Does the Bible really say that? Excerpt from my book, 1

What the Bible says.

This book discusses some popular, but wrong, beliefs among Christians who take the Bible seriously, and some areas where there is disagreement among Christians. My goal is to examine what the Bible does say about these matters. It is more important to examine and know what the Bible really says, than to point out things that it doesn’t say, or that many Christians misunderstand. What does the Bible really say? Much of it has been summarized in the historic creeds of the church.

The most important content of the Bible is that Christ’s perfect life, as God in the flesh, and His death and resurrection, have paid the price for human sin:

1 Corinthians 15:1 Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures . . .*

That truth is tremendous. But we shouldn’t stop there, but try to learn as much of what God has told us as we can. We should study the Bible, and read and listen to what godly people have said about it.

Much of this book is quotations from the Bible. Why? Because what the Bible says is much more important than anything you, or I, can write about what it says.

*(Unless otherwise specified, all scripture quotations in the book are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain.)

 

The above is an excerpt from my recently published e-book, Does the Bible Really Say That?, which may be obtained free of charge, or purchased from Amazon for $0.99, which is the lowest price Amazon lets an author set.

If you obtained the book previously, I discovered a dozen or so errors, but have corrected them, I hope. Sorry about that! Amazon has a Manage Your Kindle page for anyone who has a Kindle or Kindle App. I recommend that you go to that page, and turn on Automatic Book Update, which is supposed to send you, free, any updated versions of a Kindle book.

Thanks for reading!

Free e-book available -- Does the Bible Really Say That?

The above graphic is the cover of a free e-book. To know more about the background text used in that cover, you can use the graphic as a link.

During 2012, it was my privilege to lead a small group, at my church, on the theme of “Does the Bible really say that?”

Since then, much of that material has found its way into an ebook, or e-book, of the same title. As of March 13, 2013, this book is ready to distribute, free to anyone who wants it. If you wish, you may distribute the book to others.

The topics covered, some in more depth than others, some with a rather firm conclusion, some not, are as follows:

►The culture of Bible times and understanding the Bible
►Genres of Biblical literature
►Was praying for sinners important in the early church? What are the types of prayer, and what did the early church pray for?
►Must the husband always be the spiritual leader in a home?
►Must marriage ceremonies be conducted in church?
►Is homosexuality the worst sexual sin?
►Is prophecy easy to understand? How certain is prophecy about the tribulation, the rapture and the anti-Christ?
►Can a believer lose her salvation? What does the Bible say about the characteristics of believers?
►Do we go to heaven immediately upon death? Do resurrected believers have a body?




Some of the material in the book was previously posted to this blog, and I thank all readers and commenters.
 
The World English Bible, which is in the public domain, is quoted extensively, which is fitting, since what the Bible has to say is more important than what I have to say. Besides being in the public domain, the language is mostly understandable to 21st-century readers. (No believeth, hath, thee, etc.)

The book is available as a Word document (a little over 100 pages, with quite a bit of space, and in 13-point type) as an .html file, as a .PDF file, as a Kindle document, and as an epub file (the Barnes & Noble Nook uses such files, as do some other e-readers.)There are links to all five of these formats on this page.

Thanks for reading!