BIBLE READING PLAN

Written over a period of 2,000 years, by forty different authors from three different continents and in three different languages, the Bible is unlike any other religious book.  Despite being written over such a vast period of time and by different people, the message of all sixty-six books of the Bible remains the same- God reaching out to a fallen humanity and restoring them back to Himself.  Join us as we, as a church family, come together to grow closer to Him as we read His Word.  We will follow the plan put forth by oneyearbibleonline.com.  To access a PDF of the reading schedule, follow this link.  
 
 
Original Languages and Translations
 
When the human authors wrote down the words that would eventually be included in the Bible, three different languages were used.  The Old Testament was primarily written in ancient Hebrew, with exception of portions of Daniel and Ezra, which were written in Aramaic.  The New Testament was written Koine Greek.  In order to get the clearest, most accurate message of what God is conveying to His people through the Bible, ministers (including those here at Mountain Pointe) train in and study these original languages, and that is why you will often hear of them in sermons.  We realize that not everyone has the privilege to be able to study and learn these ancient languages, so there are many excellent English translations that are used.  From us that have studied the original languages and compared them with the English translations, we find the NIV, ESV, KJV, and NLT to be very accurate and true to the original text.
 
 
Inspiration of Scripture
 
You will hear us say that the Bible is the literal Word of God, yet also talk about how humans wrote the books of the Bible.  We believe that God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, conveyed his messages to certain people that wrote the Bible.  Also through the power of the Holy Spirit, the early church gathered these writings and put them into the configuration that we have today known simply as The Holy Bible.  As such, the Bible is literally God’s message to His creation- conveyed and written down by human authors.  
 
 
 
Commentaries
 
Commentaries are other writings about the Bible that attempt to explain the meaning of Scripture.  These can include commentaries on certain books of the Bible, books about the Bible or God in general, or Bible studies.  Commentaries can be very useful tools to help us understand the Bible, but we must remember that commentaries are not the Bible.  A commentary in not the literal Word of God that the Bible is, it is only what a person thinks about a certain portion of Scripture.  While commentaries are good, they can be wrong, as they are written only by human authors.  So use Bible studies and commentaries if they help you, but always remember that the Bible, not someone’s opinion about it, is the absolute authority.