I was talking with my buddy Jon the other day. We were talking about the authority of scripture. We were reading a book by Wayne Grudem that made a few "presuppositions." They were that the Bible is inerrant, and the the God of the Bible is real and exists as described in the Bible. We both felt like these were pretty big presuppositions if you were to talk about this topic with a non-believer.He asked me how I would explain to a non-believer that the Bible is in fact The Word of God and is inerrant. This question caught me a little off guard. I really want to have great answers to questions like this, but really feel like I'm so new to scripture and Christian theology that I stumble when faced with tough questions.
I told him that I believe this questions goes back to my faith. There are a lot of stories out there about how this all came to be; about creation. There are different ideas of how people came to be moral beings, if they did at all. I didn't claim to know all the different stories out there, but as my friend Tim Johnson said, "The story of the Bible makes the most sense." Tim was explaining to a Systematic Theology class how he "knows" God exists. He said that he can't prove to anyone that God exists. He can point to creation/nature, the complexity and beauty of human beings and the human mind, but those things don't prove anything. Ultimately, it came down to what stories made the most sense. This idea really hit home for me, as I spent 30+ years trying to fill a hole inside of me. I spent this time trying to gain acceptance or status in the world around me. It wasn't until February of '07 that I realized that the only "thing" that could fill this void was Jesus. Like a ton of bricks, it all made sense. This is the story that makes sense.
Now this story doesn't prove anything. This is just the story of my faith. And what does this have to do with the authority of the Bible? Well, I believe in the God of the Bible, and therefore, believe in the Bible. So, to me, it's not a gross assumption to say that the Bible is God's word, and is in fact inerrant. As Grudem says, the Bible is God's authority, it is clear to those who choose to hear what it says, it is necessary, and it is sufficient for all who are open to hear it's teaching.
We all have a theology. Some may have a theology where there is no God. Some may believe in a "being", but that everyone's being is up to them...there is no one God. I believe in the God of the Bible. I believe that if you run with all the other "stories" long enough, they don't work. They end up coming to a dead end (no pun intended, but it's so true...) I would love to talk more about your faith. Please share...
more to come...
