What Is Faith? - According to the Bible

Just like our English words, Hebrew words can have many different meanings depending on the context, so I like to use a concordance to look up the original Hebrew or Greek words to see if there's a deeper meaning. I'm not an expert, and anyone can do this, but sometimes the meaning is much more complex than the English word we translate it to.  Here's the Hebrew word for "faith": 

• Hebrew emun, emunah (faith) can mean established, trustworthy, truth, firmness, security, fidelity, steady, stability 

These are all words you'd use to describe something you can depend on.  Faith can keep us steady and stabile in a stormy world. Faith is also being loyal to the God who loves and blesses us (fidelity). 

" Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." Hebrews 11:1-3

There is so much in this short passage! Let's break it down: 

• Greek hupostasis (substance) in a literal sense means at "setting under" or a support, and used figuratively it means an assurance or confidence
• Greek elegchos (evidence) simply means "proof" or conviction
• The "elders" described in Hebrews 11 are Old Testament people named in the chapter from Abel to Moses, and they "obtained a good testimony" because of their faith in God
• We weren't there 6,000 years ago to see God create the world, so we can only have faith that He made something out of nothing, but our faith has a solid basis
• "Things hoped for" - looking forward to Jesus' second coming when we can meet and talk with God and angels face to face. Right now it's "things not seen", but then you won't be able to miss it! 

I'm such a practical, down-to-earth, black and white guy, it's hard for me to understand abstract things and ideas. That's why this next passage means so much to me: 

"That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, NLT

 God has shielded me from a lot of the pain and suffering in this world, but I see it every day, and I lost my mother to a drunk driver at 5 years old, then had to battle cancer at 8 years old.  It's so encouraging to know that this is temporary, but I only know that through faith in God's promises, which I find in His Word. (Romans 10:17) We need faith to see those things that cannot be seen with our eyeballs.

"For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7

That sounds so simple, but how does this actually work? After all, we humans are very in-tune with our  senses and the physical world around us. So much so that we're often distracted and disconnected from spiritual things. But at the end of the day, the physical and the spiritual are both parts of who God designed us to be. 

• Hebrew aman (faithful) means to build up or support, to foster as a parent or nurse, to trust and believe, to be true and certain

This is a word describing someone who is faithful and how they behave. So being faithful in a biblical sense mirrors God's character in the same way the Ten Commandments do (last six = love/respect for fellow humans, first four = love/respect for God). We should build up and support each other, while believing and trusting God. 

There are several descriptions using the word "aman" in Proverbs, so to make it more easily digestible, I created a table.

In the New Testament there is a word for faith, as well as lack of faith or "little faith". 

• Greek pistos (faith) means moral conviction in religious truth/God's truth, reliance on Christ for salvation, assurance and belief
• Greek oligopistos (little faith) means incredulous, or unwilling or unable to believe, also lacking confidence

Here are a couple verses that show how important faith is: 

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." Hebrews 11:6

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." James 1:6-8

• It's interesting that James uses the same ideas in the New Testament which are associated with faith (emunah) in the Old Testament: someone without it is "driven and tossed by the wind", "double-minded", and "unstable". 
• God wants to give us His wisdom, and "liberally" without shaming us, if we just ask
• A big part of faith is obviously believing that God is able and willing to answer our prayers

There were a few times Jesus used the term "little faith" or oligopistos, so here's another table: 

Jesus also told people they were healed because of their faith: 

These people all had three things in common: 

1. They knew they were sick and needed healing
2. They really believed that Jesus could heal them
3. They took action based in faith

Did Jesus mean that people can heal themselves if they have faith? No, but when we have faith, God can work on our behalf in greater ways.  Freedom of will and our choices play into this.  God doesn't need our permission to work in our lives, but He won't force His way in or do something if we aren't open to Him. 

