A Grand Oppertunity

Luke and I want to share some exciting news with all of you.  As you probably have seen from reading this blog, we both have a heart for interfaith evangelism.  We desire to share with those caught in false gospels, some that seem on the surface to be Christianity, but when you examine you quickly find out how drastically the gospel of Christ is distorted.  We desperately want them to know the truth of who Christ is and what he has done for us.  Connected with our heart for this type of ministry, we’ve also been desiring to become full time missionaries, although we honestly had no idea what that would look like for us or how it would actually come about.  Well in the last few weeks, God has been doing amazing things.

It started when we got an unexpected phone call from someone that Luke new from a few years ago, when he first came to start seminary.  Luke had some conversations with this person in the past where he had shared his heart for reaching those in cults and false religions with the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and Luke had also told of his heart for and desire to eventually minister in Utah, where biblical Christianity is virtually unknown in most areas, and the Mormon religion is predominant.  Apparently this had stuck with our friend, as this was the subject of the call.  Our friend has founded an organization with the mission of starting churches and home Bible studies throughout Utah and wanted to talk with us, saying that God had brought Luke and their past conversations to mind.  We met last week and we’ve been asked to come on staff and be a part of this organization and its mission.  We’ve been asked to move to Utah and to be evangelists for this ministry.  We were very surprised, to say the least.  We had been thinking about the possibility of this before the meeting and we had decided, after praying and thinking about what God had been laying on our hearts in recent months, that if we were asked, there was no biblical reason to say no to such an opportunity.  Personally, I’ve been thinking about how God has grown me and how he has been preparing me for this, through my work at the mission and the times we’ve spent speaking with others of different faiths in our home.  If someone had told me we’d be taking this step a year ago, I don’t know that I would have reacted so positively, but God really has been changing my heart.  I know he will sustain me through it all and more than anything, I want to be used of him for this large group of people, I want those in Utah to know the truth of the gospel!

And so it seems we move onto a new chapter in our life and ministry. One where “Contending earnestly for the faith” will be central in brand new ways! Please keep us in your prayers, and stay tuned for updates as we move forward in this new path God has given us

Ashley

Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

The Hope of the Gospel

My church family has been going through a difficult time recently.  We lost a wonderful woman very unexpectedly to illness; she was so full of life, enthusiastic, fun and loving.  She will be greatly missed.  Beyond her love for her family, was her love of Christ and this has been brought up many times over the last few days.  I’ve been thinking a lot about her, rejoicing in the fact that she is now with the Lord.  Sometimes I think the phrase “with the lord” is said quickly, of course as a means of comfort, but have we really thought about what that is really saying?  Can we even fully grasp the joy, fulfillment, and peace of what we are saying?  I honestly don’t think so, but we should still examine scripture on this hope, which will cause us to rejoice even more!

I know that our friend is in heaven, because she has put her faith completely and only in Jesus Christ.  Sometimes when we talk about or think of heaven, we focus on the fact that there is no more suffering or tears, but why is this the case?  It’s because my friend is now in the presence of the Almighty God!  Yes, she is now free from sin, sickness, pain and death, but all because of Christ’s sacrifice!  She is now at peace because she is present with the Lord.  What a wonderful and joyful event!  I love how it is expressed in 1 Peter 1 3-5: “Praise be to the God and father of our lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.  This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”  I love the phrase living hope.  What is this hope?  It is in the fact that Jesus, though he died and was buried, has risen from the dead and that when he returns, we will be given new life as well.  Our hope is living because Christ is alive!  Our inheritance, eternity with our Lord and father, will never spoil because of what Christ has done!  Paul lays it out so clearly and I think, beautifully in 1 Thesolonians 4 13-18: “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.  For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so that we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.  According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with the Lord forever.”  Praise God, we will be with him forever, knowing that our father truly will have completely taken care of everything!  Can you imagine that joy?  I remember the excitement I had as a child, when dad would come home, simply for no other reason than just to see my dad and to have that feeling of safety and security, knowing that life was good because mom and dad had it all worked out.  As time goes along, you realize that parents can’t keep all the trouble away, no matter how hard they try or might want to protect their child.  But when we are with God, he truly will have everything taken care of, and I think we will experience that same childlike joy.  What an amazing and wonderful picture of God’s love for his children!

Ashley
Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Reading Plan

I would like to recommend to all those reading this blog a Spring Reading Plan to spend time dwelling on the reality and meaning of the life and death of Jesus Christ. The following schedule is my suggestion for a daily study of and reflection on the gospels and some related scriptures. Here is the four month plan for all who will join me:

April 1 - 28: Read the book of Matthew, one chapter a day.
April 29: Read Psalm 22
April 30: Read Isaiah 53
Recommended casual reading for the month of April - The Case for Christ - Lee Strobel

May 1 - 16: Read the Book of Mark, one chapter a day
May 17 - 29: Read the book of Hebrews, one chapter a day
May 30: Read Psalm 2
May 31: Read 1 Corinthians 15
Recommended casual reading for the month of May - The Gospel According to Jesus - John MacAurthur

June 1 - 24: Read the Book of Luke, One chapter a day
June 24 - 29: Read the Book of James, One chapter a day
June 30: Read Philippians 2
Recommended casual reading for the month of June - Radical - David Platt

July 1-21: Read the Book of John, One chapter a day
July 22-26: Read the Book of 1 John, One chapter a day
July 27-30: Read the Book of Colossians, One chapter at a time
July 31: Read the Book of Jude

Why the Old Testament?

We have started a bible study recently for new Christians; at our last meeting, someone asked why the old testament matters to us.  This was an honest question, and it got me thinking.  I wonder if this is something a lot of people think about?  It seems that a lot of times the old testament isn’t really focused on, but it has so much to teach us!  Sometimes it’s seen as out-dated or that since we aren’t under the law anymore, it doesn’t apply or matter at all in our lives.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.
From the first book (Genesis), we’re shown the majesty and authority of God in creation and we see his desire for man to have a relationship with him.  We see all too quickly though that we chose to separate ourselves from Him; we are shown what sin is and its many consequences, both in physical suffering and death and even more so in its complete severing us from God.  Throughout books like Genesis, Exodus and Judges, just to name a few, we see God’s dealings with us; we see the establishment of the law and God’s promises to the people of Israel, if they will obey him.  We see God’s continued patience and justice, as he deals with a people who, in spite of his incredible works, reject the true God.  In the books of the law, like Leviticus, it’s impressed on us even more thoroughly that we can never measure up to God’s perfect law.  We see the animal sacrificial system, the need for a high priest, and why only death can lead to forgiveness of sin.  With the tabernacle, we are shown the magnificence of God’s presence and see the fear and reverence that we should feel at the mere idea of approaching the creator of the universe.  Without all this, we can’t truly appreciate and understand who Christ is, why he came, and what he has done for us, for the unspeakable gift he has given us!  Furthermore, the prophets, like Isaiah for example, are filled with prophecies of Christ, further showing the Bible’s reliability, God's lordship over even time itself, and proving that Jesus was indeed the planned fulfillment of God's promises.  And as a last thought, Paul and Peter, not to mention Jesus himself, quoted the old testament often to support their own teaching, showing its relevance and that it is god-breathed and just as vital for teaching us!

