I don’t know what I should do with my life
I don’t know if I should mar-ry me a wife
Or be single
I opened up my Bible and listened real hard
I listened and ah listened ‘til I grew real tahred
An’ I don’t know
(chorus:)
I listened and I read
But all it ever said
Was “boy, whatever you’re doin’ with your life
Do it to the Lord and you can do it right.”
Seems scripture alone can’t come alongside
Seems scripture just don’t help me decide
What I should be
(chorus:)
I listened and I read
But all it ever said
Was “boy, whatever you’re doin’ with your life
Do it to the Lord and you can do it right.”
(2nd chorus:)
I guess I need a friend
Who can tell me more than
Just “boy, whatever you’re doin’ with your life
Do it to the Lord and you can do it right.”
Who can ah ask tuh show me the right way
Who but the Spirit o’ God can show me today
And say more than
Just “boy, whatever you’re doin’ with your life
Do it to the Lord and you can do it right.”
Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts
Monday, August 31, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The Bible -- the Word of God?
Is the Bible God’s word?
First, does the Bible pass the test of historical accuracy? We know it does, for several reasons: first, because it passes the test of reality – worldly archaeologists rely on it to tell them where to find places to dig (and what do you know…the archaeologists dig, and presto – there it is) – the Bible is archaeologically accurate. Second, the Bible has more manuscript evidence than any other historical document. Third, even the secular historians’ (Josephus, etc.) accounts agree with those of the Bible. And fourth, the Bible’s account of historical events and people have consistently been confirmed by other historians, even today (Darius existed, King David existed, Solomon existed, etc.).
These are more than enough to show the Bible’s reliability, at least as a historical document. Now, this does not prove that it was inspired by God (i.e. men wrote what God told them to), as men alone can also write historically accurate documents…but it does give us some place to start, because if we know that it is historically accurate, then we can look at its content (i.e. what Jesus said about himself) to see what it says.
Second, is the Bible consistent with itself? In its 2000 (at least) year history, there has been ample time for those who do not believe it to find a contradiction in it, but to date, there has been found not one bona fide, incontrovertible contradiction.
Now, can we prove something from this? Not directly, until we consider what Jesus said about himself. So what does he say? Most importantly, he claims that he is God.
If we examine Jesus’ claims, then we are left with only a few options. Either Jesus was who said he was, or he wasn’t. What does this mean? If we break it down further, Jesus could have been a lunatic (with an infinitely wrong belief of himself), a liar (one who knows that what he says is untrue), or exactly who he claimed to be – God. There are no other options.
That Jesus claimed to be God is plain to anyone who reads the historical accounts of his teachings (see John 1:1-17; 8:58; 10:30; Luke 5:20-21; and others)
But what if he was not who he claimed to be? We have two options left: he must have been a liar or a lunatic.
If he was a liar, what did he stand to gain by propagating the lie? That people would follow him?...this might be possible, except that when given the chance to save his life by simply saying “yeah, it’s not true, I’m really not God” does he do this? No, in fact, he continued to maintain that what he said was true (see John 18:19-23; Luke 22:67-71; and Mark 14:61-62). Again, if he was a liar, how is it then that he rose from the dead? He was certainly dead after having been crucified (the Romans were experts in crucifying people), and yet there were hundreds of eyewitnesses who saw him alive after he had been dead and buried. Not only this, but those who could have disproven his resurrection did nothing to deny it (the Pharisees had a lot of credibility to lose if Jesus rose from the dead, and the Roman soldiers who were guarding the tomb could have easily repudiated the story of Jesus’ resurrection, if it had not been true). Thus, we see that the claims that Jesus made were not lies; at the very least, Jesus believed in what he taught up to the very end.