Jesus wasn't only interested in healing people of physical ailments and disabilities. His ultimate goal is to save us out of sin. In the future world where sin does not exist, the physical sickness, deformities, defects will not exist. Sometimes the healing you and I need is not physical. It could be: 

• Addiction to pornography or violent movies
• Hate and resentment for people who have wronged us
• Anxiety or fear of the future
• A delusion that we are self-sufficient (pride) 

I'll be open and honest with you. I studied martial arts for 20 years, and along with that I enjoyed action movies with lots of fight scenes. I still participated in my church, still believed in God, but I was fooling myself that because I knew the truth, engaging in violent entertainment did not deceive me.  But I wasn't filling my mind with God's Word either, and what happened? 

As a result my faith got weaker without me even realizing it. A few years ago, when the Holy Spirit finally woke me up (I'll tell that story sometime) I was shocked to realize how shallow my faith in God had become.  Not only that, but my heart had no peace.  There were times when I felt like a dark cloud was hanging over me, and there was a feeling of foreboding, like something bad was going to happen but I didn't know what exactly.  Anger and a short temper has never been a problem for me, but I got to a point where things would go wrong and I could feel a rage boiling up inside my chest. 

After a little over 6 months of studying the Bible and avoiding violent movies and video games, the biggest change was peace.  The anxiety and anger flashes melted away. Instead I felt a calm assurance, and a feeling that no matter what happened, everything was going to be alright.  This kind of freedom comes from faith in God. It's not the freedom to do whatever you want, no matter the cost to yourself and others (we'll also look at self-discipline from a biblical perspective in a future post).  

"For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1 John 5:4-5

We overcome a sinful, physical world when Jesus' example, sacrifice, heavenly advocacy, and second coming are just as real to us - because of our faith.  These things are all physical as well, but we just can't see or touch them yet. What did Jesus say to Thomas? 

"Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” John 20:29

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:6-9

• Our faith enables us to endure the trials in this world before Jesus returns
• Because of our faith, we can be excited and happy about the future God has for us, even as we're being tested by fire
• We haven't seen Jesus face to face, but if we have faith in Him now, the end result of that faith is salvation.  
• "if need be" indicates that our characters are refined by trials, and those of us who are slow learners... Let's just say when I have trials, I want to look for the lesson I'm supposed to learn so it can be over sooner! 

There's a lot more in the Bible about faith, but I think I'll cover some of that in the next post. 

Why you can trust the Bible - Part 2

In Part 1, we looked at mostly external evidence - things like archeological finds and the miraculous preservation of thousands of manuscripts, which all agree with each other with incredible accuracy. Now we're going to look at what the Bible says, or rather, what God says about His Word.

Before we do that, there is one point to make which rests between internal and external evidence. For some people, all the evidence in the world will not convince them. At some point, the recognition of the Holy Spirit working in your life in ways that could not be explained any other way is going to do more for your faith than historical, philosophical, or scientific evidence. Logic and knowledge will not save you in the end, only a relationship with God can.

"and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."  2 Timothy 3:15-17

Paul was writing to Timothy, who we might call an apprentice of his in spreading the gospel, and he answered the question: What are the scriptures for? What is their purpose?

• "To make you wise for salvation" and strengthen your faith in Jesus
• To establish doctrine, or foundational beliefs
• For reproof and correction of sin in one's life
• "For instruction in righteousness", or how to gain freedom from sin and live a better life according to God's will
• The scriptures equip us for "every good work". Greek agathos (good) is something good that has a benefit, and Greek ergon (works) is an act, or labor

Since the last point here is about being "equipped", it's a good time to bring up the armor of God in Ephesians 6 and how the Bible is involved.

"Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."  Ephesians 6:11-13

• We need the armor of God, rather than the wisdom and strength of men, because we're dealing with supernatural forces (fallen angels, and we'll explore this in a future post).
• It's not obvious, but there's two types of "standing" in this passage
• "stand against the wiles" (deceptions) "of the devil"
• Stand before God, "having done all", in the day of judgement - Revelation 6:17, "who shall be able to stand?"

So how does the Bible fit into the armor of God?

