The God of the Bible
When I was being introduced to Christianity as I approached the end of my schooling I was encouraged to learn Bible verses. One of those was 2Tim3:16, “all scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness”. I did not realise at the time that that meant the Hebrew scriptures, but a small matter. Similarly I did not fully appreciate that the scriptures that formed the basis of Christ’s meditation while on earth did of course not include the new Testament. I understood by this verse that all scripture was of equal standing, worth and authority. Later I began to realise that some books and verses were valued more highly than others and emphasised more within my particular tradition. Over the years I have had to form my own way of reading the whole Bible in some way that does not leave me with a for example a rather dark view of the God it reveals. So for example in a recent sermon when the preacher described the God of