REASONS TO BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE

This is the third of a series of Reasons to Believe blog posts with my sister, Betty Haynie. Our thoughts may be helpful to those who don’t believe in God as well as others. Betty wrote down her beliefs in detail several years ago. I’ll post her thoughts monthly and add my thoughts and beliefs to each one. Our thoughts are intentionally brief on subjects that could fill volumes.

                                                                                 

WHY I BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE

By Betty Haynie

I believe the Bible is the result of God’s inspiration. The words in the Bible are NOT God’s exact words. But they are God’s exact messages. These are God’s thoughts expressed in man’s words. The writers communicated what they believed God wanted them to, expressed in their own style and verbiage. The most important thing to realize is that the Bible benefits us and even corrects our mistakes as described in the verse below.

“Every part of Scripture is God-breathed, and useful one way or another – showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.”  2 Timothy 3:16-17 The Message

The Bible began as oral tradition. Stories and lineages were taught from one generation to the next for hundreds of years. Many people wonder about the accuracy of such a beginning. When Alex Haley began researching his family for his book Roots, he traveled to Africa and located the elders of his family’s tribe. The oldest elder was able to recite the entire history, just as Alex had heard it, due to the respect they had for passing along accurate history. The early Hebrews had the same respect for tradition and history. They memorized lists of the names of their forefathers from Adam to Abraham. They kept mental records and passed them on because people regarded their “roots” as something significant.

It doesn’t make sense to me that God would create the world and all the people in it and not give us some sort of directions on how to live, or answer questions such as, “Why am I here?” I believe God left us a Guide book to help us find our way as Rick Warren writes in The Purpose-Driven Life:

The Bible tells us:

1. Why we are here

2. How life works

3. What things to avoid

4. What to expect in the future

5. What our individual purpose or ministry is (that He planned for us before we were even conceived!)

I like to read the Bible almost every day for it blesses me. Since 1990 I have read through the Bible several times, taken Bible classes and read a number of books about the Bible. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Chuck Missler’s book “Learn the Bible in 24 Hours” and Henrietta Mears’ book, “What the Bible is All About.”  Check them out!

The Bible contains verifiable history and geography, poetry, songs, love stories, truths for living called proverbs, and over a thousand prophecies. It includes “how- to” advice for daily living, the struggles and lives of real people including the honest presentation of their weaknesses and failures, and prophecies of things to come. The Bible also gives us the life, miracles, teachings, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the works of the disciples after Jesus’ death, the letters of Paul to nine churches and the revelations of things to come, and SOOOOO much more.

Most people accept the fact that Moses is credited with the writing of the first five books. Poets and prophets wrote much of the Old Testament. Paul is credited with writing much of the New Testament in the form of the Epistles - letters to the various churches which had begun to slip from their original commitment to the Lord. The other books were written by various people starting within 30 years of Jesus death and continuing over another 50 years or so. It matters not in the slightest who actually wrote down the books included in the Bible, it’s the message they present that is all important.

If God is all powerful and all knowing then certainly He could manage to find a few people to write down His messages. If you believe otherwise you are not giving God credit for being God. In this case I would suggest you read Your God is Too Small by J. B. Phillips. When I think of the hundreds of thousands of preachers who have preached each and every week, 50-52 weeks a year, for over 2,000 years (over 500 years in this country alone), using the Bible as their main source for thought, reflection, inspiration, truths and revelation, it boggles the mind how absolutely incredible this book is. Has any other book every supplied so many dissertations?

The Bible, the world’s all-time best seller - is filled with promises, reminders, challenges, history, poetry, and knowledge of God. It fills and soothes the troubled, weary or sad soul just as chicken soup soothes our physical aches and pains. But the Bible also gives us a connection with God that leads to praise and worship which in turn fills our heart’s soul and brings peace and contentment into our often hectic lives.

When you get right down to it, believing in anything requires faith. Even an atheist has to have faith - faith that there is no God. The choice is whether to believe in a faith built on God’s Word or believe in a faith built on man’s word. We need a standard by which we live our lives. The Bible - God’s Word, fills that place for millions. It is the bottom line in every decision we make. It is the bottom line in every relationship we have. It is the bottom line in every problem or situation we have on this earth. Living by this standard makes life a peaceful, joy-filled, wonderful experience.

Blessings, Betty

WHY I BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE

By Dottie Parish

Betty presents good evidence about the validity of the Bible. For anyone who has questions read my blog post on The Case of Christ by Lee Strobel – or see the movie!

So what more can I say?  As a child I memorized verses every Sunday in Sunday school. These verses, in part, brought me back to God in 1990. As a teen-ager I won a New Testament by memorizing Luke 15 including The Story of the Prodigal Son! Amazing, since I did stray away from God for decades.

