Getting Out of the Dark

Feeling lost in the dark? In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins faced goblins and despair with just a small elvish dagger—Sting—to guide him. It wasn’t much, but it sparked courage to keep going. Life can feel like that shadowy cave, but the Bible offers a sharper tool: God’s Word. ‘For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword’ (Hebrews 4:12). It cuts through confusion and lights the way forward. Like Bilbo, we can’t go back—only ahead. Pick up your sword, trust God’s truth, and take the next step. Read more about finding hope in the darkness! Read Getting Out of the Dark.

The Bible is not an Answer Book

 I love the Bible. 

In fact, I believe that people who follow Jesus should be readers and students of the Bible. In the Bible we discover God, His character, and His will. 

Without the Bible we would not be able to follow Jesus or be the people God created us to be.

Last year I lead Bethlehem Church through The Story to give us a good overview of what the Bible is about. One of the things I constantly talked about through that series is that the Bible is gift from God. In all the 30 sermons I preached, I said, “We need to read, study, meditate on, and pray the Bible to be good stewards of the gift God has given to us.”

Even though I have a high view of Scripture, I also understand that it has limitations.

As modern readers of the Bible, we often approach it as if it has the answer to all of life’s questions. That is a primary reason why we  read and study the Bible: to have all the right answers.

Instead of viewing the Bible as an answer book, we need to see the Bible  as a tool to help create a worldview. It may not provide the answers to all the questions asked in our culture, but it does provide a framework that helps us create a Christian worldview.

I have been pondering how we use the Bible the past few days for a couple of reasons.

1. BibleProject has a podcast series that looks at ancient cosmology. One of the key points in the series is looking at how the Biblical account of creation is in dialogue and debate with the other ancient creation myths. 

Many Western Christians, for the past 120 years or so, have used the Bible to provide facts and answers about the beginning of the universe. The problem is that the Bible was not written to answer modern scientific questions. It was written to give God’s people a particular view of the world and to combat the pagan religious views of their neighbors.

Therefore, we shouldn’t expect the Bible to give us definitive answers about the how and when of creation, but we should expect it to give us an understanding about who God is and why He created the world.

2. Preston Sprinkle wrote:

If someone experiences and congruent between their biological sex and their gender, which one determines who they are—and why? What does the Bible say about this question?

That’s the problem. The Bible doesn’t directly ask and answer this question. There’s no verse in, say, Leviticus 28 that says, “If thy gender identity does not match thy biological sex, then thine body is who you really are.” Or whatever. (There is no Leviticus 28, in case you are flipping pages to check.) But the Bible does say quite a few relevant things about human nature and the importance of our biological sex which will position us to cultivate a theologically informed and biblically rooted answer to our question. (Embodied, p. 63)

After doing lots of research, Sprinkle admits that the Bible doesn’t contain the answers to the questions surrounding the transgender conversation. You can’t compile a list of verses that deal specifically with these issues. 

Not only is this true for the transgender conversation, but it is true for many of the questions we have today. Our culture is significantly different from the cultures that the Bible was originally written for. We shouldn’t expect to to have answers to our modern questions.

Since the Bible is God’s gift to His people, we can expect that it will give us a proper perspective to see the world.

It is important to make this shift away from seeing the Bible as an answer book to one that helps us create a Christian worldview.

God did not give us the Bible so we can have all the right answers. 

Rather, He gave us the Bible so we can become the right type of people. 

If we primarily use the Bible to have the right answers, to win arguments, and to point out other people’s sin then we are using the Bible wrong.

The Bible should help form us into the people God created us to be. One of the ways it does that is to create a proper perspective for us to see the world.

Let the Bible form your worldview.

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Dependent on His Word and Blood

God Sanctifies in Truth

Letter to the Editor: The Bible still has a Role

Since I only got two hours of sleep last night and because my thoughts today are centered around the loss of my Grandpa I won't be able to do live blog Wide Awake today.  Instead I want to share with you the letter to the editor that I wrote which was published in the Austin Daily Herald yesterday.  To be fair I will post a link to the the letter I was responding to: Message was OK.


Here is the unedited version of the letter.  The newspaper did make a couple of changes, but nothing of importance.


The Bible Continues to have an Important Role

I am writing in response to Darya Gemmel's May 4 letter to the editor titled, “Message was OK.”

