I Believe the Bible
I recently found the following statement:
“I believe in the complete Word of God from cover to cover!!”
I add “-But mostly the cover”.
I am going to give the benefit of the doubt and assume that the person means, I want to honor the Bible as much as I can. I want to believe the Scriptures, even the parts that I cannot understand.
That is commendable. However, I wonder if the people who boast in their confidence really understand what they are stating. When asked about a certain difficult part of the Bible they say “That's history”. If another confusing part is brought up they say, “That's for the Jews”. Or “That's symbolism” or That's poetry”. Sometimes they say, “That's for the future”. What is left? The cover where it says Holy Bible. “I believe that.” Oh yes...and the maps. “I believe the maps.”
Sometimes we are over-confident in our own religious state. These are some of the strange things that the Bible mentions:
Jonah was swallowed by a large fish which tried to digest him for three days (Jonah 1:17).
An iron axe head floats in a river (2 Kings 6:6).
A donkey has a conversation with a prophet (Num 22:28-30).
God told Isaiah to walk around naked (Isa 20:2).
God picked up Ezekiel by a lock of hair and carried him to Jerusalem (Eze 8:3)
Really?
Sometimes we are quick to announce our super confidence in the Bible. I think we mean our denomination's religious philosophy, not the actual Scriptures. If Christendom is defined as
“a counterfeit Christianity in the form of a Constantinian Civil Religion. It is a religion which has been taken into the captivity of its surrounding culture” (WD Furioso),
then it is the enemy of the Scriptures. Is it that in which we have unshakable confidence? Or do we determine to hold faithfully to the Scriptures that Jesus had confidence in? Many may have never thought about it.
How did the Bible, that we are proud to have such unshakable confidence in, come to be?
Hallucinations. The prophets spoke what they heard and experienced and someone else wrote their words down.
In Acts 10 Peter was hungry. He fell into a trance. Perhaps it was a diabetic coma. He saw a vision. That is where our understanding of the inclusion of the Gentiles into the Church comes from. Are you going to stake your eternal state on that?
Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles. How did he get his revelations? He probably prayed in tongues then interpreted it. That forms the basis for the modern day understanding of the things of God. Are you still going to boast of your unshakable faith?
“Well...maybe I need to think about it some more.”
The strange supernatural origins of our Bible are so “charismatic”. Do you know what it is that you believe? Maybe it is what some preacher says. Maybe it is what a certain school says. Maybe it is not what the Bible says, after all. Maybe you should consider the alternative.
Maybe not.
In the strongest terms, I warn, I threaten, I even beg you to consider God as true no matter what men may say.
Determine to hold to the Bible's truth even if you cannot understand it all. Otherwise, you will be able to confidently say, “I believe in the maps!”
Feb. 24, 2024