WHAT SHOULD WE LEARN FROM HISTORY? - The Bible AUTHENTIC HISTORY?

THEY censured rulers. They castigated priests.  They reproved the common people for their wickedness. They even put their own failings and sins on public record.  They were hounded and persecuted, and some were even murdered for speaking and writing the truth. Who were they?  They prophets of the Bible, many of whom contributed to the Holy Scriptures.- Matthew 25:35-37. 

In his book The Historian and History, Page Smith writes:  "[The Hebrews] were as pitiless to their heroes as to their villains, to themselves  as to their adversaries, because they were writing under the eye of God and had nothing to gain and much to lose by dissembling."  Smith also wrote that "alongside the tedious chronologies of the warrior kings of Syria or Egypt, the account of the tribulations and triumphs of a people chosen by God . . . make[s] and enthralling story. The Hebrew chroniclers had discovered one of the most essential elements of history-that it is enacted by real people, with all their faults and blemishes. 

The Bible writers were also meticulously accurate.  After analyzing the Bible in the light of history and archaeology, writer Werner Keller said in the introduction of his book The Bible as History:  "In view of the overwhelming mass of authentic and well  attested evidence now available, . . . there kept hammering on my brain this one sentence:  "The Bible is right after all!' "

Next time: WHAT SHOULD WE LEARN FROM HISTORY? - The Bible AUTHENTIC HISTORY?/Dynamic History With Powerful Lessons

From the Awake! magazine