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
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