Allegory of Hope: Oil on Canvas, Francesco Guardi, 1747
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
. . .
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore,
since we have been justified through faith,
we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings,
because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character;
and character, hope.
And hope does not disappoint us,
because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
whom he has given us.
You see, at just the right time,
when we were still powerless,
Christ died for the ungodly.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man,
though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
But God demonstrates His own love for us
in this:
While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
–Romans 5:1-8
Czech Republic. Inscription: Blessed be the Lord Jesus Christ.
First page of Gospel of Mark, by Armenian Sargis Pitsak
More on the New Testament:
The Twelve, the closest and first disciples of Jesus, or their close associates, wrote the New Testament, inspired by the indwelling Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. They wrote what they saw and heard because it was too precious to them to let it go, forgotten.
And because it was the Truth.
These writers also wrote from quite different backgrounds: tax collectors, fishermen, physicians, lawyers—quite a motley crew. Their styles differed, from intimate, highly personal account, to historical record, to the flowery sentences popular among the legal circles of the day.
Although they wrote from sometimes totally differing perspectives, everything they wrote jives. I mean, one was a killer of Christians before he saw the light and began writing about the glory of Jesus. One was a social mis-fit, working with the wrong political party just for personal gain, before he heard the call to follow Jesus. Another was exiled to a deserted island when he produced some of his writings—far from any contact, any library, yet totally in sync with the rest of what was going on in Christendom at the time.
Christianity, always persecuted from Day One until today, forced people to hide in caves and meet in homes, only to be captured and drug away, on trumped-up charges. Therefore, every scrap of communication from the ones who actually knew and learned from Jesus was and is precious to Christians.
They preserved these writings with their lives, copying them repeatedly, in the days before Internet, word processors, typewriters, ballpoint pens, pencils, or even decent paper. They used homemade ink and quill feathers on chemically-treated sheep skins, rolled up on sticks. They were used to it.
As attacks grew, and began coming from within the followers, Christians even had to devise ways to let people know when writings were authentic. They met, even, to be sure everyone was in agreement on which writings were from the original few followers and which were bogus.
Perilous times.
Like today.
Although we cannot know, for sure, what was said in most of these gatherings, we can read what they preserved. What we notice, again, is a consistent agreement with the writings of the Old Testament, although some of the writers were not scholars, sometimes not even very nice guys, before they met Jesus Christ. We notice gorgeous poetic prose, crystal logic, and heart-rending appeals from men, most of whom had never been to college, indeed, who lived where college happened abroad.
And we find amazing willingness to die.
NOT TO KILL.
To die.
To die for the Truth.
Because He had died for them.
And because they knew Him and, as the Truth, He had set them free.
Once we are used to the idea that there may be a God and He could inspire people to write, we begin looking at the Bible and wonder all sorts of things about it.
For instance, what about the two main “halves” of it, the Old and the New Testaments?
The Old Testament contains 39 books written from the time of Moses to about 400 BC, and tells of the old covenant, the old contract God made with man. It contains lots of history, rules, and explanations of God and His purposes and our relationship to Him, among other ideas.
Jesus quoted many times from the Old Testament. After all, He wrote it through His prophets.
While much about the Old Testament may seem too long, boring, or confusing to some readers, those who have devoted their lives to studying the Bible can readily show how EVERY word in it has life-giving meaning.
The 27 books of the New Testament, however, open for us the covenant or contract that Jesus established with His own Blood, and takes precedent over the Old Testament. It tells the story of Jesus’ life on this earth, explains how love fulfills all God’s laws, and shows us how to be in right relationship with God.
“When you were dead in your sins [ . . . ] God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us: he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13-14
Jesus established the New Testament (covenant) when He said “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:28
When we trust in Jesus’ atonement (his blood) we are saved. Then the Old Testament is not binding on us but remains a wonderful schoolmaster, as we already saw in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 – “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
When we don’t know WHAT to do, what God might want, the Old Testament is a good place to start. When we don’t know HOW we will manage ever to do anything right, the New Testament is the go-to section.
But it’s all good! More than one preacher has said, “If you only read the New Testament, you’ve got your hand on your sword handle—but your blade is missing!”
The Old Testament is full of glorious history of people who could hear God:
Noah spent a hundred years building a huge boat on dry land, while trying to talk folks into joining him in it.
Abraham left a wealthy existence to wander around looking for a place his family could live without distraction and interruption, close to God.
Joseph saved all of Egypt and much of the surrounding world from a huge famine.
Moses, almost single handedly, rescued an entire people group from slavery.
Young David killed an enormous man with only a slingshot and grew up to become king of God’s people.
His son, Solomon, built the gold-appointed temple.
As God’s people began turning from Him (amazing, I know) His true believers still existed, still did the miraculous with His help, healing the diseased, calling down fire from heaven, making the sun stand still, etc.
The Bible is our only rule for faith and practice. If it is not reliable, then on what do we base our beliefs? Jesus asks for our trust, and that includes trust in what He says in His Word.
Faith.
Belief.
Trust.
Don’t those words demand some sort of unknown, unknowable?
Of course there are difficult passages in the Bible. Of course sincere men disagree over interpretations of the Bible.
