Todd Richmond

About me:

We did too. One of the best ways to find out, is through studying the Bible. That's right, the exact thing that you question. Examine for yourself the question of truth. Are there absolute truthes? Yes there are. The worst answer to this question a Christian can give is...because I have faith! Our faith does not change the truth about the Bible at all. Our faith does not change whether or not Jesus died and rose again. He either did or did not. Our faith has nothing to do with the accuracy of an absolute truth. Either it is or it is not truth! We have to have some kind of standard to which we can measure truth from non-truth. When trying to find out if the Bible is true ask yourself this: Was Jesus who He said He was...God or was He a lunatic. "IF" He was who He said He was, then we can know that what He taught was truth. Since He taught that the Old Testament was truth, we can know that both the Old & New Testaments were true. If He was crazy and was not who He claimed to be, you then can know that it was not truth. Simply due to the Bible's description of who God is. What character traits and qualities He poses's.

There are many other avenues to take when searching the accuracy of the Bible. We hope that this page will help you find the answers to your questions on whether the Bible is truth. It is important for us to know what we believe, but more importantly "WHY" we believe it to be true. We encourage you to read more about the Bible with an open mind and do the searching yourself. Unbias in anyway, and you to can find truth.

This page was designed to share more directly with Anchor Of Life Ministries online friends and future friends here at Myspace. It is to let you see some of the things we are doing with our Bible study groups. As of right now we host a Monday Night Bible Study (M.N.B.S.) at Island Grove in Demotte, Indiana. You can find out more information by visiting our website at:

We hope that you will find this page to be an inspiration to studying more of God's Holy Word. We would love to haer from you and if you have any questions please feel free to post them here or write to Todd at:

Thank you for your time and we hope that this will become a great assest for you and your family and friends to use to study more of God's Holy Word.

Anchor Of Life Ministries

www.anchoroflife.org

Readers of the Bible soon discover that some passages need to be explained. We shall become better informed and more satisfied Bible Christians if we recognize the principles by which the Bible is usually interpreted. The guidelines below are generally accepted principles of Bible interpretation, arranged in order of importance.

1. Take the plain sense of the words. The Bible was written to be understood by regular readers. Most of the time the important meanings of Scripture are clear.

2. Interpret the meaning consistently with the context. In any writing, some sentences will be misunderstood if read by themselves. But when read as part of the whole paragraph or longer section, the intended meaning of the writer becomes clear.

3. Explain Scriptures by Scripture. In Matthew 13:3-8 Jesus told the parable of the sower. In 13:18-23 He carefully explained the meaning of His story. In other places the meaning of a passage will be supported by other passages that deal with the same subject. In cases like these we feel confident that we have the correct understanding of a difficult passage when the Bible itself affirms our explanation.

4. Interpret occasional problem passages in light of clear and accepted teachings of the whole Bible. We believe that God's revelation of truth is consistent with itself. If some passage seems to contradict a major teaching in Scripture, we assume that we are not understanding the meaning of the passage. We need to look further for an explanation that is consistent with the character of God and with His will for people as revealed in the whole Bible.

5. Not every passage or book presents a full treatment of a subject. Sometimes a single book may emphasize one side of an issue while another book presents the opposing side. Examples would be Job and Proverbs dealing with the issue of material blessings that can be expected when we serve God, or Galatians and James discussing the place of good deeds in the Christian life. such pairs do not demand either - or choices, but help us better understand the full - orbed both - and truths of Scripture.

6. Examine Old Testament ideas in the light of New Testament teaching. Biblical revelation is progressive. God began to reveal Himself in the Old Testament, but He gave us His fullest revelation in Jesus Christ and in the New Testament. This is not to say that New Testament teaching supplants Old Testament truth, or that the New Testament is complete without the Old Testament. It is to say that Old Testament ideas must always be understood in the light of the New.

7. Meanings are often made clearer by knowing the geography, history, literary forms, or customs of Bible times. To know that a denarius was the customary day's wage helps us understand Jesus' economic fairness in the parable of the laborers (Matt 20:1-16).

8. Christian consensus is usually a sound guide. When a majority of devout and informed Bible students agree on the meaning of a passage, their interpretation should usually be accepted as correct. Protestant teaching, however, is committed to the principle that every person who can read the Scriptures for himself can understand their message of the Bible. When the experts disagree, the reader may choose which interpretation to accept, based on the best information known to him.

9. Distinguish between the significant and the less important. If no significant Bible truth is at stake, we may agree to disagree harmoniously on our interpretations. If some significant doctrine is effected, we rely on our best understanding of the whole teaching of Scripture and on the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.

10. We may not need to know today. We will never know everything about Scripture - or any other area of important truth - and we need not know everything. Enough is clear in the Bible to bring us to Christ and to show His will for us. Therefore, in interpreting an unclear verse we sometimes need to adopt an attitude of suspended judgment. We may admit that we do not know the meaning, or that we are not yet ready to decide among possible interpretations of the passage.

In taking this attitude, there is no weakening of the fabric of Christian truth because no essential teaching stands or falls on or interpretation of any one passage or even of several related passages. If the teaching is Scriptural, it will be supported by further study of the Word. For every passage of uncertain meaning we shall find half a dozen that teach every essential truth clearly.