Who can understand the Bible?

It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.Mark Twain

The Bible can be challenging to understand.  66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,173 verses, ~40 authors over a 1,500 year period, etc.  But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t accessible.  As Twain noted, some things are very clear.  The parts that aren’t as clear take a little more work to understand. 

The letters in the New Testament were written to real people.  They didn’t have to get a priest to figure out what the author meant.  It wasn’t like the Ephesians got their letter and said, “I have no idea what he is talking about!”

Of course, there are many cultural things and a lot of background information that can help us understand the Bible better.  It is a large book so it can be overwhelming at times.  Solid teaching and preaching are important, but you can learn much on your own as well.  Here are some Bible study tips. 

One of the easiest things to do is focus on what you do understand and not just what you don’t understand.  Make a list of questions and seek answers later if you like, but don’t let that stop you from reading.

I always liked this passage in Acts 8, and especially v. 31 where the Ethiopian says what so many of us think: How can we understand the Bible unless someone explains it to us?  God made sure the Gospel got to someone who truly wanted to hear it.  Who knows what impact the Ethiopian man had when he returned home with the Good News?  Are we doing our part of spreading the Gospel and taking what we know to lost people?

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ²⁷ So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

³⁰ Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

³¹ “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

³² The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

³³ In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

³⁶ As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” ³⁸ And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

I like to use that passage to encourage people to take Bible studies.  In many areas of life we take classes and lessons to get better at something – golf, computers, math, etc.  But when it comes to the Bible many people think they need to know about it before going to a class.  They are embarrassed to admit that they are Christians and don’t know the Bible well.  But today is always a great day to start studying it.

P.S. Beware of churches or denominations that insist that you can’t understand the Bible without them giving their official interpretation of it to you.  Some churches actually discourage people from reading it on their own. 

Stars, sand and how to read the Bible

A recent commenter on my other blog viewed Genesis 15:5 as evidence that the Bible has errors.  The context is God promising Abraham that despite his advanced age he would have many offspring.

Genesis 15:5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

Here is what the commenter wrote:

There God promises Abraham to make his offspring as numerous as the stars. Referring to the visible stars only would not make any sense as we can see only a few thousands. But it cannot refer to the actually existing stars either, because there are about 200 billion in our Milky Way alone. 200 billion people could not possibly live on Earth, let alone Jews!

And I am not even talking about the stars in all the other galaxies. This is only one example. The bible abounds with errors great and small.

I think his interpretation of that verse would make a literalist fundy blush. 

First, since we always want to read things in context here are some other verses referring to the promises of Abraham’s offspring:

Genesis 22:17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies . . .

Genesis 32:12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

God mentions Abraham’s offspring as being as numerous as the stars, then the stars and the sand, then the sand.  

So the question is, “What’s the point of these passages?”  Was God trying to make a precise statement of exactly how many offspring Abraham would have?  Was He saying that the number of stars is exactly equal to the number of grains of sand? 

Or is it possible that He was saying that not only would Abraham have one child – a highly unlikely scenario by itself – but that Abraham would have many, many descendants – physically and spiritually?

More importantly, go back in history and see how many stars people used to think existed, and how the Bible was far ahead of its time. As the commenter noted, we can only observe thousands of stars, and several thousand years ago they could view less than that.

But God knew that there were far more than that. Again, the point of the passage was the promise to Abraham, not a science lesson. But the fact remains that the earliest Bible writings asserted that there were far more stars than people thought – as many as there are grains of sand on the beach.

I think an unbiased person would see that the passage was obviously a promise that Abraham would have a great number of descendants and that there are far more stars than we can see – in fact, so many that counting them would be like counting grains of sand. And that is a claim that was thousands of years ahead of its time. Why not give the Bible a little credit for knowing that there are countless stars?

Study Bibles

I’ve encouraged a couple commenters to consider study Bibles, so I thought I’d get a little more specific.

My wife’s favorite (and hey, she’s a librarian!) is the Quest Study Bible.  It has lots of the most common questions addressed in the sidebars.  I like it, too.

The Life Application Study Bible is my mainstay.  It has thousands of explanatory notes, tables, maps, definitions, book introductions, profiles of major characters, etc. 

All those links are for the New International Version (NIV), a very popular translation.  All of the verses I’ve memorized are from the NIV so I’ll switch translations when they pry it out of my cold, dead hands. 

Seriously, there are a lot of good translations out there.   I know some people get very passionate about their personal favorite. 

I am not a big fan of The Message (a broad paraphrase Bible), but if it is your favorite please don’t leave me any nasty comments.  If you want a paraphrase Bible I’d go with the New Living Translation. 

Study Bibles can be extraordinarily helpful, especially if you are new to the Bible.  I always remember that the text of the Bible is most important and was inspired by God and that the explanatory notes were not.  But that doesn’t mean they aren’t important to help us understand the context of the passages, who was writing, to whom they were writing, links to other passages, etc.

Even if you aren’t a believer the Bible can be a fascinating book to study.

Itching ears

Many people – including self-proclaimed Christians, surprisingly enough – claim that the Bible is unreliable because of its age and how it was assembled.  They use terms like “bronze age mythology” or “old words” or some such thing.  The theme is that if the words are old then they have lesser or no value.But consider the implications: Does that mean that words have an expiration date?  Are they somehow better when new?  I think that older words may convey more truth, on average, because they have stood the test of time (that’s a generality, of course – what really matters is whether the words are true or not).

If God inspired the words then they would be timeless, of course.

I imagine that every generation thought this verse was written just for them, and ours is no different:

2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

Old Testament God / New Testament God?

A common misperception about the Bible is that there are two Gods at work, or that somehow God was trying to improve his reputation in the New Testament (NT).  The typical refrain is that the Old Testament (OT) God was vengeful and the New Testament God is loving and kind. A balanced reading of the whole Bible shows what God is really like. To adequately understand God, you can’t reduce your understanding to a bumper-sticker saying such as “God is love.” Yes, love is one of God’s attributes, but He is a whole lot more.

People who make that claim don’t know the Bible well at all.  Jesus talks about Hell much more than the OT does.  And God displays his mercy, forgiveness and patience over and over in the OT.

If one is selective in what Scriptures they use, one could make the opposite case – namely, that the Old Testament God is more forgiving. After all, Jesus talked much more about Hell than the Old Testament does. God gives evil nations hundreds of years to repent, and destroys or drives them out only when they are completely irredeemable. And God is quick to forgive the Israelites over and over. Consider this passage where God is so quick to forgive Ahab, generally considered the most evil of Israel’s kings:

1 Kings 21:25-29 (There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife. He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the Lord drove out before Israel.) When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.”

Also consider these passages:

Exodus 22:21-27 “Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt. “Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless. “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest. If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset, because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

Leviticus 19:18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

Then consider a sample of Jesus’ words in Matthew.  

Matthew 11:20-24 Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

Jesus also said:
• Matthew 8:12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
• Matthew 13:42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• Matthew 13:50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• Matthew 22:13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
• Matthew 24:51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• Matthew 25:30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• Luke 13:28 “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.

Finally, consider the key message of the early church and how the Gospel spread. The Book of Acts, which chronicled the early church, doesn’t mention the word “love” one time. It does have a consistent message of “repent and believe,” and uses reason and signs and wonders to convince people of the truth of the Gospel.  It is all the same God, from beginning to end.  Perfect justice, mercy, wrath and love. 

Who can understand the Bible?

Beware of churches or denominations the insist that you can’t understand the Bible without them giving their official interpretation of it to you.  Some churches actually discourage people from reading it on their own. 

But remember that the letters in the New Testament, for example, were written to real people.  They didn’t have to get a priest to figure out what the author meant.  It wasn’t like the Ephesians got their letter and said, “I have no idea what he is talking about!”

Of course, there are many cultural things and a lot of background information that can help us understand the Bible better.  It is a large book so it can be overwhelming at times.  Solid teaching and preaching are important, but you can learn much on your own as well.  Here are some Bible study tips.

I always liked this passage in Acts 8, and especially v. 31 where the Ethiopian says what so many of us think: How can we understand the Bible unless someone explains it to us?  God made sure the Gospel got to someone who truly wanted to hear it.  Who knows what impact the Ethiopian man had when he returned home with the Good News?  Are we doing our part of spreading the Gospel and taking what we know to lost people?

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ²⁷ So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

³⁰ Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

³¹ “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

³² The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

³³ In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

³⁶ As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” ³⁸ And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Why the New Testament is Scripture

Note: This is written more for Christians who deny the validity of New Testament books than it is for skeptics (though all are welcome).   

It is popular to dismiss the following passage as not applying to the New Testament since it had not been officially canonized at that time.  However, many letters were already in circulation in the early church and were accepted as authoritative.  Remember that this was Paul’s last letter, written from prison in Rome before he was beheaded.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

If God “breathes” Scripture then this passage could easily apply to letters not yet canonized or even written.  He’s omniscient, remember? 

Jesus promised that the disciples would testify about him (that could have just been orally, but it seems pretty obvious that it would eventually be written down).

John 15:26-27 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

In 1 Timothy 5:18 Paul appears to quote Luke 10:7 (“for the worker deserves his wages”) as Scripture, though it is possible that it came from a summary of verses in Deuteronomy.

1 Timothy 5:18 For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

Peter referred to Paul as writing with “the wisdom that God gave him” and considered Paul’s writings to be scripture.

2 Peter 3:15-17 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.

Check out Paul’s letters and note how he claimed to be an Apostle of Jesus.  He obviously thought he was speaking for God.  So either he was speaking for God or he was a big liar or some sort of crazy person.

Some Christians claim that since the Bible didn’t include a specific notation of which 66 books belonged then we can’t be sure of what belongs.  But even if it did make that claim these same folks would probably say it is circular reasoning.  And I’ve noticed that these people are quick to say, “It is God’s word” then launch into 17 bad reasons they think it isn’t.  Credibility factor = zero.

Some people have read too much of the DaVinci Code and think the canonization process was politicized.  But most of the books in the Bible were selected without dispute.  The early church had viewed them as authoritative for some time. 

The same God who inspired the Scripture was quite capable of inspiring which books to include.  If Christians hold a different view then I kindly ask them to let me know what to take out and which books to add - provided they can convince me why their own personal canonization process trumps that of the God of the universe.

Lots more here about how the NT canon was compiled.  Christians who say things like, “But the Bible doesn’t say these 66 books were to be part of the Bible” should read it.  Even if the Bible did mention which books to include then the same critics would cry “circular reasoning.”  And these same critics have no problem quoting the parts they like as being fully authoritative and “God’s word.”

Inerrant, infallible, inspired

Claims of Biblical inerrancy, inspiration and infallibility apply to the original writings.  I have researched countless difficulties and found answers that satisfied me.  Some are tougher than others.  Some things are in the Job category (as in, I’m not capable of understanding them or God doesn’t need me to understand them). 

I learned enough about the book to be comfortable that God “wrote” it, and I trust that if there is something in the 1% that appears to be a contradiction then either there was a translation error or – much more likely – there is something I’m just not understanding properly.

In short, after working through enough difficulties with satisfactory answers I tend to give God and his Word the benefit of the doubt.  I’m sure this thrills him to no end.  I say that tongue-in-cheek, because on the one hand He certainly doesn’t need the Neil-seal-of-approval but on the other hand He does love it when we exercise faith.  Not blind faith, not faith despite the evidence, but faith grounded in the truths He has revealed to us.

Are there passages in the currently published Bibles that don’t belong?  Perhaps.  The ending of Mark and the story of Jesus and the woman accused of adultery are not in the earliest and best manuscripts. 

Also, some verses sometimes lose a little meaning in certain translations.  For example, when Exodus 21:22-25 is properly understood it is a pro-life passage, yet pro-choice people will use a poorer translation (for that passage) such as the RSV because it supports their position. 

These issues don’t bother me that much because they show that the system works: We have so many copies of ancient manuscripts and different translations that it possible to figure out what the originals said.  The exceptions are limited and we can show why they are exceptions. 

But on most of what really matters there is no debate.  Every version I’ve seen says, “Love your enemies.”  There are 100 clear passages saying that Jesus is the only way.  That is plenty for me.

I know enough of the Bible and the difficulties to have great faith (trust in evidence) that God inspired the originals.  And I have faith in the copying and translation process so that I can read the Bible with confidence.  For difficult or controversial passages there are plenty of ways to resolve issues on the essentials.  But on the non-essentials I don’t lose sleep. 

If people want to have church meetings to debate how often to serve communion, whether to use wine or grape juice, etc., I say go ahead and have a swell time.  Just don’t make me participate. 

We can read the Bible with confidence that God has transmitted his Word to us accurately.  Sometimes the words inerrant and infallible are too loaded with various meanings to be helpful, so I like to emphasize that the original writings of the Bible turned out just the way God wanted them to.

Busy busy busy

Hi – I’m going to be rather busy the next couple weeks so I’ll be doing a limited amount of commenting here and at your blogs.  I just didn’t want you to think I’d forgotten about you.

I have posts set to go every couple days.  Have fun!

The Importance of Sound Doctrine

Cross posted at 4Simpsons Blog.  I had this on my web site and referred to it so often that I thought I would post it here.

Many people downplay the importance of doctrine, saying such things as, “All the theology I need is that God is love” or “I just want to follow Jesus.”  But they have a false idea of what doctrine is.  It isn’t boring (at least it isn’t supposed to be).  How do you know how to follow Jesus, or why you should follow Jesus, if you don’t have doctrine?  Why on earth would you commit your life to someone without understanding Him or what He taught? 

And yes, God is love, but that is just one of his attributes and not his complete definition.  And what kind of love does this mean – a sentimental, pampering love or the agape kind of love where you have the long term best interests of the other person at heart and would willingly sacrifice for them? 

There are countless false teachers in our churches today, and they do great damage to individuals and the church.  We must know the truth well so we can spot them.  Here is a great article by Charles Spurgeon about false teachers.  Please read it.

Listed at the bottom of this post are just some of the verses pointing us to the importance of sound doctrine.  Jesus expected the Disciples to understand his teachings. Also, keep in mind that Jesus spent much of his time rebuking the Pharisees for their false teachings, and a major part of the New Testament letters was devoted to corrections of errors in the church.  If Jesus warned against false prophets doesn’t that imply that there are true prophets?

If anyone thinks these verses are taken out of context, please let me know.  Some of my theologically liberal blogging buddies implied as such, saying I had selected them in a “willy nilly” fashion.  However, they provided zero (0) examples.  Perhaps they could start with the first passage, which actually contains the phrase “sound doctrine.”  If I took something out of context it wouldn’t be the first or last time, but I am quite correctable and rarely make the same mistake twice. 

One person mocked me for “actually believing that God cares for something called sound doctrine.”  His position is self-refuting and un-Biblical.  Sound doctrine is merely accurate theological teaching.  Given two choices of God either caring about sound doctrine or not caring, he chose the latter while I chose the former.  If God agrees with him, then he has properly taught God’s view.  But that would mean that God cares about the proper teaching of not caring about proper teaching, and that he seems to think it is important to convey sound doctrine on the point of sound doctrine not being important.  Indeed.  It would also mean that God had to communicate his lack of caring about sound doctrine.  Did He do that in the Bible (where?) or outside it? 

Read the verses – or the whole Bible, for that matter – and decide for yourself if God cares about sound doctrine.

2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

“The Lord says . . .”

Is the Bible the Word of God?

The Bible directly quotes God roughly 3,000 times and the New Testament writers quote the Old Testament as the Word of God 320 times.  Keep in mind that some of those references covered whole sections of scripture and not just one verse.

Also, Jesus claimed to be God, so all the “red letters” would be Biblical claims to be the Word of God.  And roughly 10% of the red letters quote the black letters.  As noted in “What did Jesus think of the Old Testament,” the references Jesus made to the Old Testament were varied and often cited the most controversial parts – Satan, Noah, Jonah, Sodom, etc.  Jesus made zero corrections to the Old Testament, and He quoted from the Pentateuch (the first five books), Psalms, Jonah and others.  He even said:

Matthew 5:17-18 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

I did some searches in my Bible software on a few phrases to see how many times they occurred.  There were so many that I got tired after a while.  Watch for them when you read the Bible.  It is really quite amazing.

• The Lord says 198
• The Lord said 301
• The word of the Lord 239
•  . . . declares the Lord 266
•  . . . oracle 47
• I am the Lord 158
• Lord instructed 3
• Lord commanded 117
• Lord had commanded 24
• the Lord gave this command 1
• Lord gave 42
• Lord told 10
• Lord has told 4
• Says the Lord 103
• The Lord almighty says 47
• Says the Lord almighty 31
• The Lord almighty, the God of Israel says 1
• Lord spoke 25
• Lord revealed 1
• Lord then said 1
• Lord answered 23
• God said 54
• Lord had said 31
• Lord replied 11
• Holy one of Israel says 2
• Lord called 14

Then, of course, there is 2 Timothy 3:16-17 – All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.  (Yes, I know some people think that doesn’t apply to the New Testament.  I’ll address that in another post.)  And Peter referred to Paul’s writings as scripture. 