It is crucial for us to remember that a message is greater than its content. The message of a speech is also tied to things like word choice, body language, and tone. All these parts combined form the actual message of Dan Savage's speech: It is okay to bully people who believe “b***s***.”

According to Dan Savage we can ignore the words of the Bible because “the Bible is a radically pro-slavery document,” and “because the Bible got slavery wrong.” While it is true that the Bible makes allowances for slavery, it is hardly pro-slavery. We must remember that the Bible was written within a certain cultural context, and within that context slavery was a normal, acceptable, and some may argue, necessary part of life. As we interpret what the Bible says about slavery we have to keep this social context in mind.

While Dan Savage can conveniently look back on ancient history and pass judgement, he fails to appreciate precisely why he holds the position on slavery that he does. While he might call it “the easiest moral question that humanity has ever faced,” his position is actually the minority position. Not only has slavery been acceptable throughout human history, it is still very acceptable throughout the world. If National Geographic is correct in its September 2003 report then “there are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.” Even today people are getting the “easiest of moral questions” wrong.

Why do so many of us in the Western World get this moral question right? The answer is the Bible. It is true that the Bible outlined rules for the fair treatment of slaves, yet it is also true that the apostle Paul planted the seeds which revolutionized the way people viewed slavery. Commenting on Colossians 4:1 historian and theologian N. T. Wright writes; “Paul does not protest against the institution of slavery. That would be about as useful, for him, as a modern preacher fulminating against the internal combustion engine. His approach is subtler. He has found a fixed point on which to stand, from which to move the world: slaves too are human beings with rights.”

Slowly the world did begin to move. The first sign that these seeds Paul planted were germinating is seen in 379 during Lent when Gregory of Nyssa preached a sermon condemning the institution of slavery. A person will search in vain to find a similar sentiment expressed at that time in the ancient world. It was a slow, especially by our standards, process, but as Christians meditated on the teachings of Christ and the teaching of Paul they began to realize that this culturally acceptable institution was not acceptable to God. Eventually people like William Wilberforce, who were influenced by this vein of Christian thinking, appeared on the scene and fought to end the practice of slavery. This is a fight that continues today.

To say that the Bible got slavery wrong is to ignore the role the Bible played in bringing the Western World to the understanding we have today: that slavery is an immoral practice. We must remember that when handled correctly the Bible continues to play an important role in influencing the morality of people.

Paul Steele, an imperfect disciple
Austin

The Bible is the Life of Prayer

Daily Thought: The Bible and Prayer Go Together

Prayer begets a church-going conscience, a church-loving heart, a church-supporting spirit. It is the praying people, who make it a matter of conscience, to attend the preaching of the Word; who delight in its reading; exposition; who support it with their influence and their means. Prayer exalts the Word of God and gives it preeminence in the estimation of those who faithfully and wholeheartedly call upon the Name of the Lord.

Prayer draws its very life from the Bible, and has no standing ground outside of the warrant of the Scriptures. Its very existence and character is dependent on revelation made by God to man in His holy Word. Prayer, in turn, exalts this same revelation, and turns men toward that Word. The nature, necessity and all-comprehending character of prayer, is based on the Word of God.

E. M. Bounds; The Necessity of Prayer; Logos Bible Software Edition

Daily Thought: There are Bound to be Difficulties with the Bible

Some people are surprised and staggered because there are difficulties in the Bible. For my part, I would be more surprised and staggered if there were not. What is the Bible? It is a revelation of the mind and will and character and being of an infinitely great, perfectly wise and absolutely holy God. God Himself is the Author of this revelation. But to whom is the revelation made? To men, to finite beings who are imperfect in intellectual development and consequently in knowledge, and who are also imperfect in character and consequently in spiritual discernment. The wisest man measured on the scale of eternity is only a babe, and the holiest man compared with God is only an infant in moral development. There must, then, from the very necessities of the case, be difficulties in such a revelation from such a source made to such persons. When the finite try to understand the infinite, there is bound to be difficulty.

R. A. Torrey, Difficulties in the Bible, Logos Bible Software Edition

Video: The Bible and Personal Experience

Daily Thought: The One Best Book

"The Bible is to the intellectual and moral world of man what the sun is to be the planets in our system—the fountain and source of light and life, spiritual and eternal.  There is not a spiritual idea in the whole human race that is not drawn from the Bible.  As soon will the philosopher find an independent sunbeam in nature, as the theologian a spiritual conception in man, independent of The One Best Book."

