The Bible is like no other book. Have you read it lately? It was put together by God to communicate Himself to us.
He did this through prophets separated by hundreds of miles, over the course of hundreds of years.
Bible predictions are accurate. Many already came true, and many are “in-the-works”. Jesus alone fulfilled over 300 of them. The Bible’s end times predictions now read like current events!
He inspired these prophets to write His messages. His messages to us are infallible in their original languages [Hebrew in the Old Testament (OT) and Greek in the New Testament (NT)]. Folks have tried to disprove it – like, forever. Never works-out for them.
Ask an honest archaeologist: It is a miracle of God that the Bible has been created and preserved for us down through the ages.
For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart. – Hebrews 4:12
You can accept Jesus as your Savior and be “born again” – without accepting the infallibility of God’s word to us (the Bible). Although He accepts any dumbass lamb (because, actually, we all are…. Jesus saved me.) He wants His followers to be themselves. After all, He made each of us unique.
Do your own fact-finding. Don’t just blindly be a gullible nonthinker. God’s truths can survive anyone’s scrutiny. They have for ages. See, for example:
Can Apologetics Go beyond Evidence for Christianity to
“Proof” of Christianity?
-by Dan Story; at ICR; May 13, 2020
Jump in and see for yourself. Do you want just your own “think”, or “God’s think“? Don’t settle for limited thinking!
Source: Limited Thinking.
So, you are thinking? That’s a good thing! And those thoughts are – what? They are your thoughts? Have you been able to get past your own thinking – and think with God and His expressed thoughts?
What are you thinking? Are you “stuck” with only your thoughts? Or have you allowed God to help you think?
What experience do you have in the universe, to be a foundation for your thoughts – by you, yourself? On what do you build your thoughts? Is it only from you and others like you? Do you live your own way?
“Don’t fool yourself by your limited thinking.
Don’t you realize that this is not the way to live?
Unjust people who don’t care about God
will not be joining in his kingdom….“
– Swift’s Amped-up Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 6:9-20
“As a legitimate way to determine whether or not Christianity is religious truth, legal reasoning is of tremendous value. Christianity is the only religion in the world where its truth-claims can be tested by legal reasoning — that is, by evidences, especially eyewitness testimony. All other religions require its followers to accept their tenets based on the unverified claims of their founders or documents.” – Can Apologetics Go beyond Evidence for Christianity to “Proof” of Christianity? -by Dan Story; at ICR; May 13, 2020
FOR MORE: Know Your Evidence
This is what the Bible says regarding its message:
2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage];
Matthew 22:29
But Jesus replied to them, “You are all wrong because you know neither the Scriptures [which teach the resurrection] nor the power of God [for He is able to raise the dead].
Matthew 26:31
Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night [disillusioned about Me, confused, and some even ashamed of Me], for it is written [in the Scriptures], ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
Matthew 26:56
But all this has taken place so that the Scriptures of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled.
Then beginning with Moses and [throughout] all the [writings of the] prophets, He explained and interpreted for them the things referring to Himself [found] in all the Scriptures.
I am not speaking of all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but [this has happened] in order that the Scripture may be fulfilled: ‘He who eats My bread has raised up his heel against Me [as My enemy].’
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said in fulfillment of the Scripture, “I am thirsty.”
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “I raised you up for this very purpose, to display My power in [dealing with] you, and so that My name would be proclaimed in all the earth.”
and so [at that time] all Israel [that is, all Jews who have a personal faith in Jesus as Messiah] will be saved; just as it is written [in Scripture], “The Deliverer (Messiah) will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.”
4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope and overflow with confidence in His promises. 5 Now may the God who gives endurance and who supplies encouragement grant that you be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify and praise and honor the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
but now has been disclosed and through the prophetic Scriptures has been made known to all the nations, according to the commandment of the eternal God, leading them to obedience to the faith,
but just as it is written [in Scripture], “Things which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, who obey Him, and who gratefully recognize the benefits that He has bestowed].”
The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the good news [of the Savior] to Abraham in advance [with this promise], saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage];
For somewhere [in Scripture] He has said this about the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”;
For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.
But understand this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of or comes from one’s own [personal or special] interpretation,
The Bible should be read and understood for what it says. Don’t make it say what is not really being said. Many are doing that – and the message is torked into what someone wants it to say for them. Be real. Draw near to God – and He will draw near to you.
This group at https://soundinterp.org says it well, and we here at OMGjesus adhere to this statement:
“Sound Interpretation Project’s (SIP) primary objective is in understanding the Bible without any prior commitments to a particular religious tradition, denomination, or system of beliefs.
At SIP we want to understand the Bible in accord with what its authors intended to communicate. Historically, the Bible has been appropriated by various religious belief systems and traditions to provide evidence for their point of view and to justify their religious systems.
Our approach is philosophically different in that our desire is to understand the Bible’s authentic message, not to see in it what others want us to see in it. Therefore, we at Sound Interpretation Project are seeking to understand:
- the message the biblical authors wanted to communicate,
- the meaning of each biblical text that its author intended,
- the teaching the biblical authors intended to deliver, and
- the understanding of God and reality held by the biblical authors
To this end, Sound Interpretation Project is committed to:
- Engaging in continued research in matters relevant to understanding the Bible
- Studying and interpreting the Bible in its original languages
- Translating the Bible from its original languages into English
- Teaching an accurate understanding of the Bible, seeking to make its message and worldview accessible
- Promoting a desire to know and understand the true meaning of the Bible.
We here support this statement by the Sound Interpretation Project (although we work from English, not original languages).
Statement: The Biblical Philosophers are a group of individuals who assume that
-
- the Bible is the only inerrant and authoritative source of truth, that
- the truth contained in the Bible will and must make sense to the rational mind, and that
- the only correct interpretation of the biblical text is the original author’s intended meaning.
The group collaborates to discover this meaning by following as carefully as possible the flow of the biblical author’s argument in each Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek text without the constraint of any system of orthodoxy. In this way, we are pursuing not only Bible study, but also biblical philosophy, which is to say that we are engaging in the only kind of philosophy that ultimately will be both true and rational.
Click on “Who We Are And Our Work” above to see our photos, names, and locations, along with navigating to documents that we have written and to recordings that we have made.
FOR MORE:
The Bible is the standard for Christian thought and practice. Not me. Not you.
It is what it is: The Bible Is God’s Word To Us
Interpretation… a site search
Can Apologetics Go beyond Evidence for Christianity to “Proof” of Christianity? -by Dan Story; at ICR; May 13, 2020
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