Ashley
Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Skeptics in Wonderland

In college, two of my favorite books were Lewis Carroll's "Alice and Wonderland" and it's sequel, "Through the Looking Glass". There is a point in "Looking Glass" where Alice is told a poem called "the jabberwocky" which is a string of nonsense words strung together into a sort of story, with lines like:

"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."


After hearing it, Alice responds:

'It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, 'but it's rather hard to understand!' (You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) 'Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—-only I don't exactly know what they are!"


Interestingly, in college I also met those who argued against the gospel this way. They would ask questions like, "If God is all powerful, can God make a rock so large that he cannot lift it?" If you say "yes" then you admit there is a size of rock God cannot lift. If you say "No" you admit there is a size of rock God cannot make. It is a no win...or is it? You may have heard a question like this yourself at some time. Most believers here something like this in high school or community college, because by the university level, most teachers, even anti-Christian ones, realize how meaningless this type of so called argument is. The truth is, this is not only a bad question, but in fact it is not a question at all. Like the Jabberwocky, it has the grammatical structure of a sentence, but in fact it does not mean anything. Kind of like if I asked you, "How blue does your lunch taste?" It has the form of the question, but it is not actually asking anything. It is nonsense. Let's look a little closer.

Now, you can put any object in this question, so the rock is not really important. "Can God make so much water e cannot drink it?" "Can God make a light so bright he cannot look at it?" You get the idea. So let's look at what the formula is saying. "If God is all powerful, can God make a _____ so _____ that he can't _____ it." What is this asking? It is asking, "Is God's power so unlimited that it is limited?" to which I say "...um, what?" That does not MEAN anything! That is like asking, "Is a building so tall that it is short?" or "Is a mountain so big that it is small?" These statements look and sound like questions, but the problem is, they are ubsurd! They don't actually mean anything! So we need not be troubled, as Alice was, when someone tries to show their intelligence with poetic nonsense. We can simply and lovingly point out the truth. Their question is ridiculous, but here is the truth; God can make a rock of any size. God can move a rock of any size. God can do so because he is the infinite and almighty creator of all things. As such, all things belong to Him. Mankind belongs to him. Yet mankind has rebelled against our maker, and though God has been patient with us, He has appointed a day in which He will judge the living and the dead. The real question is, how will you stand before a God so great? How will you answer for your sins against him? Would you like to know how to be made right with the all powerful maker, mover, ans ruler of all things? Our questions may be less poetic, but they absolutely demand an answer!

Luke
jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Another Progress Report

It has been a busy couple weeks in the ministry up here!

This week we began a Bible Study for new believers, currently made up of several individuals who have recently come to the faith among the shelter clients we work with. We are focusing on teaching fundamentals of Christian living while trying to also guide in reading and understand scripture on their own. It is off to a wonderful start, and we are excited to see what God may do through it!

We have also begun connecting with a small congregation of refugees of the Karen tribe (from Myanmar and northern Thailand) and with a local pastor who is a former missionary to Myanmar (then Burma) working toward a long term strategy of reaching the refugee communities of the various Burmese tribes scattered around the city. The language barrier is great, but our God is greater, and we look forward to working with our Karen brothers and sisters to find ways to reach the unreached in our own town!

The editing of our book is coming along slower than we had hoped, but we are continuing to work toward a first printing and to explore ways to make it accessible to as many as may benefit from it's message. We prayerfully hope that God will bless our frail words and use them to make his precious gospel known!

We are also working toward an outreach effort toward the many children without families living in group homes here. We are building a team to visit periodically and show them the love of Christ and teach the word of God. The scriptures show us that our God is a friend of the fatherless and guardian of the orphan. We want them to know a Father who will never leave or forsake them. More on this as it develops.

Please continue to lift us up and prayer! It is so encouraging to know that you all remember us in your petitions to God each day, and it really helps to keep us going! Thank you all, and God bless.

Luke
Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Prosperity Gospel

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the idea of the prosperity gospel.  I see it so much at my job, this idea that if you accept Christ, then your life will be filled with constant material blessings, if you pray hard enough, or have the right “faith”.  This essentially says that you accept Christ to become healthy and rich; I feel it is basically saying that Jesus died on the cross so we could have comfort and pleasures in our earthly life.  This has really been bothering me lately, of course because these ideas are not at all biblical, and secondly because of the prevalence of this prosperity gospel that seems to be continually growing.  Why on earth do we think that Jesus died so we would be guaranteed comfort on earth?  Christ didn’t suffer all the physical pain of the cross and the incomprehensible (for us to even begin to grasp) pain of being separated from God because all the sin of mankind was thrown on him, so that we could have money and not get sick.  He endured all that so we could, even though we are worthless and undeserving, have a relationship with the perfect God who created the universe!  It honestly hurts and offends me to see what Christ has done for us become so distorted and twisted!  So what does Jesus have to say about what we can expect when we surrender to him and follow him?  Well I think Matthew 10 as a start, has a lot to say on this question; as Jesus is preparing to send out the twelve apostles, he says in verses 37-39 “”Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”  These statements by Jesus do not offer a life of ease; the very phrase “take up your cross” denotes difficulty and struggle.  Jesus is clear that if we aren’t willing to surrender everything for him, then we cannot be his followers.  But why should this surprise us?  If we truly believe that Christ paid our sentence in full, that without Him we could never come to God, because we could never earn it or be good enough, if we truly believe and trust that through Christ we have been given such grace and mercy, then how could we not give everything for him, out of pure gratitude?  If Christ sacrificed everything for us, who did not in any way deserve it, how can we expect to just sit back and not give our all for God, who deserves everything we have, not just because of His amazing gift to us, but simply on the fact that He’s God!  Jesus again makes it clear that following him does not guarantee comfort when he says in John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”  Or we can take the passage in James 1, where we are told to consider it pure joy when (not if) you encounter trials, or even taking the life of the apostle Paul in to consideration: he was stoned, beaten, and shipwrecked, just to name a few.  Now I am not saying that every follower of Christ will have extreme suffering or difficulty in their lives and I am not saying that if God blesses a Christian materially, that there is something unbiblical about that.  What I am trying to get across is that we will still have suffering of some kind in our lives, but as James 1 elaborates, God will use it to draw us closer to Him!  There is a purpose in it!  The prosperity gospel doesn’t allow for this, it makes Christ’s death into a mockery and makes God a slave to our comfort and beckon call for healing, money, relationships, or whatever other worldly success we might desire, and insults our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world who suffer poverty, imprisonment, torture, and death daily for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ, claiming that any who suffer such things do so out of a LACK of faith! So in the end, the prosperity gospel belittles the suffering of our savior, mocks the hardships of our fellow believers, and trades selfless submission to our Lord for indulgent worship of self.

