The Triunity Report

The Bible

Interpretation

• I tried to read the Bible, but I can't seem to understand what it is saying?
• Why do some people try Christianity and leave?

The Jews- -God's Chosen People

• What is God's relationship with the Hebrew people?

Prophecies

• Where are God's miracles today?

The Reliability of the Scriptures

• Apparent contradiction in the Old and New Testament treatment of an "eye for and eye"
• Is the Bible the only source of truth?
• Where did Cain get his wife?
• How can the Bible be trusted if it contains scientific errors?
• How reliable is the Bible?
• Did God or man write the Bible? Part 1
• Did God or man write the Bible? Part 2

I tried to read the Bible, but I can't seem to understand what it is saying?

First, I'd like to comment that the Bible compared to the other holy books of the world is remarkably simple, with prose that is direct and specific, and with poetry that is more musical and informative than symbolic and esoteric.

Sometimes difficulty comes from our starting in the middle, or getting bogged down on one tough point. The Bible is meant to be read in its entirety. Many Bible authors assumed that the reader would be familiar with the works of other Bible authors.

Just as we will never learn everything there is to know about the world of nature that God has created, so too, we will never learn all there is to know about the Bible, the book God has inspired. God is infinite. We are finite.

But, the good news is that the Bible clearly reveals the information that is important for us to know, both for our life and relationships here and now, and for the eternity to come.

If you would like to learn more about the Bible's most important message,write:

Why do some people try Christianity and leave?

Radio Spot

Have you ever run into someone who said he tried Christianity but it didn't work? There can be several reasons for this. One is that a person may want magic rather than God. I'll talk about this issue another time. A more specific problem might be that the person wants to hold onto a grudge.

It won't work. Jesus said that we receive God's forgiveness to the extent that we are willing to extend forgiveness to others. In the New Testament book of Ephesians, God gives us instructions on how to be set free from bitterness. First, we must name names, identify who and what hurt us. We must let ourselves feel that pain and say what we needed and wanted instead of what we got. Then, with God's help, we can gain the ability to look beyond people's faults and failings in order to see the unmet needs in them that gave rise to the faults.

Having developed this new perspective, we can become tenderhearted, compassionate. We can become more realistic in our expectations of those who wounded us, and we can let go of the need to change them or to take vengeance on them for the way they hurt us. Then, we can experience the freedom that comes from forgiving and being forgiven. God doesn't ask us to go through this process without help. All He asks is that we become willing.

If you would like to learn more about building a relationship with God through deliverance from bitterness, write:

What is God's relationship with the Hebrew people?

Radio Spot

Does God play favorites? Is God a Zionist because He has been supernaturally assisting the Jews? In Ezekiel's prophecy, chapter 36, we are told, and I quote "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations … The nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes." In other words, God is performing miracles today in and around Israel not as a favor to the Jews, but as a testimony to the truth of His word, and not to gain the attention of the Jews but to gain the attention of the entire world.

Further proof can be seen in events between Israel and her Arab neighbors since 1948. Whenever the Arabs sought to move beyond what God had predicted, they were struck down by God's miraculous intervention. And, so were the Jews. In both 1948 and 1973 the Jews found themselves miraculously prevented from achieving certain military objectives— objectives clearly beyond what God, through His prophets, had predicted.

Where are God's miracles today?

Radio Spot

When I first read the Bible, I was envious of the ancient Israelites. They saw such mighty works of God as Moses parting the Red Sea and David defeating Goliath. Where are the mighty works of God now, I wondered?

Fortunately, I continued reading the Bible, and as I did I discovered many interesting predictions. More than 200 concerned the rebirth of Israel as a nation. I read in Ezekiel how Israel would be born at a time when other nations would declare the Jewish national movement finished, dead, as response to their seeing huge valleys filled with the bones of Jews. In the Psalms, King David prophesied that the key battles for founding this new nation would be fought by those who had once been sentenced to death. In Jeremiah I read how Jerusalem for the first time would expand outside the city walls with nine new suburbs, names and locations specified.

Microfilms of newspapers printed in my lifetime confirmed to me that everything the Bible predicted about this second rebirth of Israel had come true. No longer could I view the Bible as archaic. It was up to the minute, speaking personally to me, giving me and my generation solid proofs of God's ongoing activity.

Apparent contradiction in the Old and New Testament treatment of an "eye for and eye"

Radio Spot

Skeptics often claim that the Bible contains contradictions. When pressed for an example, it's not uncommon for them to quote an "eye for an eye" from the Old Testament in contrast with Jesus' words in the gospels to "turn the other cheek." Are the skeptics right, or are they failing to examine the Biblical context?

In declaring an "eye for an eye," Moses in Deuteronomy 19 speaks about the responsibility of the government to punish false witnesses. Whatever court penalty intended for the accused victim is to be meted out to the false witness. In saying "turn the other cheek" Jesus in Luke 6 states that an individual is not to strike back when persecuted or personally insulted by another, but rather to return good. "Do good to those who hate you," Jesus says in the same paragraph.

Not only is there no contradiction, but the Bible, Old and New Testament, is consistent both on its teachings about the exercise of justice by governments and about the exercise of love and forbearance by individuals.

For answers to other questions pertaining to faith in the scriptures, write:

Is the Bible the only source of truth?

