Native American – First Nations Introduction to the Bible: It’s Unique.
🍃 Watch the series by Mescalero Apache, Soapy Dollar, here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcTF3swbs_1mvaD-E-ty_UdV

This Bible Intro series for Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous people is taught by a Native American – Mescalero Apache, Soapy Dollar. He talks about the origin of the Bible, it’s message, and more. He also shares about the central character of the Bible, Jesus Christ.

As you’ll discover, Soapy is both very familiar and passionate with what he calls, the Book of books, the Bible. This series is intended to be an introduction to the Bible. It doesn’t dive deep, but hopefully, it will cause you to want to explore more. If you’re skeptical or have doubts, we hope that you’ll consider with an open heart what is shared.

Common questions and issues addressed in this series:
What’s so special or unique about the Bible?
Is the Bible true?
Where did the Bible come from?
Is the Bible really from God?
Is the Bible accurate?
What is the message of the Bible?
Who is Jesus Christ?
Is the Bible for First Nations and Native American people?
Why read the Bible?

There are many who have misconceptions and concerns about the Bible. Some dismiss it. Others have found hope and lasting peace with God through it, including many Native and First Nations people among the tribes of North America and throughout the world.

What is it about this book that makes it so popular or unpopular? Why is so loved and so hated? Does it really address the purpose and meaning of life as some claim?

The purpose of this video, is to inform native people and native communities about this book called The Bible.

Part 1: The Bible is Unique. It should not surprise us if it truly is given to us by inspiration from God, which is what it claims in 2 Timothy 3:16. It’s uniqueness attests to the truth that, no matter what one thinks of it, it is no ordinary book.

Key Points in Part 1:
– We think of the Bible as one book, but in reality it’s 66 different books written over a period of over 1500 years, by 40 different authors, in times of peace, times of war, times of plenty, times of famine, all kinds of situations.

– And yet, in all these different situations and circumstances the Bible is unique in its consistency, in its message. It speaks to hundreds of different complex and even controversial topics within the human beings experience with a perfect consistency throughout, from beginning to end.

– It has circulated from people group to people group, through the centuries, from generation to generation.

– It is by far the most translated book, the most translated text in all of human history. The full Bible has been translated into at least 704 languages, the New testament in over 1,500, languages, and other portions of the Bible in another 1160+ languages.

– There have been many attacks and many predictions that the Bible would be eradicated, eliminated, erased from human experience. And yet it still stands today, stronger and greater than ever before in its influence, expanding to all the nations, all the languages of the world.

– It speaks with great clarity to the human condition and addresses the questions in life that are common to all people.

– The overall topic is that there is a Redeemer, there is a Savior, there is one who comes to reconcile fallen humanity and reconcile us to a holy and gracious, loving God. Its message is unique in that it tells us God loves us, seeks us, and that He has spoken and acted in human history so that we might know Him and come into a relationship with Him.
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Outline for following along in the video series (Each part is a video):

Part 1 – Introduction and The Bible is Unique
It is Unique
– In it’s consistency
– In it’s circulation
– In it’s translation
– In it’s survival
– In it’s teaching
– In it’s message

Part 2 – The Bible is True and Accurate
Tests and Evidence
– The Bibliographical test
– The Internal test
– The External test
– Archeology

Part 3 – Is the Bible from God our Creator?
Why do we think this?
– It’s amazing consistency
– It has a “ring of truth”
– Fulfilled predictions and prophecies
– The life of Jesus
– Transformed lives

Part 4 – The Message of the Bible
The Central Message of the Bible
– God loves and cares for us
– We are sinful, selfish, guilty, and condemned
– God sends a Savior
– We must respond in faith

Part 5 – The Central Character – Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the central character of the Bible
– His person and redemptive work is foretold in the Old Testament
– His person and redemptive work is fulfilled in the New Testament

Part 6 – Final Thoughts and a Challenge
Brief Summary
– God has gone to great lengths to communicate with us
– Pick up the Bible and read it for yourself
—–
Listen to Soapy’s personal story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHD0Av50Hss
Visit our website: www.withoutreservation.com

If it’s true that our Creator has reached out to us, why wouldn’t we want to know what He says?
🍃 Watch the six-part series by Mescalero Apache, Soapy Dollar, here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcTF3swbs_1mvaD-E-ty_UdV

This series on the Bible for Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous people is taught by Mescalero Apache, Soapy Dollar. Soapy is passionate about what he calls, the Book of books, the Bible.