This brings us to our third option…if he were a lunatic. What is the defining characteristic of lunacy? It is that what I am and what I believe I am are different. If this difference is only a little, we call it pride (or depression), if it is larger, we call it delusions of grandeur; now, these differences are those of degree – what if we look at differences of kind - if I were to believe myself to be a horse? I would certainly be classified as certifiably insane. The ultimate in lunacy, then, is to claim to be something infinitely different in kind and degree, when I am not that something. For a man to claim to be God is just such a situation – God is infinitely greater (degree) and definitely not human (kind). For Jesus to believe his claims (assuming that they are not true), would mean that he was raving mad – as insane as is possible. And yet, his claim were true, as we have seen before... everything that he claimed would happen to him, or that he was, are backed up by history, as he said, (paraphrased) “If I don’t do the works of my Father [God], then don’t believe me. But if I do, then you know that the Father is in me, and I in the Father” (John 10:37-38)…thus, he says that if what he does is not matching what he says, then we don’t need to believe him. Jesus clearly was no lunatic.
The logic of this argument goes thus:
Jesus is lord, liar or lunatic.
Jesus was not a liar.
Jesus was not a lunatic.
Therefore: Jesus is lord.
This argument is not my own original creation – I’m not that smart – C.S. Lewis originally used it in “Mere Christianity” (an excellent book, by the way) and Josh McDowell refines it in “Evidence That Demands a Verdict” (I don’t have space to quote his whole chapter here, you’ll have to read it for yourself).
"But," you may say, "you still haven’t proven that the Bible is the Word of God." You are right…but I don’t have far to go. Now we can say that:
Jesus was God
Jesus maintained that Scripture is authoritative (see Mark 12:10; Luke 4:21; and John 7:38; 17:12)
Therefore: Scripture is at the very least, ordained by God as the authoritative rule of conduct for all men (i.e., you and me).
Whether it was specifically written by God or “is the Word of God” or however you want to look at it, this is far enough for our purposes…the Bible is authorized by God as the rule of life which defines right and wrong conduct.
First, does the Bible pass the test of historical accuracy? We know it does, for several reasons: first, because it passes the test of reality – worldly archaeologists rely on it to tell them where to find places to dig (and what do you know…the archaeologists dig, and presto – there it is) – the Bible is archaeologically accurate. Second, the Bible has more manuscript evidence than any other historical document. Third, even the secular historians’ (Josephus, etc.) accounts agree with those of the Bible. And fourth, the Bible’s account of historical events and people have consistently been confirmed by other historians, even today (Darius existed, King David existed, Solomon existed, etc.).
These are more than enough to show the Bible’s reliability, at least as a historical document. Now, this does not prove that it was inspired by God (i.e. men wrote what God told them to), as men alone can also write historically accurate documents…but it does give us some place to start, because if we know that it is historically accurate, then we can look at its content (i.e. what Jesus said about himself) to see what it says.
Second, is the Bible consistent with itself? In its 2000 (at least) year history, there has been ample time for those who do not believe it to find a contradiction in it, but to date, there has been found not one bona fide, incontrovertible contradiction.
Now, can we prove something from this? Not directly, until we consider what Jesus said about himself. So what does he say? Most importantly, he claims that he is God.
If we examine Jesus’ claims, then we are left with only a few options. Either Jesus was who said he was, or he wasn’t. What does this mean? If we break it down further, Jesus could have been a lunatic (with an infinitely wrong belief of himself), a liar (one who knows that what he says is untrue), or exactly who he claimed to be – God. There are no other options.
That Jesus claimed to be God is plain to anyone who reads the historical accounts of his teachings (see John 1:1-17; 8:58; 10:30; Luke 5:20-21; and others)
But what if he was not who he claimed to be? We have two options left: he must have been a liar or a lunatic.
