Bible Beliefs on Facebook

We all know I like to discuss a wide-range of topics. One of these topics, and by far the most important, is Jesus - Who He is, Who He is not, etc. Had a great number of questions, thoughts and counterpoints thrown my way (which I love) and my response ended up being a blog-like response, so I pulled it over here.

Here is my original post on Facebook:

From a Gallup poll of self-described Christians (in America):50% don't believe in the existence of Satan33% believe Jesus sinned while He was on earth25% dismiss the concept that the Bible is accurate in the principles it teaches
That's a dangerous road to go down my friends...

Of course, their were some who agreed that was dangerous and some who did not. And because FB is FB, it grew into a larger discussion about a variety of theological topics. Through my answers, you can probably glean what the questions were. If you cannot, click here.

I must point out that I am no Bible expert. nor God expert. My thoughts on this do come from my own study of the Bible and teachings that I have received for the past 3 decades or so. I will certainly give you my true belief on all of your points, but as always, I encourage you to challenge and study up on anything I say.

I agree with you that we will never know the FULL character of God until we are in His presence, but with that said, He has certainly revealed everything that we need to know about Him to develop a personal relationship with him. When people speak about "the mystery of God", they're not so much speaking of the unknowns of God, but the knowns of God that we will probably never be able to understand (eg. God's omnipotence, omnipresence, etc).

Totally understand you giving up on reading the Bible because of it's difficulty. I think the toughest part about the Bible, is that it's essentially a history book, that without cultural reference, is tough to piece together. Just like I was taught history in school, otherwise I would have never been able to tell you have of what I learned on my own, I always found it less frustrating, and more effective, to study/read the Bible with someone or with the help of some sort of guide, or commentary. I find myself always trying to challenge what certain commentary says with Scripture alone, and it always ends up strengthening my faith. I never just take so and so's word for it (or at least try not to). When studying the Bible, I always let the clear (what is easily understood or plain), trump the unclear. If God said it, I take His Word for it.

Yes, humans are flawed, for sure. Here's the thing though, the prophecies that Christ filled from the Old Testament, in His life throughout the New Testament would be nothing short of a mathematical miracle. Statisticians have run the number and essentially said that it would have been impossible for Christ to do what He did, no human has or could come close to replicating it. I agree, no human could. Thankfully, I don't serve a human. Why do I bring this up? Because it's all about Christ. That's Who it began with and that's Who it will end with. So, you can have a relationship with Christ, and still be skeptical about man's ability to write the Bible. I would however challenge you to develop a relationship with Jesus first, study His Word, and then reevaluate what you feel about the Bible. I must warn you though, to develop a relationship with Him, your going to have to get to know Him, and the only way of doing that is through Scripture and prayer. If you try to get to know Him outside of Scripture, you're making up your own Jesus. Jesus already gave us an entire book on Who He is.

I would also encourage you to look up what happened when they found one of the early manuscripts of the book of Isaiah (Dead Sea Scrolls) and compared it to the Bible we use today. I'll give you a hint, nothing substantive has been changed. There is no human telephone game that could have accomplished that without God.

Comparing Eve to the writers of the Bible is like comparing apples to oranges (pun intended)  They are alike in this however: She was a sinner, yet God used her for her purpose. The writers of the Bible were sinners, yet God used them for their purpose. Ultimately, they were all used for God's purpose, and super awesomely, that includes us. Remember, the writers of the Bible simply wrote down what they saw, experienced, touched, felt and were told. Any chance that God could have directed the events they 
witnessed and/or were told?

As always, I welcome your thoughts and challenges.