Standing Forever
“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)
The Bible.
Either it’s true or it’s not.
Either it’s riddled with lies, tainted by men’s meddling fingers, tinged with heresy, and a false account of history…
OR
…it’s the truth of God, inerrant, infallible, and must be obeyed.
Think about that for a second.
If the Bible is false then it is not the Word of God. And if we don’t have the Word of God we must then give up our faith and walk away. We should close our churches, ditch our 6-day creation beliefs, forget the 10 Commandments, and move on to something else.
Why? Because the Bible is to the Christian what space is to the universe. You can’t have a Christian faith without the Bible. It is the foundation upon which our faith stands.
No Bible = No Christianity = No salvation = No heaven = No hell = No Accountability = No submission to Christ as Lord.
Which explains why there are many people who try to discredit the Good Book. If you can undermine the truthfulness of Scripture then you can pretty much destroy the Christian system. And if you can destroy the system, there’s no need for church, for following Christ’s audacious demands, for bowing the knee to the Creator God.
I can see how a “holey” Bible is appealing to atheists and non-Christians. It frees them from the “oppression” of God, the threat of eternal punishment in fire, the need to give up vice and worldly pleasure. It allows them to pursue their own agenda in this world minus a seared conscience.
It allows people to “move on” from so-called backwater ideas of deity and into 21st century, naturalistic enlightenment.
So the attacks happen and they are constant. They are fierce and unrelenting. And they are designed to dismantle Christianity and do away with God forever.
But…
…what if the Bible is true?
What if God really does exist and has revealed Himself through a first century Jew called Jesus?
What if Christ really did die on the cross and rose from the dead that we might be delivered from sin and punishment to eternal life in heaven?
If the Bible is true, then we need to be paying a whole lot of attention to what it’s saying.
There’s just too much at stake.
Your soul, my soul.
Eternity.
But is there even a way to know if the bible is true? A way to verify its claims or at the very least, look into it from a historical point of view and see if it holds up under scrutiny?
Surely if one can prove it to be a historically sound and bibliographically reliable document, one can – and must – look into its claims as divine revelation?
There are, of course, myriad questions surrounding the Bible. Its origins, reliability, and truth are all subject to regular debate. And for a book that claims to be divine revelation – God’s truth no less – it deserves to be put under the microscope.
What most people don’t realize is that for each provocative question about the Scriptures there are equally provocative answers.
It’s all about examining every angle. From the Bible’s reliability as a historical document to its proclamations, prophecies, and its fiercely moral teachings; from its claims about Jesus’ life and works to His death and resurrection; from its power through the testimony of the early church fathers who died for it to the genuinely changed lives of the countless who believe it – the Bible must be examined, dissected, and pored over to see why these things are so.
There’s nothing to be afraid of. Jesus Himself assured us of two things:
“I am the way and the TRUTH and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, emphasis added)
“Then you will KNOW the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32, emphasis added)
The following links should be a good start.
http://www.allaboutthejourney.org/bible-manuscripts.htm
http://www.citw.org.uk/claims.htm