"...the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;"  Ephesians 6:17

"Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."  Revelation 19:15

"He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength."  Revelation 1:16

"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  Hebrews 4:12

Does Christ really have a literal two-edged sword sticking out of his mouth? No, it's symbolic of His Word. Our words come from our mouths. Revelation 19 reveals that there is a judgement coming and the standard for that judgement is the Word of God, which He spoke to prophets and apostles and preserved over many centuries. God made sure that you and I have access to these writings so that we could know who He is, and so that we have the answer key before the test comes. That's an incomplete analogy, I know, but hopefully it's clear that God made His Word available for our sakes, so that we can stand in the day of judgement.

But believe me, when your sins have been forgiven, and Jesus is both your defense attorney and your judge, the judgement is a good and positive thing. We'll get into this more in future posts, but a judgement means that God will take care of the sin problem, and no one will be victimized, lied to, taken advantage of, abused, neglected, discriminated against, ever again.  All of these problems that we humans are trying to solve in our own wisdom, and our solutions keep backfiring as things get worse - God is going to set everything right. 

Another side note: In the Old Testament when God created the world, met with Abraham before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18), passed before Moses on Mt. Sinai proclaiming His glory (character, Exodus 34) and thundered the 10 Commandments, met with Joshua before Jericho fell (Joshua 5) - this was Christ the Son of God showing up in person.  In the verses in Revelation quoted above, John saw the same person, only now it is Jesus Christ the Son of Man. It's the same God, but Jesus now has a glorified human body after being born as a human and living in this world with us, so that we can live in Heaven with Him.  Both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, this sword or Word that Christ speaks is "living and powerful". 

One more observation before we move on: Notice that the Sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon, while the shield of faith, belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, helmet of salvation, are all defensive. Why is that? So you can use scripture to bash people over the head in internet forums and on social media? No! So you can cut through the elaborate and subtle lies our accuser (Satan) is placing all around us in our lives. We humans get fixated on the physical and literal, but this is spiritual and symbolism is used in the Bible to describe spiritual things. 

"And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter 1:19-21

• Beginning with "And so" suggests that something previously expressed contributes to this passage or enables it to be so.  In verses 16-18, Peter had just described that he and the other disciples were not following "fables" because they had seen the glory and power God gave His Son Jesus with their own eyes.
• The "prophetic word", or messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, were all fulfilled (confirmed) in Jesus
• True prophecies are spoken by God and fulfilled by God, and any prediction we make up ourselves, or "private interpretation", is simply false
• The scriptures were inspired by God's Holy Spirit as He writes/speaks through humans
• This world is getting darker all the time, and God's Word is a light shining in the dark

"For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 15:4-6

• Interesting that patience is mentioned twice. If God is good, why suffering?  We need to be patient and wait on God to set things right in His time, as He has promised. 
• The Bible gives us comfort (also mentioned twice) and patience and hope
• Jesus lived on earth as our example of how to relate "toward one another"
• What it means to glorify God is a study in itself, but it's basically giving God credit for the things He does. And if He not only CAN but also WANTS to save believers from a sin-sick world, He certainly deserves to be praised.

Greek hupomone (patience) means "cheerful endurance" and "continual waiting"

Greek paraklesis (comfort) means comfort or consolation in the form of an exhortation or entreaty

Beautiful! This isn't a petty Greek god who is apathetic, easily insulted, and toys with humans! He really cares and loves us to want to give us hope of His return through His Word. 

Here's a couple questions about changing God's Word, which the Bible answers: 

Does God ever change His mind? 

"God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?" Numbers 23:19, NLT

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace," Hebrews 13:8-9, NLT

When I take a closer look at that last passage, the message to me is that I should follow Jesus and the Bible the best that I know and understand, and I can be confident (strong) in this. Why?  Because if I misunderstand something but I have a sincere heart, God through His grace can show me the truth and correct me - either now, or when Jesus comes.  If I reject parts of His truth because I don't like it, that's a different story. 

 Can we modify God's Word to fit our modern lives? Does God's Truth change over time? 

