Why the Holy Bible?

At the beginning of creation, Adam and Eve were not in need of written words in the Garden of Eden before the fall, for they met the Lord face to face, and the grace of God was working in them. They were His friends. Naturally, they were always praising Him with joy and jubilation. They were like the heavenly creatures as they praised God and glorified Him. They were in a state of internal satiety, surveying nature in its beauty and aware of the praise that all creatures offer to God, each one in its own language with wonderful peace. But disobedience alienated them from the source of life and they came to be in a state of terror. The human fell into sin, his mind and conscience were darkened (Rom. 1:21), and he became incapable of restoring his relationship with his Creator to the way it was before the fall. It was not possible for God, the Lover of mankind, not to restore the state of the human that He had created in his image and likeness.

The nature which the Almighty created bears witness to His power and His boundless pastoral care. “O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions” (Ps. 104:24). Further, the Creator gave people a natural law in their hearts, “Their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves, their thoughts accusing or else excusing them, in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel” (Rom. 2:15–16).

Not only do nature and the natural law within man attest to the Creator; but God also announced His plan for salvation by offering the Messiah Himself as a sacrifice and atonement for the whole world:

First: Throughout history, God chose people who yearn for the salvation of humanity and declared to them, by the Spirit, prophecies that reveal the mystery of salvation: the incarnation of the Word; His dwelling among us; His offering of Himself as a sacrifice although He is the heavenly high priest; His suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, descent into Hades, and setting free of the believers who had fallen asleep; His ascension into Heaven; and His second coming, when heaven and earth will be dissolved and we will enjoy the Jerusalem above, our mother.

Second: These revelations came through visions, dreams, and conversations with God.

Third: God gave His people actual historical events that are symbols of the divine work of salvation. As the Lord Jesus Christ said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14–15).

The human, who was disobedient and unbelieving toward his Creator, needed God to reveal to him His divine presence and His love for him. He needed to know God’s plan and power to reconcile his situation one way or another; whether by divine revelation by way of the creation that witnesses to this, or in a supernatural manner such as divine inspiration.

The human race needed divine revelation to reveal to them the way of their salvation. This is why St. John Chrysostom says, “that the grace of the Spirit should be instead of books to our souls, and that as these are inscribed with ink, even so should our hearts be with the Spirit. But, since we have utterly put away from us this grace, come, let us at any rate embrace the second best course … Reflect then how great an evil it is for us, who ought to live so purely as not even to need written words, but to yield up our hearts, as books, to the Spirit; now that we have lost that honor, and are come to have need of these.”⁸⁷

God was preparing humans to receive the Gospel as news that brings joy, regarding the coming of the Word of God incarnate and offered to them free salvation. This is what St. John Chrysostom describes to us, saying, “Yes, for it was removal of punishment, and remission of sins, and ‘righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,’ (1 Cor. 1:30) and adoption, and an inheritance of Heaven, and a relationship with the Son of God, which he came declaring unto all; to enemies, to the perverse, to them that were sitting in darkness. What then could ever be equal to these good tidings? God on earth, Man in Heaven; and all became mingled together, Angels joined the choirs of men, men had fellowship with the angels, and with the other powers above: and one might see the long war brought to an end, and reconciliation made between God and our nature, the devil brought to shame, demons in flight, death destroyed, Paradise opened, the curse blotted out, sin put out of the way, error driven off, truth returning, the word of godliness everywhere sown and flourishing in its growth, the polity of those above planted on the earth, those powers in secure intercourse with us, and on earth angels continually abiding, and hope abundant touching things to come.”⁸⁸