Can the Bible Be Trusted?

Hi this is breathing welcome to the Salvation Army's words of life. Hi Megan Hopper, and if you are enjoying words of life.

I want to invite you to check out another show brought to you by the Salvation Army heartbeat is a one minute show about real life hardly touches on topics ranging from finances and prayer to dating and mental health. If you're looking for a short message of hope to challenge you and brighten up your day. Subscribe to heartbeat wherever you get your podcast or visit Salvation Army sound cast.org site for words of life. This is Cheryl go on and on, Bernie, Dick Bernie languages has the Bible been translated into. I honestly would have no idea it would be more than 250 languages.

Wow, that's pretty amazing isn't it. Absolutely.

How many Bibles are sold or given away charity. No few million more woe Over 100 billion or hundred every minute. Wow, amazing. That's incredible so we know the popularity and availability of the Bible, but another big question for a lot of people is how can it be trusted. We live in a world now where were told not to believe everything that we read so why should we believe the Bible interesting. Obviously our perspective as believers is going to be slanted if you're not someone who believes in the Bible and you're listening to this program I can tell you that there's a section in the middle.

Psalm 34. Eight.

There's a Scripture there that says taste and see the Lord is good. I always used to think that subtest and see and that I see as a young person and even as an adult in a sense, have tested God and he has proven himself true to his word. I can't tell you the number of times of been delivered from danger or protected from a perceived threat or harm and just recently having come through a colon cancer surgery were now the doctors told me there's no evidence of disease is it is the grace of God. He is true he's proven himself to me and I beg you test and see if the Lord is good to you.

Now there are some of you who have been through a trial that feel you weren't delivered because maybe a family member did die and their no longer with you and there's a sorrow and there's a pain there. In our case, I have a brother-in-law who was not delivered from cancer.

How in the world could that be good but in fact the goodness that came out of that is our family learned how to deal with that grief and in celebrating the life of my brother-in-law realized that we could come alongside other people in those moments of grief. They've been delivered and if we know in our case that he had a right relationship with Jesus Christ.

So we believe that he's in a much better place and there is no more pain and no more suffering. Now the other side of this is some of you if your skeptics and you haven't read the Bible. The challenges read see if it's true, try to prove that it doesn't work and I think you'll be surprised that God will make himself known to you in a very real way, is worth well good morning and welcome again to our show skeptics welcome. Do you believe it just because it was said, you believe everything just because it's on social media, it's on the Internet. It must be true. What about the Bible is the Bible true. Is it accurate. I mean, were talking about 40 authors over 1500+ years.

Can we really trust that everything in it to be taken at face value. How is the Bible even relevant in 2021. Ask anybody's opinion about something that's in the Bible, you might actually even get 15 different answers see the words of been through a process of analysis and translation that sometimes can even point to multiple conclusion based upon which scholar you're actually asking what if this is so, then how can we be sure that what we are getting is actually accurate and that my friends is why Bible study is so important and not only individual study, but study with persons of various background and experience. Don't just stay in your own little echo chamber where everybody believes the same thing that you believe about the Bible but come in contact with other people believe something, maybe even different about the Bible, get into some conversations. It's what Wesley called Christian conferencing coming together for debate and understanding not to not in violent disagreement, but to reason over the Scriptures, maybe even as the Lord said come let us reason together is something that we don't do as much as maybe we should seek in the beginning, when the church was first starting out, they had multiple church conferences or councils. The first couple centuries they're trying to figure out what actually is Orthodox teaching you don't have the word Trinity in the Bible anywhere. And yet this is a concept that we understand as true because it came to us through debate through these councils of Nicaea and Laodicea and Constantinople. The first Jerusalem Council you might even remember is in the Bible its acts chapter 15 where the Gentiles are being told they have to believe like Jews. They have to do everything the Jews do, including being circumcised, in order to become a Christian. And through that conference.

I say now there's only two things one is keep yourself from sexual immorality and don't eat food sacrificed to idols. That's it. Those were the only two and so in that moment the things that we had to do or the things that we had the practice changed based upon people coming together wrestling over the Scriptures and coming to an understanding together of what it means to be a Christian at the Council Nicaea.

They agree to the baptismal creed to get the I believe in the God, the father of the maker of heaven and earth. Trinity continues to be discussed in this issue of Jesus whether he's God with his band whether he supposed both and is not until the Council of Laodicea that you actually get 27 books of the New Testament being authorized starts by one of the monks called Athanasius he is the one who sort of puts forward this list and we have 27 books in the New Testament. Now it's interesting in that is, they had to take others out how they make that choice well one is did stand the test of time. You did it did.

People were people inspired by things that were being written in it and were the people who wrote them. Actually, people who encounter Jesus or was it just may be somebody who said something along the way. The difference between canonical and apocryphal, which is the word we use for those that were not included is whether or not they are essential for the faith. Now some of the other books that you might be out or read the book of Enoch and you know various others there and they're not bad reading.

Sometimes you can actually get some insight from it. But that is not essential, and if it contradicts anything in the Bible then that's why it was made to be apocryphal through this process we have these books of the old and New Testament that were given by the inspiration of God and that they only constitute the divine rule of Christian faith and practice as we good salvation say in doctrine.

Number one, but interestingly enough, even after the 27 books are made to be canonical, which is the word we use there to officially recognize these you get to Martin Luther. He wants to throw out the book of James because it talks about your works, and he was a grace only. So even in the midst of all this, there are debates over what the Scriptures actually mean and what they say there are a lot of great resources that we have available to us that we did not have before. In the same way that perhaps those in the Middle Ages couldn't read Latin, and therefore had no access to the Bible when they were given the Bible in their own language they could finally read it for themselves.

Study it for themselves and they found things in there that they had come to believe were true because priest said it so but were not and it could counteract that argument.

Now, with their own Scriptures, even more than that. Now we have resources available to us that can take us beyond what even some scholars even had available to them at the time. You can actually go back to find what that word in the Greek.

Was it what that word in the Hebrew meant and can begin to see the nuances of what God was saying that perhaps you would've missed had you just read the English translation, which immediately. You continue to ask the question. But how can we believe that all I believe it's been through all these processes and that's where you have to believe that the process is just as important as what we have, that God was working through people in the issue of Christian conferencing in studying the Bible together and making sure each word, each word is there for a specific reason. And if it's not, why is it there through all history. This work has been done for you. Some will point to the fact that while the Bible isn't necessarily historically accurate and yet we can point to non-Christian sources such as Josephus and Tackett this in the works of fellow and even her wrote at this you can see where the Bible is lining up with extra biblical literature literature that was written at the same time as the Bible from non-Christian sources. So that's true, then there is a believability about what's happening in the Scriptures, but let me also say this. The Bible is a story and in communicating the story. It's not always specific on what historical fact may or may not be.

I'm not saying that it's a myth and I'm not saying that it's not true. It just doesn't deal with the details of what we would hope to see because we read with such a detailed scientific mind. The Bible wasn't really meant for your right brain, mathematics, science, mind it was meant for your left brain. The imagine us, the one who can see details in different items that are sent through the Scriptures.

It's a reason why Jesus talked in parables because he was talking to people he was talking to you and he had a point for you. That was relevant. That could find its way in actual things that are happening like like those parables of seed in the ground that grows who are found itself in a banquet that's prepared for others, and no one comes we can all identify emotionally with those stories and God is trying to communicate to you through these passages the Bible to a point where we take our scientific minded we analyze all the words and what those words mean and how those words are put together by the end of the day.

What is the story telling us about God. Where does God want us to be what kind of people does he want us to be and he's given us a model all the way through to show us how to live our lives. We thank you for continuing to listen next week when asked the question can I be a Christian and disagree with the Bible. There is a loaded question. So I guess we'll see you next the Salvation Army's mission doing the most good means helping people with material and spiritual needs to become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army visit Salvation Army USA.org to offer your support and love to hear from you. Email us at radio@uss.salvationarmy.org or call 1-800-229-9965, write us at PO Box 29972, Atlanta, GA 30359 tell us how we can help share prayer request or share your testimony. Would love to use your story on here. You can also subscribe to our show on iTunes favorite podcast store and surely give us a rating search for the Salvation Army's words of life.

Follow us on social media for the latest episode extended in abuse and more. And if you don't have a church home.

We invite you to visit your local Salvation Army worship center will be glad to see you. This is brain to join us next time for the Salvation Army's life