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Can We Believe the Bible ?
THE FINAL AND ULTIMATE AUTHORITY
I will never finish reading this book in my
lifetime. It begins by having a beautiful home destroyed by rebellion.
Tragedy, disaster, sorrow, murder, and death follow. As the family
multiplies, the plunge into despair and darkness accelerates.
Centuries roll by, nations rise and fall, thousands
of characters pass in review, every human emotion from stark raw hate to a
martyr's love is encountered. Hope, beginning as a faint spark, grows to
absolute assurance. A perfect government is to reestablish the beautiful
home.
Its
ruler is the King, Christ Jesus.
The government, the Kingdom
of God .
The family, the human race.
The book is the Bible.
The very words of God are
contained within the covers of the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible is God's
mind put in human print. Therefore, the Bible is a rich source of Godly
guidance and God will often direct you as you read his Word. In a great
many places the Bible tells us that, Psalm
119:105; "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my
path." Look at that last line again and think for a
minute just what is meant by that one small little sentence.
The
Bible holds all of the answers. If you want healing, the Bible will show
you how to achieve it. If you want peace, then the Bible will tell you how
to get it. If you want prosperity, then the Bible will lead you to it. The
Bible has all the answers to all the questions. It is the recipe for life.
It is the manual for living.
When
the way seems dark, allow the Scriptures to illuminate your path. When you
want knowledge about God or you just want to understand God better, then
turn to his very words. When you want answers to questions then turn to
God's own instruction manual. As you read you will soon find that he is
beginning to guide you. The life experiences the biblical writers chose to
record weren't randomly selected. They were divinely inspired to be used
as instruction for the generations of believers who follow. The Bible is a
wonderful sign of Godly love because it was God's love for humans that
moved him to inspire the writing of the Bible. The Bible was inspired by
God for the main purpose of telling mankind that there is hope. This
message was expressed by all the Bible writers, but I think John and Peter
describe it best when they write:
1 John 5:13; "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life."
2
Peter 1:16; "For we did not follow cunningly devised
fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but were eyewitnesses of
His majesty."
The
Bible forces a person to choose whether the words in the Bible are from
God or not. However all through the Bible the following terms are used
over and over again. "Then
God said", "Then
the Lord said to me", "Hear
the words of the Lord God". As mentioned above every single
word found in the Bible was inspired by God himself as 2
Timothy 3:16 says, " All
scripture is inspired by the Word of God", and the
amazing thing is that it was written in a way that there is absolutely no
situation you can encounter, or circumstance you can experience, for which
you cannot find guidance in God's word.
The
words of Jesus are often startling. The words of the Bible often make a
person pause to examine one's heart, attitude, and ideas about what he
considers "true" or "good." The characters in the
Bible have all kinds of strengths and weaknesses, pretty much like any
man. So as you read about them, it is like looking into a mirror. The
Bible is phenomenal. Solved mysteries and unsolved mysteries lie side by
side. Life changing messages are found jammed on each page of these
divinely inspired Scriptures. The words of Jeremiah
33:3 constantly come to awesome and tremendous life,
"Call
to me, and I shall answer you and readily tell you great and
incomprehensible things that you have not known".
More
and more questions are answered the more one reads through this wonderful
book. Entire new meanings are given to passages once thought fully
explained. The readers eyes are opened to new discoveries and even greater
understanding. Yet, there are still many mysteries that exist within the
pages of the Bible. Mysteries that philosophers, theologians, and
believers have wrestled and pondered with for centuries.
Actually
the Bible tells the story of our lives, only it uses different names. If
you and I had lived in those days, most of us would have fit right in with
Israel's "on again" and "off again" relationship with
God. The Bible is truly an amazing book because it describes the present
human condition with a thousand different parallels from the past. Paul
shows us the meaning of this when he says,
Romans
15:4; "For whatever
things were written before were written for our learning, that we through
the patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope."
When
I study the Bible, I realize my own human nature is not that much
different from those who scoffed at Noah as he built the ark. Sometimes I
am rebellious, like Israel.