Alexander Campbell, The Christian System, Gospel Advocate Company (2001), p. 3

Daily Thought: God's Perfect Revelation

"The Bible, or the Old and New Testaments, in Hebrew and Greek, contains a full and perfect revelation of God and his will, adapted to man as he now is.  It speaks of man as he was, and also as he will be hereafter be; but it dwells on man as he is, and as he ought to be, as its peculiar and appropriate theme.  It is not, then, a treatise on man as he was, nor on man as he will be; but on man as he is; and as he ought to be; not as he is physically, astronomically, geologically, politically, or metaphysically; but as he is and ought to be, morally and religiously." ~ Alexander Campbell, The Christian System, p. 3

Daily Thought: Knowing Bible Doctrine

"The importance of knowing Bible doctrine is heightened even more when we realize that the Bible teaches truth not just about sin and salvation but about God, man, and the universe as a whole.  The Bible presents a total world and life view, a comprehensive interpretation of everything that exists.  All decisions and all deeds, directly or indirectly are related to what the Bible teaches, and should be determined by it." ~ Jack Cottrell, Solid, p. 100

Sunday Quote: The Purpose of the Bible

"The Bible is there to enable God's people to be equipped to do God's work in God's world, not to give them an excuse to sit back smugly, knowing they possess all God's truth." ~ N. T. Wright, Simply Christian, p. 184

Discover the Value of the Bible

Stop and ponder for a moment this question: If God wants us to do His will would He make it difficult to discover?  It is my belief that we miss out on God’s will, not because He has withheld it from us, but because we desperately want Him to bless our agenda.  Rather than going to His Word to discover and align our lives to His Will we plead with God to align Himself with our will.  We especially do this when our agenda seems to be so good.

I want you to consider what Henry and Richard Blackaby wrote in Hearing God’s Voice:

Many people underestimate God’s Word.  It is far more powerful than many realize.  From Genesis to Revelation God’s Word has the power to speak directly to a person’s heart.  By the Holy Spirit, God takes his written Word and applies it specifically to people’s lives...The Bible is not merely one option for discovering God’s will.  God’s written Word is the plumb line for our lives as we walk daily with him (p. 91).

If we hope to discover God’s will then the starting point will be the Bible.  Too many of us start within ourselves: our dreams and our desires.  The result is that we are led astray from what God truly expects from our lives, as we pursue the life that we want.  You see it is easier to live our lives based on our emotions and desires rather than to discipline ourselves to the study and obedience of God’s Word.  We would rather spend a few moments of self-reflection than doing an hour’s worth of studying the Bible.  Yet, it is the Bible that provides us the foundation we need for knowing and doing God’s will.

You and I can spend the rest of our lives aligning them to the truth we find in Scripture.  God doesn’t need to get anymore specific, and He certainly doesn’t need to get any clearer.  The Bible, being the very words of God, give us what we so long to have: the knowledge of God’s will.

Since the Bible is God’s Word and since it is the source of His will that means we need to make two commitments when it comes to the Bible.  If we do not make these commitments then the Bible will not have any value to us.  That is precisely why these commitments are so important to make.

The first commitment is to commit to knowing the Bible.  The author of Hebrews wrote; For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12; ESV).  The Bible, which is God’s Word, has the ability to get to the heart of the matter, if we take the time to really get to know what it says.  I fear that too many people miss the power of Scripture because they are so intent on reading the Bible they don’t take the time to study or meditate on God’s Word. 

While I want to urge you to read the Bible, I also want to challenge you to do three things.  First, I want to challenge you to submit yourself to the teaching of solid Bible teachers.  This is one of the reasons it is valuable to be part of a good Bible teaching Church, but in our day and age we can put ourselves under the teaching of people who teach the Bible on a daily basis.  Find good books written by sound teachers and find podcasts by teachers who correctly handle the word of God so that you can benefit from their study and insight.  A second activity I would challenge you to do is to meditate on Scripture.  When a passage jumps up at you take the time to think about the passage, pray and ask God about it, and then jot your thoughts down in a journal or the margin of your Bible.  The third activity I urge you to adopt is to memorize Scripture.  Memorization is the best way I know to get God’s Word into our hearts and minds so that it is able to constantly inform the way that we live.