Ashley
jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Something I Preached and Some Things Preached to Me

            This past Thursday, I had the privilege of preaching the chapel service at the shelter. I preached from Galatians 4:4-9, focusing in on who Christ is, four reasons He came, and how those who have received Him ought to live that out. It seems to have been received with conviction, and has led to many further conversations with several of the clients. Praise God for using my meager words, and for creating opportunities for us to make His gospel known!
            Today I attended a conference put on by Voice of the Martyrs, where I got hear preachers from persecuted churches around the world. Some of the pictures were hard to look at, and the stories even harder to hear, but it was powerful reminder to remember those who are truly our brother’s and sisters and who are suffering and dying each day for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. May we never forget! It was particularly challenging when the speaker from North Korea told us that the churches of North Korea, who are being tortured and murdered with more brutality than perhaps any other Christians on earth, are actually in constant prayer for US! They pray earnestly each day that we would stop relying on our money and worldly freedom, and learn to rely fully on God and the only true freedom that is found in Christ. He said boldly that, for the Child of God, political freedom is irrelevant. In Christ we are free. If our Body is in chains, it is in chains to God’s glory. Even more challenging came the words of an Ethiopian pastor, who had himself been tortured horrifically with boiling oil. He pleaded with us NOT to pray for the persecution to stop! “That prayer is NOT Biblical” He declared with passion. He insisted that we ought to pray for boldness in the midst of the persecution, but that persecution is promised in scripture, and always leads to the growth of the church! He would gladly return and suffer, even die, that Christ may be known!
            Truly, may we never forget our suffering brothers and sisters. Let us pray earnestly for their needs, and even more, for their boldness to continue proclaiming the gospel! Let us be inspired by their faith, and declare it here, where as of yet there is no law to hinder us! How can we pray for THEM to be Bold and suffer, when we ourselves are cowards in a place where suffering is not even likely! Let us join with them in one mission, as one body, the body of Christ, who Himself suffered unto death so that we can be free…even if we are in chains.

Luke
jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Firm Foundation (part 5)

            The most common objection that I face in putting my trust in God’s revealed word in the Bible comes primarily from my Mormon and Muslim friends, who will insist that, sure, the Bible WAS given to us perfectly by God, but since then Men have changed it. They have edited, added to, deleted, and otherwise altered God’s intended words so that the Bible can no longer be trusted. Now, much of the evidence we have looked at so far is already based on the text as we have it today, but there is far more that can be said on this subject! As this is a blog and not a text book, I will give you the highlights. First, let’s look at what evidence we have of what the early Bible looked like. We have copies of the bible as a whole that go back within only a few hundred years of the original, and fragments that go back even to within DECADES of the original. I’m not talking just a few, either. The manuscript evidence for the Bible is very rich! It is wide spread in area, copies being found on multiple continents and very early even translated into many other languages. We also have many early Christian writers quoting the Bible often in their writings, allowing us to compare their quotes to the copies we have and see how they match up. Now, when we compare all of this, what do we see? Do we see differences between all these copies and translations and quotes? Honestly, yes. There are some differences. But let’s talk about that for a moment. When you have mostly lower class converts rather than professional scribes, and they are persecuted and so must copy their scriptures secretly, and they are doing so in a hurry because they want to get it out to as many people as possible, and don’t forget they are writing by hand, and not exactly with modern pens, there are bound to be some typos! This should be expected. Now, add to that the fact that they are writing on papyrus, which is basically large leaves stuck together into sheets to use as paper, and thus has natural lines on it, and it can be hard to tell certain letters apart, which can make copying correctly even harder. So, yes, we see errors and variations, but when you examine the large number of copies and translations and quotes, and compare them, it is most often not very difficult to figure out where such a mistake happened. Also, since in the ancient Greek language of the New Testament, word order in a sentence has little effect on the meaning, most of these variations have literally NO impact on what the text actually MEANS, since many of the variations are simply transposing words. One of the most common variations that will be seen, for example, will be that some copies might say “Christ Jesus” and other copies “Jesus Christ”. Even if we don’t know which way the original said it…does that matter? Does it effect how we understand the author’s message? Of course not! And so, if anyone tries to throw at you all the “thousands of errors” in the New Testament manuscripts, don’t let it fret you. Most of these so called “errors” are variations that have zero impact on what the text is saying, and in almost every case, by comparing everything we have, we can easily be confident in what the original said. Even scholars very critical of the Bible have admitted that with all the evidence we have today, the original copies of the books of the bible looked pretty much like they do today. Now, my critics would point out that I have used qualifiers “pretty much”, “most of these”, “In almost every case”. Why use these phrases? Well, because I am honest! There are a few passages that it is more complicated knowing for sure if they were in the original. But even if you take all of these, and liberally assume that they all do NOT belong (which is a leap of faith, but here is the point) they do not actually change ANY belief or doctrine of the Christian faith! No matter where you fall on these questions, the fact remains that the message of the Bible, even in all its finer details, is unchallenged by manuscript variation! We can be quite sure, if archeology can be trusted at all, that the Bible is today what it was 2,000 years ago in every way that matters! In other words, if you say the Bible is corrupt and untrustworthy, than to be consistent, you also must say that we can no NOTHING about history at all, because NOTHING is trustworthy!

            So, the Bible is trustworthy. It is the very word of God. It is truly a firm foundation on which to build our worldview. So, what about the final challenge, “if the Bible is such a great foundation, why are there SO many different churches? How come no one can agree on what it teaches?” This sounds like a powerful argument, until you really look at the evidence. Most churches that teach and practice a belief that the Scriptures themselves are truly the ultimate authority do NOT disagree on many things. Most of the variation comes in where other sources come in. Some churches add in church authority of tradition, or modern spiritual experience to their foundation, saying that things can be known fully based on these things, or that scripture should be read in light of these things, rather than these things understood completely in light of what scripture says about them. Now, I am NOT saying that such churches are not true Christians (Some are not, others are. Such things must be dealt with on a case by case basis, depending on the Gospel that is taught and the God that is believed in. We can do this by comparing their core beliefs to…you guessed it, what it taught in the Bible!). What I am saying is, when you change the foundation, you change the conclusions. Many churches may know the core truth, but let a mixed foundation distort many of the details. And of course, we are all fallible humans, and even the most Biblically devoted follower of Christ will get some things wrong and need to learn more throughout their life. None of us have PERFECT understanding, but the core of Biblical teaching is clear, no matter what name the church has on the sign.  