In some ways I am blind like the Pharisees. Other times I am like the
disciples, because I do not understand the words of Jesus. In some ways I
am like doubting Thomas and impetuous Peter. When I am totally honest with
myself, I realize that I have a lot in common with most of the Bible
characters. In good ways and bad ways, they are like me, and I am like
them.
Thus, I believe that the entire Bible, from the very first verse in Genesis to the very last verse in Revelation, can be summed up in 5 short sentences.
-
There is a tremendous spiritual battle going on between Satan and Jesus Christ.
-
Every single human being is involved in this battle.
-
Each one of us are either on the side of Christ or on the side of Satan.
-
Jesus Christ is going to win this battle.
-
The most sacred place on the face of the earth is at the feet of Jesus Christ.
One of the very last things that Our Lord said before he ascended into heaven was something about the Bible. Jesus knew the struggle was going to be very difficult and that each person was going to need a great deal of help if they were going to be victorious. And so to help all of mankind in this life and death struggle he gave to his disciples and to everyone reading his word this message.
Mark16:15;
And then he told them, "Go into all
the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere".
What is in us, comes out of us!
Do
you realize that every time that Jesus was tempted by Satan, the very
first thing he would do was recite a Biblical passage from the Word of
God. Likewise, all through the New Testament Jesus quoted The Old
Testament over and over and over.
Why did Jesus do that? Because he had the very Word of God within him. He was full of his Father's beliefs. He knew those Godly truths that were in the Old Testament forward and backward, and the beliefs of God were what he based his entire life on. He was saturated with Godly truth and thus was saturated with the Godly way to respond in any situation, and this is why Jesus was able, in his human form, to stand up against Satan and be victorious.
Hebrews
4:12;
"For the Word of God is living
and powerful, and sharper
than any two-edged sword."
We
must get the Word of God in us
because during those times when trials come, when the pitfalls suddenly
materialize, when we are being tempted by Satan, when our faith is being
tested, when the worldly pressures are crushing down on us, that is the
time that whatever is in us,
is what is going to come out of
us. If we don't know the beliefs of God then the only way that
we can respond is the way that this ungodly world responds. However, if we
know and understand the beliefs of God then we will respond in an entirely
different way. Instead of worldly responses like anger, hate, violence,
vengeance, and getting even, we will respond in a Godly way with
understanding, compassion, gentleness, intelligence, and peace. We follow
that extremely important command to obey God when we read, understand, and
follow what is in the Word of God. The plain and simple truth is that God
wants each of us to go from reading the Bible, to being the Bible.
Purposes of the Bible
There
are a great many purposes that the Holy Word of God offers to each and
every one of us but I think the most important are the following.
1) The Bible tells us all
about God. It tells us what he is like, what his characteristics are, what
he expects from us and what we can expect from him. Without reading the
Bible we would have no way to understand such things as how God can be so
loving, so merciful, so just and fair. In fact without the Bible, we would
have absolutely no knowledge about God at all.
2) Without reading the
Bible we would have no way of understanding our sinfulness. We would
travel through this life with the world and Satan leading us and never
realize that many of our actions are ungodly and sinful. Without reading
and understanding the Bible we would live out our lives on a path to
eternal destruction.
3) Without knowledge of
the Bible we would have no way of knowing that God is constantly watching
over us and that his greatest desire is to save each and every one of us
and to give us salvation and eternal life.
4) The Bible tells the
reader how to live a Godly life. The Bible shows us what is Godly and what
is sinful and evil. What to do and what not to do. How to lead a life that
is pleasing to God and a life that Jesus Christ would be proud of.
5) Not only is the Bible a
teaching tool for us, but we are to use the information found in the Bible
to teach others about God so that they too have a chance of achieving
eternal life. The true gift of miracles is the effort that you make to win
another for Christ. Can you name any greater miracle than getting another
person saved for all eternity?
Man
could not have thought up the Bible because no man could write a book
about what the Bible says. What man would write a book that condemns all
of mankind? What man says that every human being is a sinner and that each
and every one of us is hell bound? What man would write that no one could
ever do enough good works so that they become acceptable in the eyes of
God? What man could possibly write that all of mans righteousness is like
filthy rags in the sight of God? What man would ever say that eternal
destruction and eternal death is what awaits all those that do not receive
and accept Jesus Christ into their lives?
