Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: bnr-fos!bmers58!davem@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dave Mielke) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Is the Bible God's Word? Message-ID:Date: 2 Oct 89 21:06:12 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada Lines: 139 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article palmer@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Grant E. Palmer) writes: > So why do you believe the Bible is literally the word of God? Do not worry about having asked a blasphemous question. Also do not worry about getting anyone upset with such a question. The Scriptures say of themselves that they can only be understood and believed by those whom God has enabled. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know {them}, because they are spiritually discerned.". As you read through the four books of the Bible known as the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) you will come across numerous historical events involving Jesus restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, etc. While these Scriptures are historically accurate and do serve to give us crystal clear evidence that Jesus was God Himself, the only one who possesses truly life giving power, they also serve as historical parables which teach us a very important truth. We all start out life spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, and spiritually dumb. We are initially unable to see the truths in the Bible, unable to hear the truths in the Bible, and unable to discuss the truths in the Bible in a rational way. It is only when God Himself opens our spiritual eyes, spiritual ears, and spiritual mouths that we can begin to do all these things. Until we can do all these things it is irrational to suppose that we would be able to exercise a true faith. If you really believe that you want to believe then there are a couple of things which you should do in order to demonstrate to yourself that you are truly sincere about this desire. The Scriptures teach that if your desire is sincere then God is already drawing you to Himself and that He will most definitely finish the good work in you which He has already begun. God declares Himself to be both the author and the finisher of our faith. The first thing you should do is begin to ask God to open your spiritual eyes, ears and mouth. Make it clear by means of sincere prayer that you realize that you want to believe, but that you know that you cannot believe without His assistance. You must not make this request to God by merely speaking a series of well-chosen and impressive phrases; it must come right from your heart. The second thing that you should do is begin to read the Bible without schepticism, just simply believing that it really is the Word of God. God has written the Bible in such a way that those who read it with the intent of finding fault will find nothing but uhbelievable claims and apparent logical contradictions. He has, however, written it in such a way that those who read it with the understanding that it is the Word of God and, therefore, cannot contain any contradictions whatsoever, will find a harmony throughout the Scriptures that is so remarkably pure and perfect that it can be nothing other than the work of someone with infinitely more wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and organizational capabilities than any man (except Jesus) has ever had. This harmony is even more remarkable when we realize that the actual words were penned by more than forty different people, most of whom did not even know each other, in at least three different languages, over a period of about a couple of thousand years, in a time when there was no world-wide media service to promote the wide spread acceptance of concepts. Something else which you may wish to consider when reading the Bible is the accuracy of the prophesies which it contains. We are fortunate enough to be living at a time when we can look back at the fulfillments of many of them. Read, for example, Isaiah 53 with the understanding that it is one of the marvelous prophesies about the earthly life of Jesus. The Dead Sea scrolls are a historical proof that these words were written well before His conception. Then read the accounts of His life written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. You will discover that the prophesy in Isaiah 53 is completely flawless, even though it contains a remarkable amount of detail. Which single man, other than Jesus Himself, do you know who can predict the future so flawlessly and with such accuracy. Yet another thing you may wish to consider when reading the Bible is that it does not contain a single piece of bad advice for how we ought to live our lives. Much of its advice may be hard to implement, but it is nevertheless easy to see that the advice itself is still perfect. Even those scheptics who refer to Jesus as merely a great moral teacher have, by this very statement, acknowledged this truth. This world is full of all sorts of diverse political systems, is populated by all sorts of psychiatrists and psychologists and philosophers who have all offered their very learned opinions on how people ought to conduct their lives, and is even full of bilions of people like you and me who never run out of suggestions for the same. All this combined human intelligence has never come up with a method by which any one of us can realize that he can be guaranteed to have a truly fulfilling life, yet a book so small that you can put it in your pocket contains exactly that. Who other than the very designer of us all would be able to accomplish this magnifiscent feat? Have you ever been fully satisfied with anything that you have ever done in your life? Do you know of anyone else who has ever been truly satisfied by even one thing which he has ever done? We all get some satisfaction out of those things which we do, but we are much more often let down by ourselves and by others, and invariably come to the conclusion that there must be something else that we have just not yet found. You may be interested to know that the book of Ecclesiastes contains exactly these sorts of declarations. It was written by King Solomon, a man to whom God had imparted tremendous wisdom, as well as earthly riches and honour. He was a man who could fulfill any of his heart's desires whenever he wanted to, yet even he, with all that, came to the same conclusions as lowly and impoverished us. He finishes up by declaring in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this {is} the whole {duty} of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether {it be} good, or whether {it be} evil.". God has designed us to serve Him. None of us can ever be fully satisfied with his life until he realizes this and does accordingly. Failing to do what we were designed to do will always leave our hearts feeling empty because we know that, even though we may have expended a lot of effort, it has all been of absolutely no lasting value. I am one who was not taught these things by my parents, i.e. one who God led to these truths in my adult life, and can therefore tell you first hand that this statement is true. I tried lots of things in an attempt to make my life more enjoyable, and none of them had any lasting impact. Now that God has filled me with His love I am so much more satisfied than ever before and I don't even have to work for that satisfaction. There is nothing so eternally satisfying as a gift from God Himself. In a way this is the ultimate answer to your question. You can look at all the historical evidence that you can find, and it will never really convince you of the Bible's divine authorship, because even that historical evidence is tainted with all the imperfections that you are used to encountering when looking at other historical evidence. The irreversable transformation of a person's life when he begins to have a true faith and trust in God, however, is irrefutable, spiritual evidence of this same fact. The force of God's drawing power of people to Himself is infinitely greater than any other force with which we are familiar. It is irresistable, i.e. it is the one force which man will never be able to subdue. Mark 9:24 says "And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.". Dave Mielke, 613-726-0014 856 Grenon Avenue Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 6G3