FreeTruth

Just a short thought for today folks. We just finished a series showing reasons to believe the Bible is God's Word. That leads to this reminder: in the Bible God speaks. I read Numbers 7:89 in my devotions this morning. Friends: everytime we open our Bibles we are entering the tent of meeting to hear God's voice.

Here are several questions I have often found helpful in hearing Him speak as I read a Scripture text:
1. What do I learn here about God's character & works?
2. What do I learn about the Lord Jesus Christ?
3. What do I learn about God's law? What demands my immediate and determined and happy obedience?
4. What do I learn about my own self and sin?
5. What do I learn about God's thoughts toward me? Am I under his favor or under his frown?
6. What do I learn about God's grace and salvation?
7. What promises of God are here for me?
8. What cause for worship and praise do I find?
9. What should I pray for now in response to God's voice?
10. What can/must I share with others?


A few suggestions for life.
Open to any feedback.

One more suggestion: to help encourage a few more to get into the conversation let's keep all comments to no more than four sentences.

Labels: Spiritual disciplines, The Word of God

As I draw this series to a close, I would not want to be misunderstood. In this discussion I have presented reasons for faith. I have done this because throughout the Bible God presents reasons for faith, evidence (to borrow someone's phrase) that demands a verdict. But the reason I believe is not that I am smart enough to see those reasons while others are not.

Let me be clear: I do not believe that God calls us to faith without reason. Faith without reason is superstition. Faith is not a leap into a darkness devoid of evidence, it is a reasonable conclusion drawn from the evidence. It is seeing where the evidence points, concluding that there is clear and sufficient evidence that something is true, and then commiting one's self to that conclusion.

Faith in God and in the Bible as God's Word is not a leap into a dark pit of irrationality. It is simply accepting the fact that there is clear and sufficient reason to believe it is God's Word and submitting accordingly.

But here's the deal: some people are willing to do that and some are not. The evidence can be seen by all willing to look (Romans 1 makes it clear that just nature alone gives enough reason to believe; people know that there is a God). But some believe it and some don't. Some submit; some do not. Some surrender to the facts; others resist them. Why?

I'm asking the question, "Why do I believe the Bible is God's Word?" from a different angle now. What I'm asking now is not what reasons do I have to surrender my life to the Word of God, but why am I willing to do so.

There is only one reason why I am willing to surrender to the evidence: it is the sovereign, electing, regenerating, faith-giving grace of God. It is because the Spirit of God has opened my eyes to see the truth and my heart to make me willing to receive it.

Man's mind can and does comprehend the reality of God and the divine quality of the Bible. But the only way Man's heart will be willing to receive and bow to the authority of that Word is if God gives a new heart by grace.

I believe because God enabled me to do so. There was a day on which my dead-like-Lazarus-soul was called from the grave of its hardened condition by the life-giving voice of God through His Word, and I walked from the tomb of my unbelief.

"Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature's night
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off my heart was free
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee."

I am what I am, and believe what I believe, by the grace of God.
I am a debtor to mercy alone.
I stand amazed and weep for joy.

Labels: Apologetics, Bible, Election, Faith, Regeneration, The Word of God

To pick up where I left off yesterday, I would argue that all the religions and religious books of the world (except One) have two fatal flaws as they address the biggest need of the human soul: sin, and the separation it causes between Man and God. These "paths to God" are dead ends because they both exaggerate the virtue of man's goodness and depreciate the high holiness and justice of God. They make Man out to be better than he is and God out to be more indulgent and morally wimpy (i.e.-less holy) than He is.

For a "path to God" to be a true path it has to deal with this problem of sin in such a way as to treat both sin and God's holiness with absolute unflinching seriousness. Other faiths simply do not do this, but the Bible does.

The dilemma that sin causes can be described like this: Man is a sinner whose sin must be punished with death. But God loves sinners and wants to rescue them from the death they deserve, the hell that justice requires. So God in His love wants to forgive sinners, but God in His justice must punish their sin. It follows then, that if God punishes the sinners He loves in the way their sins deserve, there won't be any more sinners to love. They will all be damned. Any religion or view of life that does not reckon with this divine moral dilemma is a fraud.

So how does God both gratify His love for sinners and satisfy the justice of His holy nature with reference to sin? How does He damn and save sinners simultaneously?

Or to look at it from Man upward: how does Man find forgiveness with God for sins that God's justice simply cannot ignore? No faith but that of the Bible has revealed a satisfactory answer.

The answer is this: God voluntarily decided to punish Man's sin by becoming a man and bearing the punishment in Man's place. The Cross is the place where love and justice meet and kiss. On the Cross, human sin was atoned for (to satisfy God's justice) so that human beings could be forgiven (to satisfy God's love).

God chose to punish Himself for human sin so that the wrath due to sinners could be satisfied while the love God had for sinners could be gratified. God devised a way to punish sin and save sinners. He chose to die in their place.

John Stott has said that "Sin is man substituting himself for God, and salvation is God substituting Himself for man." There is the gospel, and there is the only truth path that actually gets you to God. Every other path is a bridge to nowhere.

And there you have one more reason why I believe the Bible alone is the Word of God. It alone saves.

Labels: Apologetics, Bible, Gospel, The Word of God

In the final analysis, the only real quest of the human soul is to be right with God. Man, being made in the image of God, was made to be in relationship with God. Humans are made to love and enjoy the love of, God.

Not only is this what the Bible teaches from cover to cover, it is what the heart of Man desires from womb to tomb. Man is--to use John Piper's pleasing phrase--"homesick for God". In the words of Augustine's prayer: "Lord, You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You."

All humanity's restless search for meaning, for true and lasting love, for peace of conscience and soul, is the product of our being made to be in right relationship with the One who made us, but from whom we have wandered in foolish and wicked rebellion.

Sin has ruined Man's soul and come between him and the One he desires. Therefore, it can rightly be said that this sin--and finding a remedy for it--presents humanity's greatest need.

It is at this point that I discover my next reason for believing the Bible is the Word of God: Because the Bible alone provides the answer for Man's deepest need: sin This argument will take two days to unpack.

The Bible proclaims words of eternal life and real reason to hope for forgiveness, declaring a gospel that offers grace to sinners without trivializing human sin on the one hand or divine justice and wrath on the other. No other Book/religion presents a way of salvation in which the justice due to sin and the mercy needed by sinners come together and kiss.

Every other religion and religious book presents a "way to God" that simply cannot be true because it simply cannot work. The way to God presented by these faiths invariably reduces to this in some form or another: "God (or karma, or "The One") wants you to be good. Be good enough and all will be well between you and God. Get it right and you will get peace with God and peace of soul."

The problem with this idea is that it unavoidably commits two errors. First, it exaggerates human virtue. It credits our efforts to be good with too much worth and value. It assumes we can be good, and it assumes that sooner or later we can be good enough.

The problem here is that we cannot be good, never mind good enough. To imagine that a human can be good is to assume that his pitiful attempts at being good--defiled as they invariably are by proud motives, desire for a pat on the back, half-hearted love, and a thousand other imperfections--rise to a level of actual goodness.

But folks, a good work done with a bad heart is at best what one has called--"a bad good work". To think that any human can ever amass sufficient good good works (good not only in external act but in internal motive) to make himself right with God is folly. We must exaggerate our virtue to ever place faith in our efforts to restore ourselves into relationship with God.

We must also trivialize God's holiness and justice. In order for us to think that we can satisfy a holy God with our bad good works we have to minimize God's holiness expectations and we have to believe that God is neither as holy as He really is nor as angry with sins as He really must be if He is holy.