"You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." Deuteronomy 4:2

"For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." Revelation 22:18-19

Whoa! That's pretty serious, but this warning shows up at both the beginning and the end of the Bible.  When we start substituting our traditions and ideas to override the Word of God, we're on very dangerous ground.  According to preceding chapters in Revelation, this world will end with some really nasty plagues and disasters, but there are wonderful things promised to those who stay faithful to God. And staying faithful includes not twisting His inspired Word. That's a stern warning to me, writing about the Bible, not to twist or misrepresent the Truth of God. 

The passage in Deuteronomy talks about "the commandments of the Lord your God". We are told not to change those. Why? Because: 

• Murder was wrong before God created our world, and it will still be wrong after this world is destroyed and recreated (6th of Ten Commandments)
• Breaking your marriage commitment and betraying your spouse because that's what you want to do (adultery) doesn't become acceptable over time. (7th of Ten Commandments) 
• Lying about someone to gain an advantage for yourself was wrong in Moses' time, and it will be wrong in the New Earth that God will create (9th of Ten Commandments)

What if the government contradicts the Bible in it's laws? 

In Romans 13:1-10, Paul makes the case for obeying government authority, which he said is given by God in order to maintain order in society.  He basically says if you behave yourself, you have nothing to fear from the government. But the laws he calls out in this passage are about adultery, murder, stealing, lying, and these are within the last six of the Ten Commandments. Yes, governments have laws forbidding these things, and as Paul suggests, that's a good thing when the government's law matches up with God's Law.  

But notice that the first four of the Ten Commandments are conspicuously absent in this passage. These commandments are about humans worshiping God. Governments can pass laws to discourage humans from harming each other, but earthly authority can never dictate how humans must worship God.  That is strictly between individuals and God.  If governments get between people and God, then God's highest priority of free moral agency and free will has been violated.  I say it's His highest priority because He wants to save everyone (2 Peter 3:9) and yet, this principle of free will that He maintains is the reason many will be lost.  He doesn't force, coerce, or use deception to save anyone. 

"But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men." Acts 5:29

"To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah 8:20

• The Law: God's commandments and the way He wants us to live (for our own good)  
• The Testimony: The historical accounts of God working with humanity throughout the Bible, and His prophecies about the future. 

 You could apply Isaiah 8:20 to anything, including government commands, but the context is more specific. Verse 19 asks why you would consult mediums and wizards, and "seek the dead on behalf of the living?" It's a warning against spiritualism. If you're connecting with a spirit world that's not of God, you're dealing with the Devil and his demons.  

Verse 21 says that people in this world will be "hard pressed and hungry" and if you are not depending on God for your guidance and protection, because of all the terrible things you see in the world, you'll curse both God and king (government), and "be driven into darkness". And that's an echo of Revelation 9:20-21 and Revelation 16:11 about the end of this world.  

To wrap up this post about the Bible/the Scriptures on a positive note, here's the way Paul ended the book of Romans: 

"Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith— to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen." Romans 16:25-27

• Greek sterizo (establish) means to "set fast" and in a literal sense to "turn resolutely in a certain direction", figuratively to "confirm" or "strengthen"
• The Old Testament Israelites were supposed to deliver God's Truth to the world, and sometimes they did and other times they failed. After Jesus came, the New Testament was written and the gospel was spread to the whole civilized world at that time. The secrets of God were revealed to all who would listen. 
• This was all according to God's will, so that we could obey through faith in Him
• Lastly, only God is truly wise, and His glory is revealed "through Jesus Christ". In other words, Jesus glorified God with His life in this world, and by His sacrifice to save humanity.

I hope if you're reading this that you enjoy the exploration about what the Bible gives us.  In the next post I'm going to explore what the Bible says about FAITH, from Genesis to Revelation. 

Why you can trust the Bible - Part 1

 From an outside perspective, Christians are claiming that this book should be held in higher regard than any other piece of literature in this world, and "you just need to have faith in it". A reasonable person will reject that notion, because it's unwise or even dangerous to base your entire philosophy of life on a collection of ideas based on blind faith.