So the Bible makes an extraordinary amount of claims to be the Word of God and that it was transmitted to us accurately.

What’s the point?

Now before any skeptics or Liberal Theologians choke on their own rage yelling, “circular reference!,” let me point out that I’m not referring to these as my only proof that the Bible is God’s Word.  I understand that claiming that the Bible is God’s Word because it says it is God’s Word wouldn’t be an adequate argument.  We have other evidence for it being God’s Word. 

Still, there are a couple important points one can draw from this huge amount of references. 

If the Bible is God’s Word then wouldn’t you expect it to make that claim?  In fact, if it didn’t make that claim wouldn’t you view that as a reason for it not being God’s Word?  And if it said it wasn’t God’s Word then it obviously wouldn’t be God’s Word.  So the claims to be God’s Word are a sort of necessary occurrence.

The second and main point of this post is only for Christians who claim the Bible isn’t all inspired by God, or that it was just what the Jews and Christians thought God was saying, or that it is somehow incomplete. 

If you really think the Bible has upwards of 3,000 errors / lies in it, why pick it up? 

How do you discern which parts belong there and which do not?  You appear to believe in Dalmatian Theology, where the Bible is only inspired in spots and that you are inspired to spot the spots, or Advanced Dalmatian Theology, where God is also changing spots and adding/removing spots, and, oddly enough, He is only telling theological liberals and progressives.

Why should I trust your “inspiration” more than I trust the writings of the Apostles or their close companions, especially considering that every word they wrote has been scrutinized by believers and non-believers for 2,000 years?  Why should I trust your views when you deny many of the essentials of the faith and often claim that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection aren’t necessary for people to be reconciled to God or to go to Heaven? 

The Gospels and the rest of the New Testament make multiple warnings about sound doctrine and Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their false doctrines.  But as Timothy pointed out last week, sound doctrine is found in the Word of God.  Otherwise, what doctrines were the writers referring to? 

From beginning to end, the Bible claims to be the Word of God.  Is believing that a requirement for salvation?  No.  The criminal on the cross wasn’t a Bible scholar but he went to Heaven because he put his faith in Jesus. 

But how even marginally educated Christians can hold a view other than the Bible being the Word of God is beyond me. 

Exploring Christianity – Part 9 – Open mindedness

Here’s the latest installment of my friend Nicholas’ interview with me about Christianity.

Nicholas asked, “Christianity, like so many religions, insists that it encompasses the ultimate truth. Therefore, to be Christian is to believe that to disagree with this ‘truth’ is to be wrong. This in mind, is it possible to be Christian and open-minded at the same time?”

Yes.

And in a very real sense, people of faith (not just Christians) are clearly more open minded than atheists in at least one way: We submit that things can have material (physical) or spiritual causes.  The atheist only considers material causes for everything in the universe, including concepts such as trust, love, justice, etc.  That doesn’t make us right, but it does show that we take all possibilities into consideration.

Everyone makes truth claims – atheists and agnostics included – and that doesn’t impact their ability to be open-minded.  You can be a Christian and be open or closed-minded and you can be an atheist and be open or closed-minded.

Christians have wrestled with all the tough questions for 2,000 years.  (Why do the wicked prosper?  Why do bad things happen to good people? etc.)  And most of these were already addressed in the Bible - check out Job, Ecclesiastes, the Psalms, etc.  The stereotype of blind faith is simply inaccurate.  On a large scale, the Reformation would never have happened if Luther et al weren’t thinking critically. 

I think it was Augustine who said, “All truth is God’s truth.”  We believe that the Bible contains God’s truth, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other truths outside the Bible.  The Apostle Paul, for example, was obviously very well read.  John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, said, “Religion without reason is no religion at all.”

Clear thinking is a Christian virtue.  Here are just a couple examples.  (BTW, this was probably just a coincidence, but my Bible software usually defaults to the last verse I referred to, which happened to have been in Romans.  But when I alt-tabbed over to it the first verse I wanted was already there.  Odds?  1 out of 41,173.)

Please read the first one especially closely and keep in mind that Paul was arguably the greatest evangelist of all time.  Yet the Bereans are lauded for being skeptical and not believing until they compared what Paul said with what was in the Old Testament.  This is certainly not a “blind faith.” 

Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 Test everything. Hold on to the good.

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Open-mindedness is a virtue – to a point.  As Ben Witherington III (Christian scholar) is fond of saying, his Grandma told him not to be so open-minded that his brains fell out. 

Intellectual honesty requires seeking the truth regardless of where it leads.  But when you find it, it’s closing time (at least for that topic, or until someone offers up new evidence). 

Are we always as open-minded as we should be?  Perhaps not.  But don’t underestimate how much thought countless people have put into their faith.  Christians around the world put their livelihoods and their lives on the line every day for their faith.  I’m pretty sure they have put a lot of thought into it. 

It might help to consider some examples.  I have researched the essentials of the faith exhaustively: Jesus is God, He is the only way to salvation, the Trinity, etc. and it would take a tremendous amount of new counterevidence and persuasion to move my positions on those topics.

However, there are countless topics of faith such as the age of the earth (Old?  Young?), method of Baptism (Sprinkling?  Immersion?), etc. that I keep an open mind on.  I also keep an open mind on secular issues – i.e., what is the best way to accomplish the best for society?  If you or others have specific topics where they question others’ open-mindedness, please mention them in the comments section.

Again, is our approach to truth and our worldview really much different than with non-religious people?  Many atheists/agnostics I know seem rather entrenched in their positions.   Is it possible for them to think they possess the “truth” (that there is no God or that He didn’t clearly reveal himself to us) yet still keep open minds? 

