FAITH
Why I Believe
By Nathan Sanders
Where man has worked successfully to bring
evidence for the truth of the Bible, God has worked exponentially to confirm His Word through knowledge, through the testimony of the people
of the Church, and through miracles, signs, and wonders…
WHY I BELIEVE...
1. That the Bible is trustworthy and accurate:
Trustworthy
I believe that the faith tradition of the Bible is living and real. The
majority of the world's other supernatural stories/myths from history center
on disconnected beings and events that in no way relate to everyday living.
In short, they are forms of escapism. The Bible, however, in
its entire supernatural splendor and history, deals almost entirely with
real people, real kings, and real nations that are historically proven to
have existed.
For every mysterious revelation, vision, or enthusiastic prophecy
of the Bible, there is an equal portion of practical advice, wisdom, and
teaching for every day living and all that it entails with social structures,
work, recreation, community, and family.
The spiritual messages of the Bible
calls for immediate application to an individual's real-time, day-to-day
lifestyle. The powerful visions, dreams and other drama of the Bible bring
people hope instead of escapism. The Bible is a reality check, facing life's
hardest issues straight on, tracking the working of the unimaginable Creator
of everything as He made Himself known to the people of the world.
Accurate
The modern Bible, consisting of both the Old and New Testament, is based
upon thousands and thousands of ancient manuscripts, documents, and fragments
of Scripture that when compiled give massive testimony to the total accuracy
of today's version with that of the earliest versions, including those that
were in use before the compiling of the New Testament.
The method used to compile the accepted Old and New Testament so completely
assured the textual integrity of our modern Bible that scholars are able
to discern even the slightest variation in usually unimportant words such
as "the" or "an" when determining what the earliest manuscripts actually
said. Whenever a question remains unanswered, scholars are careful to document
these and include them in the margins of most Bibles, such as the popular
NIV. The questions that remain have no bearing on the central messages of
the Scriptures.
WHY I BELIEVE...
2. That the Bible is superior to all other religious books and by its
supreme literary quality shows startling evidence of Divine inspirational
authorship beyond that of the human hands that first wrote it:
No other book has withstood the test of time and criticism like the Bible
has. Even the most skeptical, unbelieving scholars agree that it is the
greatest piece of literature the world has ever known and has overwhelmingly
survived the most violent attempts to erase its existence from the earth.
Today's Bible is textually sound when compared with the thousands
of early Greek and Hebrew Bible documents available to scholars and translators.
No other historical book has come under such scrutiny and still been
able to maintain its integrity. When the high standards of proofing
the Bible are applied to other historical religious documents, none of them
can even compare to the lasting strength of the book that Christians call
the Holy Bible. All the others become obsolete.
No other book has brought comfort, peace, and restoration to hurting people,
communities, and nations like the Bible has. Even in times when it's contents
have been abused by corrupted leaders, it still remained the world's #1
source of spiritual help and moral guidance. This worldwide trend has increased
in immeasurable ways over the last 100 years.
No other book contains such a literary richness in style and content. The
Bible contains every major form of literature and communicates thought and
emotion in unsurpassed totality.
-No other book contains all of the drama of human life like the Bible does.
From a person's first moments in the womb and after birth, through the storminess
of youth, past the passions, failures, and hopes of adulthood, and into
the final hours before death, every imaginable experience of life happens
to someone among the thousands of characters who's lives are remembered
in the pages of the Old and New Testaments. No conceivable facet of life
experience is missed.
No other book so completely condemns practices, habits, and rituals that
are detrimental to human life like the Bible does. Fornication, adultery,
homosexuality, murder (and consequently abortion, an unthinkable act to
the people of Bible times), stealing, lying, slandering, laziness, drunkenness,
abuse of children, corruption of governmental leaders, lusts of all kinds,
envy, bribery, and many, many more. The list can seem almost confusingly
endless yet it is precisely comprehensive when examined. Anyone of these
is called sin, which makes it an act of disobedience towards God first,
and then man.
No other book contains the positive and time-tested principles and practices
for enriching the quality of human life like the Bible does. All matters
of personal, family, community, government, and social life in general are
affected by the teachings of the Bible. Both history and the present
prove that the order for life presented in the Bible brings about the best
possible effects upon individuals, families, and entire nations.