Faith is important for an earth-bound human who has such a limited perspective of the rest of the universe, BUT it doesn't have to be "blind faith". God gives us enough evidence to see the Truth if we're sincere. He's actually spent a LOT of time and different methods to reach humans over the last few thousand years. But before we go there, I want to lay out:

• Why the Bible is not a bunch of fairy tales
• Why we can trust and depend on it
• What the Bible claims about itself (next post, because this one is already long!)

There are three areas that I can think of (I'm sure there are others) which we can draw on to prove that the Bible is the real deal:

• Fulfilled prophecies
• The number of surviving manuscripts compared to other literature, and supernatural accuracy of these manuscripts
• Geological/archeological evidence

People who don't believe in the Bible claim that the prophecies in the Bible were written in hindsight, after the fact, and not actually accurately predicting the future. Well, none of us were around to be eyewitnesses over 2,000 years ago. But we can verify that the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament date to less than 100 years after they were written, and in the last 2,000 years a LOT of Bible prophecies have come true with amazing accuracy. In fact, some prophecies are coming true right now, during our time.

Bible scholars say that there are around 2,500 prophecies in the Bible, and so far in the history of the world, over 2,000 of them have been fulfilled, and again, with incredible accuracy. When Jesus was born, the Jews had the Old Testament as their Bible, and He fulfilled around 300 messianic prophecies during His birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension!

I use the words "around" or "approximately" because different scholars claim different numbers, but 280 or 320 prophecies being fulfilled hundreds of years after the prediction both have astronomically thin odds, let alone 2,000 fulfilled prophecies about events in the world. Maybe in a future post I can go into some of those fulfilled prophecies, because they are just fascinating!

The next area we could look at is surviving manuscripts. Why do we call them manuscripts? Because they're not the original paper that John wrote the book of Revelation on, they're copies. The same holds true for non-biblical/secular works of literature, and what we can put our hands on today are copies, not the original. But take a look at this table comparing the Greek New Testament with other literary works:

First of all, if you include manuscripts in other languages (not just Greek) then we're talking more like 24,000 copies. Where it gets really interesting is that when the 5,600 Greek manuscripts are compared, they are 99.5% accurate with each other. The 0.05% differences are related to spelling and sentence structure, and don't change the meaning. That level of accuracy in that many hand written copies (long before the printing press) is supernatural! I believe that God was guiding the preservation of these books which make up the Bible we have today.

Books included - While it's true that the Early Christian Church officialized the "Canon" (collection of books to be included in the Bible) in the 4th century AD, these were the same books that the earliest followers of Jesus held to. They had the same writings we have in our Bibles. Other writings like the Gospels of Judas and Thomas, and the Book of Enoch were not included because they were not in harmony with the rest, or were recognized as written long after their namesakes died. Again, I personally believe God guided this process so that the books He wanted to be included ended up in the Bible. We can doubt that, but God's power and wisdom is far beyond ours.

Eyewitnesses? - For historians, the the closer the writer is to the event, the more reliable they are. Someone writing hundreds of years after an event wouldn't be considered as reliable as someone who lived during the time the same event happened. So it's worth considering that Matthew, John, Peter, Paul, James, and Jude were with Jesus and have written first hand accounts, while John Mark and Luke heard what they wrote from first hand witnesses.

Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, and he obviously lived after Noah's global flood, so he wasn't a first hand witness to the events in Genesis, and wrote from oral tradition passed down to him through generations and from divine inspiration. But the Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, most of Deuteronomy could be considered first hand accounts because Moses lived through these events. Historical books like 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles can be corroborated with historical writings or archeological finds from other civilizations, but there is dispute about exactly how long after the events they were written.

