Can You Trust Your Bible?

I have been having an online discussion with a former friend who was educated in a fundamental Bible college and served as a youth pastor for several years. Sadly, he has fallen under the spell of modern intellectuals who have convinced him that the Bible texts we have today cannot be trusted to deliver the truth of the original authors. Their argument is that after centuries of copying and recopying the text, and with the influence of human thinkers down through the years, the Bibles we read today bear no resemblance to the original text. They are not truly God’s Word.

When we began our interchange, I quoted 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” I argued that if God was invested in the original writing through His Holy Spirit, it was only reasonable to assume that He would continue to superintend the transmission through the years. His response was (I paraphrase) that evil men developed the concept of inspiration to prompt obedience to their version of the truth. Naturally, since I was arguing from the Scripture as we have it today, he rejected the idea completely. He doesn’t believe our Bibles are reliable, so using them to prove a point is pointless.

I also used a defense of the Bible that is common today; we have thousands of very ancient manuscript fragments that in total represent every New Testament book. The sheer volume of manuscript evidence leads honest Bible scholars to the conclusion that while we don’t believe we have any copies of the originals, the fragments we do have push their reliability to a very high degree of confidence. We also have the written records of men we call the Apostolic Fathers, many of whom were acquainted with men who either came from the same generation as the Apostles, or they knew someone of that age. The Apostolic Fathers quote from most New Testament books, and their writings agree conceptually with the ancient fragments of Scripture we do have.

Even that defense of the Scripture failed to sway my friend; he believes the modern apologists who say the Gospels were written many decades after the events they record and therefore have no basis for belief. In his opinion, the authors could not have been eyewitnesses as they claim to be. The fact is that a contemporary of the Apostle John, Polycarp of Smyrna, (writing around 110-140 AD) is known for quoting or alluding to about 20 out of the 27 New Testament books. The textual arguments in favor of the reliability of our New Testament are decisive. Other ancient texts lack this volume of documents, yet scholars accept their writings without question.

I can see only one reason for choosing the modern dismissive view of the text of Scripture over the testimony of numerous ancient writings which give credence to its validity. God’s arch enemy has been using intellectual arguments ever since God first created Adam and Eve. The Serpent basically said to Eve, “Use your intellect woman; did God really say that?” Instead of looking to her heart and choosing to believe God, she fell for Satan’s intellectual ploy. She reverted to her soulish, fleshly appetite and disobeyed. Sadly, Adam joined her in her deception. Because of their disobedience, their spiritual connection with their Creator was severed, and they were left with nothing but worldly, soulish wisdom which James identifies as demonic.

You will note that the Bible record, which I choose to believe, paints a sad picture of the results of following worldly wisdom. First, things got so bad that God had to destroy virtually the entire human race and start over with Noah and his family. Soon after, the people became so proud of their worldly accomplishments that God had to confuse their language and leave them to their own devices as scattered nations. God chose one man, Abram, to become the father of a chosen nation which was supposed to become the people of God. They repeatedly chose to ignore the wisdom of their Creator and “did what was right in their own eyes.” The results were disastrous.

Paul tells us that God’s chosen people were never simply physical descendants of Abraham. The faith of Abraham, his choice to believe God, is what prompted God to call him righteous. Paul continues to identify faith – belief in God – as the sine qua non of God’s people. Without faith, the Hebrew writer says, it is impossible to please God. What my former friend has done is to disbelieve God by dismissing the Bible as authoritative in its present translations. He is saying no to God and yes to his intellectual friends.

I should clarify something at this point. It is not my opinion that the modern translations of the Bible are identical to the original manuscripts. All you have to do is read one passage in several different versions, and you will notice that many words are translated differently from version to version. This is inevitable when going from the original language (Hebrew or Greek) into the target language. Often, there is no exact English word for the original word. Translators use a word that they believe best represents the meaning of the original. Even though the different words are usually synonymous, the connotations of each word may differ. For example, “work” and “labor” are virtually synonymous. However, their meaning varies slightly depending on the context they are used to describe.