The second commitment that we need to make is that we need to commit to applying Scripture to our lives.  I like the illustration James uses for this truth:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1:22-25; ESV).

Knowing the Bible does us little good if we are not committed to aligning our lives to the truth we discover on its pages.  How are we able to do that?  The only way I know how to do this consistently is to be part of a community or a fellowship which challenges and encourages our spiritual growth.  This begins with being part of a good church, but it also includes have a close group of friends who are committed to following Christ Jesus.  Our dearest and closest friends need to be Christians who are committed to doing whatever it takes to follow Jesus.  Another essential thing we can do is develop a plan that leads to change.  We need to think about how to pray and ask for God’s assistance, we need to know the steps to take to cut sin out of our lives, and we need to know who we can turn to for support and encourage as step out in obedience.  Without a plan, that is based on God’s Word, we will not be able to align our lives to God’s will.  We need to be intentional about obedience otherwise our obedience will be spotty at best.

The Bible is valuable to our lives because it is God’s Word.  If we hope to live a life that honors and glorifies Him then we must make the Bible a big part of our lives.  It must become the source that informs the way we live our lives.  That mean means we have to know it and we have to obey it.  When we make those two commitments we will discover that the Bible is indeed the precious Word of God.

Continue to Follow

One of the tragedies of life is watching a person who has so much potential throw their life away for something that is meaningless. We see this happen over and over again in sports and other entertainment, but it is no less tragic when a person gifted with intelligence or compassion waste their life by neglecting their talent.

Having been around "church" my entire life, and having gone to a Christian College (whose purpose it is to produce pastors) I have to say that it is very tragic to watch people walk away from the Faith. I think the apostle Paul hated to see this happen too, and so he wrote to the Colossians:

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness (Colossians 2:6-7; NLT).

The world is too seductive not to be intentional about following Jesus. How do we do that? Paul says that we are to let our roots grow down into Jesus. That happens when we devote ourselves to God's Word, which requires doing as well as hearing, and when we prayer. The prayer that must be on our lips more than any other is the variation of, "Your kingdom come, You will be done." Again, for Christ's will to be done it requires our obedience.

It is my belief that the more we obey Christ, the more we know Christ, and the more we know Christ the stronger our faith will be. Our faith will grow stronger because it will be based on experience as well as on belief.

"Anyone can attend church. Only truly devoted followers of Jesus can
change the world." - Aaron Brockett

Sent from my iPod

The Very Words of God

{Revelation 2:18-29; ESV}

“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

“‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The Christians in Thyatira desperately needed a word from God. They lived in a city that claimed to have a word from God. According to William Barclay:

The only notable thing about Thyatira from a religious point of view was that it possessed a fortune-telling shrine, presided over by a female oracle called the Sambathē. (Daily Study Bible Series: Revelation of John 1; p. 101)

People would travel many miles to Thyatira was to get guidance for their lives. They believed that the Sambathē could give them a word from a god. This is why I find the opening verse of Christ’s letter to the Christians at Thyatira so interesting: The words of the Son of God. While others would travel great distances to receive a word from god, the Christians at Thyatira received a word from the Son of God right where they lived. They didn’t have to go anywhere, Jesus, the Son of God, was aware of what was happening and He sent them a the word that they needed to hear.

Another reason this is interesting is because the problem these Christians were facing was a false prophetess. A prophet or prophetess, like an oracle, brings a word from God to the people. This false prophetess, given the title of Jezebel by Christ Jesus, claimed to be giving the people a word from God, but she was really deceiving them with a lie from Satan.

There were two sources available to these Christians where they could get a word from God, and both of them were false. Not everything that claims to be from God is really from God. We have to be aware of what we allow to influence our lives. I think too often we allow ourselves to be guided by the wisdom of the world, by cool spiritual thinking, and by our changing emotions rather than by God’s Word, and the result is Christians who are deceived and live no differently from the world.

Not only did Jesus send this letter to the Christians in Thyatira, but He urged them to hold fast to what they had. What did they have? They had their faith which was informed by Old Testament Scripture and the apostles’ teachings. In other words they need to rely on what they had already been given.

While we might not receive a personal letter from Christ Jesus, that doesn’t mean we can’t receive a Word from God. The Bible contains the truth that God wants us to know. We have to make it a part of our lives. It is amazing that we live in a time when we have numerous different translations of the Bible and abundant study resources, but we are ignorant of what the Bible really says and how it applies to our lives. We might proclaim that the Bible is God’s Word, but we don’t live like it is. The majority of people we worship with on Sundays are lucky to crack the cover of their Bibles once during the week. How can we claim to follow Jesus if we don’t take the time to let Him guide our lives?

