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A song, some of us learned while children – the B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me, I stand upon the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.
There is an inherent sense of divine perspective that I get while reading the Bible. The book breathes life to me.
Yes, it is hard to understand historical recollections like one nation completely wiping out another nation, laws that seem arcane, and did God really create the universe on the first day?
I have had many opportunities to develop what I call “mind-doubt” – skepticism of the inspiration and careful transference of the books of the Bible from then until now.
I listen and read and reject mind-doubt. I have a faith, both intellectual and experiential, that the Bible I read this morning is the Word of God.
Mind-doubt grows like a virus. It is hard to determine the cause – did it come from a smart but obtuse professor, from a book claiming “new” evidence, or the cynicism of this age?
Mind-doubt can take pride in believing nothing while disputing everything.
My view of the Bible: It is written by God (original authors, not the KJV or the OGV) and reliably transferred to the version that you read today.
It is complex theologically (but without the complexity, millions of scholars through the ages would be unemployed). God is big and we are small – what do you expect? It is historically raw. The inspiration does not explain or apologize, it just records. Seemingly dated – like why does it seem Paul denigrates women? Then we realize His teaching has done more to liberate gender than all other writings.
Some scholarship delights in cynicism, and over the last 150 years, using words like “neo” and “progressive”, has achieved an eloquence to mind-doubt.
Other veins of scholarship have consistently explained the questions, confirmed the adequacy of translations, and discovered hundreds of archeological confirmations of Biblical facts.
Mind-doubt prides itself in the novel and new. It doesn’t stay consistent. Doubters can’t agree on anything for long. Like piranhas, they eat their predecessor’s ideas, publish their own books, surface as victors for a few years, only to be devoured by the next round of fresh doubt.
Those who bring faith to their approach of the Bible give more than adequate reasons for the reliability of scripture. There is an undercurrent of comradery in their scholarship. They believe in a God who loves us enough to write us a book. This book has been faithfully preserved though the ages. Through the Bible we can know and learn about God. It is astonishing that so many conservative scholars, while disagreeing on some points, maintain a remarkable collective push-back against mind-doubt.
They stand as guardians of the Bible.
I find that those who sang the B-I-B-L-E with childlike faith have more reasons than ever to sing the B-I-B-L-E now with mature adult faith.
Mind-doubt will persist and seem to win in the end times. As the Apostle Paul wrote: “That in later times many will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits.”
If you hear a statement like, “Scholars today consistently point out the unreliability of scripture”, realize that there is a growing group of scholars who disagree, and though using bigger words, still sing…the B-I-B-L-E.
Yes, historical evaluation affirms it is the book for me. I stand upon the inherent infallibility of the word of God. The B-I-B-L-E… yes, that’s the book for me.