Salvation by human morality forces us to think that God grades on a curve, winks at sin, doesn't really care about perfection, is indifferent to what is really and truly good. If my bad good works are really all it takes to please God, and to appease Him for my bad bad works then God is not really as good and holy as He's cracked up to be. He's a morality wimp; the ultimate Moral Pushover.

All other "ways to God" are dead ends. The Bible alone presents a way that allows God to save and reconcile sinners to Himself without exaggerating our goodness or trivializing His.

Come back tomorrow and I'll explain.

Labels: Apologetics, Bible, Gospel, The Word of God

By now you've probably heard about the firestorm surrounding an advertisement to be aired during the Super Bowl. Tim Tebow, by all accounts a remarkable young man of faith and courage--not to mention one of the top-five best college football players ever--is airing a simple positive ad about how his mother chose life over abortion. When this was announced, the fury of the abortion crowd came to an instant boil.

There were exceptions to this rage, and if you want to read a remarkable article about this, written by a Washington Post editorialist, go to CJ Mahaney's blog. But the exceptions are just that. The rule has been a blind, raging, irrational vitriol against this ad.

The question is why? Why do these folks loathe the thought that an opposing idea might get some air time? They have no opposition to ads promoting drinking (which kills millions) or illicit sex (which leads to untold sorrows), or raw materialism (which destroys countless lives) or scantily clad women (which presents women as objects to be drooled over rather than persons to be respected). They oppose only an ad that promotes family and life. Why the rage?

Oddly I see here another reason (one I hadn't planned to offer but I now cannot resist) why I believe the Bible is God's Word: because the wicked hate its light and truth so much. The Bible tells us that people will hate the light (John 3:19, 20). And they do.

People reserve for the Bible a level of hatred that they show to no other book, no other deposit of ideas, no other philosophy or belief system, or code of morals. Although Islam has killed its millions, Christianity is more hated. Although Hinduism has kept women and lower castes in abject poverty for millenia, Christianity is more despised. Although atheism has led to the slaughter of hundreds of millions (in the 20th century alone), people are more afraid of and opposed to biblical faith.

Why the irrational fear of the message of the Bible? Why do people foam at the mouth when a young man wants to take just 30 seconds of their time to present a view different from their own? The answer is simple, but profound: the truth is light that exposes the darkness of their souls.

People know when they open a Bible or when someone opens his mouth to speak simple Bible truth, that they are about to have the reality of their lives exposed under a shining light. The Koran or the Hindu scriptures or even the rantings of an atheist don't scare people--because their ideas pose no threat to man's guilty conscience; truth does.

It may seem ironic, but I'd say that the fact so many utterly despise the teachings of the Bible is one more reason to believe those teachings are true. The Bible gets the human condition right. The fact that people rage against it only goes to prove that it is so.

If God is real and God is holy and God's Law is right and pure and good, one would expect that all that is not holy will despise and want to silence them. And that is what is.

Tim Tebow's shining light and the reaction of those in darkness remind us one more time that the Bible must tell the truth about us. Why else would humans hate it so?

Labels: Abortion, Apologetics, Bible, The Word of God

Romans 11:33 celebrates the inscrutable, inexhaustible, and unfathomable mind, ways, and spoken judgments or decrees of God. Since God's mind is impossible to know fully (Romans 11:34), it follows that His judgments and words will be deep, profound, and impossible fully to fathom.

Here is my next reason for believing that the Bible is the Word of God: Because the inexhaustible depth and profound wonders of the Bible evidence an infinite Mind from which they must originate. The Bible presents a profundity of thought, a depth of insight, a wealth of truth that is simply too deep and too nuanced and too balanced and too unfailingly illuminating to the soul to be of human origin.

When I say that the mind and words of God are unfathomable, I do not mean that they cannot be understood at all, but that they cannot be understood in full. It is possible to grasp the truth of the Bible, but just when you think you've gotten your mind around a biblical idea, you discover that there is more in it yet to be learned.

I wish space would allow some developed examples. But those who've had any time to ponder biblical teachings, will recognize this often repeated thought: "Wow! this truth is amazing--and it's amazing all over again!" They will hear the echo of these words in their own minds: "I thought I understood this idea from God's Word but I just saw it in a whole new light that is even more glorious than what I'd ever seen before."

Serious students of God's Word who are truly seeking to know God through that Word, will have felt this when thinking over such basic Bible truths as:
--God is all-knowing.
--God rules over every last atom and event in the universe.
--God is wise.
--God is holy.
--God is perfectly just.

Pick a truth, any truth, and the result will be the same. Ponder it for a while, and watch what happens to your soul. It'll fill with wonder.

I'd suggest that even the simple truth, God loves me, is a reality that will fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder. You and I will never get to the bottom of it, even if we spend eternity plumbing its depths. To really know what that love is, how great that love is, how personal that love is, how faithful and delighted in us that love is, how secure that love is, how very, very, very perfect and joy-giving that love is, how incomprehensibly deep and strong that love is, is simply too much for our minds to grasp.

And the same is true with every idea in the Bible. Every truth is an unfathomable ocean. Dive as deep as you can and you'll never touch bottom. Go ahead and try. Sooner or later you'll have to come up for air.

When you do, I suggest you take a moment or two to worship and adore the God Whose truth it is.

Labels: Apologetics, Bible, The Word of God

I have said that Christianity has done much to advance scientific and creative endeavor throughout history. This is because biblically informed Christians see the world as God's world and therefore to be studied and celebrated in science, song, and art.

Since the world is God's world, it should not surprise us to know that when the world is studied in fine detail (the work of science) it reveals the existence and character of God. This too we have already stated. What has been left unstated to this point is this related reason for faith in the Bible as God's Word: Modern sciences, such as cosmology and archeology consistently validate the historical data of the Bible.

For a fascinating look at how cosmology (the study of the universe) supports biblical claims read the relevant sections of Norman Geisler's Why I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. It will show you how much faith it takes to deny the Bible's claims regarding the origins of history.

Regarding archeology, I'm going to let the following quote serve as a sample presentation of a few of the many facts that could be marshalled in defense of the Bible's historicity. I'm not sure who the author of the following is, but I've checked and verified the claims made:

-- Critics used to believe ...that Moses could not have written any of the books of the Bible because they believed that writing did not exist that early in history... but then ...in 1902, archaeologists discovered the Code of Hammurabi which was written long before Moses was born.

-- Critics used to believe ...the Bible was wrong because they felt that King David was a myth. They pointed to the fact that there was no archeological evidence that King David was an actual historical figure... but then ...in 1994 archaeologists discovered an ancient stone that was inscribed with the references to King David and the "House of David."

-- Critics used to believe ...that the Bible was wrong because there was no evidence (outside of the Bible) that a group of people called the Hittites ever existed. Thus, they felt this proved that the Bible is a mythical creation of ancient Hebrew writers... but then ...in 1906, a German archaeologist named Winckler was excavating in Turkey and discovered the capital city of the Hittite empire, the entire Hittite library and 10,000 clay tablets documenting the Hittite history. Scholars translated these writings and discovered that everything the Bible said about the Hittite empire was true.

