Unlike other holy books, the Bible alone has been supernaturally confirmed to be the Word of God. For only the Scriptures were written by men who were supernaturally confirmed by signs and wonders. When Moses questioned how his message would be accepted, God performed miracles through him. Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worship. Exodus 4:29-31 And when the people of Israel needed proof that God was indeed God, it was provided through Elijah. " Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back again." Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The Lord - he is God! The Lord - he is God!" 1 Kings 18:37-39 No other book in the world has authors who were confirmed in this miraculous manner. Of all the worlds religious leaders, no one was confirmed by miracles verified by contemporary and credible witnesses. The Bible alone proves to be the Word of God written by prophets and apostles of God who were confirmed by special miraculous acts of God.
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Most of us have had at least one person who has hurt us or done something bad against us. We know that God commands us to forgive, but we are just too focused on the pain, the anger, all the negative thinking. Peter asked Jesus about forgiving others and He told him a parable. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything. The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. Pay back what you owe me! He demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, be patient with me and I will pay you back. But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. Matthew 18:23-30 I know what you are thinking, nice story but what does it have to do with forgiveness? The master in the parable is God, the debt, sin, the servant, us. Look how much debt (sin) the master (God) forgave the servant (us). A talent was a weight of money equal to six thousand denarii. Since a working man received one denarius a day, one talent was the equivalent of twenty years' wages, a quarter of a million dollars in today's terms. The servant owed ten thousand of these, a debt of over two billion dollars! Why does the Lord use such astronomical figures? He is reminding us of our debt before a holy God. The master forgives the debt and sets the servant free. But when the servant approaches a servant like himself, he demands payment on a debt. Look how much he owes, one hundred denarii, approximately $3,000. You are now understanding the point of the parable; our debt of sin to a holy God is so great we could never repay it. But being sinners ourselves, it is within our ability to tap into the love God has for us, and forgive others. What can we use to evaluate whether the Bible is true? After all, if the Bible is not reliable, then how do we know what to believe about Christ and what He taught or did? Below are some of the test people have used to show that we can rely on the Bible. Observable science: God stated that He created all living things according to their kind. And that they were going to reproduce after their kind. That is exactly what we see; dogs reproduce dogs, cows reproduce cows. That is also what we see in the fossil record from the past. Archaeology: This study can give us a lot of valuable evidence, which will either confirm or contradict the Biblical record. 100 years ago, many Bible critics were trying to dismiss much of its history as the work of creative storytellers. But in recent past, archaeological finds have overwhelmingly supported the Biblical data. One case of archaeological evidence is a recent study of ancient Jericho, which concluded that the walls did tumble down the way the Bible indicates. Bible Prophecies: Ezekiel had predicted that the city of Tyre would be destroyed and the ruins scraped off and dumped into the sea, never to be rebuilt. Even though Ezekiel made this claim hundreds of years earlier, it happened exactly as predicted. Does the Bible hold together? That is, does a collection of writings by 40 different authors from many different backgrounds and occupations, over a time period of about 1,600 years, in three different languages and written on 3 different continents have a consistent message? Or is it a confusing jumble of ideas? The Bible has amazingly been uniform in its telling of man’s sin that brought death and a loving God who sets out to rescue him. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16 A Biblical worldview is when your beliefs line up or agree with what the Bible clearly teaches. Christians disagree on certain topics found within the Bible; for example, water, infant or Spirit baptism. You can have a Biblical worldview and still disagree with points from within the Bible. Christians can still be Christians but not have a Biblical worldview. This happens when you bring topics from outside of the Bible and try to put them in the Bible. God using evolution as part of His creation process is an example. Evolution is a belief of origin from the secular humanistic religion. It is not science because it was never observed, or witnessed. Plus, knowing the complex structure of the cell and the impossibility of adding new information to DNA, we know that evolution is not scientifically possible.
