Why the Bible? Part Deux

Hard Questions

If God is so good, why is there so much evil in the world?

If following Christ is the only true way, what about those who have never heard? What about sincere Muslims, Buddhists, etc.?

Why is the Bible the only “word of God?”

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1. Why the Bible? Why not the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, or any other “holy” book?

2. Isn’t the Bible filled with historical errors?

3. Isn’t the Bible filled with culturally troubling teachings that promote unusual laws, polygamy and slavery ?

In other words . . .

1. Why the Bible? Why not the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, or any other “holy” book?

optionsa. The Bible is not inspired by God - nor are any

other books.or,

b. The Bible is no more inspired than any other book.

or,c. The Bible is uniquely inspired by God.

In other words . . .

T Why is the Bible Rejected?

T Two Challenges and a Response

T Jesus and the Scriptures

T Six Truths about the Bible

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God.  It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind. 

Thomas Paine

It was subtle of God to learn Greek when he wished to become an author - and not to learn it better. 

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

The book, called the Bible, is filled with passages equally horrible, unjust and atrocious.  This is the book to be read in schools in order to make our children loving, kind and gentle! 

Robert G. Ingersoll, The Gods

The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it.

Robert G. Ingersoll

The Bible was a collection of books written at different times by different men

- a strange mixture of diverse human documents - and a tissue of irreconcilable notions.  Inspired?  The Bible is not even intelligent.  It is not even good craftsmanship, but is full of absurdities and contradictions. 

E. Haldeman-Julius The Meaning Of Atheism

Why is the Bible Rejected?

• Don’t believe in God

• Take a simple-minded approach to the Bible

• Unanswered questions

• Engaged in THE spiritual battle

1. Demonstrating the Bible is the unique written revelation of God.

2. Answering those who don’t believe it is the unique revelation of God.

Two challenges

1. It starts with God . . .Would He communicate?Could He communicate?

2. Uniqueness of the Bible 1500 yearsOver 40 authorsHundreds of controversial topics

A Response

3. Historical Accuracy of the BibleLife of Christ (particularly)

4. Jesus’ View of the BibleWhat did He say about the Bible?How did he use the Bible?

Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising— have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

Mark 12:24-27

Jesus and the Scriptures

Jesus and the Scriptures

“Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18).

Jesus spoke of . . .

Adam and Eve the death of Abel

Noah and the Flood the destruction of Sodom

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the burning bush

David Solomon

wilderness wanderings manna from heaven

Lot’s wifeJonah and the great fish

Jesus and the Scriptures

He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:    “ ‘These people honor me with their lips,       but their hearts are far from me.   They worship me in vain;       their teachings are but rules taught by men.’

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”

And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!”

Mark 7:5-9

Jesus and the Scriptures

Jesus and the Scriptures

1. The words of the Bible are the words of God.

2. The Bible is historically accurate.3. Even the smallest detail of the words

is important.4. The Bible is authoritative.5. The Bible is inviolable.

Jesus said that . . .

I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated to us through this book.

Abraham Lincoln

I have known ninety five of the world's great men in my time, and of these

eighty seven were followers of the Bible.

W.E. Gladstone

It is impossible to rightly govern the worldwithout God and the Bible.

George Washington

The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with apower that conquers all that oppose it.

Napoleon Bonaparte

If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.

Daniel Webster

The Bible is worth all other books which have everbeen printed.

Patrick Henry

It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially aBible reading people. The principles of the Bible

are the groundwork of human freedom.

Horace Greeley

So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society. . . I

have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year.

John Quincy Adams

The New Testament is the very best book that everwas or ever will be known in the world.

Charles Dickens

Christopher HitchensAuthor, God is NOT Good:How Religion Poisons Everything

Marilyn SewellUnitarian Universalist Minister

Interview, Portland Monthly Magazine, Jan 2010

The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal

Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of the atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

Only in this respect: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, in other words, the Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

I disagree with that. I consider myself a Christian. I believe in the Jesus

story as story, as narrative, and Jesus as a person whose life is exemplary that I want to follow. But I do not believe in all that stuff that I just outlined.

I simply have to tell you that every major Christian, including theologians, has said that without the resurrection and without the forgiveness of sins, what I call the vicarious redemption, it’s meaningless. In fact, without that, it isn’t even a nice story - even if it’s true . . .

It doesn’t really matter to me if it’s true literally. It matters to me whether the story has efficacy for my life.

Well, that’s what I meant to say. When C.S. Lewis, for example, says, . . ‘if this man was not the son of God, then his teachings were evil’ because if you don’t believe that the kingdom of heaven is at hand and you can get to it by the way, the truth, and the life, offered by the gospel, then there’s no excuse for telling people to take no thought for the morrow, for example, as he did. . . It would be an evil nonsense.

Six Truths about the Bible

1. Christians adopt the view of the Bible that Jesus held.2. Jesus taught that the Bible was accurate and

authoritative.3. Jesus criticized the religious leaders for their lack of

knowledge of the Bible and faith in God.4. What is true in the Bible will also found to be true in

history, science, human relationships, etc. 5. The Bible is the world’s most influential book.6. “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Further Reading – Further Equipping

Why I am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe, Geisler and Hoffman

(Chapter 9)

The Reason for God, Tim Keller (Chapter 7)

Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, Richard Bauckham

The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell

Why the Bible? Part Deux