Versions also differ due to the underlying purpose of the translators. A direct word-for-word translation will sometimes sound quite different from a thought-for-thought version. When translators move away from direct literal translation, the occasion for commentary increases. (For a more detailed discussion of Bible versions, see “The Best Version of the Bible.”) It is also likely that the personal views of the translator will come into play, especially when deciding whether a passage is meant to be taken literally, or if it is figurative in some sense. I have covered this aspect of translation in several previous articles. (See Related Posts)

My deluded friend accused me of gatekeeping; he believes that we who trust that the Bibles we have today are sufficiently accurate to demand belief are closing our gates to people of different opinions. I suppose he is correct in a way. The Bible recommends discernment; it says we should have nothing to do with those who deny its truth. The Bible cautions us to beware of those who will believe anything that fills their itching ears. Paul warns Timothy that people will come to the church bringing teachings of demons. It’s hard to imagine anything more demonic that undercutting a person’s belief in the trustworthiness of Scripture. When I shared that idea with my fallen friend, he accused me of being the one who is misleading people.

I am sorry that my friend has lost his faith in the inspiration and accuracy of the Word of God as it is recorded in our modern Bibles. I still believe that with discernment and careful study, a modern version of the Bible can lead a person to saving faith and the truth about who God is and what He requires. As I wrote previously, “The Bible is a supernatural book. Reading the Bible without seeking the Holy Spirit’s help is a waste of precious time. Not reading the Bible at all is a waste of life.” The reason I can say this with confidence is that I believe the same Holy Spirit who inspired the original authors can use the words of today’s Bibles to convey God’ truth. Jesus did say the Holy Spirit will be our guide to the truth. That is a faith statement I am willing to die for. I will have to wait for the resurrection to know how my friend fares with his opinion.

Related Posts: Take the Bible Literally; The Vulture Has Landed

Thy Kingdom Come

The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is not well understood by most Christians. There are two primary reasons for that in my opinion. First, many misunderstand what the word used in the New Testament for kingdom (βασιλεία) means. It is not a physical thing with borders, hills, plains, rivers, cities, etc. The best translation of βασιλεία would be rulership or dominion. This is why Jesus could tell Pilate that while He is a king, His kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom consists of all those who choose to come under His dominion – His kingship.

The second misunderstanding that many people have is that we are waiting for Jesus’ second coming for Him to establish His kingdom. If you read Jesus’ words carefully, you will discover that He spoke of His kingdom as if it already existed. “The kingdom is within you,” He said, using the present tense. He could say that because even while He walked the earth, people were putting their faith in Him as their king; they were subjecting themselves to His rulership. True, His main purpose was to announce the coming of the kingdom, but those who chose to follow Him then were “charter members” of the coming kingdom.

The formal commencement of the Kingdom of God took place through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When Jesus spoke the words, “It is finished” on the cross of Calvary, they were loaded with centuries of meaning. The beginning of what He “finished” was in the Garden of Eden when Adam chose to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit. Adam’s disobedience brought death to the entire human race. Paul put it like this: “Just as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned.” Everyone born of Adam (that’s all of us) is born under the curse of death. This is why Paul often refers to people as dead before they come to Christ. Death reigned from Adam until Christ.

God did not abandon His children after Adam brought death into the world. He immediately announced a plan to redeem them from the curse through the “Seed of woman.” In the fullness of time, Paul tells us, God sent His Son, born of a virgin (to escape Adam’s curse) to redeem those who were under the curse. The result of that curse was a death sentence, and Jesus nailed it to His cross, removing it from our record. He disarmed those who had ruled us, namely death and the devil, and triumphed over them. He led captivity captive, Paul told the Ephesians, and gave gifts to men. Foremost among those gifts is the grace-gift of salvation: the removal of the curse.

Ever since that day, there have been two kingdoms coexisting on earth: the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of the light. They coexist, but they are not coequal in power. The king of darkness, Satan, has no power over those who are subjects of King Jesus. Greater is He who is in us… resist the devil and he must flee… the strongman is bound in order to wrest the power to rule on earth from Him. Believers in Christ walk the earth as ambassadors from another realm – a spiritual realm – another kingdom. Unbelievers still walk the earth too, bound to their king, Satan, the god of this age. They are still under the curse of death.

This is why Paul calls us ambassadors from another kingdom. We must tell those still bound by death that God has provided deliverance from death and reconciled them to Himself through Christ. All they have to do is renounce their allegiance to the kingdom of death and step into the kingdom of life. Those of us in the Kingdom of God have no fear of death because when we pass from this earth, we move immediately into the presence of God. “Absent from the body is present with the Lord.” “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” These promises and more tell me that death is not an end; it is a blessed new beginning.

