Can You Trust the Bible part 1

Can you trust the Bible? Part 1

Short answer? Yes. Why? Let me give my thoughts.

I’m a Bible reader. Though not a scholar with advanced degrees, a professor, or expert in Hebrew or Greek, I’ve read and studied the book daily for over 30 years. Yet, there is so much more that I can and need to learn. I’m just a preacher, who opens it’s pages week after week for the sermon and finds in it not only direction for living, but authority over life. It speaks “Thus saith the Lord”, and “well done thou good and faithful servant”.

It has been observed that the Bible was written over a period of 1500 years by over 40different authors, with many varied backgrounds. The Bible teaches God’s will for humanity through their history.

It’s a book of controversy. Not only controversy within the pages themselves, but controversy over the nature of the book itself. Many everyday people may not realize that this controversy has been at the root of whole denominational splinters and college and university fractures.

Controversy within the church

Why has this book caused so much disruption? Pardon me for being simplistic but the reason is compromise. One side says it’s truth, and truth is important, and the other side says, well, it may or may not be true, but other things like unity are more important.

Here’s my take on this argument. The Bible speaks of unity created by the Spirit of Christ. Unity is taken care of within it’s pages. Done deal. As we grow as Christians, unity takes care of itself in our hearts radiating through our lives by love. But the truth is not sacrificed, or compromised.
The problem is when unity has been politicized externally through mergers, and the truth of the Bible has been sidelined as a non-issue. I’m belaboring this because the ultimate casualty in almost every case has been the integrity of the pages of Scripture.

Controversy outside of the church -(for the most part)

The book has some pretty serious detractors—heavy weight scholars both from within the church—yes, believe it or not—and outside the church over 2000 years after the fact. Question: If the Bible is not as it is widely believed, why are these “heavyweight” detractors even wasting their time with it? What about the enlightenment, and men like the German philosopher Nietzsche and his “God is dead” movement?
One could say, well because it is so widely believed, they are needed. My question still stands.

Here’s the other side of the coin. There are some “heavyweight” serious scholars representing many different traditions, from many academic institutions past and present who believe it to be true.
Bottom line? I argue this. To the honest skeptic, which includes many of my close friends, you can intellectually go either way on the Bible.

But here’s the thing, with the absence of any “death blow” by the skeptics and atheists past or present—even the “God is Dead” philosophy of the late 18th century, by even the minimum standard of debate, the argument for the Bible must logically remain as a legitimate position. In other words, “…through the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there” Like the proud Old Glory, still flying through the heat of the night battle, the Bible still remains intact after the smoke clears and the dawn appears.

That’s as a minimum. Look at the Bible for what it is, look at the cosmos, (creation) and your conscience. Then take the intellectual assurance that it is safe to believe it, and all the barriers are lifted to believing the stories of the Old Testament, and New, the miracles of Jesus, and most importantly the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. So much for the minimum argument, this can become a powerful liberating conviction.

This is why you and I can trust the Bible. Like Old Glory it remains atop the hill in spite of the battle all around--victorious in the message it proclaims. We must not let detractors or controversy distract, or discourage us from trusting it's message. Instead we must allow it to speak for itself as we open it's pages to read.

That’s what I know, a poor part-time country preacher.