As we become more familiar with the Bible, we need to allow the Holy Spirit guide our lives. He while help us apply what we have learned for God’s written word. Through the working of the Holy Spirit we are able to receive a word of God that applies directly to our lives.

The churches in the United States are in desperate need of a Word from God. It is time that we open up our Bibles and read the very words of God. We are without excuse, so make sure you do it.

• Point to Ponder: The Bible contains the very words of God.
• Passage to Remember: Revelation 2:18-29
• Prayer to Pray: Lord God, Thank You for revealing Yourself to me. Remind me of the importance of reading Your Word everyday and help me make it a priority in my life.

What Matters is What God Has Revealed

Over the weekend I followed a discussion about the humanity of Jesus on Scot McKnight's blog Jesus Creed. The discussion began with Scot recommending a book that focused on the human side of Jesus. The fact that Jesus was man who lived at a specific time in history is something that is very important for us who follow Him, for it is His example, how He lived, that helps provides direction for our lives (as well as His teaching and the teachings of His disciples which make up the New Testament).

As I read through the comments that formed the discussion two things bothered me. The first thing that bothered me was the declaration of a couple of the commentators that most Christians don't think about the humanity of Jesus. We love to make blanket statements, especially if we can escape being covered by them. These type of comments imply that because we do contemplate the humanity of Jesus we are better than other people. Besides that how do we know people don't think about it? It is impossible to read the Gospels and not get the sense that Jesus was indeed a man. I think what most people have trouble with, and the reason it maybe isn't talked about, is because it is hard to contemplate the humanity and divinity of Jesus. I don't know about you, but that is something I continue to wrestle with (not that I don't believe it, but how is it possible and what does it mean).

But what really got me thinking was this comment:

Bob, “Did Jesus curse like a Phoenician sailor when he smashed his thumb with a hammer? Did Jesus have eyes for the ladies? For the men? Boxers or briefs?”

Are you being sarcastic? Because I think these are legitimate questions. Maybe not boxers or briefs (he wore a seamless garment, right?), but certainly the way Jesus dealt with sexuality, anger, and pain should teach us a lot with how we are to deal with those things. (Comment #9)

The reason why this statement bothered me is because it implies that we don't have information to really follow Jesus. As I have pondered this statement this is the question I kept coming back to: "What would Jesus struggle, or lack of struggle, teach me about sexuality that I don't already know?" Part of the fallacy of this thinking is that because Jesus was a guy and I am a guy then He struggled with the same things that I struggle with. We don't know if Jesus struggled with his sexuality, the Bible doesn't tell us, and therefore it isn't very relevant as we follow Jesus. What is relevant is His teaching on the subject. Maybe if we spent more time studying and meditating on His teachings His humanity wouldn't seem to be the missing piece of the puzzle.

What is more valuable than knowing more about Jesus' humanity? I think there are two realities that are more valuable to our lives as disciples than knowing more about Jesus' humanity.

The first reality is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Think about what Jesus said the night He was betrayed concerning the Holy Spirit: "However, I am telling you the truth. It is for your advantage that I am going away, for if I do not go away the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7; ISV). Jesus said it was for the disciples benefit that He leave and the Holy Spirit comes. I realize there are a couple of layers to what Jesus is saying here, but one thing is that Holy Spirit in our hearts is more important to our spiritual maturity than Jesus continued physical presence on the earth. Spiritual maturity isn't the result of observing how Jesus handled His life in the flesh, but it is about listening to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will teach us the truth that we need to grow.

The second reality is when the New Testament writers wanted to encourage people they pointed the struggling people to the Glorified Christ. Hebrews 12:2 is such an example:.. looking off to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of the faith, who, in view of the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (ISV). When we are going through struggles we need to have hope. That is what focusing on the Risen Christ gives us. It reminds us that although this life is a struggle there is something better that awaits us.

In our journey of faith, as we follow Jesus, we shouldn't be distracted by things God hasn't revealed to us, such as the questions we have about Jesus' humanity, but instead we should focus on what we do have: the leading of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Risen Savior.

Christ-Centered

Introduction to the Restoration Ideal #13

The founders of the Restoration Movement emphasized the importance of the Bible. For them the Bible was what guided and informed their faith. The reason they put that importance on the Bible because they believed that the Bible was indeed the written word of God.

What this means is that the Bible is Christ-centered. Marshall Leggett writes;

“The entire Bible is about Christ, as He is the culmination of God’s plan to bring men back to Him. But this in now way diminishes the importance of the Scripture. On the contrary, it reinforces its necessity. How could one have knowledge of Christ without the written Word that contains it? How could one know His love and will without ‘vehicles’ that carry that message? It would be like having music without notes and mathematics without numbers.” (p. 50)

It is though the Bible that we understand what God is doing. How else could we know about a single Jewish preacher in the first century, let alone the meaning of His death, or His resurrection. Only the Bible gives us what we need to know so we can put our faith in Christ Jesus.

Insight Into The Mystery

Introduction to the Restoration Ideal #12

The principle of the Bible being the only rule of faith and practice for a Christian is, to me, the fundamental principle of the Restoration Movement. I think all the other principles are an extension of this one. While we might not (will not) agree with how to interpret the Bible, I think it is where we can find the unity Christ’s Body (the Church) needs.

In chapter 6 of Introduction to the Restoration Ideal, Marshall Leggett summarizes the importance of the Bible. Leggett writes:

“God solved a dilemma with the Bible. He wanted to reveal those musterions hidden in His heart. Musterion is the Greek word in the New Testament often translated as ‘mystery.’ However, it does not mean a mystery in the sense of a puzzle or a riddle. Instead, it refers to that which is hidden from finite understanding, beyond the range of natural apprehension. It would be a truth man’s mind could never conceive without Divine help.” (p. 47)

In other words, without the Bible, we could never accurately know who God is. We could get some idea that God exists, but His character, love, purpose, and plan would allude us. Instead of worshipping God, the Trinity, who would worship created things: things we can see or the evil spiritual forces that we can’t see. The Bible is important, because it reveals to us, in the best terms that we can understand, who God is and how He wants us to live.

As a Christian, I can never hold on to an idea of who God is, that is not supported by His word. The Bible is what I know God has revealed about Himself, the rest is just conjecture. It is for this reason that we need to be on our guard against people who dismiss or misuse the Bible. The best way for us to be on guard against such people, Satan being the number one abuser, is to familiarize ourselves with what the Bible says. If we are students of Scripture, then we will be less likely to be led astray. If we only have a casual understanding of the Bible then we will be pulled this way and that by people who sound like they know the truth.

The follower of Christ Jesus has a responsibility to be familiar with the Bible. Only the Bible offers us the words of truth that we need to have a solid foundation for our faith in God. The Bible opens up the mystery of God so we can understand who He is and how He wants us to live.

Thomas Campbell

Introduction of the Restoration Ideal #11

Returning to Marshall Leggett’s work Introduction to the Restoration Ideal we find ourselves in chapter 5, which is a short biography of Thomas Campbell. If you are interested in reading about the life of Thomas Campbell you can do so here.

The main contribution that Leggett says Thomas Campbell offered to the movement to restore the Church to the New Testament model is emphasis on the Bible as God’s Word. Thomas Campbell would say, “Persons can be Christians only if they would but follow the Bible only.” (p. 45)

In my mind that raises a very important question: How can we follow the Bible only? Again we have to remember the context of this statement. Thomas Campbell came from a time when there were deep divisions between between Christians. This mainly fell among denominational lines, and each wrote a creed or a confession that would emphasis their difference from other groups. So the main thought here is that Christians need to follow the Bible before they followed the creeds and confessions.

I think where this becomes very important for us today, in a Christian culture that isn’t creed based, but in a sense personality based, is to measure what we are taught and read against the truth of Scripture. Too many people pick a preacher or teacher they like, and they hang on their every word. When we do this our faith is based more on what these preachers and teachers say than it is on our personal knowledge of Scripture.

There are many good preachers and teachers out there who seek to be true to the Word of God, but we can’t build our faith on their good intentions. Remember the Bereans of Acts 17? They were commended because they searched the Old Testament Scriptures to make sure what the apostle Paul, the man who wrote much of the New Testament, said was true. Their faith wasn’t based on the personality of Paul, but the desire to know God’s truth. We can only know God’s truth when we are familiar with God’s word, the Bible.