What about the Bible

I would like first of all to quote extensively from what the apostle Peter said about the importance of the Word of God – the Bible. :

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good (from 1  Peter 1:22 to 1 Peter 2:3, ESV).

Peter addresses here people who are Christians and tells them that they should long for the pure spiritual milk of the Word, if they have tasted that the Lord is good. This passage provides us a sense of the need that believers have to feed themselves upon the Word of God so that they can be reminded of what Christ did for them, learn what God wishes for them in terms of loving one another and staying away from evil practices. If someone does not define himself as a Christian but is interested in learning who God is from the perspective of Jesus’ apostles and God’s prophets, the Bible is the place to go.

What about the Bible ? The word of the Lord remains forever (1 Peter 1:25)
The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever (1 Peter 1:24-25)

That being said, this page provides links to an essay I wrote concerning the importance of the Bible today, and how to approach it meaningfully. It presents briefly the autobiographical context which gave rise to his interacting with theologians such as Paul Tillich, Hans Küng and Paul Ricoeur, on Bible interpretation, which led to his writing of an essay on how the Bible can be understood today, titled, Comment comprendre la Bible aujourd’hui ? (pdf, 139 p.). The contents of this web page can be consulted in French, Que penser de la Bible ?, and in Spanish, ¿Cómo entender la Biblia?

What follows is exclusively proposed in the English language version of this Web site, mostly because it is dependent on outside sources that are not available in French. In it the enquirer will find quality presentations that are meant to help you understand what the Bible is really all about, and perhaps set aside some popular opinions against it.

The video interviews below aim at providing a general understanding about some aspects of the Bible that are often challenged by its critics. They were originally published on the 100 Huntley Street web site, but have since become available from an archived section of their web site, to their YouTube channel, or in some cases, simply to YouTube at large.

You would like to move beyond the short general video presentations proposed so far on this page? The seminar Why we Believe the Bible, by John Piper from Desiring God, might help you further in your enquiry. It deals with such questions as the following :

  • Why are we concerned with the Bible?
  • Which books make up the Bible and why ?
  • How do we know there was to be a New Testament?
  • When and by whom did the books of the New Testament become recognized as the Word of God on par with the Hebrew Bible?
  • What was Jesus’ attitude toward the Old Testament?
  • What were the apostles’ attitude toward apostolic writings?
  • Do we have the very words written by the biblical authors?
  • How should we approach the Bible today and why?

You wish to get involved and discuss about life-related subject matters, feel free to join our trilingual Community of dialog about the Christian Faith (French, English, Spanish).

You may communicate with me through the indications under Questions or Comments.

Daniel Garneau, B Th, B Com, MA.
Article Edited: May 2016; January, February, and July 2018.
Thorough review and correction of all URL links on this page: October 10, 2023