Luke

Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Progress Report

Sorry about the black out in communication. Ashley and I have been busy finishing a short book of sorts, which is in peer review as we speak. It's nothing fancy, just a description of the Christian Gospel in detail to a homeless shelter audience. We hope to have it released locally within a couple months, and if all goes well, it will be available to shelters around the country by the end of the year, but we will see how it goes. Still much work to be done!

Tomorrow we will be hosting a meeting of local missionaries to discuss strategies for reaching local communities of Asian refugees from oppressive countries. There are quite a few such communities here, and we are excited about the opportunity to be a part of reaching them with a hand of friendship, and far more importantly, with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Finally, to those who are interested in hearing me preach, I found one of my sermons from last year posted on "sermoncloud.com". The link for the message is: http://my.ekklesia360.com/Clients/sermonaudioplayer.php?CMSCODE=EKK&siteid=819&sermonid=183960&useSkin=skin_plain.xml&CMS_LINK=http://my.ekklesia360.com&width=350&height=140

Please continue to keep us in your prayers, and we hope to back to posting regularly very soon.

God Bless you all,
Luke
Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Firm Foundation (part 4)

            In college, I often had people question how I could believe something “just because it is in a book (i.e. the Bible). It amazed me how many people would throw this out, sometimes even with a quite cocky demeanor, as if they were really saying something, you know? This always baffled me. Was I doing something out of the ordinary relying on a book for information? I mean, most of us believe in the planet Neptune. But have you ever looked through a telescope yourself and seen it? A few of you probably have, but most of us have never done so. So why do we believe it is real? We were told so by a teacher…in many cases a teacher who themselves had never actually seen it! Yet, are we irrational for believing in Neptune? Of course not! This gets us into an important topic in understanding our foundation for knowledge. It is a fact that most of us, in this scientific and individualistic society, are not always comfortable with, but nevertheless it is where we get a very large percentage of what we consider to be knowledge. That topic is information learned by authority. Indeed, we believe in many historical events, people, places, concepts, and ideas NOT because we have experienced them, or because we have experimental evidence ourselves. We believe these things because we were told them by someone who would know. This is perfectly reasonable, and in fact we would find someone quite UNREASONABLE if they, for example, would not believe that George Washington was our first president unless they could travel back in time and see him for themselves, or at least unearth his body and examine it for forensic evidence to make sure it was from the time period it was supposed to be, and examine all the original copies of documentation and personal effects, as well as excavating the site of the original white house to find confirming evidence. If someone would not accept any information without this process, in their attempt to be rational, they would actually be a fool and would know quite little. The truth is, authority is a very reasonable source of information, so long as the authority is sound. If someone knew that a man was a frequent liar, and chose to believe him anyway, this would of course be irrational. It is important to know the limits and biases of the authorities you rely on, but it is still necessary to rely on them! And when authority and experience conflict, experience should not necessarily win. My experience tells me that the desk in front of me is a single, solid, stationary object. My physics professor told me, however, that it is actually trillions of tiny particles moving rapidly, and with space in between them. I believe in atoms and molecules, therefore in this case I trust authority over experience, and I suspect that you do as well.

            So let’s apply this to the Bible. The Bible is the very word of God. There could not be a greater and more worthy and knowledgeable authority. It authenticates it’s own authority through marvelously fulfilled prophesies, showing that it’s source had knowledge of even future events, as well as meticulous information about the past, often in detail that mere human authors of the day could not have known, but by archeology today, we see them quite plainly. No one has been able to show the source to be liar. Because of this, even though many of the claims of the Bible are things that we have no way of verifying with personal experience or empirical evidence, it makes perfect sense to trust those things. The authority is sound, therefore it is a perfectly rational source of knowledge.

            Let’s compare this again to the Book of Mormon. The Book or Mormon contains prophesies that are sketchy at best, and out right failures at worse. Its historical narrative goes against all known evidence. But should we trust it over the evidence? Like my physics professor, should my experience take a back seat to its authority? The answer is an un questionable no. Not only does it seem to be demonstrably false and thus untrustworthy as an authority, It also itself appeals to personal spiritual experience as it’s own source and test of authority. This concept was dealt with in more detail in an earlier post titled “Experiencing God?”. Basically, however, the Book of Mormon does not even set itself as a foundation for knowledge, but rather appeals to another foundation…one that can be tested and found wanting.

            So, what we have in the Bible is the unique, authoritative, and trustworthy word of God. It is a firm foundation indeed! In my next and final post in this series, we will deal with the objections that claim the Bible we have today is corrupted, and does not represent what God originally inspired. 

Luke

Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Firm Foundation (part 3)

            Recently, a woman came into my office saying that she had a question she needed to ask me. She had a Bible in her hand, and I put what I was doing aside and asked her what was going on? I expected the question to be related to a verse she was having trouble with, or something her pastor said that she was unsettled by. These things happen often at the shelter. But when I asked her what her question was, she set her bible down on my desk and said that she didn’t understand how both the Bible and science could be true. If science is right, doesn’t that mean we don’t need the Bible anymore? Aren’t its claims out dated and unnecessary in this day and age? Her question is not unique. It is echoed throughout our culture. College professors proclaim it, Atheist authors make millions on it, and fundamentalist preachers even fuel it, denouncing science as today’s heresy. But is this a legitimate controversy? Are science and scripture at odds? Does one have to brush aside physics and fear geology to love the Lord? The truth is, not at all! But you have to have your foundation right!

            Today, many popular skeptics tend toward “scientism”. That is to say, they believe that science and only science is the source of knowledge. Science is THE way that we know ANYTHING. Science, therefore, is there foundation. But this, first of all, is self refuting. You cannot prove that “science is the only source of knowledge” scientifically. What experiment did you do to arrive at that statement? What observation let to that law? None. It is an assumption that is itself NOT scientific. Science itself does not set itself up as the only way to know anything. In fact, Science assumes certain things to be true before it even starts. It assumes that the universe is consistent. It assumes that our senses are basically accurate. It assumes that our memory is essentially reliable, so that what we think we observed moments ago is in fact what we really did observe. These things cannot be scientifically proven, and if they are not true, science is impossible. Now, we would all agree that these are perfectly rational assumptions, but that is the point! These are things we all “know” to be true, but no science can PROVE them! Science, in fact, needs us to already KNOW them, because if you doubt them, then observation and experiment mean nothing. These are clear examples of things we know without science. 

