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THE BOOK THAT HOLD THE DESTINY OF MEN!
It has stood the test of time. Sharing hope around the globe. For centuries, professing Christians all over the world have accepted it to be an accurate account of man's history. A prominent writer who has curved his name in the art of letters called it “The greatest book ever written .” It is the world's number one all time best seller. No book has ever been distributed so widely and probably read by so many, yet, surprisingly, it is also the most misunderstood, most maligned book ever written. A respected man of literary genius once wrote a book about it entitled “The Book Almost Nobody Knows.” It is called the Bible. The book that holds the destinies of men.
It is not a science textbook. Neither is this book concerned with mathematical equation. Nonetheless, whatever this book says has always been scientifically and mathematically proven to be true. Agnostic minds of all ages have tried time and again to question its authenticity only to establish the plain truth of its credibility by the undeniable facts of history and the documented artifacts unearth as time passes by.
It is a unique book. “Plain Truth” magazine contributor Terry Hall in his booklet “How We Got Our Old Testament” said: “The Strangest Publishing Project of All Time.” He also added: “No editor or publishing house could claim responsibility to oversee 40 independent authors, representing 20 occupations, living in 10 countries during a 1500 years span, working in three languages with a cast of 2930 characters in 1551 places.”
Another writer of the “Plain Truth” magazine, Paul Kroll commented: “The biblical authors included kings, fishermen, priest, a physician, a tax collector, a farmer, a general and a tent making rabbi. Four books in the New Testament focused on the life of a carpenter turned teacher, whom the Bible declared to be God in human form.”
Records disclosed that the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic while the New Testament was originally written in Greek. While the Bible is virtually accessible to everyone today yet there was a time when reading the book was forbidden to the common man. During the medieval period, only scholars, educated clergy and a few others of high rank have access to the word of God. Church leaders adopted the view that it was dangerous for ordinary people to read the scriptures without the help of clergies. They maintained that it was safer for people to rely on priest to tell them what the Bible said and meant. A similar prevailing atmosphere still inhabits the thinking of most people today.
The 28th President of the United States Woodrow Wilson said: “When you have read the Bible, you will know that it is the word of God.” The famous American orator Daniel Webster also said: “The Bible is a book of Faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of religion, of special revelation from God.” A German noted philosopher, Gunter Grass, however, expressed well his own personal dilemma when he said: “I don't know about God. The only things I know are what I see, hear, feel and smell.” Indeed,
human beings in their physical state will never understand the Bible unless God intervenes and reveal it to us through His spirit. “For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. But God had revealed them unto us by His spirit for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:11 & 10).
A perfect masterpiece, written and directed by the Greatest Master Artist of all. It is the only book that speaks with authority about a Supreme over-all knowing divine God, revealing and describing the details of creation, His plan and majestic purpose for man. How we got here. Why we were born and where we are headed. This book of books answer all these mysteries that has plagued all men down through time immemorial.
In this book are His laws, immutable and eternal. The very embodiment of His own way of life. Perfect and complete. He said, “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone shall take aways from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city, and from things which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18-19).
And wonder of all wonders, the whole of this book can simply be summed up in one simple word. The word we ordinarily call love. Love because God is love. It was given in love for love alone can fulfill the law. “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10).
Biblical writers claimed that a third of this book is devoted to prophecy. Written thousands of years earlier it boldly declared the events that shall come to pass. Historical records disclosed that a considerable number of these prophecies have already been fulfilled and a lot more still awaits fulfillment in a not too distant future, at the close of the age, in our generation when weapons of mass destruction abounds coupled with the dreaded hydrogen bomb in our midst capable of annihilating the entire human race.
While the Bible can almost be found in every home yet, the irony of it all is the fact that it is also the most neglected book by the side of a corner. It lays there most of the time, dusty and hardly opened. Thus the tremendous big news, the central message about the kingdom of God are left hidden before their very eyes. One day soon, they said, I am going to read it. Most never keep their promise. They just fade away without even knowing that they have broken their solemn pledge.
Sad to say many who professed to be Christian did not even realize that what they had been taught, that they have been made to believe are exactly the opposite of the plain teachings of the Scriptures and of Christ's. They died without even knowing that they have followed customs and traditions of pagan origin condemned by God. “But in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9 ). “In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believed not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Romeo Samudio
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book”(Rev 22:18-19).
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