.2).

3. "Beasts" and "horns" mean the Kingdom (Dan 8.20-21).

4. The "Day" in prophetic calculus means the year (Ezek 4.6). 

Note: It is important to consider how much, for example, a symbolic beast has heads and horns, if they are mentioned, but no matter that he has 4 legs, if about them doesn't say anything. 

About ApocryphaS

Testament apocrypha, only 11 (Greek. "Apokrifos" - hidden, secret, not-real), can not be considered the word of God.

They are written in the time between the old and the New Testament.

The main objections to equating them by the meaning of the Bible are as follows:

 1. They contain some contradictory teachings, such as Forgiveness of sins through alms (Tobit 12.9), the approval of magic (Tobit 6.9), the forgiveness of the sins of the dead by the prayers of the Living (2 Mack 12.46).

2. They have never been and are not part of the Tanakh (Jewish Canon), as here about the later additions. So, the 3rd book of Ezra generally there is only in Vulgate (Latin Bible). So apocrypha always been the subject of controversy.

At the Trients Cathedral in 1546, the Catholic church equalized Apocrypha with the Old and New Testaments, which should be regarded as a reaction to the Reformation.

3. They are not quoted by any author of the New Testament, although the New Testament cites almost all books are old, except for four small books. 

4. Apocrypha themselves that they are not unmistakable. So in the foreword of the book Sirah says: "So, please, read this book favorably and Carefully and have the indulgence to the fact that in some places we may be, suspicions, working on translation". NOT in any of the canonical books the Bible does not have such expressions. 

About the same can be said about Testament apocrypha (the Gospel of Thomas, etc.). 

Should apocrypha be completely rejected? Luther gave a good wording to these scriptures: "Although these books cannot be placed on the same footing as the Holy Scriptures, it is instructive to read them". This opinion is shared by other Christian writers. If you read apocrypha, not giving them the meaning of the Bible, and treating them as historically noteworthy books (for example, books of Makkabeyes), we dissect for ourselves a considerable benefit. Especially valuable is the book of Sirah, which touches all sorts of life situations, in content and form approaching biblical books about wisdom, without claiming to be considered the word of God.