Remember, the secular world agrees with much of the evidence that we are grounding our faith upon.  Even skeptics and critics of the Bible concede that Jesus died on a Roman cross, that his body was not located, that many people claimed to have witnessed his post-resurrection appearances and that even more had radically transformed lives and died rather than deny that He was God.  Based on those facts and others I came to the conclusion that the most logical explanation is that Jesus was resurrected from the dead and that He is God.  Others may draw different conclusions, but that alone doesn’t make either of us close minded.

Previous installments

Exploring Christianity – Part 7 – Prayer

See below to see the latest installment of my friend Nicholas’ interview with me about Christianity or click here for the whole thing.  

Nicholas wrote: In my experience, most prayers fall into one of two general categories – prayers of thanks and prayers of request. I understand the first quite well, and I understand that prayers of the second type help one to feel as though they are helping – but do they really? Does praying to God with a request make Him more likely to pay attention to that request, or is it purely a symbolic act? After all, if you believe God is all-knowing, then He is already aware of your request before you make it.

Hi Nicholas – good questions.  The Bible is the primary way God speaks to us and prayer is the primary way we speak to him.  The more time you spend with someone the more you act like them.  In our “Santa Claus God” culture we tend to only think of praying for things that benefit us.  But prayer is a huge opportunity and blessing for us to “approach the throne of grace with confidence” and do so much more than that.

There are prayer paradoxes (or “prayeradoxes,” as I call them) – seemingly contradictory statements that are still true.  Here are a few things I do know about prayer.

Jesus said to pray, to pray often and to pray fervently.  He followed his own advice and set an example for the Disciples.  Let me know if you want verses for any of those (there are plenty).

You are right that we believe that God is omniscient and knows our requests before we ask him.  Jesus said that very thing just before teaching the Disciples the Lord’s prayer:

Matthew 6:8-9 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name . . .

So the paradox of God knowing what we’ll ask and God telling us to pray anyway was not lost on Jesus.  He noted as such in successive sentences.  There are obviously still reasons to pray.

Prayer is definitely not just symbolic.  But I don’t think the effectiveness is as formulaic as God saying, “Well, 999 people prayed, but I’ll only answer this prayer if 1,000 pray.”  There is a little mystery there.

I have come across many examples of answered prayers.  Will they convince a skeptic?  Usually not, but sometimes they do.  But that isn’t the purpose of prayer according to the Bible.

C.S. Lewis pointed out that Satan’s desire would be a heads he wins / tails we lose scenario: If prayers aren’t answered, people will assume God doesn’t exist or at least doesn’t answer prayers.  If prayers are answered, we’ll rationalize that they could how they could have been answered anyway. 

Prayer does so much more than just offer thanks and requests.  You are conversing with the one true God and your Creator.  He knows everything you’ve said and done, so you don’t have to be fearful in confessing to him.  And confession literally means to say what God says.  You aren’t telling him anything He didn’t know.  You are saying that you agree with him now and plan to do things his way.

One key, of course, is to pray in line with what Jesus would want.  When we often say, “In Jesus’ name,” that isn’t some type of superstition.  It is a recognition that we think we’re praying for the same things He would want and that we’re praying with the power of his name.

While we’re on the topic, here’s an acrostic that spells out A-C-T-S.  It is a prayer primer that some people use.  It covers some of the basic attributes of prayer.

A – Adoration / Praise

C – Confession

T – Thanksgiving

S – Supplication (a fancy church word for requests)

For anyone wanting a more thorough discussion on prayer, I recommend Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? by Philip Yancey.  We just studied it in our Sunday School class. 

Previous installments

Introduction

Part 1 – The Bible

Part 2 – Credibility of the Author(s) - A

Part 3 – Credibility of the Author(s) - B

Part 4 - Hell and More on Hell

Part 5 – Interpreting the Bible or abusing it? – A

Part 6 – Interpreting the Bible or abusing it? – B

Memorizing Bible verses

I came across a site that helps you memorize Bible verses and thought I would link to it while re-running this post.  Check it out!

Psalm 119:9, 11 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Memorizing verses may sound like an endeavor just for young children, but it is valuable for us all. It helps us know God’s Word better, counter temptation, have ready answers, and more. How did Jesus respond to Satan’s temptations? With scripture.

I used to think I couldn’t memorize scriptures, but I finally realized I just wasn’t trying very hard. Here are some tips:

• Try to memorize 1-2 verses per week.
• Use them!
• Meditate on the meaning of the verses (be sure to understand their context from the passages around them).
• Find verses that have special meaning to you.
• Be sure to refresh yourself now and then or you’ll forget them.
• Try the Topical Memory System. It includes little cards with verses on them.

Methods – pick the one that works for you (or more than one)

• Write them out several times
• Record them and listen to them in your car or elsewhere
• Read one every time you get in the car (or before bed, etc.)

What worked best for me was when I recorded them as individual .mp3 files then listened to them over and over when driving, mowing the lawn, jogging, etc. I would listen to one several times then repeat it. After doing this for a few days I had it memorized.

It is useful to know the chapter and verse, but it is much less important than knowing the scripture itself. The chapters and verses weren’t added until hundreds of years after the Bible was finished. Jesus, Paul and others frequently quoted the Old Testament without referring to which book it came from.

Here are files of my favorite verses in both Microsoft Word & Excel.

Exploring Christianity – Part 5 – Interpreting the Bible or abusing it?

See below to see the latest installment of my friend Nicholas’ interview with me about Christianity or click here for the whole thing.  

Nicholas wrote: Historically, the Bible has been used to justify some pretty atrocious actions.  I assume you believe there is one correct interpretation of the Bible and that any interpretation which allowed these actions was incorrect.  Do you believe that you are in possession of that one correct interpretation?