-- Critics used to believe ...the book of Acts was not historically accurate. A man named Sir William Ramsay, one of the greatest historical/archaeological scholars in history, decided to try to disprove the Bible as the inspired Word of God by showing that the book of Acts was not historically accurate... but then ...after 30 years of archaeological research in the Middle East, Ramsay came to the conclusion that “Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy... this author should be placed along with the very greatest historians.” He wrote a book on the trustworthiness of the Bible based on his discoveries and converted to Christianity based on his research. Sir Ramsay found no historical or geographical mistakes in the book of Acts. This is amazing when we realize that in the book of Acts, Luke mentions 32 countries, 54 cities, 9 Mediterranean islands and 95 people and he did not get one wrong. Compare that with the Encyclopedia Britannica. The first year the Encyclopedia Britannica was published it contained so many mistakes regarding places in the United States that it had to be recalled.

-- Critics used to believe ...that the Old Testament could not be reliable because they felt that over a long period of time the Old Testament writings would have been changed, altered, edited or corrupted... but then ...in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. These scrolls contained, among other writings, every book in the Old Testament (except Esther). Until the Dead Sea Scrolls were found the earliest copy of the complete Old Testament was from 900 A.D. Scholars compared this copy with the Dead Sea Scrolls (produced around 1,000 years earlier) and found that the Old Testament had been handed down accurately through the centuries.

-- The great Jewish archaeologist, Nelson Glueck (who is known to be one of the top three archaeologists in history) said this... "No archaeological discovery has ever contradicted a single, properly understood Biblical statement."

To add one other concluding summary from an unlikely source (TIME Magazine) note this:

After more than two centuries of facing the heaviest scientific guns that could be brought to bear, the Bible has survived – and is perhaps the better for the siege. Even on the critics’ own terms – historical fact -- the Scriptures seem more acceptable now than they did when the rationalists began the attack. Noting one example among many, New Testament Scholar Bruce Metzger observes that the Book of Acts was once accused of historical errors for details that have since been proved by archaeologists and historians to be correct ("The Bible: The Believers Gain," Time, 30 Dec. 1974, 34).

Ladies and gentlemen: as the science of archeology continues its work the histroical reliability of the Bible becomes ever more sure. How did the ancient writers get it all right about people and places and events--many of which they were not even there to see, if not for a Divine mind who knows history (because He rules it) revealing it to them for them to record?

You decide.

Labels: Apologetics, archeology, Bible, The Word of God

One of the more ironic (if not almost humorous, because it is so patently false) charges made against Christianity is that it leads to oppression, injustice, ignorance, and numerous other social evils. The guilt of all that's wrong with human society--from slavery to the oppression of the poor to the denigration of women to suppression of science and knowledge--has been laid at the feet of Christians and the Bible for centuries. Are these charges true?

Space does not allow a full answer, or anything like it. But I would assert that the charges are not only not true, they are anti-true. That is, they are actually the opposite of the truth. The truth is that wherever the Christian biblical ethic has taken root in any society for any period of time, there has been a marked:

--increase of care for the poor
--elevation of the dignity and honor afforded to women
--increase of commitment to scientific and creative endeavors
--correction of racial and social prejudice
--development of medical care
--improvement of judicial processes
--improvement of economic systems

In short, wherever the Bible goes and takes root, the care of the poor, the elevation of women, the progress of science, the advancement of knowledge and medicine, and the defeat of prejudice are sure to follow.

Wherever the Bible goes, in time, hospitals get built, women achieve new rights and freedoms, the poor gain new dignity and opportunity, the oppressed are set free, institutions of learning are created, society achieves unprecedented new heights of justice and opportunity for all. Wherever the Bible has not taken root, the opposite happens.

Here's one more reason why I believe the Bible is God's Word: it has an unmatched transforming effect on human society. Plant its teachings in the soil of any culture and that culture will soon harvest abounding fruits of justice, knowledge, and opportunity.

In contrast nothing has done more to foster oppression, poverty, and ignorance, and to obliterate common decency, honesty, and respect for human life than when cultures have been ignorant of or have purposefully rejected the Law of God.

Why do I believe in the Bible as God's Word? Because it doesn't just work for isolated individuals; it changes the course of history and society. It works for the world.

Labels: Apologetics, Bible, ethics, The Word of God

In the ancient world various people groups believed that there were many gods, and a different god for every tribe, land, sea, planetary sphere, etc. There was no one God over all, but a bunch of side-by-side, often competing gods vying for their territory and space.

We hear whispered echoes of such belief today whenever people tie their faith to their ethnicity or nationality or culture or heritage. Is it possible that we might even hear those whispers in the popular mantras: "I like to think of God like..." and "That view of God may be true for you, but this one is true for me?" People seem to believe that there cannot be any one God for all people.

I'm guessing that one reason for this history of religious thought is that people simply cannot imagine a God big and great and sufficient enough to be one size fits all. Who can conceive of One Person who can transcend every culture, cross every divide, appeal to every type of person, meet the truest needs of every human?

Friends: what man cannot imagine, the Bible reveals. Another reason why I believe the Bible is God's Word is this: the remarkable universal relevance of the Bible’s message and morals which transcends all times and cultures, suggests a single universal Mind behind it all.

The Bible addresses universal human needs like the forgiveness of sin, relationship with God, purpose for life, an abiding Moral Law, and an imperative of love for all peoples that transcends every ethnic, social, and geographical dividing line.

And it does this in such a way as to respect the cultures that exist. It even promises that in the end, various people who have been redeemed by Christ will carry the glory of their cultures into heaven (Revelation 5:9, 10; 21:23-26). God's heaven will be the ultimate multi-cultural event.

The message of the Bible, which is a message of a God who made all humans out of one Man and one Woman, is a message that calls all ethnicites back to God through repentance from sin and faith in Christ. And when they come back to God through Christ they will find an equal standing upon which they may love and worship God in ways consistent with their own cultures and styles.

They do not need to become white or black or rich or poor or Asian or American or free or slave or old or young to belong to Christ and worship God. They simply need to be a humble sinners who know they need a Savior.

The Bible speaks to all without distinction, and what it says can be believed and lived by all without distinction! Its message is universal, because its Author is universal. In it the God Who made everything talks to everybody.

Another pillar under my faith.

Labels: Apologetics, Bible, monotheism, The Word of God

We live in a world of talking heads. Watch any news channel and so-called experts line up--people you only see from the shoulders up--to spew their rehearsed viewpoints on every topic under heaven.

What is rare is to hear someone say something that is truly original, unexpected, genuine; something akin to the unvarnished, unpolished, unspun truth. Listen to the various voices and what you hear is rehearsed talking points, all pre-packaged, pre-planned, pre-scripted.

When a political party wants to get its message out it rallies its best talking heads, gives them a few things to say, tells them not to wander from those points, locks them into a few "facts", and makes sure they're all on the same page.

What you cannot have in today's political spin game is someone saying something that is off topic, off script, and in any way even apparently out of sinc with the party's other yapping mouths. The facade of credibility is maintained by a contrived, artifical, polished agreement between all those representing a point of view.

The trouble with all this--at least for a thinking person--is that it has all the look and feel of intellectual fraud. Truth does not have to be contrived or polished; just spoken.

This is another reason why I believe the Bible is the Word of God: the diverse styles, accounts, and records of the Bible are remarkably consistent even though they do not bear the marks of human editing to remove apparent error or contradiction, or of human polishing to buff up its claims, legendize its heroes or give it an artificial sacred look.

For example, read the biblical accounts of the resurrection and you will not detect polished attempts to line up all the details. The accounts even have appearance of contradiction (not real contradictions, but simply separate details given by different witnesses).

Read the histories of Israel and the early church and you will not find legendized accounts of heroic, larger than life, can-do-no-wrong super-saints. Instead you'll find real humans who along with their great feats for God committed great sins against God!