All religions will bring you to God is another example. God created, man sinned, God set up a rescue plan to save mankind. But God planned one rescue plan and that plan was with His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 To have a Biblical Worldview you need to know God’s Word and trust it to be true and accurate. You need to believe that Scripture is without error. Every time a Bible critic points to a perceived wrong, you need to believe that the Bible is right and the critic is in error. When the society believes a sin is not a sin, do not join with society but stay with Biblical truth. The mind of sinful man is death but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Romans 8:6-7 The more time that you spend studying and thinking about Scripture, the stronger your Biblical Worldview will be. If you want your thinking to line up with God’s, you have to know what God is thinking. Then when certain situations come, you can handle them with Godliness because you have a strong Biblical Worldview. And this is my prayer; that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. Philippians 1:9 You want to be a Navy pilot and land a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier in rough seas. Or maybe a brain surgeon or the best opera singer of all time. If you have enough faith God can make it happen, right? Wrong! Many people point to this verse to uphold their belief. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 Many people take verses out of the Bible and out of context, to mean things that scripture does not teach. This verse from Philippians is often taken to mean that if our faith is strong enough we will receive the strength to realize all our personal goals. But the setting shows that the apostle Paul was talking specifically about receiving the strength to live in times of great poverty as well as times of plenty. Read what verse 12 tells us. 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. Philippians 4:12 Misinterpretation of Bible verses can be avoided if the setting is taken into account. Looking at the verses that precede and follow a passage should be a natural and logical way to avoid confussion. Short answer… yes, but with respect knowing that He is still God and that we still need to trust Him no matter what the outcome. There was a priest in the Bible at a time when the people of Israel was sinning against God. The people refused to follow God and instead were worshiping idols. This priest, his name was Habakkuk, and he was frustrated with God. Here is his complaint against God. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me, there is strife and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous so that justice is perverted. Habakkuk 1:3-4 The Lord answers with this: I am raising up the Babylonians that ruthless and impetuous people who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. Verse 1:6 Habakkuk is confused, not liking how God is handing the situation. Even though Habakkuk would do things different, he is still respectful of God. O Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die. O Lord, you have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them to punish. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? Verses 1:12-13 Habakkuk does not understand how God could use the Babylonians, who are more evil than Israel to punish Israel. It doesn’t make sense. God explains that He will raise up another nation to punish the Babylonians. So here is Habakkuk, he knows God plan – the Babylonians are coming; they are coming to conquer, to destroy and Habakkuk was never part of the problem, it’s not his fault. Here are his last words on the subject. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will be joyful in God my Savior. Verse 3:17-18 Yes, life can be hard, difficult and stressful. But it’s not God’s fault, and He still needs to be honored because He is God. Our joy comes from who He is and in the salvation He provided. Things may never work out the way we want, but we need to let God be God. There is a strong indication that Satan was able to draw one-third of the angels into joining his rebellion. And that is what demons are: the angels who fell with Satan and came to be his servants on this earth. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. Revelation 12:4a And we know from the use of the word “stars” in the book of Revelation that stars refer to angels. God’s anger is not a denial of His love. His anger means He cares too much to ignore the harm we are doing to ourselves and to one another. Woven into the greatest love story the world has ever known is the unfolding drama of a God who loves enough to hate evil. He cares enough to be angry with religionist who trivialize sin in themselves while separating themselves from those who need mercy. He cares enough to be angry with those of us who reduce sin to petty legalisms, while ignoring the needs of others. In Jesus we find an accurate picture of the balance between heaven’s love and anger. Jesus cared enough to be angry with the religious leaders for being unwilling to truly please God. He loved enough to warn us of pending Judgment, while assuring us that His love is equal to His anger. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 We cannot afford to misunderstand the relationship between the love and anger of God. He came to save us from our sin and from his own wrath. We pray and we read the Bible, but how do we blend the two to listen to God? We need to develop a conversation with God. The best way to do that is to open the Scriptures to a psalm or paragraph from one of the Epistles. Read thoughtfully to discover what the text is telling you about the thoughts, affections and values of God. Listen carefully and reverently to the mind of the One who inspired these words. Ask Him to help you discover the interest and desires of His heart. Then respond conversationally from your own heart to what you are hearing. As you do, you will begin to develop confidence that you know what is important to God. You will also begin to discover what God is doing in your own heart. As a husband prays in response to the words of 1 Corinthians 13, for example, he will know God’s mind about love and apply it to his relationship with his wife. It may be… Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 1 Corinthians 13:4 It may be the words “love is patient” that impress him about how impatient he has been with his wife. This, in turn, should lead to a welcome and much-needed change in his attitude and behavior. It won’t be an audible voice. But you will know it’s the voice of the Spirit when you hear the truths of Scripture speaking gently, lovingly and forcefully to the circumstances and concerns of your life. Then action needs to be taken, being obedient to what you know God is telling you. Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22 |
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