             Now, what kind of world allows these things to be true? If we are only matter in motion, and are nothing more than chemicals and particle collisions, as the scientific atheist must affirm, then why should I believe my senses tell me anything that is actually TRUE about the universe. If I am nothing more than a highly evolved animal, shaped by only blind physical process based on survival and reproduction, then my senses would tell me whatever they needed to for me to survive and procreate. An illusion that makes me avoid death and find a mate would be just as beneficial as actual perception of reality, if not more so! Why should an atheistic evolutionist believe that a randomly evolved replicating chemical system can actually “know” anything at all about what the universe really is? Now, what about the Biblical view? If there is an intelligent and orderly God governing the universe, we should expect it to be consistent. If he created man in his image, and desires him to know truth and live right, we should expect senses that tell us truth about the universe and memory that can help us retain and know it. All the assumptions science needs to work in the first place fit best in a Biblical world view. The Bible gives us the reasons to believe that science works at all, where as atheism does not. The Bible makes sense out of the things that we all rely on everyday, and it makes sense out of science itself!

            Also, remember that science has a limited scope. Science, for example, answers “how” questions, it does not answer “why” questions. This is not a weakness of science, just an explanation of sciences purpose. A hammer is a wonderful tool I can use to do many things, but I would not use it to cook an egg or change the channel on my TV. That is simply not what a hammer is for. Science is similar. It is a wonderful tool to know certain types of information, but people run into trouble when they try to use it for things it simply can’t do. Science cannot answer questions of purpose or morality. It does not explain spiritual matters, nor can it be applied to prove that spiritual matters do or do not exist. It is confined to physical observations, and as such, can only explain what happens, and can only do so in the physical domain. It cannot tell us why a physical world exists in the first place. Scientist have tried to use it this way, and have failed. It cannot tell us what is right or wrong. It cannot tell us who God is, or what He wants from us, and thus it cannot tell us WHY we exist or what the PURPOSE of life is. Science is an amazing tool, one that we should love and embrace, using the minds God has given us to be productive, help others, and explore the wonderful world God has given us. But we need to remember that it is a precision tool, not an all purpose one.

            Finally, like archeology, in recent years there have been quite a few in the academic realm that have found science to push them TOWARD Christian faith rather than away from it. They have looked at the world and realized that God’s fingerprints are indeed on all he made, and that the heavens really do declare the glory of God.

            Physicist Robert Jastrow, director of NASA’s “Goddard Institute for Space Studies” (though himself an agnostic) said it well when he painted this picture:

“For the scientist that has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance. He is about to conquer the highest peak. As he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

- Luke

jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Another New Creation in christ!

I wanted to share a wonderful praise with all of you.  A lady from work recently came to Christ!  I had been working with her for a while, as she was working toward entering the shelter’s long-term recovery program.  We talked often about the gospel and scripture, as I fully believe recovery can’t begin until someone truly knows Christ.  Her background was Catholicism and she struggled with the concept of grace, always feeling that there was something else she had to do first.  She would say the correct words, but as much as I could know someone’s heart, I felt as if there was no true knoleege or understanding there, and there was no joy.  Last week, she came to my office unexpectedly with another staff member to tell me, with such joy, that she had accepted Christ!  She told me how she came to understand that what she had thought of as salvation, didn’t match up with scripture and that God had shown her the meaning of his salvation and grace!  I can’t tell you how overjoyed I was!  I would see her throughout the day, telling as many people as would listen about her decision, the joy was so evident!  Thank you Lord for using me and all the staff at work to share with her and for allowing us to see the results!  I got to see 1 Corinthians 3:6-8 firsthand: “I planted the seed, APolllos watered it, but God has been making it grow.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.”  Please pray for her as she starts this walk, pray that she will allow the Lord to teach and grow her and that she will desire his Word and truth all the more each day.

Never on Leave

When Jesus was ministering here on earth, there was a time when he desired to be alone with his disciples for a while, so they sailed away from the crowd to another location. But the crowds ran by land, and were waiting for them when they got there. Jesus could have been annoyed. He could have sent them away and told them not to bother him. After all, he deserved some time to himself, right? And that is what he went there for. Yet, Jesus had compassion on the crowds, and ministered to their needs.

I just traveled to South Carolina for a few days to be with my family for the funeral of my great grandmother. It was time of prayer, rejoicing, remembrance, and refreshment. In the airport on the way home, I saw a large number of Mormon Missionaries. Their uniforms and name tags not only advertised their need to hear the true gospel of of Jesus Christ, but also meant that starting that conversation would be easy. I was pricked in my heart. I knew my duty...but why now? I was on a break. This was a time to grieve, and to recoup. A time to reflect and renew my own strength. I almost let the opportunity pass. I went on through security without talking to them. But once again, Jesus had mercy on them when we would not. The Spirit of God convicted me, and when I saw them waiting at the gate for their flight, I thanked God for giving me a second chance. I went over and spent some time sharing the gospel with them, and challenging them with the truths of the scripture. It was a good conversation, and they talked with me right up until both our flights were leaving and we quickly parted ways in a last minute dash to our separate gates. It was a challenging reminder to always have a compassionate eye out for opportunities to meet the needs of and share the good news of Jesus Christ with anyone with whom we can find opportunity. It is not wrong to need time to ourselves, or to slow down once in a while, but that can never trump the compassionate heart of Jesus Christ. It MUST never trump that in our lives!

Well, I am back in town now, and should shortly be posting the next installment of the "firm foundation" series. Thank you all for your prayers and support. God bless you all.