Read the poetry and worship songs of the Bible where you might expect to find soaring expressions of astonishing faith and holy worship, and what do you discover? You will find soaring expressions of faith and holy worship. But you will also find shocking expressions of doubt and fear and near depression and even anger against God.

Read the deep writings of the great theologians of the Bible, those whose job, presumably, is to make truth about God clear for all to understand, and what do you find? You will find much that is clear and plain and easily explained. But you will also find mysteries which the writers tell you simply to accept whether one understands them or not (e.g.-the Trinity or the siamese truths of the sovereignty of God and moral responsibility of man). They make no attempt to explain the mysterious or paradoxical; they simply charge the reader to believe.

Make no mistake: the Bible is beautiful, deep, profound, grand, fathomless. But it is also down-to-earth, gritty, unpolished, unspun, genuine, real.

One thing for sure: it is not is contrived. No one met in a back room somewhere and gave the writers of Scripture their talking points and told them to stay on script. What really happened was that God gave them truth to write and told them to write it without concern for artificial points of agreement or appearance of polish. He told them just to write what He said and they saw.

It's like God said: "Tell it like it is. I don't care about whether people appreciate or can reconcile everything you say or not. I want truth-writers, not talking heads. The truth will speak for itself, vindicate itself, and set men free."

Ladies and gentlemen: in many ways, the Bible is not pretty. Neither is it polite, polished, or politically correct. Some see this as excuse to believe it is not true. For my part, I see it as reason to believe that it is.

What do you think?

Labels: Apologetics, Bible, The Word of God

Another reason why I believe the Bible is God's Word is this: The Bible has been preserved supernaturally against internal corruption (i.e. the integrity/reliability of its text has been maintained for thousands of years), and against external attack (no matter how hard people have tried to destroy it, it still exists today). This attests to its divine Authorship and a divine intervention to preserve it for all time.

To the often asked question: "How do you know that the Bible is the same now as was written by its original authors thousands of years ago?", the answer is in fact quite plain and simple. We have thousands of ancient manuscripts of the Bible (in whole or in part) which can be compared to each other and to what we have today. When these are compared the accuracy of the preserved text is proven.

Let me give you one example. The discovery between 1947 and 1956 of the Dead Sea Scrolls (which include copies of the Old Testament Scriptures written around 100-150 B.C.),has made it possible to compare the text of the Hebrew Bible then with the earliest copies previously discovered, the Masoretic Text (980AD).

A careful comparison analysis shows that the Hebrew text suffered no meaningful corruption or change over that 1,000-1,100 year span! Apart from a letter or word here or there the text is exactly the same. Such comparisons of all the ancient biblical texts reveal astonishing accuracy, an accuracy that lays to rest any serious doubts about the reliability of our Bible today.

What we read in our Bible in 2010 is a careful and accurate record of what the original authors wrote. That claim is not so much a matter of religious faith as it is of established scientific fact. The agreement of today's Bible with ancient manuscripts is so thorough, so substantial, so nearly 100% (right down to the letters of the text) that we can have have absolute certainty that what we read now is what was written then. The text of Scripture has been preserved remarkably from internal corruption.

It has also been preserved from external attack. No book in all of history has faced such sustained attack as the Bible has. People and even nations have tried to undermine and destroy it. Yet today, the Bible is more available and more widely read than at any time in history.

All this leads to another conclusion: the Bible must have been written and preserved by no one less than God. How else does one explain such remarkable preservation of a text written ages ago, a preservation, I might add, accomplished without the benefit of copying machines and modern technologies? For centuries the 1, 000+ pages of the Bible were preserved without internal corruption, by hand, not machine! It defies human explanation.

And how else does one explain the astonishing ongoing existence of a Book so pervasively despised and so often attacked? The best answer? This is the hand of God.

God had something to do with this.

I suppose natural human explanations can be suggested, but in my mind they would have all the markings of a desperation to deny the supernatural! Friends, God wrote this Book, and then preserved it so that humans may hear from Him throughout all generations.

Any other explanation requires more faith than I can muster. When it comes to the inspiration and preservation of the Bible, to paraphrase one author: "I don't have enough faith to be an unbeliever."

Labels: Apologetics, Bible, The Word of God

A quick question for you: If you want to convince someone that there is a bright shiny warm sun, what would be your best approach? Think about it now. You can do this. In fact it's so easy a caveman could do it.

If you want to convince someone that the sun exists, simply tell them to look up. Don't waste too much time building a case, laying out the cosmic facts, citing scientific references and scholars, or reasoning from the history of human thought on the subject. Just tell them to look up and see it for themselves.

You see: the sun verifies itself. By simply shining the sun self-authenticates. It demonstrates its own existence, glory, and brilliant attributes simply by being what it is and doing what it does. The sun proves the sun.

Why do I believe the Bible is God's Word? Simply because it proves itself to be God's Word. The unity, majesty, beauty, real-life relevance, and transforming power of the Bible give to it a self-authenticating quality. It proves itself to be the Word of God just by what it is and does. The Bible proves the Bible.

The more I read and study the Bible (something I literally have been privileged to do for about 35,000 hours of my life), the more I find that it doesn't need so much to be proven as it needs simply to be read. That is to say: if you want to know the Bible is the Word of God, all you really need is an open Bible and open eyes with an open mind. The Bible itself will do the rest, as the Holy Spirit makes it shine into your heart.

Much like the sun proves itself to be the sun simply by shining, the Bible proves itself to be the Word of God simply by being (Psalm 119:130). It's brilliance is too glorious, its truth too compelling, its power too transforming, its effects too deep and satisfying for it to be anything but the Word of God.

This self-authenticating witness of the Word is confirmed further by the internal witness of the Holy Spirit within those who read the Bible with reverent and open hearts. This is what the Westminster Confession had in mind:

We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to an high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture. And the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent [agreement] of all the parts, the scope [goal] of the whole (which is, to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it does abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God: yet notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.

All that is to say that as the Holy Spirit gives light through the shining truth of God's Word, the need for other arguments diminishes. God authenticates His own Word by the illuminating light and power of that Word for the enlightenment and transforming good of those who read it.

If you're still having doubts can I plead (not too strong of a word, for everything of meaning hinges on your willingness) to do something?

Pray. Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you eyes to see and a willingness to look. From that point on the Bible will speak for itself.

Labels: Apologetics, Bible, The Word of God

I remember as a late teenager reading authors much older than me who described the wonders and beauties of the Bible, and thinking: "Somehow I believe what they're saying is true, but I have not yet fully seen those beauties with my own eyes." Well, now I'm one of those old guys. Please hear me when I say: what I once had only heard of, I now have seen. The Bible is a wondrously beautiful Word from God, unsurpassed in its stunning riches and awesome sweetness. It is unrivalled among all the writings on earth.

One facet of its beauty that never ceases to amaze me is the sixth reason why I believe the Bible is the Word of God: the message of the Bible is a unified whole which, despite God’s use of 40+ human instruments, presents from start to finish a single story line of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration/recreation .

The idea that some have that the Bible is no more than a collection of loosely connected religious musings penned by various people cannot be further from the truth. The Bible tells one story, sings one song, heralds one message. It's a story of how God made Man to live in Paradise, how that Paradise was lost, how a Redeemer-Deliverer-King would (and has) come to rescue Man and re-create that Paradise, and how that Paradise will be fully restored for all who belong to God by faith.