Since 1990 I have been in Bible Studies almost continually. Adult Bible Classes provide a support group as well as life changing information. A new pastor in 1997 introduced us to Disciple Bible Study which included reading and studying 80 percent of the Bible in 34 weeks. We continued in these classes for four years. We also joined a fifteen week Alpha class in 2008 which answered questions about our faith. Every one of these classes inspired and changed us. The Bible is the Word of God.

I began journaling Scripture at the suggestion of Bible teachers. This is a great way to learn the Bible and also make it personally applicable. I journaled Psalm 51 for Lent one year. This is David’s Psalm asking for forgiveness after he committed adultery and murder. He was a man after God’s own heart yet a sinner. I confessed my own sin with each verse, a truly life changing time. The Bible is the Word of God.

I went through the promises of Jesus and the commands of Jesus and wrote my thoughts about each one. Most recently I began journaling Psalm 119 the longest Psalm in the Bible. All of these are on my blog. Journaling scripture leads to inner change. The Bible is the Word of God.

The sermons we have absorbed in the last ten years have also been Bible studies! These help us live out our faith on a daily basis. The most important parts of the Bible are the accounts of Jesus life, death on the cross and resurrection. If the resurrection is not true – Christianity is of no value. The many prophecies of the coming messiah are amazing also. The letters by Paul and others give instruction to the Church and its members on how to live and how to be the Church. It is the Word of God.

The Bible reveals the character of God showing us he is holy, omnipotent, trustworthy, and personal. He is working out his plan through Christ Jesus. The Bible feeds our faith, guides our walk, holds us accountable, and gives us great hope. The beauty of the language in the Bible is like no other book. Consider the 23^rd Psalm and the Lord’s Prayer and the Love chapter 1 Corinthians 13. Will you open your Bible and read it? Check out this amazing book. It is the Word of God.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3: 16

Blessings, Dottie

Watch for the next Reasons to Believe post on WHY I BELIEVE IN JESUS in late August by Betty and Dottie

The Case for Christ

A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus

by Lee Strobel

Lee Strobel, an atheist and a lawyer, set out to disprove Christianity after his wife became a Christian. He put Christianity on trial interrogating renowned scholars in various fields. Here are some excerpts adapted from his book, The Case for Christ.

Are the biographies of Jesus true? 

The four gospel writers (the writers of the biographies of Jesus) were eyewitnesses to what they wrote about. They lived in an oral culture so scriptures and teachings were memorized extensively. Even though they wrote their accounts 20 to 30 years after the crucifixion, they give historical dates which are correct and they are consistent with, though not identical to each other. In comparison, the two earliest biographies of Alexander the Great were written by Arrian and Plutarch more than four hundred years after Alexander’s death in 323 B.C., yet historians consider them to be generally trustworthy.

What about the copies of copies of the four gospels? 

The gospels have an unprecedented multiplicity of copies compared with other ancient writings. The more copies you have that agree with each other, especially if they come from different geographical areas, the more you can cross check them to figure out what the original document was like. In addition to Greek manuscripts we also have translations of the gospels into other languages at a relatively early time – into Latin, Syriac and Coptic…In all there are about 24,000 manuscripts in existence. 

How does the age of gospel texts compare with other ancient books?

The quantity of New Testament material is overwhelming in comparison with other works of antiquity. Homer wrote the Iliad, which was the bible of the Greeks, in 800 B.C. There are less than 650 manuscripts of the Illiad today all from the second and third century A.D. or later. In the case of other ancient texts five to ten centuries elapsed between the original and the earliest surviving copy. In contrast we have copies of the New Testament gospels beginning within a couple of generations from the writing of the originals.

What about copying errors? 

No book is without errors. (See Faithnotes blog Proofreading Scripture). The errors in the bible manuscripts are minor such as misspelling of words or putting the words in a different sequence without changing the meaning. There is no variation in the major doctrines of the church. 

Is there credible evidence for Jesus outside his biographies? 

One expert documented 39 ancient sources that corroborate more than one hundred facts concerning Jesus’ life, teachings, crucifixion, and resurrection. Seven secular sources and several early creeds concern the deity of Jesus, a doctrine definitely present in the earliest church.

Did Jesus and Jesus alone match the identity of the Messiah? 

Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, prophets foretold the coming of the Messiah who would redeem God’s people. Dozens of Old Testament prophecies rule out impostors and validate the authentic Messiah. Jesus, and only Jesus, throughout history, matches this prophetic fingerprint.

Here are examples of prophecy about Jesus written 700 years before he was born!

Isaiah 7:7 “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Immanuel means “God with us.”)

Isaiah wrote this 700 years before Jesus was born to the virgin Mary!

Micah 5:2 “You, Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, from ancient times.”

Micah wrote this 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem! Also, Matthew, the Jewish gospel writer cites this verse in Matthew 2:6!

Isaiah 53:1-12 contains many prophecies of the messiah that match Jesus whom the Jewish people did not recognize although he came as their Messiah.