If he was a liar, what did he stand to gain by propagating the lie? That people would follow him?...this might be possible, except that when given the chance to save his life by simply saying “yeah, it’s not true, I’m really not God” does he do this? No, in fact, he continued to maintain that what he said was true (see John 18:19-23; Luke 22:67-71; and Mark 14:61-62). Again, if he was a liar, how is it then that he rose from the dead? He was certainly dead after having been crucified (the Romans were experts in crucifying people), and yet there were hundreds of eyewitnesses who saw him alive after he had been dead and buried. Not only this, but those who could have disproven his resurrection did nothing to deny it (the Pharisees had a lot of credibility to lose if Jesus rose from the dead, and the Roman soldiers who were guarding the tomb could have easily repudiated the story of Jesus’ resurrection, if it had not been true). Thus, we see that the claims that Jesus made were not lies; at the very least, Jesus believed in what he taught up to the very end.
This brings us to our third option…if he were a lunatic. What is the defining characteristic of lunacy? It is that what I am and what I believe I am are different. If this difference is only a little, we call it pride (or depression), if it is larger, we call it delusions of grandeur; now, these differences are those of degree – what if we look at differences of kind - if I were to believe myself to be a horse? I would certainly be classified as certifiably insane. The ultimate in lunacy, then, is to claim to be something infinitely different in kind and degree, when I am not that something. For a man to claim to be God is just such a situation – God is infinitely greater (degree) and definitely not human (kind). For Jesus to believe his claims (assuming that they are not true), would mean that he was raving mad – as insane as is possible. And yet, his claim were true, as we have seen before... everything that he claimed would happen to him, or that he was, are backed up by history, as he said, (paraphrased) “If I don’t do the works of my Father [God], then don’t believe me. But if I do, then you know that the Father is in me, and I in the Father” (John 10:37-38)…thus, he says that if what he does is not matching what he says, then we don’t need to believe him. Jesus clearly was no lunatic.
The logic of this argument goes thus:
Jesus is lord, liar or lunatic.
Jesus was not a liar.
Jesus was not a lunatic.
Therefore: Jesus is lord.
This argument is not my own original creation – I’m not that smart – C.S. Lewis originally used it in “Mere Christianity” (an excellent book, by the way) and Josh McDowell refines it in “Evidence That Demands a Verdict” (I don’t have space to quote his whole chapter here, you’ll have to read it for yourself).
"But," you may say, "you still haven’t proven that the Bible is the Word of God." You are right…but I don’t have far to go. Now we can say that:
Jesus was God
Jesus maintained that Scripture is authoritative (see Mark 12:10; Luke 4:21; and John 7:38; 17:12)
Therefore: Scripture is at the very least, ordained by God as the authoritative rule of conduct for all men (i.e., you and me).
Whether it was specifically written by God or “is the Word of God” or however you want to look at it, this is far enough for our purposes…the Bible is authorized by God as the rule of life which defines right and wrong conduct.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
A Few Words from Leonard
Some quotations from Leonard Ravenhill. I found them encouraging and applicable; I pray they do the same for you.
_________________________________________________
"A popular evangelist reaches your emotions. A true prophet reaches your conscience."
"A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely point the way."
"You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there's a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it."
"John the Baptist never performed any miracles. Yet, he was greater than any of the Old Testament prophets."
"I doubt that more than two percent of professing Christians in the United States are truly born again."
"Our God is a consuming fire. He consumes pride, lust, materialism, and other sin."
"There are only two kinds of persons: those dead in sin and those dead to sin."
"Children can tell you what Channel 7 says, but not what Matthew 7 says."
"Some women [some men, too!] will spend thirty minutes to an hour preparing for church externally (putting on special clothes and makeup, etc.). What would happen if we all spent the same amount of time preparing internally for church with prayer and meditation?"
"Maturity comes from obedience, not necessarily from age."
"What good does it do to speak in tongues on Sunday if you have been using your tongue during the week to curse and gossip?"
"Would we send our daughters off to have sex if it would benefit our country? Yet, we send our sons off to kill when we think it would benefit our country!"
"The only time you can really say that 'Christ is all I need,' is when Christ is all you have."
"The Bible is either absolute, or it's obsolete."
