Comments on: 25 Reasons I Believe the Bible

By: OwlByrd

OwlByrd — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:51:14 +0000

God is a rewarder of those who diligently (honestly, intentionally, wholeheartedly) seek after Him.

By: Dad in the Middle – The Year in Review « Dad In The Middle

Dad in the Middle – The Year in Review « Dad In The Middle — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:06:43 +0000

[...] Popular A Christmas Carol Advent25 Reasons I Believe the BibleChildren Desiring God – A Summary of the 2009 National ConferencePsalm 119 – The Word of GodI [...]

By: grammy Marge

grammy Marge — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:36:04 +0000

As a Sunday School Teacher, I appreciate this blog. Always wanting to learn more about God from the Bible and from teachers such as you. Thank you.

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:54:06 +0000

I have never read the bible because I have never understood how it was any different than mythology. There are lots of writings about Venus and Zeus but that doesn’t seem real to me either. I hope your posts will help me have faith in Gods Word.

By: Wayne Stocks

Wayne Stocks — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:29:56 +0000

Ben,

Thanks for the comment. I appreciate your insight and your semi-critical comment/open ended question. I agree with you wholeheartedly that absent the prodding of the Holy Spirit moving in someone’s life, any attempt to convince them of the validity of the Bible will be useless at best and counter-productive at worst. After all, the wisdom of God is foolishness to the world.

I also agree that there are many who feel like they can use logic and reasoning to prove the existence of God. I am not one of those people. The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Accordingly, by definition, belief in him must be by faith, and that faith if given to us by the grace of God.

That said, God has provided plenty of evidence of his existence and grace. He does not ask for blind faith to believe him, but belief does require a step of faith. My point in this series is merely to demonstrate the evidences provided to us by God that the Bible is his revealed word to human beings (again given by grace).

Put another way, I believe you are right that it is the Holy Spirit working in our lives that enables us to believe the Bible, enables us to believe the Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose to conquer death on the third day, and to draw us to Him. However, I also believe that one of the ways God works in our lives through the Holy Spirit is by providing evidence for his existence. That is what I hope to explore in this series – the evidence for the book given to us by God. I hope that makes sense.

One of the reasons I believe the Holy Spirit works through such evidence to draw people to God the Father is because that is how he worked in my life. He convinced me of the validity of his word, not by logic, but by the supernatural nature of the book. Once I had accepted that, he used that to draw me to the cross of Christ.

Finally, I will do my best not to argue that I believe the Bible is the Word of God because it says it is (though I do intend to address what it says), my argument is the Bible is true, and here are some of the things the Holy Spirit used to convince me that it is true and to continue to strengthen my faith.

Thank you again for your comments, and for the record I did take your comment as friendly (and welcome by the way) prodding. After all, iron sharpens iron.

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 06:28:17 +0000

I look forward to reading what you have to say about the individual items on this list; should be interesting! I do however have one semi-critical comment, or perhaps it could be an open question: Having made this list, which contains a solid group of very valid points, aren’t you leaving out the most important piece of the puzzle? The one which holds all the rest together? It would seem to me, that behind all of the logical reasons you have laid out, it all comes down to a movement of the Holy Spirit which brings you to faith; THAT is the one reason why you (or I) believe these 25 reasons. I have trouble with defenses of Christianity which make it seem like any ‘reasonable’ person, if they study the facts, will come to know the Lord. Not only does Scripture illustrate this to not be true, but I think we can all see in our experience that this is not true either. I know none of this has to do with your original intention of writing the blog, I’m just curious to hear your explanation. Is it not by the Grace of God alone that you and I have been blessed to have our eyes opened to catch a glimpse of His truth? Without this, even your own list would not convince you. I am reluctant to pull logic back into the equation, but for what it’s worth, I also think that by leaving space for faith-because-of-Grace, it keeps the argument you’ve laid out from becoming circular: “I believe the Bible is true because it says it is,” which begs the question, “Well, why do you believe what it says?” I just think the temptation to answer the latter question with a series of propositions, rather than a creedal statement of faith, is symptomatic of the Modern desire to twist (religious) Faith around enough to try to pass it off as (the Enlightenment’s) autonomous reason. Hopefully non of this came across as negative! I don’t by any means intend it to be anything other than friendly prodding!