Why should we take note of such an ancient book as the Bible?

This is a common way of thinking today and there are several reasons for this. People argue:

1. Science has progressed our knowledge so much that what was written two to four thousand years ago is surely out of date.

2. The Bible talks of miracles and the supernatural that we have not experienced today.

3. The behaviour of people and the social norms vary from one society to another so what one people think about sexual ethics or even gender has no bearing on us today.

4. There are internal variations in what different parts of the Bible say that makes it unreliable.

When discussing these issues with people what is striking is that few of those who rejector argue from a position of knowledge about what the Bible actually says.

Bible overview

The Bible begins with a God who created the universe in a progressive way. Originally that was the meaning of the word ‘evolution’ which means ‘unrolling’. In this meaning the Bible is evolutionary. Man is the pinnacle and focus of this progressive creation and is free to live as he wants with the one restriction that what is right and wrong remains within God’s province. It is clear that God wants to live in close harmony with people. The man Adam rebelled against this one directive of God, just as we do today. We want to determine what is right and wrong, we also eat of the ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil’. The easy way to respond to this tension is to deny God’s existence. We laugh at the ostrich as it buries its head when problems approach, yet how often this is how we also react to problems.

A central theme of the Bible is that God will eventually act in judgment against those people who reject his authority. Just as Adam and Eve were expelled from God’s presence because they rejected his authority so those people who reject his rule face his judgment. Even those who nominally were his people, the Jews, faced his anger when they refused to live his way. The last book of the Bible has this same theme, God will divide those who are his from those who reject him. The psalms often echo this lesson:

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no-one who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.” Psalm 14:1-2

“The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD is on his heavenly throne. He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them. The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.” Psalm 11:4-5

This leaves all mankind in a desperate situation but the Bible teaches that there is hope. God himself will enter his world as a Messiah and he will save those who repent and turn back to him and his rule. He did this through his Son who died as the ultimate sacrifice for sin and rose again to prove his divinity. It is in the proven coming of this Messiah that the message of the Bible substantiates its validity.

The evidence that we all fall far short of God’s standard is clear to us all. None of us have high enough standards for the Holy God, described in the Old Testament and repeated by Jesus - inwardly we all know we fail. Jesus said,

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” Then he added, “The second is equally important: Love your neighbour as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31

Science and the Bible

The Bible was written thousands of years ago by people of those times so it will have little to say about subjects such as electricity, other than to note the remarkable power of lightning, or nuclear physics. These are not the subjects the Bible emphasises, although it is extraordinary that the creation of the world described in Genesis 1 tells of a stepwise development of earth. It starts with a world that was ‘formless and empty’, to one covered with water, to the development of land masses, to the appearance of plants, then animal life and finally humans. How on earth did ancient man know this?

Miracles, such as the raising of the dead, are certainly not an everyday occurrence in the Bible. Two instances occur with Elijah and Elisha but only in the time of Jesus and his first apostles did this happen again. We have to accept that true miracles, where the laws of nature are broken, are extremely rare. Remarkable coincidences frequently happen but rarely does God break his laws. People today glibly talk of ‘The Laws of Nature’ but nature or science cannot write such laws. These laws are descriptions as to how nature or our world works. A mind has to create laws. This is a strong argument that we have been created.

Yet we are living in a world where the impossible is happening all the time. What parent has not felt that the birth of their first child is a miracle. How can a living being be formed out of ordinary chemicals. We still cannot create life out of the chemicals or ‘dust of the earth’ yet that is what our bodies will return to. What child has not been thrilled to see a minute seed grow into a plant with beautiful flowers. Such miracles are occurring all the time but people cannot see how extraordinary they are. Others have been overwhelmed by the evidence that this world cannot have formed by random events.

Professor Anthony Flew was a prominent atheist for more than 50 years. He was a Professor of Philosophy at Reading University. In 2005 he publicly acknowledged that some intelligence must have been involved in the creation of the universe. The DNA story is itself a miracle. Talking about DNA research, Prof Flew said:

“I now believe there is a God...I now think it [the evidence] does point to a creative Intelligence almost entirely because of the DNA investigations. What I think the DNA material has done is that it has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements to work together.i”

Conscience and Natural Moral Law

The Bible makes it clear that God has implanted a sense of his moral law in the hearts of us all.

“When Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law” — meaning the law of Moses. “since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.” Romans 2:15

It is because we all have this inbuilt moral sense, that we all fail to live up to, that all people will rightly face God’s judgment.

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:18-20

God is not unfair, he is just. Paul defends that by saying that God’s judgment will fall according to how we respond to the measure of truth that we have access to. Even those who have been brought up knowing the Bible’s message have no excuse, as it is the failure to live as God has taught us that makes us all culpable

“All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.” Romans 2:!2

The Problem of Evil

The Bible repeatedly condemns the selfish behaviour of ungodly people. Although God is willing to use such people for his ends he still hates the wrongs they do. Some have argued that there cannot be a loving beneficent God because of all the awful behaviour of people in this world, such as the treatment of prisoners by the Japanese in World War II or the extermination of Jews by the Third Reich. The Bible not only says that such people will face God’s judgment but that the presence of evil should point people back to God, the God who has set ‘the knowledge of good and evil.’

After giving a lecture to a large group of students at Nottingham University an evangelist was asked:

‘There is too much evil in this world, therefore there cannot be a God.’

He replied,

‘When you say there is evil, aren’t you admitting there is good? When you accept the existence of goodness, you must affirm a moral law on the basis of which to differentiate between good and evil. But when you admit to a moral law, you must point to a moral lawgiver. That, however, is what you are trying to disprove and not prove. For if there is no moral lawgiver, there is no moral law. If there is no moral law there is no good, there is no evil. What then is your question?’ ii

The repeated message throughout the Bible is that, ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23) The message of the whole bible is that salvation, eternal safety, is available through God’s Messiah.

What changed how people think?

The Age of Enlightenment (also known as the Age of Reason or simply the Enlightenment) was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Roman Catholic Church that previous had controlled how people thought was being rejected and this was associated with liberal thinking encouraged by the independence movement of the French Revolution. Significantly nearly all the forefathers of the Enlightenment movement, known as the Scientific Revolution, confessed to being Christians. Men such as Francis Bacon and Galileo were amongst these Christians. Another early advocate of independent thinking was Isaac Newton in his ‘Principia Mathematica’ (1687). Even these early advocates of the Enlightenment retained Christian beliefs. The philosopher René Descartes, in 1637, questioned the basis by which we know anything. He concluded that all he knew for certain was that he could think and concluded “Cogito, ergo sum” ("I think, therefore I am"). Although he believed there was a God revealed in Jesus he had difficulty proving satisfactorily about this God’s existence from this starting point of his being able to think. However as the church tried to retain its authority over all areas of thought, many people began to question their authority.

The ability to reason is a gift God has given to people. However conclusions depend very much on the assumptions made at the start. If the starting point is that a God has created us then the conclusions will be very different to those that don’t start with God. Logically without starting with God there can be no real meaning in life, we are random accidents. Morality has to be man made, so will become the norms imposed by the most powerful in society.

These early scientists, who were also Christians, did question the authority of the church to adjudicate about almost everything but they still recognised that there was a creator whose scientific laws they were discovering, who has spoken to mankind in Scripture and who has appeared in his world as Jesus Christ. It is the person of Jesus, his miracles, his teaching, especially the facts of his crucifixion and resurrection and the effect he had on his disciples for the rest of their lives that can be substantiated. There are no grounds for describing Jesus’ death as ‘cruci-fiction’!