With respect to atrocities that were rationalized by using the Bible - and I’m pretty sure we agree on what those actions were and that they were indeed atrocious – I think it is possible to interpret the Bible clearly, just as it is possible to interpret it clearly on the essentials of the faith. 

Does the fact that people misinterpret or even abuse scripture mean the scripture itself isn’t reliable?  Of course not.  Otherwise anyone could disprove anything they wanted to by twisting the meanings  (You didn’t pose that question; I just assumed someone might be wondering about that possibility).  In fairness, we should apply this principle to other faiths as well.

In What about the Crusades?! And the Inquisition?! Etc.?! I pointed out that one shouldn’t judge an ideology based on the actions of those who violate its tenets.  But as you allude to, how can we be sure what the real tenets are?

I am probably more agitated at those who misinterpret the Bible for their own ends than you are, because it distracts people from the basic Gospel message and harms our ministries.  False teachers really bother me.  The Apostle Paul didn’t mind if people preached the Gospel with wrong motives as long as they got the message right.  He minded a lot if they got the message wrong, even if their motives were sincere.  The importance of sound, accurate teachings is a key element of Christianity. 

In general, I hold to this saying regarding church doctrines: In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.  This means that if someone doesn’t hold to the essentials of the faith (Jesus is God, He is the one way to salvation, the Bible is authoritative and reliable, etc.) then he doesn’t meet the orthodox definition of a Christian.  But there are plenty of things we can charitably disagree on.

Having said that, there have been atrocious things done that were justified by misinterpreting the Bible.  These are exceptions to the saying above.  They may not have been in the “essentials” category in the sense of what defines a Christian, but that doesn’t mean the issues weren’t important or worth fighting over. 

As these examples will show, the solution is more and better Bible reading and study, not less.  The answers are there, but we have to be Biblically literate enough to point out false doctrines when they crop up.  People may come to these wrong beliefs by accident, lack of effort or because it furthers their agenda or fits their preconceived worldview.  Jeremiah 17:9 says The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

There are rules to use when interpreting the Bible, just as there are when reading any work of literature.  When in doubt, follow some basic Bible Study Tips: Reading passages in context is perhaps the most critical rule (see Never read a Bible verse).  You can also view multiple translations, go back to the original language, let the clear explain the unclear, read it in light of other scripture, etc.  This will solve most problems. 

This applies to the classic example of U.S.-style slavery.  I add the qualifier “U.S.-style” because it is quite different than the slavery acknowledged in the Bible.  Did people try to twist the Bible to justify their actions?  Yes.  But a thorough reading of the Bible, in context, crushes those arguments.  These people were obviously stolen from their homeland, and to say the slave owners didn’t love their neighbors (the slaves) as themselves is a massive understatement. 

Now let’s consider a more current example: Abortion.  Some Christians try to twist scripture to say that the Bible is supportive of abortion.  Their main point is often that “Jesus didn’t say anything about abortion.”  That is called an argument from silence, because there are many things that Jesus didn’t specifically mention (rape, pedophilia, drunk driving, etc.) that are clearly moral wrongs.  More importantly, He did say, “Do not murder.”

The main passage pro-choice Christians use to support their position is Exodus 21.  Click the link for a good overview of the controversy.  If people are after the larger meaning that hitting a pregnant woman is different than hitting a non-pregnant woman, then virtually any translation of that passage will suffice.  However, if someone wants to determine if there are implications to the abortion debate based on that passage then they will get mixed messages from different translations.  Some make it clear that the unborn is a distinct human being, while others make it appear that there is a lesser value.

So what is the solution?  Simple: Just go back to the original Hebrew.  As the link shows, that clears things right up. 

Another example is the Inquisition.  I’m not sure what verses, if any, they used to justify their actions, but they couldn’t have been more opposed to Biblical teachings if they tried.  Forcing someone to believe is simply not a Biblical motif.  Consider the story of the rich ruler.  The man didn’t like Jesus’ terms, so Jesus let him walk away sad.  Jesus did not run after him and tackle him or force him to believe, even though Jesus loved him. 

You can also watch some of the false teachers on TV and see how they twist scripture to make it look like God just wants you to be rich and healthy.   They are God’s middlemen, of course, and to get things started you need to send them money.  I keep trying to find that in the Bible, but I can’t. 

Twisting God’s Word is not a new development.  Satan did that in Genesis 3 (“Did God really say . . .”) and Matthew 4, for example.  Again, the answer is more scripture, or more accurate scripture readings, which is how Jesus responded. 

Let me know if you want to dive more deeply into any of these or if you have other examples you would like addressed.  I think the overall principles will apply to just about any controversy you can find.   

Exploring Christianity – Part 4 – Hell

(Cross posted at the 4Simpsons blog) 

See below to see the latest installment of my friend Nicholas’ interview with me about Christianity or click here for the whole thing.  

Nicholas wrote: What happens to those who, through no fault of their own, never experience the Gospel of Christ?  Have entire populations been hell-bound from birth having never had a chance to experience the Bible?

That is a difficult and important question that many Christians wrestle with, including me.   I can explain my theological views but still wonder on occasion just how it caches out in real life.  I’ll lay out what I see as the Biblical, orthodox case while conceding that some Christians take a different view.  I’ll be wordy, as usual, and come at it from a clinical standpoint then from a couple other angles. 

Once I became a Christian I kept thinking about how I had rejected the Gospel for so many years even with all the advantages I had - growing up with Christian parents, going to church, having a Christian wife and living in a country with religious freedom.  (I didn’t commit my life to Christ until my late 20′s).  Why did I get so many chances when others may not hear the Gospel at all?  Then it hit me one day: That’s why it is called grace.  I didn’t deserve anything from God, regardless of when and how I came to believe.  No one else deserves it either, though in our human reasoning we may rationalize that we do.  We deserve judgment.  God is merciful in not judging us immediately.  Grace is unmerited favor.