Part 6 – Read it for yourself! There’s no better way to learn about the Bible and it’s message than to actually read it for yourself. And because it is a Divine Book, you can expect that God will speak to you through it – especially if you are open to hearing from Him. In Psalm 119, the writer uses 176 verses to describe the value of God’s words to him. Perhaps among the most famous of these is verse 105 which says. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Millions of people, including many from Native North America have decided to follow the path to life that the Bible illuminates for those who desire to walk with God.

Key Points in Part 6:

– Read this book and you’ll hear from Himself. It won’t be just a book that we read for all people everywhere and a wonderful message. God will speak to your heart and you will
hear His call to a relationship to Himself.

– If the Creator has reached out so that you could be in relationship with Him, and if He has done so through this book we call the Bible, why not respond by picking up the Bible and reading it.

– If you start in the Old Testament, when you read, keep in mind, though, that redemptive narrative of God, and you’ll see the Messiah, you’ll see the Redeemer, you’ll see God’s plan of salvation for all people everywhere. It’s never about just one group of people. It’s all about the world. That wonderful verse in the New Testament, “God so loved the world.” It’s evident, even as you’re reading about the experiences of a particular people group through history and their ups and downs and their experiences, a lot of things we can learn, but always we learn that these same things that God is speaking to all of us, to every people group everywhere.

– If you’re interested in beginning to read this incredible gift that we have from God and to see what its message would be to you, you may also consider starting in the Gospel of John in the New Testament for a couple of reasons. One, is because you’re in the full-blown light of the Messiah. The Redeemer, the Savior that had been predicted and foretold all of those centuries is now here. And you get to see Him and hear Him and watch Him, how He fulfills those prophecies in His life and what He does to make it possible for fallen, sinful human beings like me, like all of us, to be reconciled to God the Father.

Secondly, because John actually writes his book with that purpose in mind. “I have written these things so that you might believe,” so that you might be able to know God, hear His voice, and enter into that relationship with God yourself. And that’s, of course, what my ultimate pleasure and joy would be, is if you read the book and you come into that relationship with God, both for here on planet earth and forever, and to become a part of the people of God. From every tribe, every language, every, every people group on planet earth, to be with Him now and on to eternity.

—–

Here is the outline for following along in the series.

Soapy Dollar – A Native American Introduction to The Bible

Part 1 – Introduction and The Bible is Unique
It is Unique
– In it’s consistency
– In it’s circulation
– In it’s translation
– In it’s survival
– In it’s teaching
– In it’s message

Part 2 – The Bible is True and Accurate
Tests and Evidence
– The Bibliographical test
– The Internal test
– The External test
– Archeology

Part 3 – Is the Bible from God our Creator?
Why do we think this?
– It’s amazing consistency
– It has a “ring of truth”
– Fulfilled predictions and prophecies
– The life of Jesus
– Transformed lives

Part 4 – The Message of the Bible
The Central Message of the Bible
– God loves and cares for us
– We are sinful, selfish, guilty, and condemned
– God sends a Savior
– We must respond in faith

Part 5 – The Central Character – Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the central character of the Bible
– His person and redemptive work is foretold in the Old Testament
– His person and redemptive work is fulfilled in the New Testament

Part 6 – Final Thoughts and a Challenge
A Brief Summary and God has gone to great lengths to communicate with us
– Pick up the Bible and read it for yourself

