Answers
Actually, unlike other people I know, as a Christian—someone who has entered into a relationship with Lord Jesus Christ—I do not feel the need to defend the Bible as the authoritative written word of God.
Why do I say I have no need to defend the Bible? Many people tell me that God inspired prophets and apostles (messengers) to write both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Many individuals also tell me that God wrote the Bible and that it is the living word of God. Others have told me that God wrote the Bible and that men inspired by Him wrote His word.
Do I believe them? Well, why should I? The Bible says that men have deceitful hearts:
- The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9).
Why would I believe what people with deceitful hearts say when they are desperately corrupt? Would you believe people with deceitful hearts?
However, when I read in the Bible that it provides instruction about the Lord Jesus Christ and that salvation is found only through Him, and having already had an encounter with Him, I am inclined to think that there is more to what is written in the Old and New Testaments than what people tell me.
- You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. (John 5:39-40)
- But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the Sacred Writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)
- To the teaching and to the testimony! Surely for this word which they speak there is no dawn. (Isaiah 8:20)
- This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. (Joshua 1:8)
When I learn that the Law (the teaching of right and wrong) and the testimony of the Old Testament are to be meditated upon if a person is to learn about and understand the truth, I am amazed that people who call themselves Christians are not ashamed of their lifestyles. Not that I am superior to anybody in any way; in fact, I would say that I see myself as a person who has only one boast: I know the Lord Jesus Christ personally. However, I would not say that I am the only one, for from what I have witnessed personally and read, there are many more who have also come to know Lord Jesus and have been baptized by Him with the Holy Spirit.
The only words written by God Himself are the Ten Commandments that are found in Exodus, chapter 20, verses 1–17.
- And the Lord gave me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. (Deuteronomy 9:10)
- And he gave to Moses, when he had made an end of speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, the two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. Exodus 31:18
Moses did break them, but God wrote them a second time for him (Deuteronomy 10:1)
- The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two tables of stone like the first; and I will write upon the tables the words that were on the first tables, which you broke. (Exodus 34:1)
However, besides what God wrote, He also said that when it came to Moses, He spoke to him face to face and not in riddles or through dreams. Moses, therefore, is to be taken seriously. What Moses had to say reverberates throughout the Old Testament and into the New Testament.
- And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward. And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in dark speech; and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (Numbers 12:5-8)
- Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tent. (Exodus 33:11)
- The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren—him you shall heed— just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They have rightly said all that they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not give heed to my words which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. (Deuteronomy 18:15-19)
- I have put My words in your mouth, and covered you in the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, "You are My people." (Isaiah 51:16)
- Then the LORD reached out His hand, touched my mouth, and said to me: "Behold, I have put My words into your mouth. (Jeremiah 1:9)
- But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he [the Apostle Paul] is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:15-16)
- Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:1-6)
- I warn every one who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if any one adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if any one takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. (Revelation 22:18-21)
Who wrote the Scriptures? Who inspired men to write the Scriptures? The Bible informs us that apart from the Ten Commandments, which were written by God Himself, the testimony of the different writers is that they were inspired. Not only were they inspired, but as Luke states in the book of Acts, the Son of God chose people to bring the message of the New Testament to all nations, not just some. The final words of the New Testament inform us that whoever disregards what is written therein brings a curse upon themselves.
Whether you accept what is written in the Bible to be true is up to you. You are the only person who will be accountable after death for the decisions you make. Although wise people, I am told, investigate matters for themselves to see whether what others say is true. What surprises me is that not only does the Bible instruct us about what is morally right in relationships and how we can be assured of eternal salvation through exercising faith in the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, but archaeology is also proving its historicity, and even atheist archaeologists are rejecting their ignorance and turning to God as a result. Then there is the prophecy about Israel becoming a nation again, which is amazing in itself.
As someone who did not come to know the Lord Jesus Christ through reading the Bible, but through a personal encounter, I was amazed to read that we are instructed to do exactly what I did within the very pages of the book that I once discarded because it was too difficult for me to understand.
These days, I say that the Bible must have the seal of God upon it, even if there are no original writings and various unbelievers reject the historical and prophetic witness, as well as the testimonies of people who claim that their lives have been changed because they decided to apply what is written in its pages to themselves. Whether you accept what I say to be true is up to you. As long as I know it is true, that is really all that matters to me.
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