It is no accident that Genesis begins the Bible with an account of Paradise first made, and Revelation 20-22 concludes the Bible with a description of Paradise restored. That is the story line of the Bible, and everything between Genesis and Revelation is the record of how God gets it done.

More than forty writers over 1, 500 years were moved by God to author the various parts of the Bible, and as they wrote they were moved to tell this same story. Through historical narratives, exquisite poems, personal letters, epic sagas, war stories, love songs, detailed geneologies, stunning metaphors, spell-binding images, soaring prophecies, and down-to-earth parables, the writers of Scripture, despite all their varied personalities and styles, were nonetheless single-minded in what they wrote.

This unity is not just observable in the big themes and story line of the Bible; it is found in the details as well. God's Word presents one moral law, one way of salvation, one view of God, one way to do family, and one model for relationships, for communication, for love, for integrity, for work, for social justice, for how men and women are to relate in complementary roles, and for a whole lot more.

Look ladies and gentlemen: I defy you to put 40 people in a room and tell them to tell one story about the meaning of life and to make sure that they get not only all the big ideas the same, but all the details too. Good luck!

Yet over 15 centuries, three and a half dozen very different men of incredibly diverse peronalities, cultures, and times were called of God to write His story. This they did with a unified voice. Such oneness of thought suggests powerfully a Unifying Mind behind it all.

Fifteen hundred years. Forty writers. Dozens of styles. Thousands of details. Hundreds of sub-plots.

One Book. One Story. One message. One Author. One Mind inspiring it all. One God.

Another reason why I believe.

Labels: Apologetics, The Word of God

I'm presenting the reasons for my faith in the Bible as God's Word with the conviction that the stronger the foundations for one's faith are, the stronger one's faith will be. And the stronger one's faith is, the more sanctified for and satisfied in God that one will be. My aim is our greater holiness and gladness in God. May God grant me my heart's desire!

The fifth reason I believe the Bible is the Word of God is because the teachings of the Bible work for all of life. Consider with me that the validity of a truth claim is based in part on the workability, liveability, and real-world feasibility of that claim. Does that claim fit into and work in the real world?

Ravi Zacharias loves to sound this note in his defense of the faith, noting how in contrast to pantheism (which is the basic philosophy behind Hinduism, Buddhism, and their various New Age offspring), Christianity (embodied in the teachings and truth claims of the Bible) actually can be lived; it works in the real world.

Part of what pantheism teaches is that the material world really does not exist; that none of what we think we see and touch is real. Everything is illusion. My senses are deceiving me into thinking that there is a real key board in front of me at which my fingers are pecking away. Actually, even my senses are not real. What we think we see and feel and smell and taste is not really there. And the thought that we actually do see and feel and smell and taste is an illusion as well.

The point that Mr. Zacharias so ably articulates is that pantheism cannot possibly be true simply because it cannot possibly be lived in the real world. No pantheist can be a consistent pantheist. It just won't work.

How does Mr. Zacaharias prove this? To paraphrase, he reminds us that every pantheist knows, as he approaches an intersection on his bicycle at the same time as a tractor trailer, that he'd better stop. He knows that, contrary to his faith that that truck is not really there, it really is. And if he should be so fooled as to think it's not really there he will soon find himself to be really dead.

This means that the claims of pantheism/Hinduism, however esoteric and appealing they may be at one level, just don't work at the real life level. Unless a New Ager chooses to let tractor trailers hit him, he simply cannot live what he believes. And if he does so choose, all that results is human road kill.

Folks, it's all well and good to claim that something is true, but if it cannot be lived, and if it simply does not work, it cannot possibly be true.

I would argue that the Bible works. It can be lived consistently (with the help of God), and when it is lived consistently, it works. Its teachings, laws, and various work, health, relationship, and lifestyle paradigms all interface with real life in the real world and lead to real benefits and positive consequences for those who do them.

Those who live by God's precepts in God's Word usually live better and often live longer (Ephesians 6:1-3), simply because they are made wiser by them (Psalm 19:7-11; 119:98-104). Generally speaking, unless God has occasional reasons to make it otherwise, bodies stay healthier, hearts become happier, marriages grow stronger and last longer, pleasures become purer and sweeter, relationships bond deeper, any and all work becomes more satisfying and productive, material needs are more consistently provided, and even deep trials and extreme suffering are more purposeful and peace-filled, when the Bible is learned and practiced in life.

What this suggests strongly is that the Bible has all the marks of being a Creator’s Manual for doing life on planet earth. Whoever wrote this Book gets it. He knows the real world and how to live in it. And even when He tells us things that are counter-intuitive (such as "if you would save your life, lose it"), the advice proves both do-able and true.

So here's another reason for my faith in the Bible. It's a reliable and effective guidebook for life on God's earth. It's an infallible Manual that points to an omniscient Manufacturer.

God has not only made our planet; He's told us how to live on it. And what He has said works.

Labels: Apologetics, christian life, The Word of God

Returning to my series presenting "Reasons to Believe the Bible", I find that what it says about us provides compellingly precise insight that suggests a Mind which knows the subject intimately and infallibly; that is to say, the Mind of God.

The Bible is compelling because of how nuanced to perfection its presentation of human nature is. Contrary to those who teach on the one hand that humans are no more than highly evolved primates, and on the other that they are “basically good, tabula rasa innocents”, the Bible describes humanity’s unique dignity (as image-bearers of God, Genesis 1:26, 27) and inherited depravity (Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Psalm 51:3-5) with nuanced balance and unapologetic honesty.

Philisophical materialists, evolutionists, and others of similar mind, would say to us that Man is animal, and no more; a random collection of chemical actions and reactions accidentally borne along by an endless, meaningless stream of randomness. As such he is essentially nothing other than matter, devoid of any true value, or unique dignity.

The Bible says otherwise by telling us from the outset that we are "made in the image of God", and as such are possessive of great dignity, yes, even glory and honor (Psalm 8:4-8). In his intellectual, moral, spiritual, relational, aesthetic, and dominion gifts, Man stands alone in glory and honor over the natural world. What the natural order tells us, the Bible first declared!

But alongside this heralded dignity of man the Bible presents a mourned depravity of Man. Man, though gloriously gifted, is also ingloriously depraved. He's a fiend, a cruel tyrant, a selfish taker, a gutless compromiser, a lazy fool. Someone has quipped that the Bible doctrine of man's depravity is the most easily proven doctrine in the entire Bible. All one has to do to prove it is to read the news, study history, watch a child's natural instincts to be selfish and mean, or simply look into a morality mirror.

Someone else has said that the naive notions of man's enlightenment, and grand nobility, once popular in the late 1800's, ran shipwreck in the 1,900's against the jagged rocks of the atrocities of Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, the segregated south, and endless news of wars and fightings and divorces and child abuse and the rest.

This, my friends, is what the Bible has been saying all along. Man is a grand reflection of God who somehow has become a moral monster as well. All other world views err by denying one side or the other of the paradox called Man.

The Bible gets it right. Why? Because it comes from the One Who sees things deeply and as they really are. He knows us because He simply knows. And some of what He knows, He has chosen to tell us about, in a Book.

That's another reason why I believe.

Labels: Apologetics, Human Nature, Humility, Nature, The Word of God

I believe that there can be no real doubt about the existence of God. As has been said often, the fact that anything exists today means that something or someone has always existed.

It is absolute nonsense to suggest that something can be created out of nothing. So the fact that something (the universe) exists now means either that that thing has always existed or that something or someone else which has always existed brought that thing into existence. In short: either the universe is eternal or an Eternal Someone made it. There are no other rational options.

