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Burning Questions About Life And The Bible Q Is the Bible divinely inspired? A The word “inspired” (the Greek theopneustos), appears in the Bible’s own affirmation about itself (2 Tim. 3:16) and means “God-breathed”. The word is an idiom connoting that the scriptures are spoken by, i.e., they come from God. So, when this question arises, what is being asked usually is twofold: Is the Bible really from God? Can we trust it? 1. The Bible is historically reliable. Focusing upon the New Testament and its unveiling of the central figure of the Bible, Jesus, we see that eyewitness (or acquaintances of eyewitnesses) of his life (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) recorded some of the events of Jesus’ life. Not only do these Gospels demonstrate reliability when speaking about places, people and events—as evidenced in their confirmation in archaeological findings—we also know that they were written within a reasonable time after the events of the life of Christ to be trustworthy (30-50 years). Additionally, when compared, they corroborate the events of the life of Jesus Christ as we would expect reliable witnesses to do. Even though we do not have any of the original writings of the Gospels, nevertheless, the earliest manuscripts (hand-written copies) date within 25 years of the writings of the originals. All together we have now discovered over 25,000 manuscripts of the New Testament. With this number we can, for all practical purposes, reconstruct the original documents. 2. The Historically Reliable New Testament affirms that Jesus rose from the dead. So much evidence is in place for the events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that scholars of all persuasions agree on five key truths: Jesus was crucified and buried; Jesus’ disciples claimed to have seen him alive postmortem; James, the half-brother of Jesus, changed from a strong doubter to a prominent follower and church leader after the alleged resurrection and a sighting of Jesus; Paul, a chief church persecutor, became a staunch follower and proponent of Christ and his teachings after the alleged resurrection and sighting of Jesus; the tomb was empty some time after the body of Jesus was placed in it. Suffice it to say, there is no explanation for the events other than that Jesus was raised from the dead. This is significant because on three different occasions Jesus predicted he would be killed and then would rise from the dead (Mk. 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34). Only one who is truly who he claimed to be (the Lord; God-in-flesh [John 10:30; 20:28]) could predict his own death and affect his own resurrection. 3. The God-man affirms the divine nature and trusthworthiness of the scriptures. Jesus saw the scriptures as historically reliable (Mt. 12:40), from God, and authoritative (Mt. 5:17-20; Mk. 10:1-9). 4. What is more, the God-man affirms there would be more scriptures than the Old Testament. He told the disciples that the Spirit would declare the things of Jesus to them (John 16:14-15). This most likely means that the Spirit would divinely inspire some key followers of Jesus to complete God’s revelation about Jesus. This is exactly what we see. Peter refers to Paul’s writings as scriptures, i.e. inspired (2 Peter 3:16). Paul refers to that which Luke recorded as scripture (1 Tim. 5:18). So, we see that what was coming forth in the New Testament was on par with that body of literature Paul referred to as scripture and inspired by God (2 Tim. 3:16). 5. So, in summary, based upon the confirmation of Jesus Christ himself (evidenced to be God-in-flesh by the resurrection), what he claimed about the scriptures, the promises he made about more scriptures, and what his close followers claimed about Old and New Testament scriptures, we can conclude that they are all (as a whole and every part) from God. What is more, since they are from God and God does not lie (Titus 1:2), we can conclude that the scriptures are true and trustworthy. Prayer: A
First, we can say that God has not only determined the end of all things, He
has also determined the means to the end.
For example, no one comes to God unless God has first chosen him (John
6:44; Second, we can say that God has determined to respond to prayer (and thus to have us pray) because it clarifies that He is sufficient and we are not; He is all-powerful and we are not (Psalm 50:15). Q What do you do if you feel as if you are talking to a wall instead of the Living God when you pray? A There are a number of things that can be
suggested. To begin with, we need to
remember that when we are in an unrepentant sinful state, it can hinder our
prayers (cf. Prov. 28:9; Q What should we pray for? A Paul teaches us to pray for all things and to be anxious for nothing (Phil. 4:6). Jesus gave us an example of the kinds of things to pray for (Matthew 6:9-13). This model of prayer introduces another helpful means of knowing what to pray for—the Bible. Here we can make three brief statements: (1) Pray the Psalms. These are amazing guides for the kinds of things to focus on in prayer. (2) Follow the direction of the prayers listed in the Bible, especially when Paul tells us what he prays for himself and other Christians (e.g. Eph. 1:15-20; Phil. 1:9-11; Col. 1:9-14). (3) Anything which the Bible teaches us can become a guide for prayer, so pray about whatever points of application arise from your Bible study and reading. Q Is it selfish to ask for things constantly? A In and
of itself, asking for things from God is not necessarily selfish. After all, it honors Him (Ps. 50:15; Q How often should you pray? A The Bible never prescribes a specific frequency for prayer. It does tell us to pray as often as you need to pray (Phil. 4:6) and to pray regularly and frequently—i.e. unceasingly (1 Thess. 5:17). Q Why does God not answer prayers, especially when we are in tight spots (e.g. evangelizing or in a moral conflict)? A First, there are times when God does say,
“No,” because He knows a negative answer will help us grow more and bring Him glory (2 Cor. 12:7-10). Second, sometimes we think that God answers,
“No,” but He has not. In fact, something else is going on and we will someday
find out that He was answering long before we knew it (Daniel 9:20-23;
10:12-14). Third, sometimes, the Spirit translates our requests into even
greater and better pleas and God answers us in unexpected ways ( Q Why is God concerned with our prayer requests? A It is because He has loved us with an
everlasting love and thus has pursued us with steadfast love (Jer. 31:3). To put it in other words, He is for us and
has given to us the greatest of all gifts--His Son. This means He wants to give to us all we need
and shower His love and acts of kindness upon us in the rest of this life and
the life to come ( Q How does prayer glorify God? A It glorifies Him by showing that He is all-sufficient and has the answer, He has the resources. We do not. It is the same way (only infinitely more so) that a physician is glorified when we come and ask him for help because we know he has the answers and cure, yet we do not. Then we also go and tell other sick people about him so they can have the cure as well. Cf. Pss. 50:15; 67:1-7 |
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