Genesis Apologetics K8 Student Zone What is the Bible? (K-2 Grade)

Well, hello and welcome to The Zone. I'm your host, Big Wave Dave. You know, as Christians, we should read the

Bible. But have you ever wondered, what is the Bible? And why are the sections so different?

Who wrote the Bible? That's what we're going to talk about today. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Although the word Bible means book, the Bible is actually a collection of 66 different books.

And it's organized into two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Now, my friend here wants to know, what's the difference between the Old Testament and the New? That's a great question.

You see, all the books that were written before Jesus was born are in the Old Testament. All the books after Jesus was born are in the

New Testament. Pretty simple, right? Great. Did you know that there are four different types of books in the

Bible? The first is historical. Now, the historical books tell us stories about things that really happened.

They answer questions like who, what, when, where, and why. We can learn a lot from historical books.

Let's look at a few. In the book of Genesis, we learned that God created everything in just six days.

And it was amazing. Everything was perfect. Of course, after Adam and Eve sinned, all of that changed.

Now the world wasn't so perfect anymore. In fact, a few hundred years later, things got really bad.

The animals and the people were fighting. It got so bad that God had to start all over again.

So God sent a global flood that wiped out almost everything. Only Noah and his family and the animals that were on the ark survived.

So if we fast forward several hundred years later, we read about a guy named

Moses. Now God selected Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

After they were freed from slavery, God gave the Israelites a special mission.

They were supposed to tell everyone about God. You know, the historical books also include the adventures of prophets like Jonah.

We're going to talk about him in another session later. There is a special group of historical books called the

Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These are all about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

Finally, in the book of Acts, we learn about the beginnings, the start of the Christian church.

Now just a note of caution. Just because it's in the Bible doesn't mean it's okay.

It doesn't mean that God approves of it. It's just what happened. In fact, we're supposed to look back at these stories and learn from other people's mistakes.

You get it? Great. Okay, so we have historical books. The second type of books is poetry.

Now when I hear the word poetry, I think of things like, Roses are red, violets are blue, my love is true.

Okay, enough of that. Actually, the poetical books in the

Bible have a special purpose. They help teach us about God, and about life, and about wisdom.

For example, in Proverbs we find that we are supposed to do things

God's way, not our own. Boy, that little guy is in big trouble. You know, the poetical books often use creative imagery to help express ideas, like word pictures.

For example, in Psalm 91 says that God will protect us with his feathers and wings.

Well, obviously God doesn't have feathers, but this image of a mother hen protecting her babies sure does a great job of telling us about how

God feels about us. And did you know that some poetic books are actually collections of songs?

Fact. A lot of the worship songs that we listen to today are based upon the book of Psalms.

We're doing great. Let's review. The first type of books is historical. The second type is poetry.

The third type is prophecy. So, prophets were God's messengers, and he would often send them to Israel and other nations to say, hey, stop doing bad things or you're going to get punished.

Now, prophets also made a lot of predictions about the future, and there are a lot of prophecies or predictions about Jesus Christ.

Now, some of them have already come true, and others will come true when Jesus comes back.

Let's look at a few. The prophet Micah said that Jesus would be born in a town called

Bethlehem. Now, what's amazing about this is he made this prediction over 400 years before Jesus was born.

That's incredible. The prophet Isaiah said that Jesus would do a lot of miracles and that he would go around healing people who couldn't see or hear or walk.

The prophet Zechariah predicted that Jesus would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.

The book of Psalms predicted that Jesus would rise from the dead. So, these are all predictions that have already come true.

Let's look at one for the future. The book of Revelation says that someday

Jesus Christ is coming back, and he's going to take all the people that love him to a very special place called heaven.

And when that happens, there will be no more pain, suffering, or tears. It's going to be amazing.

I can't wait. Alright, let's review. We have historical books, we have poetry, and we have prophecies.

The fourth and final type of book are letters. So, after Jesus rose and then went back to heaven, his disciples went all over the place telling people about Jesus.

And they started little churches wherever they went. So, the people in these churches had a lot of questions about God and Jesus and Christianity and how to act.

Of course, back then, they didn't have the internet or texting or anything like that. So, the apostles would sit down and they would write letters to people.

Now, they would write them on things like scrolls or animal skins. So, just a question for you.

Have you ever gotten a letter in the mail? It's kind of fun, right? Well, when the churches would get a letter from Paul or someone else, here's what they would do.

Everybody would come together, and one person would read the letter out loud so that everybody would know what

Paul had to say. Pretty cool. Alright, we made it.

We have the historical, poetry, prophecies, and letters. Let's move on to the next question.

Who wrote the Bible? Now, the Bible was physically written by 40 different people over 1400 years on four continents.

And yet, it only had one author. Can you guess who it is? If you said

God, you're right. 2 Timothy 3 .16 says that all

Scripture is God -breathed or inspired. What does that mean? It simply means that God told people what to write.

That's why we call the Bible God's Word. And since the Bible is

God's Word, we can trust it to answer some really tough questions. Like, where did we come from?

Where are we going? Is there life after death? Who determines right from wrong?

What is my purpose? Who am I? Okay, let's conclude by looking at some tips for studying the

Bible. The first is ask God to help you understand the Bible. The second one is try to go to church every week.

Number three, get a Bible designed specifically for you and read it every day.

And finally, remember what the Bible is really all about. The Bible is all about Jesus and God's love for us.

Let's pray. Oh, Father God, thank you so much for your Word. Thank you for your love and all the things that you do for us.

Lord, help us to be wise and learn how to talk to people about Jesus. We love you.

Amen. Well, that's all the time we have together today. My name is