Listen to Soapy’s personal story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHD0Av50Hss
Visit our website: www.withoutreservation.com

The entirety of the Bible points to Jesus Christ and declares Him the Savior of the world.
🍃 Watch the six-part series by Mescalero Apache, Soapy Dollar, here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcTF3swbs_1mvaD-E-ty_UdV

This series on the Bible for Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous people is taught by Mescalero Apache, Soapy Dollar. He talks about the origin of the Bible, it’s message, and answers the question, can we trust it? He also shares about the central character of the Bible, Jesus Christ. Soapy is both very familiar and passionate with what he calls, the Book of books, the Bible. He’s been teaching from it for over 50 years.

The purpose of this video, is to inform particularly and especially native people and native communities about this book called The Bible.

Key Points in Part 5:

– The central character of the Bible is this Messiah, this Redeemer, this Savior, this special human being that God says early in the book of Genesis, chapter 3, verse 15, I’m going to send the seed of a woman, a human being, a male of the species, not an angel, not an extraterrestrial, not an animal, but a human being, is going to atone for man’s sins. The whole idea is that God, through this Messiah, this Redeemer, this Savior, is going to accomplish “at-one-ment”.

– This man would be God in the flesh, Jesus Christ.

– In the Old Testament, the Messiah, this Redeemer, this Savior, is prefigured. He’s predicted. He’s prophesied. We’re told what He’s going to be like, where He’s going to be born, what is going to be His ancestry, His lineage. Some of the characteristics of His life, and many of the characteristics of His life and His ministry are foretold. Over 300 predictions about this special human being that God is going to send into the world to be the Redeemer, the Savior, the one who facilitates the reconciliation of God and man. So we’re told about Him in the Old Testament, in future tense, looking forward to Him and trusting in God’s mercy and grace revealed because God is going to send a Redeemer, a Savior.

– He paid the penalty of death. We’re told that the wages of sin is death. He took upon Himself our sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us. And He expressed, gave full expression, not only to the righteousness and the justice of God, the judgment of God fell upon Him instead of us, in our place, but also gave full expression to the love of God. And so we find the reconciliation of those two characteristics in God’s nature in the redemptive work of Jesus, the Messiah, fully expressing God’s love, fully satisfying God’s justice.

– And on the basis of His finished work, He was raised from the dead. God put His seal of approval on who Jesus was and what He accomplished by raising Him from the dead. And that in Christ, we who have put our faith and trust in Him, we can be too reconciled to that relationship with God and experience eternal life. That beautiful verse in the New Testament, now the New Testament looks back on Jesus on His life and gives us the full blown bright light of the gospel eternal relationship with God.

– That’s the message of the Bible.
—–

Here is the outline for following along in the series.

Soapy Dollar – A Native American Introduction to The Bible

Part 1 – Introduction and The Bible is Unique
It is Unique
– In it’s consistency
– In it’s circulation
– In it’s translation
– In it’s survival
– In it’s teaching
– In it’s message

Part 2 – The Bible is True and Accurate
Tests and Evidence
– The Bibliographical test
– The Internal test
– The External test
– Archeology

Part 3 – Is the Bible from God our Creator?
Why do we think this?
– It’s amazing consistency
– It has a “ring of truth”
– Fulfilled predictions and prophecies
– The life of Jesus
– Transformed lives

Part 4 – The Message of the Bible
The Central Message of the Bible
– God loves and cares for us
– We are sinful, selfish, guilty, and condemned
– God sends a Savior
– We must respond in faith

Part 5 – The Central Character – Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the central character of the Bible
– His person and redemptive work is foretold in the Old Testament
– His person and redemptive work is fulfilled in the New Testament

Part 6 – Final Thoughts and a Challenge
A Brief Summary and God has gone to great lengths to communicate with us
– Pick up the Bible and read it for yourself

Listen to Soapy’s personal story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHD0Av50Hss
Visit our website: www.withoutreservation.com

Ever wondered about the Bible’s message? It may actually be different than what you think.
🍃 Watch the six-part series by Mescalero Apache, Soapy Dollar, here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcTF3swbs_1mvaD-E-ty_UdV

This series on the Bible for Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous people is taught by Mescalero Apache, Soapy Dollar. He talks about the origin of the Bible, it’s message, and answers the question, can we trust it? He also shares about the central character of the Bible, Jesus Christ. Soapy is both very familiar and passionate with what he calls, the Book of books, the Bible. He’s been teaching from it for over 50 years.

