Whether or not You believe in The Bible, or whether You may have personal doubts about much of it, there are many people who have the same difficulties as You, but nevertheless are genuine seekers who are at least prepared to actually look at what the Bible says, as opposed to just debunking it without really examining it in the light of what it actually says.
The following article is based on an extract from the book Right With God, written by John Blanchard and first published in 1971:
"... If you want to locate a particular town [or City], you look at a map of the region concerned; if you want to know a person's telephone number, you [might] look in a Telephone Directory. Then surely, if you want to know something about God and Your relationship to Him, the sensible and honest thing to do is look in the only book in the world, which claims thousands of times to have God as its author.
That book is The Bible. Perhaps you have never fully realised [that this book], The Bible, speaks so plainly - but it does.
Nearly 4,000 times in the first section of The Bible - The Old Testament - you will find words like 'the Lord spoke', 'the Lord said', 'the Lord commanded', 'the word of the Lord', 'God spoke all these words, saying' and so on.
When you turn to the second edition of The Bible - The New Testament - you will find the many similar statements there summed up like this:
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).
But need we accept that? Could not The Bible have been written by very good men who wanted to spread their teachings throughout the world, or could not The Bible have been written by wicked men with some evil motive?
There have been no lack of ideas on this subject: somebody once calculated that between 1850 and 1910, critics of The Bible had advanced 747 different explanations of The Bible's supposed origins. Hardly any two agreed, and most were contradictory! Yet all the arguments against The Divine Authorship of The Bible fail to answer one simple piece of logic.
John Wesley, who founded the English Methodist Church Movement in the 18th century, put it like this:
'The Bible must be the invention of either good men or angels, bad men or devils, or of God. It could not be the invention of good men or angels, for they neither would nor could make a book and tell lies all the time they were writing it, saying "Thus saith the Lord", when it was their own invention.
It could not be the invention of bad men or devils, for they could not make a book that commands all duty, forbids all sin, and condemns their souls to hell for all eternity. Therefore, The Bible must be given by Divine inspiration'.
There are many other ways to show that The Bible IS God's Word, but these would take volumes. I ask you, as a genuine seeker, to accept The Bible's own claims that it Is the Word of God, and to test that claim by following through its teachings with an open mind.
Once you accept The Bible as the Word of God, two important things follow:
Firstly, The Bible is completely true
Many people have the wrong idea about The Bible because they fail to understand exactly what it is. It is a collection of 66 books, written by about 40 authors over a period of more than 1,600 years. It has one central theme, expressed in many different ways. It includes History, Prophecy, Poetry, Biography, Ethics, Philosophy, and Science, and in each of these subjects, is infallibly true.
Take just two examples. The Bible contains a great deal of History. Is it accurate? Sir Isaac Newton, the father of modern science, had no doubts about its authenticity.
He once said: 'There are more sure marks about The Bible's authenticity, than can be found in any [external] profane history!' Again, listen to Professor Robert Dick Wilson of Princeton University in America, who spent 15 years studying Oriental Languages and dialects, 15 years studying Ancient Inscriptions, and 15 years studying Ancient Manuscripts and versions of the Bible.
He says: 'The History given in The Bible is reliable, but in external profane documents, there is an almost universal innacuracy and unreliability'.
The Bible is not primarily a scientific text-book, though it does include statements that can be looked at from a scientific point of view. Is its Science accurate? Listen to Dr Irwin Moon, Principal of The Moody Institute of Science in Los Angeles, USA - ' I have covered every word from beginning to end many times, and , so far as I know, there is not within the pages of this book [The Bible], one single scientific innacuracy, contradiction, absurdity or blunder'.
No expert has ever disproved a single statement in The Bible. What The Bible says on any subject is true!
The Bible is primarily a book about God and our relationship with Him - the subject that concerns YOU at this very moment. This is how it is put in Psalms 19.7-9:
"The Law of The Lord is perfect, concerning the Soul: the testimony of The Lord is sure, making wise the Simple. The statutes of The Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of The Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of The Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of The Lord are true and righteous altogether".
Secondly, The Bible is constantly true
Many people vaguely believe that The Bible is 'God's Book', but suspect that it is now out of date. 'After All', they say, 'we live in a scientific age, and even the most recent parts of The Bible were written nearly 2,000 years ago'.
But why should that make it out of date? Truth can never change. One of my sons came home from school one day and said: 'Daddy, do you know, two and two make three!' That was certainly new to me! - and I had to correct him... Truth never changes, and The Bible claims not only to be completely, but constantly true:
Here is what it says about itself: "Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever" (Psalm 119:152).
"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the Word of our God shall stand for ever" (Isaiah 40:8).
This answers the strange argument that 'Science has disproved The Bible'. How can truth disprove truth? None of the truth being discovered today through scientific research can disprove truth previously discovered, either in its own field, or in any other. Men's theories and opinions constantly change, often in the light of new discoveries, but truth is united and final.
Were The Bible a collection of ideas about religion - even the ideas of good and holy men - then we might say that their ideas were now out of date, or mistaken. But the human authors of these 66 books [of The Bible], wrote by direct and Divine Inspiration in such a unique way that we call the whole collection of books 'The Word of God'.
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by The Word of God" (Romans 10:7).
"...The holy scriptures...are able to make one wise unto Salvation..." (2 Timothy 3:15).
Are You a Genuine Seeker?
Are You a genuine seeker? Then put aside your prejudices and your pre-conceived ideas, come to The Bible and ask God to make [His] truth clear to you. Perhaps this prayer will help you to express your thoughts:
Almighty and Eternal God, I am out of touch with You and need to find You before my life can have real meaning. There are many things in The Bible that I do not understand.
Enable me to come to it [The Bible] now with an open mind. Speak to me through what I read, showing me who You are, and how I can come to know You.
Help me now to seek You with all my heart, and to find You.
Is that what you want? Then STOP and think it over carefully.
Now read that prayer again, making it your own, from the depth of your heart, but before you do, listen to this wonderful promise, which God makes to all [those] who are in earnest in their search for Him:
"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13).
So then, we can see from the evidence supplied by John Blanchard, that The Bible is indeed the basic truth of everything and clearly the central component to Christian Thought, Living and Worship.
In truth, The Bible is God's own revelation to us concerning Himself. It is God's way of making Himself and His creation and His Laws known to mankind.
Furthermore, It is God's revelation about those things He cannot abide, such as the sins of mankind, which separate us from His love, and it is about His universal method of Salvation, which is the most central theme in The Bible, which He has wrought for us through the life, death, and ressurection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
What do You think about this extract from John Blanchard's book?
Do you agree with his conclusions about the The Bible being the basic truths of everything?
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