Why is the Bible so important? Why must a person consider the claims of the Bible carefully? In other words, what's the point of the Bible?

We've previously talked about letting the Bible speak for itself and considering what it says about itself. These include the claims that:

•  The Bible is a record of the revelations of God given to men.
• The Bible is inspired; God showed the various authors what to write down.
• The Bible is inerrant.
• The Bible has received divine protection to ensure its existence continues throughout history.

However, numerous lies and distortions concerning the Bible's teachings are still bandied about. One often repeated fallacy is that the God of the Old Testament is not the God of the New Testament. Richard Dawkins, in his book The God Delusion, states,

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic...

I will be blogging on the second part of "Looking back to look forward" but I felt that moms needed encouragement, especially this year when the pressure to make Christmas amazing and wonderful is intense.  God promises "peace on earth", good-will towards men, but moms often seem to live on a battleground.