The purpose of this video, is to inform particularly and especially native people and native communities about this book called The Bible.

Part 4: The message of the Bible.

Key Points in Part 4:

– The central message of the Bible is focused on bringing people and God into a personal relationship.

– The God that we know, the Creator God is a personal God. He’s revealed Himself even through us creating us to be personal beings. We have personhood, we have intellect, we have emotion, we have wills that we exercise. We see in the Scriptures, even in the book of Genesis, God says, “Let Us make man in Our image,” for a relationship with humanity. His ultimate purpose that we find in the Scriptures, and that we find the message of the Bible is that message that God created us for Himself and that God had to do something. He had to act to make that relationship with Him between fallen, sinful, selfish human beings, possible.

– The first principle we need to emphasize is that God, the God of the Bible, the God, the Creator, does care about us. He longs for, He calls us into a relationship with Himself.

– The second principle is that Bible clearly points out over and again that we are sinful, that we are selfish. We have an irresistible tendency to selfishness and sin. It doesn’t matter what culture we come from, what religious group, or what heritage or language we speak. We all have that tendency to selfishness and sin and that is what the Bible talks about as sin. It says, “For all have sinned.” We’ve all fallen short of God’s glory, of God’s perfection, His righteousness. Paul, one of leaders in the Bible, makes the point that the wages, the consequence, the results of sin is death and that we’d become separated from God.

– God Himself has given a solution to that problem. And that’s what we see again from Genesis all the way to the end we see the prediction and the description that God is going to send a savior, a redeemer, someone who would come through substitutionary atonement. That is, He would take the judgment we deserved for us. He would be our substitute. He is going to take the punishment, the consequences of our sin upon Himself so that we might be set free from the penalty of sin and from the power of sin over our lives and that we might be able to experience the presence of God in this life and on into eternity. So that we see that the third principle is that God has given a Savior and a Redeemer, one who would come and pay the penalty of our sin.

– The fourth principle is that we must decide what we’re going to do with this gift that God is offering to us.

Here is the outline for following along in the series.

Soapy Dollar – A Native American Introduction to The Bible

Part 1 – Introduction and The Bible is Unique
It is Unique
– In it’s consistency
– In it’s circulation
– In it’s translation
– In it’s survival
– In it’s teaching
– In it’s message

Part 2 – The Bible is True and Accurate
Tests and Evidence
– The Bibliographical test
– The Internal test
– The External test
– Archeology

Part 3 – Is the Bible from God our Creator?
Why do we think this?
– It’s amazing consistency
– It has a “ring of truth”
– Fulfilled predictions and prophecies
– The life of Jesus
– Transformed lives

Part 4 – The Message of the Bible
The Central Message of the Bible
– God loves and cares for us
– We are sinful, selfish, guilty, and condemned
– God sends a Savior
– We must respond in faith

Part 5 – The Central Character – Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the central character of the Bible
– His person and redemptive work is foretold in the Old Testament
– His person and redemptive work is fulfilled in the New Testament

Part 6 – Final Thoughts and a Challenge
A Brief Summary and God has gone to great lengths to communicate with us
– Pick up the Bible and read it for yourself
—–
www.withoutreservation.com

Is the Bible from God? Is it Divinely inspired? That’s quite a claim. Is it possible to really know? Can it be tested?
🍃 Watch the six-part series by Mescalero Apache, Soapy Dollar, here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcTF3swbs_1mvaD-E-ty_UdV

This series on the Bible for Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous people is taught by Mescalero Apache, Soapy Dollar. Soapy is passionate about what he calls, the Book of books, the Bible. He’s been teaching from it for over 50 years. The purpose of this video, is to inform particularly and especially native people and native communities about this book called The Bible.