Luke
Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Rain Dance

I recently had a conversation with a young woman at work that really caused me to think.  I was asking her what she believed when it came to God.  She said she considered herself to be a backsliding Christian.  When I asked her to explain that to me, she used an expression that caught my attention, she said that “every time she would get saved” things would go ok for a while, then she would fall back in to old addictions and habits.  As we talked, she described a pattern of going forward at church, getting baptized, (usually at the urging of family/friends), going to church for a little while, then being tempted by a friend to go back to her old lifestyle of drugs and alcohol.  This would repeat over and over again.  When I at one point asked her to explain what she meant by “saved” she simply described events, walking down the aisle at church, praying and then being baptized later.  After learning all this I spoke with her at length, trying to explain that having a relationship with Christ is not a one-time ritual, but it is a continuous, growing process of your very heart, mind, attitude and perspective being changed by Christ who is now living in you and is in control of your life.  I can only pray that God will use my words and show her the difference between her idea of “saved” and what scripture tells us.
Honestly what her perception of salvation reminded me of is the idea of a pagan ritual, one where if you go through all the motions correctly, then you make the god happy and things start to go better for you.  During points in the conversation, she would talk about how her circumstances weren’t changing and that she had expected them to after she’d been saved.  It really saddens me that somehow she had the idea that the amazing gift God offers us through the sacrifice of Christ is nothing more than a one-time ritual that if you do right, then your external life circumstances will suddenly change and that’s it.  there is no heart change, no surrendering to Christ as lord, just a quick fix.  She knew the phrases, “sin” “Christ dying on the cross” etc… How did the gospel become so twisted in her mind?  Coming to Christ is anything but simply a few words you say in a prayer and a quick walk down the church aisle.  It is a realization of the evil person you are before God and with that an understanding that you are utterly and hopelessly condemned before a holy God. You deserve nothing but hell, but God loved you enough to come in the man Jesus Christ to completely take your punishment.  If someone, by the Holy Spirit, comes to truly understand that, then their response is total surrender and repentance and a desire for Christ to come into their life and completely change them.  Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20 that “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.”  Why does he say crucified with Christ?  We need to understand that when we repent and surrender to Christ, our old self, with its thoughts, desires, motives, and its will, are dead.  It is all crucified with Christ and in its place is Christ living in us.  It is that Christ-life that brings about the heart change, not the words of the prayer or the church building etc.  Paul again makes this point in 2 Corinthians 5:17 where he says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  Paul is again talking about the new life in us through Christ, that it is his spirit that makes us a new creation.  Both these passages, when you read them in context, are not talking about a new life or a new creation based on our outward circumstances, but rather a deep, fundamental shift in what (or rather, who) we are living our lives for!  Please pray that this woman, and honestly many others I have talked to at work, will come to truly understand the message of Christ.  Please also pray that I and the rest of the staff will be gold and able to communicate it effectively, through the words God gives us.

Ashley

Long DIstance

            I will be heading out of town for a funeral for the next few days, and plan on continuing the “Firm Foundation” series when I get back, but I did want to take a little time to write about a very long distance conversation I had yesterday. I had the blessing of being able to chat online with a sister in Christ living in a closed country in Asia that I had the privilege to visit years ago. Though it is a place where Christians are persecuted, where idols are openly worshipped everywhere, and where a powerful government keeps the impoverished people in check all the days of their lives, there are passionate followers of Christ there, and a deep thirst for him among many of the people who have not yet heard. I sought to encourage this sister while we talked, but it became quickly clear that she was the one who was to encourage me. Her overwhelming joy and commitment to God, and her unwavering faith in spite of the trials, filled the conversation with words of praise to God, and reminders of what it means to be faithful to him! Am I as committed to God, here where I am free to be, as she is where it can cost her everything? Am I as fervent in my study of his word, here where I own many copies of it, as she is in a place where owning a Bible in her own language is illegal? It was an encouraging and challenging conversation, and such a blessing to me! May we never forget in prayer our brothers and sisters who are suffering in foreign lands for the gospel we so often take for granted, and my we strive, if possible, to be more like them.


Luke
Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

A Prayer Request

Tonight, three LDS missionaries sat down with us in our living room for what turned out to likely be the last of our weekly discussions. We have been meeting with them for several weeks now, and after dealing with what the Bible says about what the gospel of Jesus Christ is (a subject terribly misrepresented in the LDS faith) we found ourselves in the all too familiar discussion of spiritual experience and how we can know truth. This week, they showed us a prophesy of Joseph Smith trying to prove that he was a true prophet and that the Mormon Church was truly of God. The "prophesy" (found in D&C 87, if you are interested) supposedly foretold the civil war before it actually happened. But did it? It did say that the northern and southern states would go to war, but it also predicted that countries like Great Britain would get involved, that the war would be "poured out on all nations" and that "after many days slaves would rise against their masters." Not to mention it's prediction of plagues, earthquakes, and ultimately the end of days. When I pointed this out, they tried to say this was partly talking about other wars and events still to come that are entirely unrelated to the civil war, but this does not fit with the flow of the passage. We went back through it verse by verse, looking at the relationship between one event and the next. First they shut down (one young man's jaw literally dropped), then they tried to just shrug it off and move on, finally they became defensive. We reminded them of the Biblical standard in testing a prophet. NO failed predictions. Not to mention the fact that D&C Section 1 promises that ALL of the book is FROM THE LORD, and also specifically claims that EVERY prophesy within will come to pass. Even one false prophesy, and Joseph is a false prophet. If Joseph is a false prophet, then the LDS church is a false religion. We are COMMANDED in scripture to TEST prophets, spirits, and any message that claims to be from God. We urged them not to ignore these things, but to obey God's command and search these things out. We challenged them to take God's word seriously, in spite of how they might "feel" about testing Joseph Smith as a prophet, and to really deal with the fact the if Joseph Smith really did prophesy in God's name things that did not actually happen, then he is a false prophet, and they ought to put man's tradition aside for a real relationship with the one true God. They listened to us, but left left us fairly sure we would not see them again. We hope that is not true, and ask that you all pray that God will get through to them and open their eyes to the truth. Thank you all, and God Bless.

Luke and Ashley
jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Firm Foundation (part 2)

            Though old ruins had been documented and written about by a few upper class authors as far back as the 1500s, Archeology as an organized and credible science began in the mid 1800s. For the next hundred years, it was believed by many that Archeology had proven the Bible to be full of errors. Rulers mentioned in the Bible had no parallel in the archeological record. Many people groups mentioned in the Old Testament simply could not been found. There was little evidence that many of the miraculous events of the Bible had actually happened in real history. The Archeology of the day was leading people to one conclusion, and the Bible clearly taught a different one. What was the Christian to believe?

            Fifty years later, the story has changed. Over the next several decades, archeology made a series of incredible breakthroughs. Many new cities, new inscriptions, and other new great discoveries were found. So what have these new findings done to criticism of the Bible? Of course, many archeologists will still say it’s a collection of fables, but they no longer have the same REASONS for doing so. Cities of the Bible have been found. Rulers mentioned in the Bible have been confirmed. Even miracles of the Bible have been evidenced. Whole books can and have been written on how modern archeology has vindicated the Bible’s claims in incredible ways. Rather than write you such a book here, I have included a link to a series of videos recorded on site in the British museum in London that actually SHOW you some of these finds and explain their significance! I strongly encourage you to watch them all, and see for yourself the wonderful truths of the Bible unearthed! The series is in 22 small parts, and some are much more striking than others, but is WELL worth you time to watch the whole thing.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEKoU1IbGjM

            So what does that tell us? The more Archeology finds, the more the ancient world it unearths begins to look like the one the Bible told us about all along. So do we now start believing the Bible because of archeology? No, The Bible was clearly ahead of Archeology the whole time! The Bible has even been used as a source for Archeologists to FIND ancient cities! Am I saying that Archeology is bad? Not at all! Through archeology, we get to see and understand history in wonderful ways, and as Christians, get to rejoice and seeing all the great things God as done! I LOVE living in the age I do, when archeology has unearthed such amazing things about ancient people all over the world! I love getting to know details of ancient cultures, some of which can increase our understanding and appreciation of certain Biblical passages. Archeology can be a wonderful tool in the Christian’s hand. But, my love of Archeology is built on my foundation of Biblical truth. The sure and solid rock of divine revelation! Archeology may demonstrate Biblical truth today, but the Bible was just as true a hundred years ago when archeology did NOT demonstrate this. The archeological method of historical study is wonderful, but it only points to the fact the Bible is the more solid foundation of truth!