These are the faults of man, not of God. Man is finite, and in his limited scope, tries to understand the Infinite and begins guessing and making up stuff, when he’d be better off simply trusting a bit.
God is complicated enough to make the entire universe with words. We should approach His words reverently and prayerfully, and when we find something we don’t understand, we should get over it.
Pray more, and study more.
Then if the mystery remains we humbly acknowledge our own limitations in the face of the perfect Word of God.
The Bible is an immeasurable source of authority. Taking 1500 years to write, yet consistent throughout, it is a library of books with 30 vastly different authors. Seers, vagabonds, kings, poets, slaves, fishermen, doctors, extremely wealthy and extremely poor–many never met or even heard of the others. Yet their words jive in ways no one could ever contrive. Their foretelling comes true and after centuries, later contributors are able to say, “THIS is what was spoken of by the prophets!” (Acts 2:16, among others)
This work IS the final interpretation of the truth. To consider the Bible apart from its one supreme purpose (the TRUTH) is to have a book and nothing more.
The Bible is a reflection of its Author. All books are. If you pick a book you’ve never read, written by Mark Twain, you expect deeply political thought disguised in hilarity. With Dickens, the same complaints appear in the sad point of view of the abused.
We pick our reading according to our mood and when we desperately seek truth, where should we go?
The Bible was written by God, Himself, as He worked through human writers in a process called inspiration. “Inspire” means “breathe in”. The Biblical writers used their own styles but God guided them into all truth through His Holy Spirit.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation, For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:20-21
I believe that the God Who created the universe is capable of writing a book. And the God Who is perfect is capable of writing a perfect book. The issue is NOT simply “Does the Bible have a mistake?”, BUT, “Can God make a mistake?”
I say “no”.
If the Bible contains factual errors, then God is not all-knowing and is capable of making errors Himself. If the Bible contains misinformation, then God is not truthful but is a liar. If the Bible contains contradictions, then God is the author of confusion.
In other words, if Biblical Inerrancy is not true, then God is not God, and the Bible becomes a fabrication of man.
Atheists spend a great deal of effort trying to fabricate proof the Bible contains errors by taking parts out of context and twisting them. They do the same as Satan, speaking to Eve: “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5
Satan purposely did not include the fact that this knowledge would be the end of life as they knew it, the end of Eden as they knew it, and the beginning of the end of their own physical existence.
The Bible’s message must be taken as a whole. It is not a mixture of doctrine from which we are free to select. Many people like the verses that say God loves them, but they dislike the verses that say God will judge sinners. We simply cannot pick and choose what we like about the Bible and throw the rest away.
What if a doctor had told a patient that he would enjoy health to an old age and the patient then ran, exalting, from the exam room, without the prescription that would give that promised health?
Once we grasp a picture of God and the goodness of His ways, we learn to ask Him for more understanding and to rest in the goodness of what we do know.
Would that Adam and Eve, in the midst of all that goodness, had waited and asked God!
Oh, that we would wait and ask God!
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27:14
God has said what He has said, the Bible presents us with a full picture of Who God is.
“Forever, O LORD, Thy Word is settled in heaven.” Psalm 119:89
Truth matters. When I make a promise and keep it, I gain a reputation as a truth teller. When I say I will tell the truth in court and then lie, I can go to jail.
Truth matters.
Almost always, we really want to know the truth, although some may not want us to know it. The woman with cancer wants her doctor to tell the truth to her, not just to her husband. Mom wants to know the truth about how Junior is doing in school, hence the basic skill tests. I want the truth about the weather, as near as possible to discern it. Don’t tell me it’s going to sunshine if it’s going to rain, even if I was hoping for sunshine—you will mess me up! Tell me the truth!
Or I won’t believe you next time.
That’s what it is about: believability. We want to know whom we can trust. If I don’t have cancer, I want a truth-telling lab report. If my child is excelling in math, I want an unbiased teacher marking his grade card. If it’s going to be sunny for my parade, I want truth in weather.
If there is a way to get some lasting peace, really, I need to know.
I need to know as much as possible about it.
If the Bible is truth, I need to know as much as possible about it. After all, it claims to reflect the character of Jesus, right? If Jesus was a liar, or some kind of lunatic, I need to know because He made some HUGE claims.
Okay, here goes.
The Bible claims to be perfect. “And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.” (Psalm 12:6) “The Law of the Lord is perfect” (Psalm 19:7) “Every word of God is flawless” (Proverbs 30:5)
These claims of perfection are absolute statements: absolutely flawless, purified, or perfect. It does not say “mostly perfect” or “nearly perfect.” The Bible argues for complete perfection, no room inside the Bible for partial accuracy theories.
The Bible stands or falls as a whole. If your favorite newspaper were routinely discovered to contain errors or lies, you would quickly discredit it. You would not put up with a statement such as, “A few errors appear on page three,” or, “All errors will be corrected the following week.” No, for a paper to be reliable in ANY of its parts, it must be factual in ALL of its parts.
Likewise, if the Bible is inaccurate when it speaks of geology, why should we trust it when it speaks of theology?
If the Bible is wrong about separation from God, then who’s to say it is right about salvation—or about anything?
If the Bible cannot get the details right about creation, then maybe the details about salvation are not trustworthy, either.
If the story of Jonah is a myth, then perhaps so are the stories about Jesus.
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