This morning, I was blessed enough to get a text from a friend asking this question: "Is it ok to question the Bible? I don't mean in the sense to find the falsehoods but for a knowledge standpoint; to make sure one understands what they believe that the Bible was written by man, inspired by God... Is it wrong to question what man wrote?"
So here's what I wrote to them. I pray that it helps not only that person, but others who read it here.
"I was so blessed and
excited when you texted me this morning. I've been praying for
opportunities to talk to people about God, the Bible, and how awesome
He is :)
I have to start out
by saying that I do believe that the Bible is 100% true. To many,
this may seem like blind faith, but I would very much disagree with
that statement. Many say that the Bible has probably been tampered
with over the the thousands of years that it has been around, but
there is so much historical evidence to say otherwise. The most
simple piece of evidence in support of this is the discovery of the
Dead Sea Scrolls. In the Caves of Qumran, original copies of Psalms,
Deuteronomy, Genesis, Isaiah, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Minor
Prophets, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Job, and 1 & 2 Samuel dating
back to pretty close to just after they were originally written, and
they all exactly matched the Biblical texts that we have still today,
which proves that the texts have not been altered of changed through
the years. My favorite piece of this evidence is found in Isaiah. In
the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, the torture and death of
Christ is described in detail, and it was written 700 years for
before it ever happened! Now, going off of that, some say that the
Gospels were written to fit the 300 prophecies written about Christ,
of which the Gospels articulate that Christ fulfilled each and every
one of them. People say that the writers lied about Christ to fit
what they wanted him to be. But that is impossible as well. The
Gospels were written only 60 or so years after Christ died, and were
written from eye witness accounts. After they were written, the
Gospels were sent to every church in the world. By this point in
history, Christians had scattered from Israel because of persecution,
therefore people who had personally experienced Christ's life were
all over the world when these Gospels were sent out. And if any
aspect of those Gospels had been inaccurate, those eye witnesses
would have risen up and rebuked the church for spreading lies. But
this didn't happen because they had witnessed all of the true events
in those Gospels. Also, on top of that, the 4 Gospels had been
written from 4 different aspects (two being eyewitnesses, one being a
close friend of Peter the Apostle, and one being a close friend of
Paul), all being written at different times in different places, and
yet they all tell the same story and do not contradict each other. On
top of all this, there was Paul. Paul had not been an Apostle until
Jesus came to him personally on the road to Damascus, where he
converted to the Christianity that he had been personally
persecuting. In some of his letters in the New Testament, he
articulates events that only could have been told to him by an
apostle or by the Holy Spirit Himself (Example: 1 Cor. 11:17-34). On
top of all this, Paul wrote those letters 20 to 30 years before the
Gospels were written, putting his retelling of the events even closer
to the time of Christ, which people would have called him out on if
they had not been true.
Now, all of this has
been proven fact, but obviously Christianity is still built on faith.
(What I was trying to say with the above statements was that
Christianity isn't just blind faith. There is plenty of physical
evidence for believing in Christianity.) In Hebrews 11:1, it says
“Now faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance
about what we do not see.” Also, the book of Romans is all about
how we are justified by faith. When we give up and let go, trusting
God and what He says in His Word, we are justified through Christ.
Eternal life is a choice. I don't believe that heaven will be a place
that will just be happy. It goes much deeper than that. Heaven is a
place where people will want to be with God, where EVERYTHING we do,
EVERYTHING we think about will be about glorifying God. The reason
why God made heaven a choice is because in order to change us and
purify us, we have to choose to follow Him, we have to want to be
changed by him. (which then goes into the discussion of free will,
etc.)
Since there is so
much evidence in support of the Bible being accurate in so many
places, we are able to put our faith in the parts that we don't
understand, because if we can find evidence for the truth of most of
the Bible, we can put our faith in the rest of it as well! 2 Timothy
3:16-17 says “All scripture in God-breathed and is useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so
that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good
work.” So much of believing in God and His Word has to do with
FAITH! Having faith that God loves us. Having faith that God really
is in control. Having faith that since there is so much evidence that
the Bible is true, that we can trust that the other parts that make
us question are 100% true as well. Having faith that God's Word is
HIS Word, that it's so important to Him that He would keep it
accurate. God is God, He is all powerful and in charge of every
little detail of existence, so why would it seem outlandish to think
that God couldn't keep a simple little book something accurate and
something that we could draw from?
I think that one of
the biggest things that we can give God as a gift is to believe in
His Word. To be able to believe that God is bigger than man's short
fallings is a difficult thing to do, but once we are able to give up
and let go of our doubt and just let God be in control, that's when
His Word comes alive!
Hebrews 4:12: “For
the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and
marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”"
