I'm presenting the reasons for my faith in the Bible as God's Word with the conviction that the stronger the foundations for one's faith are, the stronger one's faith will be. And the stronger one's faith is, the more sanctified for and satisfied in God that one will be. My aim is our greater holiness and gladness in God. May God grant me my heart's desire!The fifth reason I believe the Bible is the Word of God is because the teachings of the Bible work for all of life. Consider with me that the validity of a truth claim is based in part on the workability, liveability, and real-world feasibility of that claim. Does that claim fit into and work in the real world?
Ravi Zacharias loves to sound this note in his defense of the faith, noting how in contrast to pantheism (which is the basic philosophy behind Hinduism, Buddhism, and their various New Age offspring), Christianity (embodied in the teachings and truth claims of the Bible) actually can be lived; it works in the real world.
Part of what pantheism teaches is that the material world really does not exist; that none of what we think we see and touch is real. Everything is illusion. My senses are deceiving me into thinking that there is a real key board in front of me at which my fingers are pecking away. Actually, even my senses are not real. What we think we see and feel and smell and taste is not really there. And the thought that we actually do see and feel and smell and taste is an illusion as well.
The point that Mr. Zacharias so ably articulates is that pantheism cannot possibly be true simply because it cannot possibly be lived in the real world. No pantheist can be a consistent pantheist. It just won't work.
How does Mr. Zacaharias prove this? To paraphrase, he reminds us that every pantheist knows, as he approaches an intersection on his bicycle at the same time as a tractor trailer, that he'd better stop. He knows that, contrary to his faith that that truck is not really there, it really is. And if he should be so fooled as to think it's not really there he will soon find himself to be really dead.
This means that the claims of pantheism/Hinduism, however esoteric and appealing they may be at one level, just don't work at the real life level. Unless a New Ager chooses to let tractor trailers hit him, he simply cannot live what he believes. And if he does so choose, all that results is human road kill.
Folks, it's all well and good to claim that something is true, but if it cannot be lived, and if it simply does not work, it cannot possibly be true.
I would argue that the Bible works. It can be lived consistently (with the help of God), and when it is lived consistently, it works. Its teachings, laws, and various work, health, relationship, and lifestyle paradigms all interface with real life in the real world and lead to real benefits and positive consequences for those who do them.
Those who live by God's precepts in God's Word usually live better and often live longer (Ephesians 6:1-3), simply because they are made wiser by them (Psalm 19:7-11; 119:98-104). Generally speaking, unless God has occasional reasons to make it otherwise, bodies stay healthier, hearts become happier, marriages grow stronger and last longer, pleasures become purer and sweeter, relationships bond deeper, any and all work becomes more satisfying and productive, material needs are more consistently provided, and even deep trials and extreme suffering are more purposeful and peace-filled, when the Bible is learned and practiced in life.
What this suggests strongly is that the Bible has all the marks of being a Creator’s Manual for doing life on planet earth. Whoever wrote this Book gets it. He knows the real world and how to live in it. And even when He tells us things that are counter-intuitive (such as "if you would save your life, lose it"), the advice proves both do-able and true.
So here's another reason for my faith in the Bible. It's a reliable and effective guidebook for life on God's earth. It's an infallible Manual that points to an omniscient Manufacturer.
God has not only made our planet; He's told us how to live on it. And what He has said works.
Thanks again Tim! Another good point.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading and rereading this I was reminded of Elijah.
ReplyDeleteThe title of the blog says, "Why I Believe the Bible Is the Word of God: I Simply Works".
When we think of Elijah, our minds think Mighty Man of God, Mighty Prophet. And of course that is right.
For a case in point just read 1 Kings 17 and 18.
James makes reference to one of Elijah's work as a mighty man of God. But he adds something that helps put us in his category, "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours" He prayed that it might not rain and later that it would rain. And that is what happened. But he "was a man with a nature like ours".
So where does the Word of God simply working come into play. Listen to this, "After many days the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, "Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth."
It was the Lord who said, "I will send rain upon the earth." Elijah was the messenger, the agent, used to show that the word of God simply works.
You can be a messenger, an agent, just like Elijah, to show the world that the Word of God simply works. Remember "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours".