THE IMPORTANCE OF LOGIC IN CHRISTIANITY
FOR A SOUND DOCTRINAL, SPIRITUAL & MENTAL LIFE
Intellectual Reasons for the Faith, part 2: Why do you
believe the Bible is the
Word of God?
In the last DDR, I covered three intellectual reasons for believing in the existence
of God (i.e. creation, design, and morality). These covered basic indubitable
facts reflected in science as well as in everyday life. In total there are at
least twelve categories of arguments for the existence of God in general and
for the truth of Christianity in particular. I will develop these philosophical
arguments in the future. I would like to add that all true arguments for the existence of God are philosophical in nature. One of the most common errors of atheists who
rail against the existence of God is to try to prove one thing by using the
wrong method for discovering a truth/fact. Richard Dawkins is a brilliant
biologist and popular writer of books against the existence of God, but he has
a real blind spot in this area. He attempts to demonstrate that God does
not exist through biology.
The existence of God is a philosophical question, not a
biological question. One may use biology or science to corroborate a point (as in the previous DDR; also see Psalm 19;
Rom. 1:18-20), but never to prove a point one way or another. Just as one
cannot measure an object by smelling it or weigh an object through hearing, one
cannot prove God through biology. Dawkins books might be popular, but they are logically and rationally flawed nonetheless.
Now to the
Bible, why do we believe the Bible is the Word of God? Certainly, this is an
important question. After all, we are staking our entire destiny on what the
Bible says. Again, why do we believe the Bible is the Word of God? Because it says so!? What about other
“religious” writings that make the same claim. Muslims tell us to follow
Islam because only God could have written the Koran (“And if you are doubt as to what We have revealed from time to time to
Our servant [Muhammad], then produce a Sura like
thereunto; and call your witnesses or helpers (if there are any) beside Allah,
if your (doubts) are true.” Sura, 2:23). Mormons make a similar claim about the Book of Mormon: And when ye’shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye
ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not
true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith
in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy
Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye make know the truth of all things,
Moroni, 10:4-5.
According to Muslims, if you read the Book
of Mormon with an open mind and ask God to show you if it is true, he will
confirm it. Both Mormonism and Islam have made enormous impacts on the lives of
millions of people—both for “good” and bad. However, they both can’t be true since they are mutually exclusive. Both
provide different ways to God. Both cannot be the only true way to God.
Furthermore, both are at serious odds with historical (natural, external)
evidence. The only “proof” they offer is some subjective inner witness. Faith
in Islam and Mormonism can only be warranted or
substantiated on the basis of subjective inner experience.
The Bible,
on the other hand, not only comes with the inner witness of the Holy
Spirit (cf. Rom 8:16)—which is absolutely essential,
it comes with tremendous external evidence as well. This external evidence is
so extensive that it would take dozens of DDRs to complete—I will get into all of this evidence a later time. So why do we believe the Bible is the Word of
God? The short answer is: we know the Bible is the Word of God because it
claims to be the Word of God and proves to be the Word of God. In the Old
Testament it says at least 1500 times in various ways thus saith the Lord; in the New Testament
Jesus, the God-man, told the disciples that the New Testament would be the very
Word of God. We not only have God’s Word claiming to be God’s Word, we also
have proofs of it being God’s Word. It is the only religious
book in the history of mankind with supernatural miracles in it to confirm it,
and the only book in the world that has supernatural prophecy made hundreds of
years in advance. The Bible predicted where Jesus would be born (Micah
5:2), that He would be born a virgin (Isa 7:14), what year He would die (Dan
9:26), how He would suffer on a cross (Isa 53), et al. The Bible makes over a hundred
predictions hundreds of years in advance that were literally fulfilled in
Christ. No
other book in the world does this. No other book has miraculous confirmation
and the supernatural prophecy of the Bible. On top of this evidence, we have
the testimony of Christ Himself regarding the fact that Scripture is from God
and cannot be broken (John 10:35). If the Son of God who fulfilled prophecy,
including living a perfect sinless life, said that the Bible is the Word of
God, then it must be the Word of God.
Let’s look
at just one line of external evidence in fulfilled prophecy. In Daniel 9:26 we are told there will
be 483 years (from 444 B.C.) to the time the Messiah would be cut off. If you
go from 444 B.C. to A.D. 33, you get 477 years. But these are 477 lunar years
so you have to add 6 more years to make it fit the astronomical calendar. This gives us
exactly 483 years as Daniel predicted. No other book in the history of mankind
compares to the Bible in this regard—and there is a vast amount of other
external evidence that also proves the Bible is the supernatural Word of God.
We certainly thank God for the inner
ministry of the Holy Spirit in affirming the trustworthiness of the Word of God
(Rom 8:16), but thanks be to God for the external testimony that the Bible
indeed is the Word of God. We all know that we can easily be mistaken
regarding inner convictions, thanks be to God that He has given us a vast
amount of external corroborations in
prophecy, history, science, life, and dozens of other areas. When we engage
unbelievers we are not left with merely our inner convictions or “how it works for
us”. God in His grace has given us and all men
external evidence of His existence and that the Bible is the very Word of God.
He speaks to all of mankind externally every waking moment of every day. The
only remaining question is whether the person will accept of
suppress His speech— His revelation:
Psalm 19:1-4 For
the choir director. A Psalm of David. The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. 2
Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night
reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. 4 Their line has gone
out through all the earth,
Romans 1:20-21 For since the creation of the world His
invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without
excuse.
On the Glory Road,
Don Hargrove