"Why do we expect to be better treated in this world than Jesus was?"
"Testimonies are wonderful. But, so often our lives don't fit our testimonies."
"My main ambition in life is to be on the Devil's most wanted list."
"You can't develop character by reading books. You develop it from conflict."
"When there's something in the Bible that churches don't like, they call it: legalism.'"
"We can't serve God by proxy."
"We must do what we can do for God, before He will give us the power to do what we can't do."
"There's a difference between changing your opinion, and changing your lifestyle."
"Our seminaries today are turning out dead men."
"How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you don't even have the strength to turn off your TV?"
"If a Christian is not having tribulation in the world, there's something wrong!"
"Any method of evangelism will work, if God is in it."
"Church unity comes from corporate humility."
"Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel so seriously. But do they really think that on Judgment Day, Christ will chastise me, saying, 'Leonard, you took Me too seriously?'"
"If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified."
"You can know a lot about the atonement, and yet receive no benefit from it."
_____________________________________________________________
And one final quote, a warning to which we would do well to take heed:
"If the whole church goes off into deception, that will in no way excuse us for not following Christ."
_________________________________________________
"A popular evangelist reaches your emotions. A true prophet reaches your conscience."
"A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely point the way."
"You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there's a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it."
"John the Baptist never performed any miracles. Yet, he was greater than any of the Old Testament prophets."
"I doubt that more than two percent of professing Christians in the United States are truly born again."
"Our God is a consuming fire. He consumes pride, lust, materialism, and other sin."
"There are only two kinds of persons: those dead in sin and those dead to sin."
"Children can tell you what Channel 7 says, but not what Matthew 7 says."
"Some women [some men, too!] will spend thirty minutes to an hour preparing for church externally (putting on special clothes and makeup, etc.). What would happen if we all spent the same amount of time preparing internally for church with prayer and meditation?"
"Maturity comes from obedience, not necessarily from age."
"What good does it do to speak in tongues on Sunday if you have been using your tongue during the week to curse and gossip?"
"Would we send our daughters off to have sex if it would benefit our country? Yet, we send our sons off to kill when we think it would benefit our country!"
"The only time you can really say that 'Christ is all I need,' is when Christ is all you have."
"The Bible is either absolute, or it's obsolete."
"Why do we expect to be better treated in this world than Jesus was?"
"Testimonies are wonderful. But, so often our lives don't fit our testimonies."
"My main ambition in life is to be on the Devil's most wanted list."
"You can't develop character by reading books. You develop it from conflict."
"When there's something in the Bible that churches don't like, they call it: legalism.'"
"We can't serve God by proxy."
"We must do what we can do for God, before He will give us the power to do what we can't do."
"There's a difference between changing your opinion, and changing your lifestyle."
"Our seminaries today are turning out dead men."
"How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you don't even have the strength to turn off your TV?"
"If a Christian is not having tribulation in the world, there's something wrong!"
"Any method of evangelism will work, if God is in it."
"Church unity comes from corporate humility."
"Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel so seriously. But do they really think that on Judgment Day, Christ will chastise me, saying, 'Leonard, you took Me too seriously?'"
"If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified."
"You can know a lot about the atonement, and yet receive no benefit from it."
_____________________________________________________________
And one final quote, a warning to which we would do well to take heed:
"If the whole church goes off into deception, that will in no way excuse us for not following Christ."
Thursday, November 27, 2008
A Bible
I am my neighbour's Bible;
He reads me when we meet.
Today he reads me in my house,
Tomorrow in the street.
He my relative or friend
Or slight acquaintance be,
Yet he is reading me.
___________________________
A friend shared this with me -- I have no idea who the author is.
He reads me when we meet.
Today he reads me in my house,
Tomorrow in the street.
He my relative or friend
Or slight acquaintance be,
Yet he is reading me.
___________________________
A friend shared this with me -- I have no idea who the author is.
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