There is still the issue of those alive at the second coming who have not trusted Christ and remain under the curse of death. Jesus may have been referring to them when He said, “At the end of the age, the Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all the causes of sin and those who do lawless deeds and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” This may coincide with the judgment scene in Revelation 20. Like most of the events pictured in Revelation, the timing is open for debate, but I see this as a real possibility.

There is another curious feature of the Kingdom of God. Jesus said that the Father gave Him the people the Father chose. He said that no one could come to Him unless the Father drew them. Paul says that when Christ has abolished the enemy’s power and conquered the last enemy, death, He [Jesus] will hand the kingdom over to the Father. He will give back to the Father the people the Father gave to Him.

This adds a dimension to the Father/Son relationship that I had not seen before. Jesus became the first fruits of a new race of people: kingdom people. He is the eldest of many brothers (and sisters.) I believe that ever since Jesus’ resurrection from the grave, He has remained in His exalted, divine/human state, dwelling in His spiritual body while seated at God’s right hand. At the end of this age, the church age, He will give the fruit of His labor (and sacrifice) to His Father, just like the High Priest He is. Amazing!

John says that upon our resurrection, we will be like Jesus because we will see Him as He is. I think this means we will be walking the New Earth with the same Jesus who walked the dusty roads of Palestine centuries ago although we will all have new spiritual bodies. A perfect world filled with perfected people ruled by a perfect Brother/King in the Kingdom without end. May the Kingdom come indeed!

P.S.

My belief – shared by some, not by all – is that when we “die,” we pass out of time. Time is an integral part of God’s creation of this universe. When we leave this reality, we step into a different reality where time has a completely different meaning. I believe that when I die, I will step into eternity with everyone who has died before me and all those who may die after me all at once. We will all enter God’s presence at the same “time.” At that “moment,” Jesus will turn with all believers who died toward those who remain on the earth, and with a shout and the sound of a trumpet, those who remain on earth will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and the redeemed who are alive at His coming will meet Jesus “in the air.” And thus, we shall ever be with the Lord.

Pray Like You Mean It

In my last post, I suggested a way to add richness to your prayer life. In this post, I want to share what I do to give as much meaning as possible to my prayers. I am not saying this is the best way for everyone, but it is one way to build a habit of prayer. Jesus told His disciples that they should always pray; Paul told his readers to pray constantly. I don’t think they meant that we should be saying prayers every waking hour but that an attitude of prayer should undergird all our activities. Whatever happens in our daily lives, we must be aware that God is in it, and we should respond accordingly.

Along with an attitude of constant prayer, I believe Christians should have set times of prayer every day if possible. For the person who claims to have no time for prayer, I must ask if their relationship with God is genuine. Can anyone honestly say they love another deeply but refuse to communicate with them when the means are readily available? If the daily schedule truly is full, I suggest setting the alarm a little earlier; God will reward the effort far beyond the loss of a few minutes of sleep.

I will admit that being retired allows me the privilege of spending considerably more time in prayer than I could while working. However, anyone who really wants to can carve out a bit of time to attempt something like I am going to suggest. I am going to draw from my book, A Life of Prayer, for these suggestions. I adapted them from the well-known acronym ACTS for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. I added an “I” for intercession. I follow the ACTSI pattern every day with the people and circumstances currently on my heart.

“A” is for adoration. I have expanded this to include several more “A” words. I begin my prayer time expressing my adoration for God because of all He has done for me. I acclaim Him as my Lord. I admire Him for His excellence. I often use Scripture passages such as 1 Chronicles 29:11-14 or Revelation 5:12-13 or others to recite the glory due to God. I then turn inward to accept God’s grace and mercy I so badly need; I affirm His authority over my life and my family; I align myself with His will for my life. I often pray Scripture that supports each of those actions. That’s a bunch of “A” words to ground my prayers in God’s Word and His will for me.

The “C” in ACTS is for confession. I begin by agreeing with Scripture that I am not worthy to receive all the wonderful things God has granted me. I confess that without the robe of Jesus’ righteousness upon me, I am a needy, fallen creature. I try to recall any faulty actions or inactions that occur to me and ask for forgiveness. I confess that without the Spirit’s help, I am powerless to live as I am supposed to as Christ’s brother. This is the essence of confession: we tell God what He already knows about us. This act has a cleansing effect for me.