No other book celebrates human life in all its glory and wonder like the
Bible does. Mankind is presented as the center of God's attention, a recipient
of His unconditional love and as a vessel capable of loving Him back. It
is the greatest love story every told. The thought of an all-powerful God
desiring the love and devotion of a free people and then calling that people
His own is a romance unequalled. In true love God gave to man the freedom
to fail. His love showed itself again in providing a way to cover our failure
and make things right again. No other story of love in action even comes
close.
No other book teaches us to uphold the preciousness of others like the
Bible does. We are to look out for the good of another in every area
of life, including physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial, just to
name a few. The Bible makes it very clear that each individual is precious
to God and therefore should be precious to one another. The Bible also teaches
a sound philosophy of war, self-defense, and punishment for severe wrongdoing,
the only instances where human life can be taken. In so doing, the
value of human life is reinforced in an even greater way.
No other book but the Bible offers clear-cut answers to all of life's most
probing questions. Timeless inquiries about life and its meaning are all
answered in complete detail. The aching heart that is searching for answers
will find them in the Holy Bible, centered in a God who is full of love
and offers the very best to anyone who will take it. Other faiths, religions,
and philosophies fail to deal with the deepest questions or even worse,
steer seekers away from them in order to find a sense of peace.
The Bible contains many little glimpses into the amazing wisdom and knowledge
that it's people possessed in times when these things were unknown to the
world. For example, God commanded Abraham to institute circumcision of newborn
sons on the 8th day following their birth (Genesis 17:12). Amazingly, we
now know that human blood is best able to clot 8 days after a baby takes
its first breath of oxygen. The Israelites had no way of knowing this
in their day. Another good example is the knowledge Jacob had of highly
skilled selective breeding, causing his herds to grow larger and stronger
while the surrounding community of pagans was unaware as to this system
(Genesis 30:31-42). There are myriads of other examples of how in ancient
times God's people lived in ways that have only recently been recognized
by the secular community as the best way to live.
WHY I BELIEVE...
3. That the Bible is capable of supernatural and spiritual influence
upon those who hear it:
From my personal and extensive use of the Bible I have experienced countless
times where the daily biblical reading portion I chose in an unbiased way
dealt directly with issues, struggles, triumphs, and temptations that I
was presently going through and in need of help with. The shear number of
times that this continues to happen catapults the instances far beyond simple
coincidence and instead hints (or shouts!) of unseen power and force behind
their existence.
From personally witnessing the experience of others in a similar way as
stated above, where deep seated emotional, spiritual, and psychological
problems of an individual were unexpectedly answered, resolved, or at least
addressed in a positive way through random Bible readings or hearings while
attending a Bible study, church service, or other Christian function.
For
example, while taking part in an outreach Bible study in the Midwest, the
leader of the group simply picked up their reading in the Gospels where
they had left off the week before. The passage dealt with issues of marriage
and divorce. Unbeknownst to them a first-time visitor in the small group
of 6 was silently being tortured by fears of divorce and a general collapse
of her marriage. As the leader opened the meeting with the Gospel reading,
the woman began to weep and proceeded to verbally express her pain and emotions.
The direction of the meeting was changed, and the woman was ministered
to and visibly strengthened by the surrounding prayers of the other 5 attendees.
This is only one example of seemingly inexplicable instances of how the
Bible has suddenly pierced through an individual's deepest needs and brought
hope and healing.
From the testimony of instances where private Gospel readings have been
followed by physical healing in the body of the reader. The instances usually
go something like this: The reader who has some sort of ailment reads a
portion of the Gospels where Jesus heals a sick or lame person, and following
the reading, the individual verbally prays to God in faith, and then is
suddenly healed of his/her ailment.
From the widespread testimony and also personal witness of public Gospel
readings and sermons that were followed by dramatic occurrences of supernatural
healing and other manifestations of spiritual power. These instances
occur in like-fashion of those in the New Testament where sick, lame, crippled,
and demon possessed people receive healing. This kind of ministry
is very normal in developing countries and has been so since the time of
the New Testament. In the western world it occurs more in pocket-like
outbreaks that stir up the local press and raise a few eyebrows, but then
are forgotten by the general public.
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Nathan
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