And since we know that the universe has not always existed (even secular scientists with their big bang theory acknowledge this), the only rational conclusion is that Something or Someone brought this universe into being. The universe has a Designer/Creator. Throughout history that Designer/Creator has been called "God" (at least in English).

But that leads of course to the question: which God is the right God? Another way of putting it is: how do we know which view of God--that found in the Bible, or that found in another "holy book" or in the imagination of any person--is the right view?

Here is how I arrive at Reason #3 for why I believe the Bible is the Word of God: the God revealed in nature (Romans 1:19, 20; Psalm 19:1, 2) and the God revealed in Scripture are a perfect match.

Since God made the world, the world will reflect His character and being. When an artist creates, what he creates reveals something about him, for the created thing flows out of the being, mind, and heart of the creator.

God's nature reveals God. We can call nature God's Self-Revelation: Volume One. But there's more. Christians believe that actually there are two volumes of God's self-revelation. Volume One is Nature; Volume Two is Scripture.

But for this Christian claim to be verified, Volumes One and Two must be entirely consistent, since God is a God who cannot contradict Himself. What He says in one revelation must agree with what He says in another or else He's a liar. So run the test. What do you find when you compare what is learned about God in nature and what is learned about God in Scripture? A perfect match.

Study Volume One and you'll discover that nature reveals a God who is a powerful, wise, brilliant, good, kind, generous, beauty-loving, eternal, dependable, majestic, transcendant, and yet a constantly-involved-in-His-creation Being. You'll also discover in nature's earthquakes and tsunamis and diseases that nature's God is no benign, passive, entirely-pleased-with-this-world, indulgent, or completely safe Wimp.

Nature reveals that God is all the wonderful things mentioned above, and that He is mad at something. Not all is right between God and his creation. Storms and calamities reveal that something has stirred the wrath of God.

Now study Volume Two and you'll discover that Scripture reveals a God that matches nature's God perfectly. He is all the wonderful things that nature reveals; He is all the terrifying things nature reveals. Nature and Scripture harmonize. Both reveal that God is astonishingly good, and that God is One with Whose wrath we dare not trifle.

This--along with many other factors gives me cause to believe the Bible is the Word of God that it claims to be. It matches what I see in God's creation. It conforms to the way things are in the real world. It echoes the song that nature sings. What I read in God's Word fits what I see in God's world.

Thus I believe. Here I stand.
How about you?

Labels: Apologetics, Creation, Nature, The Word of God

I believe the Bible is a wonderful Book given to us by God and preserved by His hand for millenia (something I'll consider more with you in a later blog). I'm reminded at this very moment about how amazing that preservation is in light of something that just happened: I just spent about 75 minutes typing out today's post, only to have it suddenly disappear into cyber-space. So much for the inspiration and preservation of human words! Now let me try again (something God never has to do).

A second reason why I believe the Bible is the Word of God is because it contains many predictive prophecies--prophecies of extra-ordinary specificity and significance--which have been fulfilled.

While I could never squeeze the list of these prophecies into this limited blogging space, I can at least give you a sampling. I can mention such remarkable predictions as the destruction of the city of Jerusalem which took place in 70AD, decades after Jesus had predicted it in Matthew 24:1-21. I could also cite a number of very specific predictions that were made about the destruction of various other ancient cities, predictions that included great detail about the how and when of those cities' destruction (see Josh McDowell's Evidence that Demands a Verdict). I could also mention the fact that even the recent restoration of the nation of Israel was predicted long ago.

But we might do best simply to focus on the collection of predictions made about the coming of a great Savior-King-Messiah who was to enter the world to save humans from their sin. Among these are predictions about:

--His being born of a woman, and then experiencing near defeat by and then subsequent victory over Satan (Gen. 3:15)
--His being heralded by a predecessor in the wilderness (this proved to be John the Baptist, Isaiah 40:3 cf. Matthew 3:1, 2)
--His birthplace (Micah 5:2 cf. Matthew 2:1)
--His eternal pre-existence (Micah 5:2 cf. John 1:1, 2, 14; Colossians 1:17)
--His Divine identity—which was proven by His words and works (Isaiah 9:6; 7:14)
--His family line and bloodlines (Genesis 49:10 cf. Luke 3:23, 33; Isaiah 11:1 cf. Luke 3:23, 32)
--His miracle working powers (Isaih 35:1-6 cf. Matthew 9:35)
--His ride into Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9 cf. Luke 19:35-37)
--His rejection by people and subsequent selection by God (Psalm 118:22 cf. 1 Peter 2:7)
--His manner of death: crucifixion (Psalm 22--is an exact description of a crucifixion, hundreds of years before that form of execution had even been invented)
--His being spat upon and smitten (Isaih 50:6 cf. Matthew 26:67)
--His death as a common criminal among criminals (Isaiah 53:12 cf. Matthew 27:38)
--His prayer for his killers (Isaiah 53:12 cf. Luke 23:34)
--His specfic sufferings at and on the cross: open mockery, public execution, nakedness, bones out of joint, desperate thirst, surrounding enemies, gambling over his clothes, pierced hands and feet; all these are predicted 1,000 years before they happened--in Psalm 22--and are fulfilled on the cross. You can check the Gospel records.
--His cry of forsakeness (Psalm 22:1 cf. Matthew 27:46)
--His resurrection (Isaiah 53:5, 12; Psalm 16:10, 11)

This is but a sampling of the predictions made about and fulfilled in the Messiah's coming. Objections are predictable. Someone will argue that the NT writers adapted their records to conform to these prophecies. But I challenge folks to think about this.

First, the New Testament writers never would have gotten away with such a fraud for the simple reason that these claims are too fantastic to be believed by so many first century people if there was not great evidence supporting them. Remember: there were thousands of people who met Jesus and listened to Jesus and knew about his life, who despised him. How is it that there were none who could debunk the Christian reports, especially since Christians became one of the more hated people groups in the Roman empire in subsequent decades? History shows that no one ever could disprove these claims. The best they could do was kill the ones making them.

Which brings us back to yesterday's point: It defies logic to claim that all these writers were lying (by tampering with the facts to make them look like fulfilled prophecies). Why? For this simple reason: while it is true that some might be willing to die for something they misguidedly believe to be true, only mad-men (which clearly these men were not) would be willing to die for something they absolutely know to be false.

So I leave you with a question. If you read a book in which there are hundreds of specific predictions of historical events--including dozens about the coming Messiah--all of which have come true, wouldn't you agree that there is reason to think that that book might have a Divine origin?

You tell me: who else knows the future in specific detail and dares to record his predictions?

Labels: Apologetics, The Word of God

In beginning my case for the Bible being the Word of God, I call as my first witness the testimony of Jesus.

I'm convinced the Bible is the Word of God because Jesus of Nazareth, an historical Man undeniably sent from and accredited by God through countless miracles (John 5:36; 9:30-33; Hebrews 2:3, 4), affirmed the inspiration, authority, and infallibility of the Scriptures as God’s Word (e.g.-Matthew 5:17, 18; Luke 24:27; John 5:39; 10:35). Before you dismiss this as circular reasoning, hear it out.

This evidence begins with the established historical fact that Jesus worked many miracles and did wondrous things, including predicting and causing His own resurrection. That He did such wonders is one of the more verifiable claims of ancient history.

First, almost all of the New Testament writers claimed to be eye-witnesses of the miracles and resurrection of Jesus, a claim for which all of them were later willing to die. It strains credulity to say that they all were hallucinating. It further defies logic to claim that they all were lying for this simple reason: while it is true that some might be willing to die for something they misguidedly believe to be true, only mad-men (which clearly these men were not) would be willing to die for something they absolutely know to be false.

