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From: bnr-fos!bmers58!davem@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dave Mielke)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Is the Bible God's Word?
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Date: 2 Oct 89 21:06:12 GMT
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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