Part 3: Is this Book from God? The Bible clearly states that it is Divinely inspired. In 2 Timothy 3:16, we read these words: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…” Another way it might be said is that all Scripture is God-breathed. Is this true? Is there credible evidence to support the faith that many have that the Bible is indeed from God to us?

Key Points in Part 3:

– The Bible, it claims that over and over again that it is has a supernatural source, that it is from the Creator God. One of the most obvious ways is the number of times we read the words, “Thus says the Lord.” God claims very clearly even in the context of when it was being spoken that this message is coming from God Himself. There are five evidences to test this claim.

– It’s amazing continuity, this consistency of the Bible from beginning to end, written over centuries, all the different situations, different contexts in which the Bible was written, in which those words, “Thus says the Lord” were proclaimed. In times of plenty, times of scarcity, times of richness and wealth, and times of poverty, all kinds of different situations we see this content in the context, the content that is being delivered to us doesn’t change. And the message, the consistency of the message became sharper, more specific, more clear, but it was always the same.

– The Bible has the ring of truth to it. Yes, there are things that are supernatural and yet they’re never spoken of in a mystical or fairy tale way. They’re in a specific context with a specific meaning and purpose. The Bible also explains human nature. It speaks into our human condition. No matter what race, what tribe, what culture, what language we speak, the Bible is universal. It speaks to what we feel and what we think and to our reactions. It describes our human experience in clear terms perfectly – strong evidence of its supernatural sourcing.

– Predictions. Over and over again, well over a thousand times even in the Hebrew scriptures, events are predicted and foretold, prophesied in the future. Things are said that are going to happen. Sometimes a year or two or five or 10 years, sometimes hundreds of years later, but the events are announced that are going to take place. These predictions and prophecies are tremendous evidence for the supernatural sourcing of the Bible. And it’s not just five out of 10 or six or 10 or seven out of 10, it’s every prediction, every prophecy that is put out there actually literally comes true 100% of the time.

– The testimony of Jesus and He Himself as a perfect man of faith, the one who came to live a perfect life of faith and trust and submission, obedience to God the Father. He Himself with the authority in His role and His place as the Messiah, He Himself had tremendous respect from the Scriptures and He was a man of the Scriptures.

– The fact that it changes lives. Through the centuries lives have changed. People have believed the message and by faith come into that relationship with God and their lives have been transformed.

Here is the outline for following along in the series.

Soapy Dollar – A Native American Introduction to The Bible

Part 1 – Introduction and The Bible is Unique
It is Unique
– In it’s consistency
– In it’s circulation
– In it’s translation
– In it’s survival
– In it’s teaching
– In it’s message

Part 2 – The Bible is True and Accurate
Tests and Evidence
– The Bibliographical test
– The Internal test
– The External test
– Archeology

Part 3 – Is the Bible from God our Creator?
Why do we think this?
– It’s amazing consistency
– It has a “ring of truth”
– Fulfilled predictions and prophecies
– The life of Jesus
– Transformed lives

Part 4 – The Message of the Bible
The Central Message of the Bible
– God loves and cares for us
– We are sinful, selfish, guilty, and condemned
– God sends a Savior
– We must respond in faith

Part 5 – The Central Character – Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the central character of the Bible
– His person and redemptive work is foretold in the Old Testament
– His person and redemptive work is fulfilled in the New Testament

Part 6 – Final Thoughts and a Challenge
A Brief Summary
– God has gone to great lengths to communicate with us
– Pick up the Bible and read it for yourself

www.withoutreservation.com

Is the Bible is true? What does evidence the say? How well does it stand up to the tests?
🍃 Watch the six-part series by Mescalero Apache, Soapy Dollar, here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcTF3swbs_1mvaD-E-ty_UdV

This series on the Bible for Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous people is taught by Mescalero Apache, Soapy Dollar. He talks about the origin of the Bible, it’s message, and answers the question, can we trust it? He also shares about the central character of the Bible, Jesus Christ. Soapy is passionate about what he calls, the Book of books, the Bible. He’s been teaching from it for over 50 years.