Additional testimony regarding Jesus' miracles is found in the writings of the Jewish historian, Josephus, circa 60AD. While the historical integrity of some of Josephus' writings has been questioned, it is widely accepted that the following words bear all the marks of historical reliability:

“About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man… he was one who performed surprising deeds… And he drew over many Jews and many of the Greeks… And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared” (Josephus, Antiquities 18:63, 64).

Additional evidence comes from an unlikely source and in a back-handed form. In about 300AD the accounts of Jesus’ wondrous deeds were still so indisputable even among His Jewish enemies, that in their Talmud it is recorded that Jesus was killed for “working magic”. This is not a reference to slight of hand card tricks but to supernatural powers. The records of His wonders had to be explained somehow by His enemies; calling Him a demonically controlled black-magic- working wizard was the best they could do.

Conclusion: indisputably, Jesus was a miracle worker sent from God. So the fact that He, as the most Divinely-authenticated miracle worker, and most celebrated spiritual teacher of all time claims that the Bible is the inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God, provides the honest thinker with compelling testimony that the Bible is just that.

Food for thought.

Labels: Apologetics, Miracles, The Word of God

Today marks the beginning of a series of blogs that I hope will help many grasp more fully the reasons for believing in the God of the Bible.

The longer I live the more I'm aware that faith that is not supported by reason and reasons, is not likely to endure the fires of trial and testing. Faith that is more a "blind leap into the dark" than it is a reverent, humble and careful commitment based on God-given evidence, confirmed by God in the soul, is not likely to be impassioned or fervent or devout.

For one to lay life down for what one believes (which is exactly that to which the Bible calls us), one has to be quite strongly convinced that what one believes is actually true! Only a fool would sacrifice anything, never mind everything, for something he or she only vaguely feels to be true.

The early Christians lived the lives they did--many leading to martyrdom--because they had seen, heard, and experienced compelling evidence that the claims of Christ and the Bible were true. Are you so convinced of the truth claims of the Bible as to lay your life down?

Over my next 15-16 blogging days, I hope to present numerous reasons why I believe the Bible is the Word of God. If these reasons hold up under scrutiny, then there is every reason for everyone of us to give up everything to follow the God of the Bible with all love, commitment, passion, and sacrifice.

Don't let this be an intellectual exercise alone. Let it be profoundly purposeful and practical. My goal reflects Elijah's in his famous world-view show-down with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel in 1 Kings 18:20-39. In 1 Kings 18:21 Elijah states what's at stake when considering the evidence for the God of the Bible. If He is God He is to be followed with all faith, love, and obedience. If He is not God, then pick whatever god you'd like or choose none at all. Whatever you do, don't go limping along between two opinions.

I believe this is the basic logic C.S. Lewis had in mind when he said said: "Christianity, if false, is not important. If Christianity is true, however, it is of infinite importance. What it cannot be is moderately important."

If the Bible really is the Word of God, moderation of faith and commitment becomes ludicrous. Nothing but impassioned zeal for the God and claims of the Bible is reasonable if in fact the God and claims of the Bible are true. So beware. If there are reasons to believe, there can be only one conclusion: there are reasons to lay your life down for the sake of the Biblical God and His truth.

Are you willing to run that risk?

Labels: Apologetics, The Word of God

Well folks, I confess that I shirked my blogging responsibilities--and nearly all other responsibilites yesterday--for a simple reason. Yesterday was Gayline's and my 32nd wedding anniversary. I took a prsonal day yesterday to pursue one major objective: to make sure my wife heard, saw, and sensed from me that I am one massively grateful, incredibly in love, deeply indebted husband.

32 years--and if God should will it and family patterns of life-expectancy hold true for us, we're likely to have 32 more! There's no one I'd rather do 60+ years with, and no one that could possibly be better for me; for my sanctification, my growth, my usefulness for the kingdom, and my simple, profound, everyday intoxicating joy. Thank you Gayline for being mine for life and for enduring all that it means to be wife to this man.

As for the "more" in today's title, it refers to an upcoming series of posts I'm hoping to start this coming Tuesday. I've planned a 15 part series entitled:
15 Reasons Why I Believe the Bible Is the Word of God.

Would you please pass the word regarding this friends? I'm convinced that one reason for the lukewarmness of many professed Christians and the agnosticism of many others inside and outside the church is a fundamental uncertainty about the Bible's true nature and identity. Not convinced that the Bible really is God's Word they remain uncommitted to, and unimpassioned about its message and truth.

This series will aim to set a foundation for faith and for impassioned orthodoxy (straight and true doctrine) and orthopraxy (straight and true living) in this age of unbelief. Hope you will follow along and invite others to do so as well.
Thanks.

Labels: Marriage, The Word of God

Let me start by saying thanks to those sharing in this blog. The posts and comments by Bruce and Peter and John and Tom and others have been consistently great and in some cases so full of thought that there is enough to bless the soul for days, just through them alone.

If you haven't been keeping up on these you may want to spend some time reviewing.

As for me, I've got days of study and writing ahead of me. Here's my verse for the day: Acts 6:4.

Please pray for me as I have much ministry of the Word to do:
1. A Sunday sermon to prepare.
2. An important study I'm doing, and paper I'm writing on the very critical matter of what the Bible says about children and birth control. The pastoral implications of this are huge.
3. Ten messages I need to have outlined for my July 12-17 week of camp ministry up in Maine; followed by Sunday preaching ministry on the 19th at a church up in Massachusetts.
4. Counseling and mentoring in the Word to do (at least one appointment today and each day, through Friday).

And then pray for me that in the middle of all of this and throughout all of this I will pray. Pray for me that I will pray for you!

Just a glimpse into my week. I appreciate and love all of you who stand alongside in the work of the gospel.

Labels: Preaching, Study, The Word of God

On the highest peak of the highest mountain a narrow less-than-an-inch ridge can set the course of rivers. It's called a watershed. If a drop of rain falls to the east of that ridge, it'll flow eastward. If another falls just an inch away on the west side it'll flow westward. In the end they will be thousands of miles apart.

Life is full of watershed moments; moments in which decisive direction determining conclusions and/or choices are made.

How you answer the question "Has God spoken and is the Bible His final Word?" is a watershed. If the Bible is God’s final Word (i.e.-His ultimate authoritative revelation from which all saving truth is to be gained, and by which all truth-claims and opinion/preferences are to be tested), then the course of life is fixed.

If you are convinced by the Spirit of God that the Bible is the Word of God, life can only flow along a path marked by two further life-consuming questions: "What has God said?" and "How then do I need to believe and live?" Life will move irresistibly toward a course of study (to know God's Truth) and submission (to believe and obey God's truth). Life will be marked by a persevering impassioned quest to learn and to do; to hear and to obey.

If one lands on the other side of this watershed, doubting or denying that the Bible is God's Word, then life will flow along an entirely different path. It will not be impassioned to hear or obey His voice. At best it'll be mildly religious, respectably broad-thinking, philosophically undecided, spiritually double-minded.

I think I detect in today's church this fundamental double-mindedness. Too many debates rage over gender roles, the nature of God's sovereignty and the perfection of His knowledge, the existence of an eternal hell, emergent perspectives (and a host of other matters), which when you listen carefully are being argued, not over the text and meaning of Scripture, but over the integrity and authority of Scripture.

