You Can Know You Have Eternal Life
#39 Gods Standard for Mankind (23)
Brevity points to Inspiration (2)
by Jim Mettenbrink
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The readily noted evidences of
the Bibles divine inspiration are within the Bible itself.
They can be tested by observation or scientifically (except
fulfilled prophecy confirmed by testimony) e.g. the laws of quarantine.
Interestingly, when one repetitively reads the Bible, questions
arise, Why didnt the writer give the details of this
event?, or Why didnt he tell us more of that
persons life? So much is left unsaid, that
a publisher would reject printing such a book because it was
incomplete. We must wonder which human author would write
with such brevity in the Bible? Or perhaps the author of
the Bible is not human at all!
When authors write about important
events and people, they seek to paint the entire picture.
Who would write a biography and not even mention 90% of
that persons life? Who would give only gratuitous
mention to significant events in that persons life, rather
than expound on every aspect and detail of the event. Yet
we see this supposed flaw in the Bible. Consider the four
accounts of Jesus of Nazareth Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John. The sum total of the four accounts is 147 pages in
my Bible (Mark being the shortest book, 26pp and Luke the longest
44 pp). Much in these books are parallel accounts, some
of them are the same, i.e., word for word, yet others provide
more detail than the others. Each account records events
that are in it alone. Jesus, undisputably the most influential
person who ever lived, who to this day radically changes peoples
lives, whose greatest influence has been after He departed from
this earth, has so little devoted space to Him in the Bible,
let alone in ancient histories. Yet there is more about
Jesus in the Bible than any other ancient book.
Jesus teaching activity was
about three years. Brevity underscores the recording of
most events during that period. There are a few exceptions,
such as Jesus speech to his disciples and subsequent prayer
on the evening before He went to the cross in John 13-17 (5.5
pages). However, mostly everything else is briefly stated.
Why didnt Matthew and John, who were with Jesus during
His three year ministry give us volumes about Jesus? They
gave us 77 pages. When we subtract the pages of Jesus birth
and the last week before He was crucified from the four gospel
accounts, we are left with 91 pages (a lot of which is duplication
of events) covering only parts of 21 days of His three year ministry
about 2% of His ministry. Why is it that we have
so little about this person who claimed to be God, whose teachings
were radical and equally profound, whose miracles for three years
kept Palestine in excitement and caused turmoil amongst the Jewish
religious leadership, who introduced true love to the world,
proved it by His own death to save mankind, arose from dead,
then showing Himself to multitudes and then disappeared from
the earth. Yet the record of Jesus has had the most profound
effect on mankind. We conclude that such brevity is not
an oversight but by design... inspiration by God.
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