The Bible therefore is not made up of man's thoughts but of God's thoughts and God's messages, and these thoughts and messages were put into the hearts and minds of human beings and then those human beings put those thoughts down in print using there own words and in their own styles. I think the apostle Paul said it best in his second letter to Timothy.
2
Timothy 3:16;
"All Scripture
is given by inspiration of God."
How much importance does God place on his word?
The following couple of verses should give you an idea of just how much importance God places on his Word.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7; "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."
Joshua
1:8; "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your
mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do
everything written in it."
Most
people ask the question, How do I build up my faith in Jesus Christ? How
do I manage to get a rock solid belief in Jesus? Jesus tells us how in
verses like Romans
The
Bible is our gift from God himself, and it is a gift that shows each one
of us how to attain salvation, achieve eternal life, and be able to be
with God in paradise for all of eternity. Many shun this wonderful gift,
others mock and ridicule it. But the Bible contains a message for those
who have disrespect in their hearts for the Word of God. It can be found
at Proverbs 13:13 where it
says, "He who despises the word, will be
destroyed".
The
importance that God places on his word is described a great many times all
through the Bible. One example is at Psalms
138:2 where the psalmist tells us a most startling piece of
information. He tells us that God places greater importance on his Word, than on his very own
name. And he describes this importance when he writes, "For
You have magnified Your Word above even Your name."
You
fill yourself with the beliefs of God by reading his word and finding out
how he wants you to handle all aspects of your life. You learn as much
about God as possible by reading the very word of God and by spending time
in prayer and worship. That is why James
4:8 is so very important.
"Draw close to God, and He will draw close
to you".
What is a person really saying when they don't take the time to read the Word of God.
When a person says that they don't have the time to read the Bible, then what they are saying is that their faith is just not important. That their faith is not valuable. When a person doesn't make the effort to read and study their Bible, they are saying that don't want to develop a strong faith or grow spiritually. When a person doesn't pick up the Bible and read it, it's telling God that there is no desire to have a relationship with him. The person who will not take the time to read the Word of God is telling God that they do not wish to have eternal life as the following verse tells us.
Proverbs
4:20-22; "My son, give
attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them
depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For
they are life to those who find them."
Has the Bible made an impact on civilization?
Whenever
and wherever the Bible is received the aspirations and the spirits of men
are lifted. Try to imagine what would have happened to mankind without the
Bible. Take away its teaching about human dignity and individual worth and
see what is left. Eliminate the moral impact of the great preachers and
Christian reformers, and then consider the plight the world would be in.
Remove from our art galleries the paintings inspired by Jesus Christ. Take
down from our library shelves the books that find their inspiration and
theme in the Scriptures. Empty the world of the lofty oratories and
uplifting music of the church. Eliminate from the cities and villages of
the earth the magnificent cathedrals and little white framed church
buildings that have been centers of hope and peace for troubled lives down
through the ages.
Or
take from mankind the high moral code of the Bible. What happens to our
laws, our police, and our judges? What happens to the weak, the
defenseless, the downtrodden, the lonely, and the despairing? One shudders
to think of the tribulation that would fall upon our world without the
Bible. Without the Bible we would all be living in a world of complete
heartlessness, cruelty, and unrestrained deprivation.
It
was those many glorious messages found within the pages of the Bible that
influenced Godly men to establish the first hospitals and orphanages. It
was the Godly lessons on loving your fellow man that inspired God loving
men to create the first care centers for the elderly, the mentally sick,
the abused. It is the Bible that teaches all men to help all those in
need. It is the Bible that instructs us to right all injustices. It is the
Bible that tells us to do all that we can when we see another that needs
help. Every single charity, every single organization that strives to help
others, every single group that attempts to alleviate pain, hardship, and
suffering, can all find the original spark of its creation, somewhere
within the pages of the Word of God. Without the love and compassion that
is found in the pages of the Bible, this world would truly be an extremely
cold place.