In other words, people's arguments against historic Christian doctrines often seem to reveal a lack of conviction that the Bible is God's Word and the final authority for faith and practice. As they recount their journey away from biblical orthodoxy they admit that it began with personal philosophical or emotional struggle rather than Biblical data.

At a more personal level, when people say: "I know that's what the Bible says, but...", unbelief that the Bible is God's authoritative voice is exposed. People “but” their way out of obedience to God’s Word because at least in the moment they do not really believe that that’s what it is. Similarly, the fact that many Christians do not read their Bibles consistently or give themselves to a life of learning God's truth reveals the same foundational flaw in their faith. Logically such neglect can only mean that one's confidence that God has spoken and that the Bible is His final Word is weak at best.

I know that we all (myself included) battle the flesh and the busyness of life, and this makes Bible disciplines hard to practice. But don't you think that there must be something fundamentally askew in our thinking about the Bible (whether or not it is God's Word) if we are not making it our relentless habit and impassioned commitment to read it and hear it and obey it?

Here's the watershed: what will you decide about the Bible? Land on one side of the question and you'll move toward a life determined by personally preferred opinions. Land on the other side and you'll live life in a perpetual posture of an eager and humble submission: "Lord, speak. Your servant will believe and obey."

Where have you landed?

Labels: Faith, Hearing God's Word, The Word of God

One reason many don't rightly hear the Word of God is because they have nagging doubts that it is the Word of God. Like the boy Samuel of old (1 Samuel 3:1-10), they fail to hear/read God's words as the words of God, because they think them instead to be the words of man. Their heart need is for faith: an evidence-grounded and Spirit-produced confidence that the Bible is the very Word of the true God. Settle that matter and the urgency of right hearing becomes clear.

But has God really spoken and is the Bible His final Word? Can I offer five broad reasons why I believe the answer to both these questions is yes?

1. Prediction. If you read a book in which there are hundreds of specific predictions of historical events--including dozens about the coming Messiah--all of which have come true, wouldn't you agree that there is reason to think that that book might have a Divine origin? Such is the case with the Bible.

2. Perfection. If you read a book written by 40+ men spanning 1,500 years, the major teachings of which address the most controversial topics known to man, and if you find that its message is perfectly consistent, and without contradiction, wouldn't you at least consider that it had a single, unifying, inspiring Mind behind it?

3. Corroboration (verification). If you read a book that presents thousands of historical details about towns, cities, people, rulers, and events, multiplied hundreds of which have been verified by archeological science, would you not begin to trust in its integrity?

And if you read the message of the Bible--what it says about God, about human nature, about sin, about life, about history, about death--and then see that all of these are corroborated both by nature and human experience, would you not think that this is more than coincidence?

What nature reveals about the Creator--that He is powerful, intelligent, wise, loving and yes, even angry-- and what Scripture reveals about that Creator are in perfect harmony. This fact drives me to believe that that God is real, and that the Bible is His Word.

4. Incarnation. If abundant historical evidence exists that Someone once lived who did amazing things like healing the sick and raising the dead (including himself), who even claimed to be God in the flesh, wouldn't you pay attention to His words? And if this Man claims that the Bible is God's Word, wouldn't you find that good reason to believe that it is?

That Jesus worked miracles and did wondrous things, including predicting and causing His own resurrection is one of the more verifiable claims of ancient history. So when He as the most authenticated miracle-worker and most celebrated teacher of all time claims that the Bible is the inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God,that's good enough for me. I love Andy Stanley's take on it:

"My high school teacher once told me that much in Genesis is false. But since my high school teacher did not prove that he was God by rising from the dead, I'm going to believe Jesus instead." (Cited by Geisler and Turek in I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist)

5. Self-authentication. And finally if you read a book that is simply alive and powerful, that by its own truth, beauty, and glory has changed everything about you and not only you but countless millions of others like you, would you not credit it with being something more than human?

This is what I mean by self-authentication. The Bible proves itself by it's own inherent worth, beauty, and power. It's like the sun. No one has to argue that the sun is bright; all they have to do is see it and its effects. So it is with the Bible, once it is read and learned in truth. It proves its own Divine origin. It is simply too powerful, too beautiful, too intrinisically good to be anything other than Divine.

Based on these facts, God has convinced me that He has spoken, and that the Bible is His final Word. In doing that, He also has set the direction of my life. Once I knew that God has spoken and that the Bible is His final Word, all I've been able to do ever since is approach the Bible echoing the boy Samuel: "Speak Lord, your servant is listening."

How about you?

Labels: Apologetics, Faith, Hearing God's Word, The Word of God

My dear friend Steve Cassarino gave our church an exceptionally powerful and important word yesterday, preaching about the right hearing of the Word of God.

As I have long reflected on the right preaching and hearing of God's Word I have learned that while the preacher's study, life, and presentation are all very important, at least equally important is the life and present tense heart condition of the hearer. The hearer has to be spiritually tuned in.

The hearer of the Word must be as spiritually prepared and diligent in the experience of preaching as is the preacher of the Word. This is clearly the implication of James 1:19-25; Luke 8:11-21 and other texts.

This biblical perspective is supported by a report from the well-known preacher, Dr. David Jeremiah. As I heard the story, years ago Dr. Jeremiah had a battle with cancer. During his treatments he took his radio program off the air. Once his treatments were over he returned to the air and the public tuned in and was blessed again.

Only now the blessing seemed to be increased. Soon he began to receive many letters thanking him for his preaching and commenting on how his preaching had a distinctly different quality about it since his bout with cancer. I'm guessing that people felt it was more sensitive, more pastoral, more effective--perhaps because it was coming to them now from a man who had been through the fires of affliction. People were very grateful for the marked growth of effectiveness in his post-cancer radio ministry.

But here's the deal: the post-cancer radio ministry was nothing more than recorded messages of Dr. Jeremiah's pre-cancer preaching! He hadn't broadcasted any of his post-cancer sermons yet. Think about that. What it means is that the post-cancer hearers were the ones who had changed, not Dr. Jeremiah.

They were the same people listening to the same preacher, but their hearts had changed toward the preacher. His preaching was the same, but their listening wasn't. They thought they were listening to a cancer victim. They thought they were listening to a man made humble and sensitive by affliction. And as a result they were the ones who had changed. They were more open, more humble, more receptive, more inclined to listen, less inclined to find fault. And as a result, the Word came with greater power and effect to their lives.

This explains the experience I have had more times than can be counted, when people have responded in completely opposite ways to the very same sermon that I have preached. Of course I realize that the effect of preaching is a matter of the Sovereign Spirit blowing where He will and God giving the increase (John 3:8; 1 Corinthians 3:6). And I realize that God is omnipotent in grace so that He can transform a heart through preaching.

But the Bible is also clear that the effect of preaching is often determined by the heart condition of the hearer. This is why one is unmoved by a sermon while another is profoundly changed. One feels a sermon to be hard or harsh while another finds it sweet. One finds it heart-breaking while another finds it soul-thrilling. One is exhilerated while another is bored to tears. It's all about the condition of the hearer's heart.

Unless the Spirit works in ways to overcome the condition of the heart (and praise be to God that He often does!), whatever the heart condition going into the hearing the Word will affect the heart condition and reponse once the Word has been heard. The effect of the Word is more about having good reception than it is about making a good presentation.

So it's important that we think even more about how to prepare to rightly hear the Word. Over the next few days I think we'll explore this vital component of Christian growth in grace.

I hope you'll tune in.

Labels: Hearing God's Word, Preaching, Spiritual disciplines, The Word of God