It is important to point out something basic to ground the discussion: A righteous, ethical judge has no moral obligation to pardon a guilty and justly convicted person.  God is a perfect and righteous judge.  He is the epitome of love and mercy, but He is also perfectly Holy and He loves justice.  We are all sinners in thoughts, words, actions and lack of good actions.  Just 10 sins per day for 50 years would add up to 182,500 sins.  Now what righteous judge could overlook that? 

So how does the Bible address this?  Chapters 1-3 of the book of Romans (as well as the rest of the book) lay out much of the reasoning.  In Romans 1 we see some of the most important “big picture” passages in the Bible, showing how God reveals himself to us in his creation:

Romans 1:18-20 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

So in that passage and others the Bible teaches that God has made his existence plain to us and that we are “without excuse.”  If anyone thinks they’ll stand before God and deny that He revealed himself to them in creation they are mistaken.  So every person in every culture for all time has had the light of creation.  Still, countless people reject the existence of God or make up their own gods. 

Exploring Christianity – Part 3 – Credibility of the Author(s) – B

See below to see the latest installment of my friend Nicholas’ interview with me about Christianity or click here for the whole thing.  This part is a follow up on the credibility of Biblical writers.  We agreed to move on to a different topic next, which is good, because I’ve run out of things to say on this one! 

Just a reflection as I go through this: Whether you publish it online or not, I encourage Christians to have their own rationale in mind for why they believe.  You never know when someone might ask.  It doesn’t have to be long or formal.  As 1 Peter 3:15 says,

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

—–

Nicholas wrote: It seems your main argument for the bible being the word of God follows these lines:

Exploring Christianity – Part 2 – Credibility of the Author(s) – A

Click here to see the latest installment of my friend Nicholas’ interview with me about Christianity.  He set up a new easy-to-read page that he can just add to as we go along.  The second part dealt with the case for the credibility of Biblical writers. 

Follow-up: Let’s start with your claim that the Bible is written by “credible authors.” If you could prove the credibility of an author who lived thousands of years ago, that would certainly bolster your argument when it came to writing describing Christ’s life, for example. However, it does nothing to bolster the veracity of writings which claim to portray God’s wishes for us. Since much of the Bible is comprised of these wishes, often revealed to an individual through means not witnessed by anyone else, aren’t you essentially taking them at their word? And what of the vast parts of the Bible the author of which is not known – how do you trust an unknown author?

It seems to me that while you can bolster your argument for accurate copying/translation through material evidence, your argument weakens when you regard the testimony of four individuals as true because you deem them trustworthy and completely falls apart when considering portions of the Bible which were simply “inspired” by God. At the end of the day, doesn’t your belief in the Bible’s veracity come down to faith?

Let me answer your last question first, namely, “Doesn’t your belief in the Bible’s veracity come down to faith?”

The answer is, “Yes,” in the sense of having faith based on confidence and trust. It is faith based on evidence. It isn’t blind faith or, worse yet, faith in spite of evidence. We all have faith in something; the question is what is the most logical and well-supported thing to have faith in?

There are parts of the Bible that have unknown or disputed authorship, but I wouldn’t consider it a vast portion. The credit for authorship may not have been important to pass along on some books, but the early church obviously took them to be inspired and worthy of canonization. There is a great deal of church history outside the Bible, so it isn’t like someone came along later and made up all these names. The early believers took these writings very seriously and carefully copied and shared them with others.

With respect to Moses’ authorship of the first five books of the Bible, here’s an article that deals with both sides of the debate. Here’s the most important part: “But nowhere in the Bible is it specifically stated that Moses wrote the entire Pentateuch. Even if one believes in the inerrancy of the Bible, a case can be made that he authored only parts of the Torah, and that other writers added sections of their own and/or edited the resultant text.”

I’m not sure I completely follow your claim that accurate accounts of Christ’s life wouldn’t necessarily bolster our confidence in the portions that “claim to portray God’s wishes for us.” The Gospels record that He claimed to be God and that He proved He was God by performing countless miracles (including walking on water, raising the dead, healing the blind, curing leprosy, etc.) and rising from the dead just as He predicted. If those accounts are true, then we should take everything He said very seriously. Jesus validated the Old Testament, so we could trust that as well.

So why were these witnesses reliable? In the interest of space I’m going to summarize some points from an article called Matthew and John on the Witness Stand. Matthew and John were two of the Apostles and eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

The article notes five criteria used in legal circles to determine witness credibility. Do these two meet the criteria?

1. Did the witness make statements on a previous occasion inconsistent with his present testimony?
There is no evidence that Matthew and John ever submitted different testimonies before or after their Gospels were written.

2. Is the witness biased?
Matthew died as a martyr for the faith and John was exiled to an island (basically, a prison) or possibly martyred. If Jesus stayed dead, they had no incentive to claim that He had been raised to life. The same goes for people like Peter, Paul, James, and countless others who died grisly deaths rather than recant their message. This gives them a high degree of authenticity. Some people will die for a lie if they think it is true, but I don’t know anyone who knowingly dies for a lie. People are typically biased to save their hides but not to risk them for a known lie.

3. Is the witness of good character?
I am not aware of a shred of evidence that impugns their character or that they didn’t live their lives as if they really believed Jesus rose from the dead.

4. Was the witness incapable of observing, remembering, or recounting the matters testified about?
“Their writings are clear and lucid with an abundance of detail.” They give no indication that they were invented.

5. Did other witnesses show that material facts are otherwise than as testified to by the witness?
There are no contradictions in their testimonies (or those of other Gospel accounts). If Jesus’ body was still dead, I assure you that the Jewish authorities would have been glad to parade it down the street.