Another thing to consider is that Jesus had more than 12 disciples. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:6 that 500 of Jesus' followers saw Him alive during the forty days after His crucifixion before He ascended to Heaven. Jesus' disciples who wrote New Testament books, like those listed above, saw these things with their own eyes:

• Traveled with Jesus for over three years
• Saw all of His teaching and miracles
• Saw Him crucified, and then alive just days later
• Saw Him ascend into the clouds
• Felt the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentacost
• Experienced the ability to speak in languages they didn’t know, & perform miracles with God’s power

Believability - There's another element when we consider the believability of historical events in the Bible. If an earthly king is commissioning the history of his kingdom and his deeds to be recorded, it's done in such a way to show himself and his kingdom in the best possible light. Lots of embellished heroic acts, but none of the failures.

As an example: Archeologists have discovered the Sennacherib Cylinder on which the Assyrian king had inscribed an account about taking nearly all the cities in Judah, and it names Hezekiah, the king of Judah in the Bible account. However, the night that 185,000 Assyrian warriors died and the king went home without capturing Jerusalem (2 Kings 19) is absent in the Assyrian account. But it's interesting that the Assyrian account mentions the capture of other cities in Judah, and that the Assyrians surrounded Jerusalem. End of story. Sennacherib almost captured the capital city of the country he invaded, and then what? Nothing?

In contrast, the Bible shows the flaws, mistakes, backsliding, and even wickedness of God's chosen people over and over, which goes in the opposite direction. It doesn't try to gloss over all the unfavorable details or mistakes of people God worked with, because God can even work with imperfect, stumbling humans.  This makes the Bible more convincing to scholars because fiction or even history (from a worldly perspective) just isn't done like that.

"For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." 1 Corinthians 1:22-24

Paul hit the nail on the head. If you're trying to convince everyone that your god is the King of Kings, a crucified Messiah is a really odd way to do that! Jesus won (conquered sin and death) by losing (being captured, tortured, ridiculed, and crucified), and that's just not how the world does things. 

Like the Sennacherib Cylinder I just mentioned, there are many documents outside the Bible which agree on the historical events. These are included in these two areas which confirm the Bible:

• Archeological evidence (cultural finds)
• Geological evidence (observable evidence that this world was not always like it is now)

The site believed to be where the ancient city of Sodom was located still has sulfur balls all over the place, which are really hard to explain given the geology of the region. You can still set them on fire and they burn with an intensely hot blue flame. I've seen people doing this get instantly burned by unwisely getting too close.  

I frequently see evidence that the world was covered by water at one point and suffered a drastic, global, apocalyptic event. There's so many features in the landscape here in the United States that look like a massive amount of water washed through at some point, and I'm not talking regional flash floods. I'm talking about wash lines that cross large portions of arid desert states when viewed from 35,000 feet in an airliner.  Why is it that we find sea creature fossils on high mountains? Why do many civilizations around the world have a flood story in their "mythology"?   

Just last summer I visited Coos Bay, Oregon on a family trip, and I was surprised to find lava beds along the coast. No volcanoes around for many miles. And the lava must have hardened very quickly because there were large chunks of rocks and petrified tree trunks half submerged in the lava, like they dropped in from above as the lava quickly cooled and hardened. Here's a photo I took: 

"on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights." Genesis 7:11-12

"The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained."  Genesis 8:2

There used to be vast water reserves inside the earth, and they exploded as water blew up to the surface. At the same time, the protective vapor barrier in the atmosphere dropped as torrential rain onto the earth. We have polar ice caps and harsh environments now because of the damage this cataclysmic event caused to the planet.

I've heard people ask, "If the flood covered the whole world, where did all the water go?" Did you know that 71% (nearly three quarters) of our planet is covered by water? That's why it's called the Blue Planet, but it used to be the Green Planet. After the flood, a lot of the water receded back to the ocean depths - depths that used to be covered by land. 

Take a look at a topographical map of the west coasts of North and South America. The Andes mountain range was created during the eruptions in what is now the Pacific Ocean, and the Amazon River basin was carved by flood water runoff into the Atlantic Ocean, where other massive eruptions happened.  Why the God who created this world would do this with His creation is a subject we'll get into in future posts, and it's not what most people think. 