Can this be said of other “scriptures”? Those of you who watched the video series saw a few examples dealing with the Koran, so let’s look for a moment at the Book of Mormon. It was also written before the birth of archeology. In the same amount of time it has taken archeology to find the Bible to be powerfully accurate, the Book of Mormon has continued to come up wanting. While the Bible is used as a source of discovery by many researchers, even by those who don’t believe it to be God’s word, The Book of Mormon is still waiting for something to BE discovered. The more we have learned about the history of the North American continent, the more UNLIKELY the Book of Mormon events appear to be. The technologies, languages, ancestry, animals, geography, and culture presented in the Book of Mormon could not be more alien to what we actually find. Not a single place or event of the Book or Mormon has actually been found. Believers in the book will try and point to Mayan and Aztec ruins as evidence, but these are civilizations that arose over a thousand years after the Book of Mormon events are supposed to have occurred. There is not a shred of evidence that any great city building empires existed before them in these lands. We also DO find conflicting information. The Book of Mormon, for example, claims the honey bee was brought to the Americas by ancient settlers thousands of years ago, but in fact we KNOW who introduced the honey bee, and, well, it is much more recent history. Now, this does not PROVE the Book of Mormon wrong any more that 1920’s archeology that was in doubt about the Bible PROVED the Bible to be wrong. What it does is show a distinction. The Bible is known to be a SOURCE of truth, where the Book of Mormon is still unable to demonstrate that it CONTAINS truth. While we see Archeology have to give up its objections to the Bible one by one the more it learns, we see the objections to other scriptures only grow. While one can follow the details given in the Bible and make discoveries, scriptures like the Book of Mormon give us no clear road map, and the every place they do describe does not match up to anything we see anywhere. So, again, the Bible stands unique, and we can be confident that what we have in scripture is from God, and is our anchor of truth in a world of doubt! In my next post, we will broaden our scope and look at science in general, as many critics of Christianity today say that science has made the Bible irrelevant. It is vital for us to know that this is not the case, and that the Christian does not have to deny or fear science to remain confident in Biblical truth.

Contentment

During my two years so far at the shelter, I’ve met a lot of different people coming from a variety of circumstances and backgrounds.  I’ve sort of become used to the stories and attitudes that I see there; I don’t mean to say that I’ve become ok with everything difficult that I see, but I find that I am usually prepared for most of it.  I recently met a couple though, that honestly caught me off guard.  They weren’t aggressive, disrespectful, or rude; if I had to summarize them in a few words, it would be that they were completely and utterly discontented, and yet were entirely unmotivated.  They had left their hometown because of dissatisfaction their life and came to the shelter in a different state, but when they were presented with the reality of what it would take to improve their situation, they opted simply not to.  They ended up moving on to another city and what makes this story so sad to me is they are now back with us at the shelter.  They have a different worker, but apparently nothing has truly changed, as they are desiring to go back to their original starting city.  I had really never seen this before, such a lack of desire to move forward and such a dissatisfaction with everything in their life.  This discontent spilled over into their marriage, into almost every interaction with staff, and into every accommodation or service that the shelter provided.  There seemed to be a problem with literally everything in their life. They are not satisfied with their room, with their meals, with each other. There is literally nothing in their life they are remotely content with!


I’m writing all this because this couple’s mindset has caused me to think a lot lately about contentedness and what that looks like in my life as a follower of Christ.  What came to my mind immediately was Paul’s thoughts on this very issue in Phillipians chapter 4 11-13: “… for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”  I love that Paul doesn’t make any exceptions to this, he clearly states any and every circumstance, there is really no room here for “but you don’t know about” or “but you can’t imagine…” etc.  And if you read in Acts, you see Paul was hit with a huge variety of circumstances and people in his life, but he continued to do God’s will.  How?  He sums it up in one simple sentence, that I sometimes feel is mis-used: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”  What is the “all this?”  Paul has been talking about contentment during this passage, it seems to me he is clearly and to the point defining “the secret” of his contentment and that is only through Christ.  It’s not through Christ and… but only through relying on Him and His strength.  In other translations it may say “I can do all things…”  I feel like this can cause this verse to be not completely understood; I’ve heard people quote this verse when referring to passing a test, winning a basketball game, doing well on a job interview.  I don’t mean to say that God can’t or won’t help you with these life scenarios, but we need to be careful and not miss the specific context and the message that Paul was trying to get across.  He’s talking about being content, in every situation, and that is clearly the “what” that he can only do through Christ!


After all, Christ was the model of contentment and desiring His Father’s will, Paul talks about this in Phillipians chapter 2 5-8: “With your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!”  What a model!  I mean if anyone had the right to be discontented, it would have been Christ!  He sought the Father’s will above all else and found contentment there.  Only our relationship with Christ can give true meaning and purpose, and without purpose, there is no true contentment.  We have been given the most incredible gift: the ability, even though you and I are evil to the core, to come and be a child of God!  This was given to us by the selflessness of Christ!  In that knowledge, in this gift and hope that this gift brings us, that is where and how we find contentment.  Paul earlier in Phillipians chapter 4, gives an awesome outline of what this looks like or how it is put in to practice, starting with an all-familiar verse: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!”  What are we taking joy in?  Not our circumstances, the people in our lives, our belongings, but in the Lord himself!  If we wondered what that would look like in our life, Paul goes on “Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  And what will this rejoicing in the Lord and the impact of that on our life (gentleness, prayer/thanksgiving) result in?  “and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  What a wonderful picture, praise God!


Please be praying for this couple.  Pray that they will come to understand the truth of Christ, that they will stop simply reciting clichés and seek to understand what they are saying.  Pray that they will come to find true rest and purpose in Christ.  Pray for myself and all the staff, that God will use us in some way to minister to them. I don’t want their second stay at the shelter to be just another pointless, dissatisfying thing in their life.