The
Bible has saved countless millions. Think of the despairing, helpless,
wicked men and women on the brink of madness who have found rescue upon
hearing and believing the messages found in the word of God. The Bible has
provided new hope to the despondent. It has brought quiet peace to the
restless. It has lifted lowly people strait out of the gutters of society,
and out of the gutters of their own minds and raised them to incredible
heights. It has brought those deemed worthless to absolute greatness. It
has taken human miserable messes and transformed them into masterpieces.
It has raised morality to its highest levels. It has brought amazing
deliverance and change to the lives of countless millions. And most
importantly, it brings unlimited hope.
An extremely intriguing mystery
Do you want to know how important the Bible really is?
All
through the Bible we are told that the Bible is the inspired Word of
God. Also, Jesus Christ is spoken of as being the Word. And we
know that Jesus is God. Therefore not only is the Bible the Word
of God, but the Bible is
God.
It is very interesting to see how often Jesus is referred to as the Word of God in the Bible.
John 1:1; "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:14; "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Psalms 107:20; "He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions."
Hebrews 11:3; "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible."
Revelation
If
you look at the first chapter in Genesis you will find that before God
does anything regarding the creation it always says, "And God
proceeded to say",
or "God went on to say",
or God said".
You will find the words "he
said", nine different times in the first chapter of Genesis.
In verses 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, and 29. Not only is it incredible
to think that the very Words of God brought the entire universe into
existence, but just as incredible is the fact that Jesus Christ is spoken
of as the Word of God. This means that the will of God, is the Word of
God. That Jesus Christ is the very will, of God the Father.
It
is absolutely amazing, but that Bible that you have laying over on that
shelf is God. We cannot understand it, nor can we even comprehend it. We
can't even visualize it. But that Bible that you rarely ever pick up and
seldom read, is somehow, someway God.
What an incredible mystery the Bible is.
"The grass withers,
the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah
40:8
Ten
Reasons to Believe the Bible:
The Bible is painfully honest. It shows
Jacob, the father of its "chosen people," to be a deceiver. It
describes Moses, the lawgiver, as an insecure, reluctant leader, who, in
his first attempt to come to the aid of his own people, killed a man, and
then ran for life to the desert. It portrays David not only as Israel's
most loved king, general, and spiritual leader, but as one who took
another man's wife and then, to cover his own sin, conspired to have her
husband killed. At one point, the Scriptures accuse the people of God, the
nation of Israel, as being so bad they made Sodom and Gomorrah look good
by comparison (Ezekiel 16:46-52). The Bible represents human nature as
hostile to God. It predicts a future full of trouble. It teaches that the
road to heaven is narrow and the way to hell is wide. Scripture was
clearly not written for those who want simple answers or an easy,
optimistic view of religion and human nature.
Just as the modern state of Israel was
emerging from thousands of years of dispersion, a Bedouin shepherd
discovered one of the most important archeological treasures of our time.
In a cave of the northwest rim of the Dead Sea, a broken jar yielded
documents that had been hidden for two millennia. Additional finds
produced manuscripts that predated previous oldest copies by 1,000 years.
One of the most important was a copy of Isaiah. It revealed a document
that is essentially the same as the book of Isaiah that appears in our own
Bibles. The Dead Sea scrolls emerged from the dust like a symbolic
handshake to a nation coming home. They discredited the claims of those
who believed that the original Bible had been lost to time and tampering.
It's important to know what the Bible says
about itself. If the authors of Scripture had not claimed to speak for
God, it would be presumptuous for us to make that claim for them. We would
also have a different kind of problem. We would have a collection of
unsolved mysteries, embodied in historical and ethical literature. But we
would not have a book that has inspired the building of countless churches
and synagogues all over the world. A Bible that did not claim to speak in
behalf of God would not have become foundational to the faith of hundreds
of millions of Christians and Jews (2 Peter 1:16-21). But with much
supporting evidence and argument, the Bible's authors did claim to be
inspired by God. Because millions have staked their present and eternal
well-being on those claims, the Bible cannot be a good book if its authors
consistently lied about their source of information.
Israel's exodus from Egypt provided a
historical basis for believing that God revealed Himself to Israel. If the
Red Sea did not part as Moses said it did, the Old Testament loses its
authority to speak in behalf of God. The New Testament is just as
dependent upon miracles. If Jesus did not rise bodily from the dead, the
apostle Paul admits that the Christian faith is built on a lie (1
Corinthians 15:14-17). To show its credibility, the New Testament names
its witnesses, and did so within a time-frame that enabled those claims to
be tested (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). Many of the witnesses ended up as
martyrs, not for abstract moral or spiritual convictions but for their
claim that Jesus had risen from the dead. While martyrdom is not unusual,
the basis on which these people gave their lives is what's important. Many
have died for what they believed to be the truth. But people do not die
for what they know to be a lie.
5: Its Unity
Forty different authors writing over a
period of 1,600 years penned the 66 books of the Bible. Four hundred
silent years separated the 39 books of the Old Testament from the 27 of
the New Testament. Yet, from Genesis to Revelation, they tell one
unfolding story. Together they give consistent answers to the most
important questions we can ask: Why are we here? How can we come to terms
with our fears? How can we get along? How can we rise above our
circumstances and keep hope alive? How can we make peace with our Maker?
The Bible's consistent answers to these questions show that the Scriptures
are not many books but one.
6: Its Historical and Geographical Accuracy
Down through the ages, many have doubted
the historical and geographical accuracy of the Bible. Yet modern
archeologists have repeatedly unearthed evidence of the people, places,
and cultures described in the Scriptures. Time after time, the
descriptions in the biblical record have been shown to be more reliable
than the speculations of scholars. The modern visitor to the museums and
lands of the Bible cannot help but come away impressed with the real
geographical and historical backdrop of the biblical text.
7: Its Endorsement by Christ
Many have spoken well of the Bible, but no
endorsement is as compelling as that of Jesus of Nazareth. He recommended
the Bible not only by His words but by His life. In times of personal
temptation, public teaching, and personal suffering, He made it clear that
He believed the Old Testament Scriptures were more than a national
tradition ( Matthew 4:1-11; 5:17-19). He believed the Bible was a book
about Himself. To His countrymen He said, "You search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which
testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have
life" (John 5:39-40).
8: Its Prophetic Accuracy
In the days of Moses, the Bible predicted
events no one wanted to believe. Before Israel went into the Promised
Land, Moses predicted that Israel would be unfaithful, that she would lose
the land God was giving her, and that she would be dispersed throughout
all the world, regathered, and then re-established (Deuteronomy 28-31).
Central to Old Testament prophecy was the promise of a Messiah who would
save God's people from their sins and eventually bring judgment and peace
to the whole world.
9: Its Survival
The books of Moses were written 500 years
before the earliest Hindu Scriptures. Moses wrote Genesis 2,000 years
before Muhammad penned the Koran. During that long history, no other book
has been as loved or as hated as the Bible. No other book has been so
consistently bought, studied, and quoted as this book. While millions of
other titles come and go, the Bible is still the book by which all other
books are measured. While often ignored by those who are uncomfortable
with its teachings, it is still the central book of Western civilization.
10: Its Power to Change Lives
Unbelievers often point to those who claim
to believe in the Bible without being changed by it. But history is also
marked by those who have been bettered by this book. The Ten Commandments
have been a source of moral direction to countless numbers of people. The
Psalms of David have offered comfort in times of trouble and loss. Jesus'
Sermon on the Mount has given millions an antidote for stubborn pride and
proud legalism. Paul's description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 has
softened angry hearts. The changed lives of people like the apostle Paul,
Augustine, Martin Luther, John Newton, Leo Tolstoy, and C. S. Lewis
illustrate the difference the Bible can make. Even entire nations or
tribes, like the Celts of Ireland, the wild Vikings of Norway, or the Auca
Indians of Ecuador have been transformed by the Word of God and the
unprecedented life and significance of Jesus Christ.
© 2002 RBC Ministries-Grand Rapids MI,
49555-0001
Last revised 02/01/2006