What follows naturally from confession is the “T” for thanksgiving. I thank Jesus that He bore my sin – paid the penalty that I owed. I thank the Lord for His time on earth demonstrating how I am supposed to live. I thank the Father for being willing to send His Son. I thank God for giving us the Word so we can get to know Him and learn what He expects of us. I thank God for the innumerable blessings He has bestowed throughout my life: my wife, my children and grandchildren, our financial security, our health (relative though it may be), my opportunities to serve Him, the air I breathe, the beauty of the earth, and even the trials He sends because I know they are designed to help me grow up into Christ.

The “S” in ACTS is for supplication. As you might imagine, by this point in my morning prayers I have already spent a bit of time. I believe this is important because I need to have the right attitude before I ask God for anything. The “A” and the “C” and the “T” should have put me in my place relative to my Heavenly Father: His humble servant expecting nothing but reveling in His incredible grace. I try to follow the advice of Graham Cooke who said we should seek God’s will concerning our requests before we begin to pray for them.

This practice should be used before praying for someone’s healing, I ask God several questions before I begin to pray for healing. Is He calling the person home to be with Him; healing would postpone that wonderful reality. Has He allowed the sickness to bring about growth in the person or someone around him. If you are praying for a person’s deliverance from another type of trial, the same approach would be appropriate. If you are asking for a material blessing – a car, a new home, or anything physical – you should wait to hear from God whether it is something He wishes you to have. If you truly believe prayer is a dialogue, you can wait for God’s response before you pray for anything specific.

While you are waiting for clarity about a request, you can still pray “generic” prayers such as God’s blessing or the person’s openness to whatever God is doing or for peace within the circle of the person’s family and friends. It is possible to pray that God’s will be done even when we don’t know what it is. That is how we align ourselves with whatever God wants to do in the situation. This underscores the need to be listening as well as speaking during our prayer time.

 I once had a dear friend who had terminal cancer. Our whole church prayed fervently that God would miraculously heal him. He did not. In the midst of those prayers though, we saw our friend’s witness grow immeasurably as he testified to God’s grace in his life, and we turned our prayers into thanksgiving. That man undoubtedly affected more people in his last couple years than in all the time before that. We still miss him, but we marvel at the living lesson of God’s grace that he showed everyone he came in contact with because of the cancer he ultimately succumbed to.

I have added an “I” to ACTS to emphasize the intercessory nature of many prayers. It is a form of supplication, but it involves asking on behalf of someone else. When someone else is undergoing a serious trial, I can intercede on their behalf by asking God to strengthen them. When someone is seeking God’s will about a life circumstance, I can ask God to make His plan known. When someone is undertaking a vital ministry task, I can pray for God’s special anointing on their work. As my prayer life has grown over the years, I find myself asking less for myself while increasingly interceding for others. There is nothing wrong with asking God for personal blessings. However, as the Spirit grows agape-love in your heart, you will find you are more concerned with the welfare of others than of your own.

There is another type of intercession that my sister introduced me to years ago. I think it perfectly fulfills the command to pray continually. My sister told me she prayed what she called prayer bombs. For example, when she hears a siren, she immediately prays that the blood of Jesus would cover the situation whatever it may be. When she sees people arguing or being difficult in public, she prays God’s peace upon them. I took the idea to heart, and as one example, every time I drove past an abortion clinic on my way to school, I prayed that the women inside would change their mind and keep their baby. I admit I also prayed that the whole place would go out of business. (No, I did not pray for a real bomber to make that happen.)

There is one other type of prayer that I occasionally use: warfare prayer. The Apostle Paul often uses warfare imagery to describe our lives as believers. One of the clearest examples is in Ephesians: “Put on the full armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil, because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” We are in a cosmic battle against God’s arch enemy. There are times when rather than praying for something, I feel led to pray against something. Sometimes I must pray against the enemy’s efforts in my own life. Other times, often lately, I feel compelled to pray against the powers of darkness at work in our society either specifically or generally. These prayers are a necessary part of our work on behalf of the Kingdom of God.

That is how I make prayer meaningful in my life. I have a prayer prompter in my computer version of the Faithlife/Logos Bible study program that presents my list of prayer concerns daily, weekly, or on a custom schedule. I pray for each of them as they come up and add whatever else God lays on my heart. I am not suggesting you copy my practice exactly. However, I can testify that being intentional in my prayers and being disciplined to do something every day has been a blessing to me, and I trust that many others have also been blessed because I prayed. Whether you have only a few minutes each day or you have hours to give to prayer, doing so will make your life better, and the kingdom of God will advance if you pray like you mean it.

Related Posts: A Prayer Primer; In Jesus’ Name; Moving Mountains