Radio Spot

Have your friends ever reacted to your belief that the Bible is the only book of Truth? You may be glad to hear that your belief has a basis in scientific fact. In this decade, astronomers and physicists have proven that the universe— and even time itself— has a beginning. And that beginning requires a Creator who exists beyond our dimensions of space and time.

In addition to this significant discovery, astronomers have gone on to show that the Creator is personal. They have shown it in this way: more than thirty design features of the universe and of planet earth reveal an incredibly sensitive fine tuning. It is now more obvious than ever that God specially shaped and prepared the universe, and the earth, for mankind.

Of all the writings forming the basis for the different religions of the world, only one, the Bible, agrees with these on-going scientific breakthroughs. We live in a day when findings every year at the frontiers of research in astronomy, physics, and other fields, simply multiply the weight of evidence for the unique and supernatural accuracy of the Bible.

Where did Cain get his wife?

Radio Spot

Have you ever been asked where Cain got his wife, plus all the people to build and occupy his city? The truth is that people really did live to be about 900 years old. This fact is supported in writings other than the Bible. Furthermore, in the last ten years, scientific evidence has arisen on the effects of the Vela supernova to explain how these long life spans may have been possible.

Given the 900 year life spans, a reproductive rate of one child every five years per couple, and a reproductive period of 600 years per couple, there could have been 6000 people on the earth by the time Adam reached age 350. By his 900th birthday there could have been 4.5 billion. Hence, Cain would have had no problem finding a wife or people to populate his city. Obviously, Cain or one of his brothers must have married a sister.

This union is not a problem genetically, since genetic weaknesses from intermarriage would not appear until after several generations. Neither is it a problem morally, for the command against marrying close relatives did not appear until the days of Moses. Abraham, you may recall, was married to his half-sister.

To contact Reasons To Believe, send us an email or write:

How can the Bible be trusted if it contains scientific errors?

Radio Spot

If the Bible includes scientific errors, either God is not totally knowledgeable about the universe and the earth, or the Bible is not the word of God. As a skeptical unbeliever and physics student, I studied the Bible daily for two years looking for a provable scientific error. I could not find a single one. No on else has either.

Rather, the Bible is filled with correctly stated scientific facts far in advance of the discoveries that established them as true. The laws of thermodynamics are correctly given; so is the water cycle, also the shape of the earth, the order of creation events, and certain laws of health and sanitation, to name just a few. These scientific forecasts are presented so specifically that the odds of their being merely coincidental are astronomically small. Thus, they constitute powerful proof that the Bible is indeed the inspired, inerrant word of God.

To contact Reasons To Believe, send us an email or write:

How reliable is the Bible?

Radio Spot

When you walk out your front door on a warm summer morning, do you worry about your blood turning to ice in your veins? I doubt it. My guess is that you've never thought for a moment about that prospect even though it is a mathematical possibility. You don't have to think about it because the laws of heat and motion are so reliable, and that possibility is very remote. The laws of thermodynamics are so dependable that we easily, in fact reasonably, take them for granted. Did you know that it's possible to demonstrate to your skeptical friends that the Bible is every bit as reliable as those laws.

Simply on the basis of fulfilled prophecies and accurately forecasted scientific discoveries, we can show that the Bible is a surer bet than those laws of heat and motion on which we daily gamble our lives. If you wonder how I can make such a bold claim, please put me to the test.

To contact Reasons To Believe, send us an email or write:

Did God or man write the Bible? Part 1

Radio Spot

How can we tell whether God or mere men were responsible for the Bible or for any other book of "holy writ." One way is to examine the perspective. Men will write from their own limited point of view. It is reasonable to expect that God, on the other hand, would communicate to us from a perspective that goes beyond our limited frame of reference.

Man's finite universe is limited to the four dimensions of length, width, height, and time. No wonder, then, that a man- invented religion will confine God and God's interaction with man to these four dimensions. But, since God the Creator must live beyond these four He created, a message truly from Him will reveal His perspective from extra dimensions. In this respect, among others, the Bible is unique.

The Bible alone contains descriptions of an entirely self-consistent, yet extra-dimensional reality, such as the beginning of space and time, God's operations before time began, and God as one, two, and three persons simultaneously. The Bible alone teaches such doctrines as the simultaneity of free-choice and predetermination. For these and many other reasons, it is sensible to conclude that the Bible alone is the written word of God to man.

Did God or man write the Bible? Part 2

Radio Spot

How can we tell whether God or men were responsible for the Bible? One way is to examine its accuracy. We can expect that men make mistakes, but that God never does. Even our most carefully composed textbooks contain some imperfections.

The Bible, by contrast, shows itself to be perfect— perfect in its consistency, free of internal contradictions, and accurate in its statements about history and the natural world. The Bible writers even dared to predict future events and future discoveries of science. They did so not just a few times, but more than three thousand times, and with a degree of specificity found in no other document.

In its predictions, the Bible gives peoples' names, geographical places, dates, and descriptions of events hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years in advance. In statements about nature, such things as the water cycle, the shape of the earth, the rules of health, and the origin of the universe, the Bible again reaches hundreds even thousands of years ahead. And the Bible has never been wrong. I urge you to check it out for yourself.

If you would like to learn more about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the mystery of the gospel, click here for Dr. Hugh Ross's paper The Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

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