The Authority of God’s Word

A key feature of the Bible is that God is a communicating God We cannot see him but we can hear him speak to us. The central lesson of Genesis 1 is that the different stages in the world’s creation all came as a result of God’s word:

“And God said . . . God saw . . . he separated . . . God called . . .” Genesis 1:3-5

“And God said . . . so God made . . . so God called . . .” Genesis 1:6-8

“And God said . . . and it was so . . . God called . . . God saw . . .” Genesis 1:9-10

“Then God said . . . And it was so . . . God saw . . .” Genesis 1:11-13

“And God said . . And it was so . . . God made . . . God saw . . .” Genesis 1:14-19

“And God said . . . So God created . . . God saw . . .” Genesis 1:20-21

“And God said . . . And it was so . . . God saw . . .” Genesis 1:24-25

“Then God said . . . God blessed them and said . . .” Genesis 1:26-28

“Then God said . . . God saw all that he had made . . .” Genesis 1:29-31

The message is obvious, God intervenes in his world through his word – this is the main lesson of this ancient script. The story of Adam and Eve all revolves around what God had said and their catastrophic decision not to listen to him. The call of Abraham to be the father of a dynasty of God’s people was initiated by God speaking to Abraham. God thereafter continued to guide his people by speaking to them in a variety of ways. The repeated theme of the Jewish prophets began with:

“The LORD says . . .”

The rejection of what God has said is what makes God angry. A psalmist wrote,

“The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. . . The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the LORD scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger . . saying ‘I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill. . . Therefore you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, less he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flir up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” Psalm 2

In contrast to the prophets in the Old Testament who all claim to be passing on what the Lord has said to them, Jesus has a very different way of speaking. He claimed to be God’s final word who existed before the world was created.

John, the gospel writer and close friend of Jesus starts his gospel by referring to the opening words of the book of Genesis. He starts his book by saying about Jesus:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made and without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of men.” John 1:1-4

Jesus himself said:

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned but has passed from death to life.” John 5:24

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35

There has only ever been one sane person who claimed so much about himself. Jesus stressed that our eternal salvation depends on each of us becoming one of his, that is God’s, followers. This is an exceptional claim which is either true or false. Jesus substantiated his right to be able to forgive us our sin, our rebellion against God, by performing miracles, the like of which have never been repeated. The Old Testament said that this ability to perform real miracles such as giving sight to the blind, enabling the lame to walk and the dead to be raised would be a characteristic of the Messiah.

The reason the Scriptures are so important is that they tell us of God’s perspective. It teaches that God hates mankind’s rebellion against himself and that if this continues there will be devastating consequences both for rebellious individuals and for rebellious societies. However the message of the Bible does not end there. There is hope of salvation and forgiveness. In Old Testament times this hope was indicated by the offering of animal sacrifices whose death on behalf of the offerer promised a forgiveness of sin. The Old Testament makes it clear that these sacrifices were a model of what God’s Son, his Messiah would achieve once for all time by sacrificing himself. Isaiah clearly explained what the despised Messiah would primarily come to achieve through his death and subsequent resurrection,

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Isaiah 53:4-11

The New Testament gives repeated ‘affidavits’ given by people who lived closely with Jesus for three years and were first hand witnesses about his life, death and resurrection. Either these witnesses were telling the truth or all the writers of the Bible over the centuries were involved in a complicit fraud. There must be an explanation as to why the early church grew so rapidly in spite of both Jewish and Roman opposition. This can only because the facts about Jesus stood up to vigorous investigation and the lives of those who had allowed themselves to come under Jesus authority had changed for the better so radically. The early churches were most careful to ensure that the writings they accepted as being authoritative were those written by or had the imprimatur of genuine apostles. Any dubious writings were rejected.

The Real Problem

The Bible is a straightforward book that talks about how people relate to God. There are many accounts of people’s failures, yet the repeated lesson is that God always welcomes back into his family those people who honestly turn back to him, accepting his death as their substitute and are determined to let Jesus be Lord of their life. In this regard the old Scriptures are timeless because they address problems that every human being faces. How can anyone read through John’s gospel and not be attracted to the Jesus who is described. The usual problem is that most behave like ostriches, they don’t want to look because the plight we are in is made clear – but so is the solution that God has given us.

BVP

September 2021

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iAnthony Flew, letter on Darwinism and Theology, http//www.philosophynow.org/issue47/47flew.htm

iiZacharias R. ‘Can Man Live without God?’ Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2004