¹Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression^[a] and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.^[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,^[g]
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,^[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

If you still have doubts about Jesus read in the Bible the gospel accounts of him, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Also there is much more evidence in The Case for Christ.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem of a virgin, lived a sinless life, claimed to be God, healed the sick, performed miracles, taught that God is Love and lived as a servant. He was an innocent lamb taken to the slaughter without a word. He died on a Roman cross and rose again the third day. Many eyewitnesses verify his many appearances after his resurrection. He met many times with his disciples during that time and forty days later they watched as he rose to heaven to be seated with God in heaven. He lives today! His righteousness covers our sins so we can be adopted as children by the one True and Holy God.

Blessings, Dottie

P. S. Lee Strobel became a Christian after he failed to disprove the biblical evidence that Jesus is the one true God.

How Do You Read the Bible?

I’ve read the Bible in many different ways over the years as well as in many group Bible studies. One of the most helpful and challenging ways I have read the Bible involved a study of the commands of Jesus.  A speaker at a conference in July 2004 prompted this.  A remarkable, Spirit filled Christian, she said “I was on the remedial path (in the Christian life) until I studied the commands of Jesus.”

I decided to try it.

I immersed myself in “the red words” in the Bible.  I compiled all the commands of Jesus in the four gospels combining those that repeat. This alone stunned me.  For instance, how often He said “Listen?”  Do we listen?  We don’t listen very well or very much.  Knowing how important this is helps me listen much more. 

Listing his commands helped me know more clearly what’s important and keeps my focus more on Him and His word.  It’s awesome to think of the fact that these “red words” are the very words of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.  And He said them not just to his followers then but to all of us who now follow Him.

Here’s his first command and my journal comments about it.

REPENT!

Matt 4:17     Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

Mark 1:15    The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.

Luke 13:3     Unless you repent you too will all perish.

Luke 13:5     Unless you repent you too will perish.

REPENT!

Father,

I turned away from you after knowing you well in my youth. I wandered far from you and from your church. You accepted me back even before I repented but led me on a path of repentance following that. Working The Twelve Steps for Christians in 1992 was quite a revelation to me, especially the searching and fearless moral inventory. As you know I then repented big time - writing thirty letters to those I had harmed including one to you and one to your church. This was a scary step but very helpful and your acceptance and forgiveness and that of the church opened my heart to you more and lifted a load from my heart.

This spring I journaled Psalm 51 in which David is repenting all his sins and this brought me to repentance on some issues that I had not been conscious of before. Your love was there forgiving me. 

The “little sins” are the ones I “forget” to repent about now. Help me be aware of times when I’m irritable, critical, picky, self-focused or unloving in any way and help me turn around and go the way of your love.  Change my heart, O Lord.

Proofreading Scripture

Is the Bible inerrant? Are there mistakes in Scripture? Did the Bible need a proofreader? Many people today doubt its veracity. My book, Changing Churches elaborates on these troubling issues.

In the course of writing and working with a publisher I learned more than I ever knew I needed to know about proofreading. I spent days and hours and even weeks looking for mistakes. This daunting task taught me that nothing man creates is perfect.

The Christian Writer's Manual of Style says:

"The average 200 page book contains about 500,000 characters, that is a half-million letters, spaces, and punctuation marks. Each one must be in exactly the right place if the book is to be error free. A book that is 99 percent accurate will still contain five thousand typographical errors - about twenty-five errors per page. A book that is 99.9 percent accurate will still contain five hundred errors, or about two-and-a-half per page."      

Even so, I couldn't believe it when I discovered a mistake in The Message version of the Bible!

"May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!" (Romans 15:13)  

Clearly this should say "May the God of great hope fill you up with joy..."  The mistake in The Message was a minor error not picked up by spell check and it did not distort or change the basic message of the verse.

The accuracy (Truth) of the Bible has come under attack by many so-called Christian churches and groups in recent decades. Check out the Re-Imagining Conference, and the Jesus Seminar. As Christians we need to know the Scriptures and be able to defend their veracity. Lee Strobel's book, The Case for Christ, gives marvelous information along this line.

Here's a taste of Strobel's facts attesting to the truth of Scripture:

How can we be sure the biographies of Jesus are reliable? The four gospel writers give eye witness accounts of Jesus life and teachings. Their accounts, written 20 to 30 years after the crucifixion, contain accurate historical dates and are consistent with each other.

What about copying errors? The only errors are minor such as misspelling of words or putting the words in a different sequence without changing the meaning. There is no variation in the major doctrines of the church.

Did Jesus and Jesus alone match the identity of the Messiah? Dozens of Old Testament prophecies gave Israel a way to rule out impostors and validate the authentic Messiah. Against astronomical odds - one chance in trillions ­- Jesus, and only Jesus, throughout history, matched this prophetic fingerprint.

Surely, the Bible was proofread by the Holy Spirit.


Blessings, Dottie