Ashley
jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Contact Info

There have been a few of you that have had questions for us, and have had trouble contacting us with them. Our E-mail is jude.three.blog@gmail.com. Thank you to all of you who are praying for our ministry efforts!

- Luke and Ashley

Firm Foundation (part 1)

            Recently I was having a conversation with a couple of Jehovah’s witnesses. Though they and I obviously disagreed on many vital issues, we were agreeing with one another about the centrality and authority of God’s Word, which we both agreed was the Bible. They spoke of relatives who doubted them on this point, and how they did not understand how someone could doubt that God spoke through the Bible, and that the Bible was complete and sufficient. Having affirmed this, I began to show them from the scripture that many of their organizations teachings were false, and to demonstrate the true Jesus and the true gospel of the Bible. They disputed within the scripture for a while, but once the weight of the evidence became clear that the Bible taught something very different than what they believed, they blurted out, “but the Bible was written by Men! They could have gotten this stuff wrong!” Now, I am NOT saying that every Jehovah’s Witness would say this when pressed. That is not my point. My point is that, though they claimed, and probably believed, that they had scripture as their foundation of truth, when push came to shove, and the Bible contradicted their beliefs, these two individuals found fault not in their belief, but in the Bible. They had always USED the Bible to support their position, but clearly the Bible was NOT the foundation. It was not the REASON they believed what they did, since even when they found the Bible to disagree with them, they clung to the belief, not the scripture. They “knew” the belief they had was “correct” whether the Bible agreed with it or not! Obviously, that belief was founded on something else. Something else was the ultimate authority. Something else was the real source of spiritual truth. Until that moment, they did not even KNOW that the Bible was not their real foundation, and when I pointed this out, they were ashamed...but none the less they still would not believe what the Bible said was true.


            In my last post, I wrote about the inadequacies of spiritual experience as the foundation for truth. This is, of course, not to say that spiritual experience does not happen. Spiritual experiences are often very real and very powerful, and when it is truly from God, can be very affirming of Biblical truth. The question is, what happens when the experience and the Bible don’t match? Do you reinterpret the Bible in light of what you have experienced, or do you reinterpret what it was that you experienced in light of what is taught in the Bible? There are many foundations that people rely upon for religious truth. Tradition, religious authority figures, philosophy, nature. These things are not evil, and all have their place in the Christian life, but none of them is an adequate foundation on which we can know divine truth. Only the Bible provides a consistent and reliable source from which we can truly know who God is and what He desires. It is the sole foundation of Christian faith.


            Saying that, however, obviously requires me to answer a key question. If I don’t believe the Bible because of experience, or philosophy, or because a religious authority figure affirms its validity, or some other deeper foundation, how, then, DO I know that the Bible is true? If it is indeed the foundation of Christian truth, how do I know that? That is what I intend to explain over my next few posts.

Now, if I jumped immediately into listing evidences for the Bible’s accuracy, I would actually be defeating my real point. If one believes in the Bible simply because it can be supported by facts, reason, and experience (which it can), I would then be saying that those facts, those arguments of reason, and those experiences are the foundation on which the truth of the Bible rests. I would be claiming that the Bible is as true as anything else proven by those same tests, and thus the TEST (Evidence, reason, experience, etc) is the real foundation of truth. But if it is true what the Bible claims about itself in 2 Timothy 3:16, that scripture is actually “breathed from God”, then scripture is not subject to human tests of truth (unless we believe that God might be wrong!) but rather it IS the test of truth, which is Paul’s entire point when he writes this verse. The Bible does not just claim to be true, it also claims to be the test of truth, and it is so because of who it came from. Now, if I stopped here, my reasoning would be painfully circular (the Bible is true because the Bible says it is true). It is, however, important to START with this basic understanding. The Bible is true because it is the Word of God. Its source of truth is nothing less than the Author of Truth. It is not true BECAUSE archeology confirms it, Archeology confirms it BECAUSE it is true! It is not true BECAUSE it has changed so many lives, it has changed so many lives BECAUSE it is true. Charles Spurgeon put it well when he said, “Scripture is like a lion. Who ever heard of defending a lion? Just turn it loose; it will defend itself.” I could also borrow from the reasoning of C.S. Lewis here and say that I believe the Bible “as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” (Lewis was, of course, speaking of Christianity in general, but I believe his logic applies well to the truth of the Christian Scriptures specifically). The evidence of the Bible is plentiful, but it is important that we see the truth of the Bible as the reason for the evidence, never the other way around.

Of course, the idea that truth has been revealed by God in a form than can be understood and reliably passed down from one generation to the next and from one place to another (i.e. the written word) is not unique to the Christian Bible. There are other religious texts that make this kind of a claim. Even if we assume God has done this, why assume that the Bible is the right one? This is a very fair question, and one I will be coming back to throughout this series of posts to really drive home the uniqueness of the Bible in this regard. But It is also important to note that an examination of all major religious texts demonstrates that, if one does assume that God has revealed his will to man in this reasonable and tangible fashion, then it MUST be that the Bible is such a revelation. The Holy texts of the eastern religions, such as the Hindu Vedas or the Pali Cannon of Buddhism, don’t claim this kind of divine origin (nor could they in their pantheistic world view). The Pali Cannon, for example, is supposedly a collection of the teachings of Buddha and some of his more enlightened students, but it claims only to be the wisdom of a very enlightened man. Buddha would have adamantly denied that he received this information from a divine being. It was what he learned from his own spiritual journey. The same is true of the Taoist texts of China. These are “scriptures” in the vague sense of being revered writings of major religions, but they do not claim to be at all the same sort of revelation or communication of absolute truth from God that the Bible claims to be. Most ancient religious texts in the west may claim to be telling ABOUT gods revealing things, but they do not go so far as to claim to BE divine revelation. They claim to be writings of men who witnessed events of a spiritual nature and wrote about them. There are, however, a few other texts that DO claim to be revealed by God, and to be his very word. Interestingly, each of these (such as the Quran or The Book of Mormon) claims that the Bible is also Divine revelation. So even if you assumed that these other texts WERE “God Breathed” they would leave you having to deal with the Bible being such as well. People of such religions typically deal with this by claiming that the Bible WAS truly God’s word, but has since been corrupted, and that what truth does remain in it is misinterpreted by Christians anyway. These objections will be dealt with in later posts, but it is sufficient to say at this point that if there is any scripture at all, then the Bible is indeed scripture.

           So, having hopefully set the stage, let’s look at the assurance we can have that God has given us a firm foundation for truth in the enduring and inspired collection of written documents that we know of as “The Bible.” In my next post we will look at Scripture and the world of Archeology and Historical Studies as it relates to Biblical reliability.


- Luke