The evidence is everywhere if you want to see it, but as many do, you can choose to ignore it, write it off, and disbelieve. I usually only quote the Bible, but a 16th century Japanese sword master said it very well: 

"Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is. And you must bend to its power or live a lie." Miyamoto Musashi

Musashi was probably a Shinto/Buddhist adherent, but he was right about that. We don't get to choose whatever we want the truth to be, and it's objective, not subjective. What we can choose is whether to believe and follow the truth when we see it. 

 Think about this: If I decide that I believe I can fly, and I step off a cliff, and I somehow survive to try that a thousand times, every single time I'm going straight down - no exceptions.  What I think or feel or believe doesn't change gravity.  God created that natural law to keep us from floating out into space, but He gave us the freedom to decide whether we jump off the cliff or not.  If I jump and don't survive, is it God's fault for creating gravity, or my fault for doing something insane?  

Whatever happened in the past actually happened whether we believe it or not. But since we weren't there 4,000-plus years ago to observe it directly, we need faith.  God gives more than enough evidence for belief, but there are things we can't see or understand yet.  It won't always be this way, and Jesus' soon coming will change everything.  

In the next post we'll look at what the Bible says about the Bible.   

Introductions & the Why

 Hi there! My name is Eric and I've been looking around and observing that many of us Christians don't know the Bible very well. Sometimes what we believe is based on a single, misinterpreted verse, when we need the whole Bible to truly understand what God wants us to know. Not knowing the Bible (which I believe is the inspired Word of God) leaves us open to deceptions, because we're not equipped to compare ideas with the Truth.

I can probably safely assume that the biggest problem for me is also a hang up for others. I got wrapped up in my everyday life that I could see, hear, touch with my physical senses, and unintentionally ignored the spiritual side of things. It's easy to detect the physical, but it's impossible to see spiritually without God's Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:14, 2 Corinthians 3:16-17

Behind all the beauty and pain and suffering in this world are spiritual forces and causes we can't see. There's a conflict between good and evil that we can't see with our eyeballs. And it's critical that we understand how real this is, because one side wants to save us forever, and the other side wants to destroy us forever. Ephesians 6:12, 1 Peter 5:8

The Bible offers us the answers to:

• Where we came from (Who created us)
• Why we're here (we're in this condition because of sin, but still alive because of God's mercy and grace)
• Where God wants to take us in the future

If I'm a typical human, I don't like those answers. I don't like to hear that I "fall short of the glory" God originally created humans with. I don't like to hear that I can't fix these growing problems on my own, by myself. I don't want to acknowledge that instead of Evolution, humans are actually de-volving when we reject the One Who created us and the world we live in.

But this God says (through the Bible) that He wants to show us the path to life and peace. And He wants to bring us to the place where we actually CAN see Him face to face and live together with Him. All through the Bible this is His end goal.  Doesn't it make sense to at least hear Him out? I mean, if there is an all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-at-once God Who doesn't have a beginning AND He loves us enough to come to Planet Earth, be born as one of us, and die to make a way of escape for us, why would we insist on the ideas we've gathered during our measly few decades of life, instead of just admitting that He knows better and has our best interest at heart?

So my plan for this blog is to take a subject for each post and pull together the best answers I can find from Genesis to Revelation. When I do this, things start to become more clear than if I just look at one verse. There are themes and patterns that start to emerge, and we begin to see that the Bible, even though written over an approximately 1,500-year period of time, is amazingly unified in it's messages. It was all inspired by the same God, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

• How does the Bible define faith, wisdom, what God wants from us?
• If there's one God and one Bible, why so many Christian denominations?
• What is sin, where did it come from, how do we avoid it?
• What is the future that God has planned for us and this world?

Yes, I'm starting another blog (among many out there) on what the Bible teaches, which almost no one will read. But if even one person is encouraged and drawn closer to Jesus through this effort, it's worth it. The 80-100 years we live in this world are so insignificant compared to the glorious ETERNITY that's coming sooner than we think.

"I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days;" Deuteronomy 30:19-20

All life is given by God, and this life we're living now is our chance to choose God and His eternal Kingdom. And "when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8