Can You Trust the Bible?

“Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.” (2 Peter 2:20-21 NLT)

C.S. Lewis wrote: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.”

When I was a teen, newly saved and new to the Bible, my youth Pastor asked me to share during a Wednesday evening service what the Bible meant to me. Today I could bore you to death, but then I was petrified, and my mind literally was blank. All I could think of was an idea he gave me when he asked me to speak: “The Bible is like a roadmap that shows me the paths my life should take.” I repeated that about ten times until he finally realized I was in way over my head.

What does the Bible mean to you? Have you made reading and studying the Bible a regular part of your day? If not, why not? If you profess faith in Christ, why wouldn’t you want to read everything you can get your hands on to learn more about Him and what it means to be His follower. But beyond that, why wouldn’t you want to read the Book He authored?

What does that mean? It means His inspiration, the leadership of His Spirit, guided the human authors in writing what we can now hold in our hands and read for ourselves. The single theme of the Bible is Jesus. Jesus is the living Word of God who was the Author of creation. He is the Light of the world that the darkness can never extinguish (John 1:1-5).

And the most amazing part of the Bible to me is that it’s still being written, in my life and yours. The Bible is alive and active. That’s why you can read it over and over and continue to see things you’ve missed, because the Spirit is alive in us, speaking, teaching, encouraging, uplifting, challenging, guiding, blessing, informing, and on and on!

Voltaire, the French philosopher, was a brilliant atheist who made a statement about the Bible. He said: “One hundred years from today, the Bible will be a forgotten book.” Today the Bible is still the best selling book in the world, having sold more than 5 billion copies.

The Bible has been criticized for not being “scientific,” which, of course, it isn’t. But I love what Pastor Rick Warren wrote in a recent devotional: “The Bible wasn’t meant to be a scientific textbook. You don’t study the Bible to build a rocket. And the Bible doesn’t use scientific language. But the Bible never gives bad science! In fact, it’s always ahead of science.

For example:

• For thousands of years, people believed that the Earth was flat. But God said 2,600 years ago in Isaiah 40:22 that God is enthroned above the sphere of the Earth. 
• For thousands of years, people believed something held the Earth up. Hindus believed huge elephants did it. The Greeks believed Atlas did it. The Egyptians believed five columns held the Earth up. But the Bible never says that anything is holding the planet up.
• For thousands of years, people believed that the number of stars were finite. But Jeremiah 33:22 says the number of stars can’t be counted.

The Bible says, “Praise Him, you highest heaven and the water above the sky. Let them praise the name of the LORD because they were created by His command. He set them in their places forever and ever. He made it a law that no one can break” (Psalm 148:4-6 GW).

The laws of science don’t work one day and then stop working the next. Each and every one of them always works—because they are true and made by God. And truth doesn’t change.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