Part 2: Is the Bible True? In Psalm 119:160 we read, “The entirety of Your word is truth, and all Your righteous judgments endure forever.” In fact, throughout it’s pages, it presents itself as truth. If the Bible is not true then many people are deceived. If the Bible is true, many more have been deceived. Either way, their is a lot at stake. But particularly if the message of our eternal destiny is true. Can the Bible be trusted?

Key Points in Part 2:
– Why a book? Oral tradition, though important, may change over time.

– We can know some things about our generally about our Creator because God has revealed Himself to human beings from the beginning through what is called general revelation. Namely, through creation, through consciousness, our own unique human awareness.

– God has involved Himself in the lives of human beings, they have come to know Him and experience God, and then they have written down a record of their experience as God inspired them.

– There are different accepted tests that can be used with the Bible to address the accuracy in what it says and that the text has been passed to us correctly over the centuries and through time. They are the Bibliographical Test, the Internal Test, the External Test, and more recently, Archeology.

-The Bibliographical Test looks at how did the Scriptures come to us? The New Testament was written about 1,900-2000 years ago. There are some tests that we apply from sources very close to the writing of the original, the time of the writing. The time between the copies that we have and the actual happening of the event is very small, and then between the copies that we have and to the original are very small. The Hebrew Scriptures have a different set of tests because the incredible special care that was taken in copying those texts.

-The Internal Test looks at the consistency of the Bible. Does it contradict itself? Many say that over the years. But actually, with more and more knowledge and understanding of the Bible and many of these extant, these already existing copies that have surfaced, like the Qumran scrolls or Dead Sea Scrolls that have come, they have given us greater and greater confidence that some of those things that were thought to be problems have turned out to be not problems at all, but easily explainable from the perspective of the different writers and authors.

– The External Test is consists of comparing the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures or the New Testament. They’re written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, these three languages. You compare what they say happened, the dates, times, places, events with other historical texts, other historical records that we have.

– There are many archeological discoveries that line up with what’s in the Bible. The Dead Sea scrolls would be an example of this. The Bible has been transmitted reliably.

– The Bible passes all these tests.
—–
Outline for following along in the video series (Each part is a video):

Soapy Dollar – A Native American Introduction to The Bible

Part 1 – Introduction and The Bible is Unique
It is Unique
– In it’s consistency
– In it’s circulation
– In it’s translation
– In it’s survival
– In it’s teaching
– In it’s message

Part 2 – The Bible is True and Accurate
Tests and Evidence
– The Bibliographical test
– The Internal test
– The External test
– Archeology

Part 3 – Is the Bible from God our Creator?
Why do we think this?
– It’s amazing consistency
– It has a “ring of truth”
– Fulfilled predictions and prophecies
– The life of Jesus
– Transformed lives

Part 4 – The Message of the Bible
The Central Message of the Bible
– God loves and cares for us
– We are sinful, selfish, guilty, and condemned
– God sends a Savior
– We must respond in faith

Part 5 – The Central Character – Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the central character of the Bible
– His person and redemptive work is foretold in the Old Testament
– His person and redemptive work is fulfilled in the New Testament

Part 6 – Final Thoughts and a Challenge
A Brief Summary
– God has gone to great lengths to communicate with us
– Pick up the Bible and read it for yourself
—–
Listen to Soapy’s personal story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHD0Av50Hss
Visit our website: www.withoutreservation.com