Hey, some people are excited about this. That's good. What you discuss today can cause an awkening tomorrow.
Let's try and boil down this bone of contention to a nice soup stock.
Some of you know about this point, so bear with me while I make it again for those who missed it earlier.
From everything I have seen by study and by pastoral lecture, there is one thing you will not find, and that is by
design: proof.
From the viewpoint of the believer there is plenty of proof. From the viewpoint of the skeptic, there is little or none at all.
There are really only two possibilities in this discussion; either the Bible is what it says it is, the inspired word of God, or it isn't. Plain and simple, it can be reduced to that singular point. Either Men made the thing up out of whole cloth, or God used Men as the tools to create the precise ideas that He wanted us to have, according to 2Tim 3:16-17.
If it is right, we were created not only by "an" intelligent designer, but "the" intelligent designer.
If it is right, humans were unable to follow God's law, as was given to us as a race, and specifically, to the Jews.
If it is right, we are in need of salvation, and it is provided for us.
If it is right, the best is yet to come for the believer, and evil will have it's head handed to it.
Why don't you ask yourself if you can be wrong about this.
Not only have I
considered this, I have also been wrong about this. I researched the popular ecumenicalism now known as "New Age" thinking for over ten years, and hosted a special program in my spare time for seven of those years. I looked at all of the various ideas, and saw that some were truly brilliant constructs. While I found that some had very good points in terms of health and mental clarity, most did not address the Big Question of "why are we here?"
Another 14 years passed, and I discovered a Bible study called The King is Coming. Over the course of many months, this program brought the Bible to life as the ways and means of God were explained through scripture. Outside of a couple of Psalms, #23 and #100 from Sunday School, I had never delved into what the Bible actually had inside its covers.
I found that in order for this to make sense, in order for it to touch you in a way that was meaningful, you had to open your heart and accept this as a gift, and that trying to take it all apart is something best left to scholars of ancient languages.
There are a lot of "rational" arguments against the content of the Bible, to be sure. That isn't surprising, because one of the intents that I surmise for the Bible is to make the supernatural nature of God into a somewhat "conceivable" idea, based on a record of interaction, instruction, and prophecy. Now if this was simply a job left to Men, we would be smart to have doubts. However, God covered that problem and led each writer by His inspiration, and guiding each council by His oversight. Doubts are a natural thing, and even a human who had known Christ personally had doubts about
Him. Thomas had to be
shown those same wounds He received on the cross, and then he believed. Christ then said to him:
"Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
This experience by Thomas, and several other pieces of scripture, suggest strongly that
faith is the requirement for us in this time. When Christ walked among His disciples, He did many things that showed by proof that He was who He said He was. As a child, He astounded the Jewish leaders with His knowlege of the sacred writings, and aptly debated the leaders on many subjects. How? He had spoken those words and written those tablets in His pre-incarnate form as God the Son, the Word.
That was the time of seeing and touching for "proof". Now is the time of opening your heart with "faith".
The first scientist I ever knew was a minister, who worked as a chemist for Sun Company, the oil refiner. He told me that the more he learned in science, the more awed he was by God.
Faith begins where trusting ourselves as the ultimate knowlege ends.
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