Why is it so hard for some
people to believe the Bible? The Bible is the Word of God
delivered to mankind
through men set apart by God to deliver His message. The Spirit of God spoke
through these writers, using their own personalities, to deliver the divine
message to mankind. Yet, so many people from all walks of life simply cannot
believe its words are from God, but instead consider it to be composed of the
opinions of the writers, fables and fairy tales. Few today consider the Bible,
in its entirety to be the absolute inerrant (incapable of being wrong) Word
from Almighty God (in the original languages). God informs mankind through the
apostle Paul:
“All Scripture is inspired by
God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in
righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good
work.” (2 Timothy 3:16) [“Inspired” means literally “God-breathed.” Every word
comes from God.]
“Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things
freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by
human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts
with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them,
because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all
things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF
THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1
Corinthians 2:12-16)
How does the true Christian
“have the mind of Christ?” The true Christian has “the mind of Christ” by the
indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit within us. He/she also “has the mind of
Christ” in the Bible we hold in our hands. To the unbeliever it is just a book,
but to the believer it is a book that contains the words of God.
God said through a man named
Moses, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) Do you believe it?
God said through the apostle
John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through
Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In
Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:1-5) [“Comprehend” means “overcome.”] Jesus, the 2nd
person of the Godhead, not only created the world, He is the light of the
world. Do you believe it?
I ask again, why is it so hard
for some people to believe the Bible? Jesus gives us the answer through the
apostle John.
“You are of your father the
devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from
the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in
him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar
and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
Any person who does not
believe in Jesus Christ as their own personal Savior and Lord is under the
thumb of Satan (the Devil). Their father is the Devil. The Devil (Satan) “is a
liar and the father of lies.” “There is no truth in him.” Those under his thumb
cannot believe the Truth, because they listen to their father instead of the
Word of God. Their only escape from Satan is to accept the provision God made
to save them, and that again is the Son of God who died and rose again.
God says through the apostle
Paul, “May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found
a liar, as it is written, “THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL
WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED.”” (Romans 3:4)
God says through the apostle
John, “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is
the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:22)
“The one who believes in the
Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has
made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has
given concerning His Son.” (1 John 5:10)
So obviously, if we do “not
believe God,” who speaks to us through His Word (the Bible) we are calling Him
a liar.
“Jesus said to him, ““I am
the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through
Me.”” (John 14:6)
Are any of these verses
believable to you, or do you just brush them off as “not important?”
ALL Scripture is from God and
ALL Scripture is relevant. Not a word in the Bible is written from the
viewpoint of men unless their viewpoint agrees with God’s Word. They wrote what
God, through His Spirit, had them write. Don’t think so?
God says to us through the
apostle Peter, “So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do
well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns
and the morning star arises in your hearts. But know this first of all, that no
prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy
was ever made by an act of human will, but men
moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:19-21 emphasis mine)
Prophecy is (from Blue Letter
Bible):
A discourse emanating from
inspiration and declaring the purposes of God, whether by reproving and
admonishing the wicked, or comforting the afflicted, or revealing things
hidden; esp. by foretelling future events.
Used in the NT of the utterance
of OT prophets of the prediction of events relating to Christ’s kingdom and its
speedy triumph, together with the consolations and admonitions pertaining to
it, the spirit of prophecy, the divine mind, to which the prophetic faculty is
due of the endowment and speech of the Christian teachers called prophets.
The gifts and utterances of these
prophets, esp. of the predictions of the works of which, set apart to teach the
gospel, will accomplish for the kingdom of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:12-16 (shown
above) tells us that the natural man (the unbeliever) cannot understand the
Bible because they do not have the Holy Spirit living within them. No wonder
they think it is just a hodgepodge of historical, fanciful writings.
The last puzzling question in
my mind related to this subject matter is, “What excuse does the person have
who claims to be a Christian, but yet denies the Bible as the authoritative,
inerrant Word of God? Why are you blind to the Truth? I humbly suggest, for
your own spiritual welfare, maybe you need to consider the following Scripture.
“Test yourselves to see if
you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about
yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” (2
Corinthians 13:5)
Is the Bible true or not?
Maybe some of it is true and the remainder is not true? If that is the case
(and it is not), who decides what is true and what is not true? Either the
Bible is true in its entirety, or none of it is true.
I have said this in two
previous articles, but I’ll repeat it once more. As an 18 year old Christian, I
made a decision against the liberal viewpoint which stated that some of the
Bible was true and some was not. I chose to believe it all to not only be true,
but to be the very Words of Almighty God and totally inerrant in the original
languages. I chose to believe this precious book we call the Bible is
absolutely true from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21. The longer the Lord
allows me to live upon this earth, the more certain I am that I made the
correct decision.
The world (Satan and his pals)
is going to come at you with all kinds of liberal nonsense, trying to tear down
the authenticity of the Bible. You can allow it to deter you from the Truth and
take your soul to hell or you can believe the Bible and act upon it and be
victorious, spending eternity with your Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
I will add that the world can
be very convincing. It is very convincing because Satan is the father of lies,
and he has had a lot of time to be the best at it. Don’t even try to answer all
the liberal drivel. Leave them in God’s hands, and just believe HIM.
Think about this. If you suddenly
got an interest in learning how to fish, would you go to the person who has
fished all of his life and knows all about it, or would you go to someone who
doesn’t even know which end of the fishing pole to hold? Now that may not be
the best example, but I prefer to believe God (the Creator) over anything that
comes from the mouth of man (the created).
Satan convinced Eve (and
Adam) to not take God seriously. We all know how that panned out. If Satan can
succeed in convincing us that the Bible doesn’t need to be taken seriously (as
he did Eve), where does that leave mankind? It can only result in confusion,
chaos, rebellion, apostasy, and judgment.
“The Word of God is alive and
powerful …” (Hebrews 4:12). Don’t let Satan steal the joy in Jesus Christ you
could have by taking His Word lightly. The entire Bible is the very Word of
God.
If you don’t know Jesus as
your Savior and Lord, His book, the Bible, will tell you what He has done for
you. Read it and put your faith in Him. Trust Him.
Maybe you are a Christian,
but weak in faith. Read the Bible. Believe it. Trust your Savior and Lord, not
the trash talk that comes from a world bound for judgment.
Make your decision today to
believe the Bible in its entirety, even if all the world says differently. Only
God will always give us the Truth, and His Truth is found in His Word, the
Bible.
Grant Phillips
Email: Phillip5769@twc.com
Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com
Rapture Ready: http://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html