In summary, it is in no way required for us to confirm authorship to a specific individual (I trust directions to appliances even though I don’t know the author), but the Bible has many confirmed authors who are credible witnesses.

Exploring Christianity – Part 1 – The Bible

Why do I believe the Bible is the true word of God and that other holy books are not?

This was the first question posed to me by my friend Nicholas during our conversation about Christianity.  He posted it at his blog last week.  I’m posting it here for archival purposes.  Here is my response:

First, let me thank you for this unique opportunity.  In our world of sound bites and bumper sticker arguments it is so refreshing to be able to just lay out a set of beliefs in the marketplace of ideas and have a serious and respectful dialogue.  I have learned a lot from you about how to have graceful and charitable conversations.  I know you’ve studied the Bible before, but I’ll try to address your questions as if responding to someone who hasn’t. 

First, a little background: I grew up with a terrific set of Christian parents who have always lived out their faith in teaching and in service to others.  Other than my college years, I have always gone to church . . . but let’s just say I wasn’t paying real close attention for the first 28 years or so.  I was quite the skeptic.  I think it is important to note this because I and many others didn’t come to faith through brainwashing from parents, schools or churches.  We did so after initially rejecting and rebelling and later examining the evidence for ourselves.  That doesn’t make us right, and that isn’t the only way people become followers of Christ.  But it does counter the pervasive myth that we always believed these things or that we accepted them blindly.  I didn’t become a believer overnight; it was something I wrestled with for a long time. 

You asked a profoundly important question.  The Bible claims that Jesus is God and that He is the only way to forgiveness of your sins and to eternal life.  The Bible claims to speak for God over 2,000 times, so if it isn’t his Word then it has a staggering amount of lies and wouldn’t be worth picking up.  That doesn’t mean it is true, just that it matters a great deal if it is true or not.   

On to your questions.  Here’s the short version: When I examined the evidence for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and for the authority of the Bible I found it to be extremely compelling.  The Bible has credible authors with eyewitness accounts, claims that were falsifiable, accurate prophecies, complete support from archeological finds, robust copying processes that ensured we know what the originals said and plenty of accurate one-time translations from the original languages to our language.  I found solid answers to every difficult passage I cared to investigate.  I also noted the positive, dramatic transformations the Bible has had on people and cultures who take it seriously, as well as the tremendous impact it has had in my life.

I found other holy books to be lacking in some way, such as historical mistakes or clear contradictions to what we know to be true.  I also found their accumulation processes to be less reliable (i.e., allegedly transmitted to one person over a short period of time).  They also contain major differences that can’t be reconciled with the Bible.

To those who haven’t read the Bible, my suggestion is to just dive in.  The Gospel of John is a good place to start.  Find someone to read it with or join a Bible study.  Get a “study Bible” that has explanatory footnotes.  Keep asking tough questions.  I read it all the way through 10 years ago and it was life changing.  At a minimum you will have read the most popular book of all time and will have a better understanding of Christianity. 

Here’s the longer version . . .

Dalmatian Theology

They don’t refer to it as such, but many Christians teach a message of Dalmatian theology, whereby the Bible is only inspired in spots and they are inspired to spot the spots.   (Hat tip to the Baptist pastor who coined this phrase. )

Saying the Bible isn’t fully inspired by God may seem like a humble premise, but it actually makes several strong (and unfounded) claims. 

It implies that God couldn’t, or wouldn’t deliver His word to us in a reliable way, and that despite God’s alleged failings, flawed humans are able to discern which parts were inspired and which parts were not.  Are we to believe that humans are to correct for God’s alleged errors?   

Why is this a serious problem?  It is hard enough to follow the teachings of the Bible without having “Christians” pick and choose what they want to believe in.  Worse yet, they ignore some parts of scripture so they can teach that the opposite is not only acceptable but desirable. 

If someone claims the Bible is only partially inspired, ask a few questions:

• How did they come to this conclusion?
• Do they think their favorite verses are inspired?  If so,  how do they know?  How about John 3:16?  How about “love your neighbor?”  Whenever “Judge not, lest ye be judged” is quoted, I never hear the liberal theologians insist that Jesus didn’t really say that.
• If the Bible is only partly inspired, how can they be sure that their preferred verses aren’t the ones that are uninspired and the ones they don’t like are the “real” verses?

Here’s one I made up: Advanced Dalmatian Theology.  It is just like Dalmatian theology, except God is also changing spots and adding/removing spots, and, oddly enough, He is only telling theological liberals and progressives .   They use phrases such as “God is still speaking,” but they don’t mean He still speaks through his Word (that would be a true statement).  They think He is still revealing new truths to the church and changing doctrines taught in the Bible.  They may also say foolish things like, “The Holy Spirit is moving in a new direction.”  Indeed.

But the orthodox can fall prey to this in a more subtle way by claiming full inspiration but conveniently ignoring passages we don’t like.  Consider this passage on church leadership, where some exaggerate ”not given to drunkenness” to mean no alcohol whatsoever but ignore the “must manage his own family well . . .” part.

1 Timothy 3:2-4 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.

Another example is correctly teaching about the sin of homosexual behavior while neglecting to give proper emphasis to Biblical admonitions against divorce and adultery.  We need to teach all of scripture with balance.  Grandstanding on sins that aren’t temptations to us and soft-pedaling those that are is not an attractive or Christian thing to do.   

There are plenty of reasons and resources to defend the accuracy and integrity of all of the original scriptures.  We don’t need to get sloppy and just follow the parts we like. 

I’ll close with some friendly advice: Don’t mess with God’s Word.

Deuteronomy 4:2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

Proverbs 30:5-6 Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.

Revelation 22:18-19 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.