Week 2: Actually, there's this book I'm reading called the Bible...

This time round, we tried to work out why we base our faith on the Bible, and whether or not it can really support our beliefs. The beans made a welcome return, and Jamie ate all the grapes. We came up with loads and loads of stuff, which I will now proceed to mangle.



Surprisingly enough, the fact that there are boring bits in the Bible (genealogies, lists of numbers, bits we don't immediately understand, and bits that might not seem all that relevant to our salvation) ranked high on our list of reasons for why we trust its authority. The main message of the Bible is clear - God's way is the way of life, and any other way leads to pointless death - but the detail is what ultimately convinces. We thought about the little bits of information that tie up in books that were written years apart and by different writers; two people might notice different things about the same event, and their comments might explain each other, for example. Matthew (27:37), Mark (15:26) and John (19:19) give three different accounts of the notice above Jesus' head on the cross, but we are told that it was written in three different languages. Coincidence? Nah. Rodge backed this up with some examples from J.J. Blunt's Undesigned Scriptural Coincidences, which can be found online here: http://dandenongbec.org.au/blunt/index.html



But I'll start at the start. First, we thought of all the people who were witness to Jesus' death and resurrection. Paul lists them in 1 Cor 15:3-8, urging the Corinthians to remain faithful awaiting the resurrection of the dead because some of them were saying it would never happen. This is an example of a typical device used in scripture - solid evidence for belief is given, and then we are asked to base our faith on it and believe in something we can't see (Heb 11:1).



Here are a few of the peices of evidence we came up with:

• There is a tremendous amount of historical data in the Bible. Archaeology has never contradicted what the Bible says, and miny finds have backed it up. In contrast, the Book of Mormon has been shattered by New World findings.


• Evolution just doesn't work, whichever way you look at it. It is scientifically unverifiable, and that leaves intelligent design. The resposibilities of created beings to their creator are for the individual to decide, but the Bible gives the most comprehensive answer on this subject.


• Prophecy continues to be fulfilled. The Jews have been back in Israel since 1948, as prophecied in Isaiah 1:24-8, but Jerusalem has not yet been 'redeemed with judgement' (v.27) so we know we have something else to wait for.
• Many other religious writings concentrate on the actions of their gods, whereas the Bible is wholly concerned with the separation and reconciliation of God and Mankind. We should respect other people, but we do not have to respect their beliefs. By the way, that is a statement that can be misunderstood very easily, so don't for a moment imagine that you can go about ridiculing other religions and denominations. It's just that we shouldn't view them as holding sacred beliefs, because they are man-made, and for the gratification of man.
• The Bible has many authors, but only one message. It's as simple as that. And the authors quote each other so we know who wrote God's word - Jesus alone quotes almost every book in the Old Testament.
• There is no doctrinal inconsistency in the Bible - if it teaches a particular lesson, it will never contradict itself. God's principles have remained the same since the creation of the world.
• And lastly, the subject of Biblical transmission, or how the Bible reached us. We spent a bit of time on this, and reached the conclusion that the Bible couldn't have survived for us as it did had it been a book written by men. God was in control the whole time.

Right, so that was last week, March 30. I'd better phone Jamie, who had finished his blog for April 5 before I was halfway through this one...