Bible Wiki:Biblical Point of View

The articles of, are editable by anyone with an account, allowing anyone to collaboratively share the Bible. In order to be truthful accurate and remain true to the intended message of the Bible, we maintain a Biblical Point of View (BPOV).

Biblical Point of View
A Biblical Point of View entails that all content is written in a way that focuses on what the Bible has to say about a matter, rather than favoring a personal or denominational interpretation. Obviously in order for content to match this perspective, it must comply with a standard definition of what the Bible is or its canon. This is difficult for editors, and it is hoped that each one who comes to the wiki will seek guidance from God. Without that help, personal perspectives, no matter how sincere, might misdirect the reader to worldly affairs.

Consequently, the BPOV considers the sixty-six books the Bible as the ultimate authority, being God-inspired and reliable in all matters. Since the Bible is authored by God, it’s not the job of our content to question or to prove the Bible, but rather demonstrate the Bible’s reality through historical and cross-biblical consistency. Rather than including the "majority consensus", every viewpoint or criticisms, we focus solely on what the Bible says and leave discussions of the Bible's validity to mediums outside of articles. That being said, we recognize the importance of healthy, scholarly information and even a degree of "biblical criticism"; the goal is not naivety to legitimate biblical scholarship, rather to present the Bible's content as its stands rather than muddling it for readers.

The Bible is to be the primary source of all of the content on the wiki. Other resources such as commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons and interlinears may be helpful as an additional resource, but readers should exercise care when using these and be careful to not conflate opinions with biblical fact. The Apocrypha, Jewish writings and other historical sources may be used for supplementary material- but their content should only be used to clarify biblical content, not add to what the Bible has spoken.

Writing Style
For the most part, content should be written in past tense and the third person. Most importantly it should be written from the perspective of the Bible’s timeline. Perspective drawn from outside that timeline is inappropriate. In some circumstances, it may appropriate to refer to "ancient times" and to mention modern names/archaeology in passing. When commenting on prophecy or end times, events can be referred to without giving details in a modern fashion. This needs to be done in a way that explains the Biblical metaphors of these prophecies without alluding to the modern world- the focus should not be on modern day fulfilments or potential fulfilments, but solely on the biblical material on the future.

The form or style of perspective is often called by wikis as an “in-universe” perspective, but since the Bible is not fictional, this is inappropriate terminology. We must maintain this view since the Bible was written historically, with a specific audience and context in view, while still applying to us today. For example, Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians was written to Christians in first-century Galatia, not to us in present day, yet the principles found therein apply to Believers.

Grammatical Rules
Given the BPOV there are certain rules and procedures of grammar that must be followed for an article to obey:
 * 1) All content should be in a past-tense.  The exceptions to this are on currently applicable doctrines (such as Love), spiritual beings (God, Satan) and unfulfilled events. Generally when describing an event, person or place, the word "was" should be used, even if those qualities are still true today. For example, "Mount Zion was a mountain" (though Zion still exists today) or, "Obadiah was the Chamberlain of Ahab" (even though he was the only one- literary present is not used). Present tense phrasing should only be used in aspects of the listed exceptions that are still applicable or are ongoing. For example, when discussing the nature of God, an article may say "God is both loving, yet is keenly just" or when talking about a present doctrine, "Marriage is the union of a man". The rule of thumb is: if the relevance of the topic is primarily historical in relation to the Bible than it is to be described in past-tense, if the relevance of topic is still ongoing in relation to the Bible than it can be described in present-tense.
 * 2) All content should be in third person. Content directly addressing the reader using "you" or referring to Christians using "we" should be avoided. This type of content is allowed in blogposts and other non-article content.
 * 3) All sentences should be declarative or only make statements. Imperative, interrogative and exclamatory statements are not allowed within the content. Questions, exclamations or commands should not be used in articles. Articles are meant to be encyclopedic and are not essays on the topics.
 * 4) All information should be cited to relevant Bible Verses. This can be down via the "Insert" menu and selecting "Verse".

Content Scope
With that in mind, content here must only document the historical context of places, people or nations mentioned in the Bible. This is not a general ancient history wiki and so places not mentioned in the Bible, or certain eras of history not mentioned by the Bible about places should not be documented. For example, the history of pre-Christian Cyprus should not be documented, but Paul traveling to the island should. However, if historical details not mentioned in the Bible are important enough for understanding the context it may be documented at minimal. It is also important that when documenting theological content that it be based solely on the Bible and its entirety.

In terms of literary content, it should document the events of the biblical timeline from the perspective that the Bible is a book and that all of our history is controlled by God. Content should be interpreted literally unless it is purposefully written to be symbolic (this can be determined when the literal meaning of a passage in context does not make factual or applicable sense), which in that case can be elaborated upon using cross-biblical references.

Modern cultural, linguistic and archaeological discoveries can be employed to further elaborate biblical texts. Again, the focus should not be on the modern circumstances of their discovery, but rather added to the understanding of the text itself. For example, "excavations at Shiloh have shown that there was a permanent gateway building to the Tabernacle there."

To verify the integrity of one’s biblical point of view in their edits, the content of edits must be attributed to the Bible. While this is not required, it is highly recommended in order to provide a biblical basis for all content.

Contrast to Wikipedia
Having a Biblical Point of View directly contrasts Wikipedia’s “Neutral” Point of View. While Wikipedia is a general encyclopedia, is specific to the Bible and its theology, literature, and history. While Wikipedia documents the Bible, it does so in a modern and beyond biblical times view.

The most significant difference to Wikipedia is while Wikipedia claims neutrality, we claim the truth of the Bible, no matter how upsetting it is. In contrast Wikipedia choses only a neutral point of view, or to consider “all viewpoints” rather than being truthful. The founder of Wikipedia has clearly stated that Wikipedia cannot teach truth

This is merely due to that Wikipedia cannot accept the Bible as the true and authoritative source that comes from God. That is why is able to present the truth in a place Wikipedia cannot.

While Wikipedia claims neutrality, by accepting all viewpoints and including different versions of articles for each belief, Wikipedia is not/cannot be neutral, biblically. While Wikipedia claims no preference of viewpoint, it is obvious by reading Wikipedia’s content that it is unguided by the Holy Spirit and is pointing towards the Bible being false, due to Wikipedia crowdsourcing content from a godless society.