Christian Philosophy: Everyone Has a Philosophy. It's The Lens Through Which They View The World and Make Decisions. (6 page)

God’s Word will change you to the degree that you let it dominate your thoughts and life. I certainly haven’t renewed my mind perfectly, but I’m also a long way from where I started. God’s Word is working in my life. It has changed me, and I see the supernatural power of God as a result of believing what the Word says. God has been speaking to me through His Word for more than forty years—ever since He told me that the way to find His perfect will for my life was to make myself a living sacrifice and to renew my mind by conforming it to the truths in His Word (Romans 12:1-2).

The easiest way to prove to yourself that the Bible is God’s Word and that He will speak to you through it, is just to read it. Begin by reading the entire New Testament. You might not understand everything the first time, but the Bible is its own commentary and the more you read, the more you will understand. Approach it with a sincere heart and say, “God, if this is really inspired by You and it isn’t just the thoughts of men about You, then speak to me through it.” If you pray in that way and remain open to the possibility that God will speak to you, I guarantee you will be inspired by God. The author of Hebrews wrote,

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

The Word of God is alive, and it will come alive for you if you read it expectantly. Eve was the focus of Satan’s temptation because God’s command was secondhand to her. But we shouldn’t be too hard on Eve for falling into temptation because she didn’t really understand Satan or evil. She didn’t know what was at stake. She didn’t know what dying was, or what the effects of sin would be. In a sense, we can give her a pass because she was innocent and didn’t realize what was happening when she succumbed to the lies of the devil.

But you and I don’t get a pass. We live in a fallen world. We have all experienced failure, hurt, pain, and death. We understand the reality of evil. It doesn’t make sense for us to bury our head in the sand and say, “Well, you know, I’m just not sure God speaks to me through the Bible. I’m not sure I can really trust this.” You need to come to the resolution that God’s Word is alive, and that He speaks to you personally through it. You can’t get your knowledge secondhand from me or another preacher. You need to go to the Word and hear God speak to you directly, and then you’ll have enough firsthand knowledge to be safe from the deception of false doctrines, traditions of men, and wrong philosophies.

Some Christians are relying on bits and pieces of Scripture that they heard decades ago as children in Sunday school. They are relying on the pastor of their church or another teacher to tell them what the Word says, but they aren’t reading it for themselves. Those people are prime targets for the devil. The devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking people to devour, and just like a lion, he looks for the weak (1 Peter 5:8). He looks for people who don’t have the armor and protection of knowing God’s Word. This is one reason it is so important to know what God’s Word says firsthand.

I’m not saying you can’t learn from other people, but it shouldn’t be the foundation of your relationship with God. A baby begins by being dependent upon his mother to feed him, but he doesn’t stay that way. A baby can’t grow up to be a fully functioning adult if he stays dependent upon other people to feed him. In the same way, all Christians need to learn how to feed themselves from the Word of God. You can’t remain dependent upon your pastor to feed you revelation. I know that the cares of this life keep people busy, but if you understand how vital it is to study the Word, you’ll find the time to do it.

When the apostle Peter was getting toward the end of his life, he wrote a letter to believers in which he stressed the inspiration of Scripture and the confidence we can have that God is speaking to us through it. Peter knew that he was going to die shortly, and he was giving final encouragement to the believers. He said,

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

2 Peter 1:16-18

Peter was saying, “I’m about to die, but I’m going to write these things down so you can always have this to remember.” He was making known that the account he gave of Jesus wasn’t something he devised on his own. He wasn’t just telling stories. The words he had written down were inspired by God, and they told of Peter’s experiences. Peter was with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and heard the audible voice of God say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” He saw Jesus radiate light that no earthly power could produce. Peter was there! But then Peter writes,

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

2 Peter 1:19-21

Peter saw Moses and Elijah talk with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. He saw Jesus radiate light, and he heard God speak with an audible voice from heaven and confirm that Jesus was His Son, but he says we have something even better than that—better than seeing with our eyes or hearing with our ears—we have the written Word of God!

Most people would rather see what Peter saw and hear what he heard than read the Bible. Large crowds will turn out to hear you speak if you advertise that you had a vision and heard the voice of God. People come in droves to hear that sort of thing, but far fewer people show up when you advertise that you’re going to be sharing what Scripture says. The reason is that our culture puts more emphasis on what we can perceive with our senses than on the Word of God. Peter said we should be doing just the opposite.

Peter clearly states that the Word of God was not written by men—it was not of “any private interpretation.” The Holy Spirit inspired men to write the scriptures. The apostle Paul made the same point in his letter to Timothy when he said,

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

The Greek word for “given by inspiration of God” is literally translated “divinely breathed.”
⁸
This clearly states that the Word of God didn’t come from the thoughts of men. God breathed His thoughts into men, who then put them in writing. The Bible is not a human book; it’s God’s book written for men.

I believe Scripture, and I’ve studied it enough to verify for myself that it is the Word of God. I don’t need any further proof, but plenty of scholars have also authenticated the Bible from a historical and scientific view. Many books have been written about the accuracy and inspiration of the Bible. I can’t cover all of the evidence here, but I want to share a few facts that will give you confidence in the accuracy and inspiration of Scripture.

To begin with, the manuscript evidence supporting the New Testament far outstrips any evidence for secular writings of ancient times. One researcher has said, “The New Testament documents have more manuscripts, earlier manuscripts, and more abundantly supported manuscripts than the best ten pieces of classical literature
combined
.”
⁹

For example,
Caesar’s Gallic War
was written between 58 and 50 BC. Ten copies of that original work remain, and the earliest was written 900 years after Caesar’s day. Livy wrote a 142 volume
Roman History
sometime between 59 BC and 17 AD, but only 35 volumes survived, in not more than 20 different manuscripts. The text of Tacitus’ 14 volume
Histories
and 16 volume
Annals
survives in only two manuscripts written 900 and 1,100 years
after
the original works. The earliest manuscripts of renowned Greek historians Thucydides and Herodotus that are complete enough to be of use to scholars were written more than 1,300 years after the originals.
¹⁰

Homer’s
Iliad
is the secular work that has the most supporting evidence, with 643 surviving copies (the earliest being written around 500 years after the original), but it doesn’t even compare to the New Testament evidence we have. The number of differences between the copies of the
Iliad
is also greater—even though there are more than 20 times as many New Testament manuscripts being studied and compared.

In contrast to the copies of secular histories given above,
more than 5,600 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament have survived in whole or in part.
Those manuscripts vary in age, the more complete having been written within 150 years of the original, with the earliest manuscript portion written within 30 years of the original. (Keep in mind that the New Testament wasn’t written as a single book, but is composed of many letters written by multiple authors at different times.) The fact that so many copies of the New Testament scriptures have survived, combined with the fact that they were written so closely to the originals, firmly establishes the historical accuracy of the scriptures we have today.

From a purely human perspective, the chance for error is increased when a document is copied over and over again thousands of times. The more times something is copied, the more errors you should see. This is true in the case of secular works, but not with the Bible. The abundance of ancient New Testament manuscripts have been compared and there are very few differences—and they contain no differences whatsoever that contradict the Gospel message of Jesus or the historical facts of Christian faith.
¹¹
Scholars have placed the comparative accuracy between the more than 5,600 manuscripts at 99.5%!
¹²
This is astounding, and it shows how God has supernaturally preserved the integrity of the Bible through time.