Reasonable Belief in the Bible?

How we are supposed to reasonably know that the Bible is what it claims to be (the true Word of God)?

I start first by saying that we must use inductive reasoning, the idea that we cannot PROVE a conclusion but we can have highly probable support for a conclusion (same as used in science; but our conclusion here is that the Bible is the inspired Word of God), to decide whether or not something is truly what it claims to be.

I will give a brief summary of a few reasons that give credit to the Bible being accurate.

The Bible, like many other Holy books, claims to be the "Word (s) of God."

Now, what do we do with this information?

What we must do is look at the evidence that gives credit to the source being truly what it says it is. First, we will start with the historical evidence. The Bible is the most accurate historical book in all of creation. Don't believe me? Then you should do the research on your own and you will find out that it is. All of the historical kings, geographic locations, detail given to precise architectures (see: Pool at Bethesda John 5:1-2), etc. correlate with history exactly as we know it without ever reading the Bible. You believe that Alexander the Great was who he was because of what the history books tell you. The interesting thought about this is the fact that we don't have nearly the amount of ancient documents about Alexander the Great as we do with the Bible (roughly 5,000 ancient texts). No other Holy book is this historically accurate. In fact, most other holy books are full of contradictions, scientific errors, and historical inaccuracies (I exhort you to look into this also). This is the first step in adding credit to a source, does the belief correspond to the facts.

The second thing we can look at is what the Bible claims about itself. The bible claims that in it there are predictive prophecies that have come true. The idea of predictive prophecy is that God, before the event ever happened, said that some event would come to pass. The bible is unlike any other holy book in this area. There are countless predictive prophecies that have come to pass in actual history! We can look to these to give credit to the Bible as well. I urge you to see below, as I will give two predictive prophecies that have come to be true in history.

The first is in the Old Testament, the book of Daniel chapter 9 verses 20-27 (Daniel 9:20-27) (see the link attached)

http://kylebarrington.blogspot.com/2010/12/daniel-9.html

The second I will explain right here; in Ezekiel 37, a book written thousands of years ago, God, through Ezekiel, predicted an event that actually occurred within this past century. Chapter 37 gives this metaphor of dry bones coming together after being completely broken apart in a valley; bones were scattered everywhere. At the end of the prophecy, God explains to Ezekiel that this prophecy was the regathering of the nation of Israel into its homeland.

In 1948 Israel regathered as a nation in their homeland of Jerusalem under the cultural and religious distinction of the Jews. Never has this been seen in all of history; a nation dispersed completely across the entire world that came back to its homeland, its home city, and became once again unified together under the same cultural and religious background in which it was founded. The bible predicted this thousands of years before it came to pass. People thought this was absurd, that this was some sort of fluke in scripture, the supposed "Word of God." When it came to pass in 1948, the prophecy that the bible claims to be written by God Himself actually was fulfilled (see: history). No other holy book has ever had prophecies that have come true like these two. Never in all of humanity has anyone been able to predict the future exactly like the God of the Bible.

This evidence gives us a probability that the Bible is what it claims to be more than any other holy book, actually any other book, in existence.

This is what converted me from atheism to a believer in the most glorious thing that exists, the one true God.

* For further reading on this topic (belief in God, the Bible, and Jesus Christ) see; The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig, Reason for God by Tim Keller, Christianity: The Faith that Makes Sense by Dennis McCallum.

1 Thessalonians 2 Commentary

- Vs. 1-2 Paul, Silas and Timothy went to the church in Thessalonica.

o Their visit did bear fruit

o They were persecuted in Philippi and most likely timid about sharing the gospel with the Thessalonians, as implied in verse 2, but with the help of God they still went out and preached the gospel, even though they were being persecuted.

- Vs. 3 the gospel is not false and is not being shared with them because Paul, Silas and Timothy want some sort of personal gain.

o Along with this, they aren’t trying to speak in a way that would trick the Thessalonians to believe something that they didn’t want to believe and that, ultimately, was false.

- Vs. 4-6 Paul is showing here what authority he calls upon to be able to speak such an offensive message. He says that their authority is from God because God chose (or approved) them for this work

o They are sharing this message knowing that the God of the universe is watching over them.

o They don’t speak in such a way that men would be pleased, for this message is not based around the wants of man, but rather the needs of man. This pleases God because, as stated above, God has entrusted this task to these three.

o They were not trying to seek personal gain with monetary things here either. As Paul would have known, a noble goal is usually preached when someone wants some sort of monetary gain from someone else. This was not what Paul, Silas and Timothy were doing.

o They were also refraining from demanding from the Thessalonians. Paul’s love and acceptance came from Christ and when he went to the Thessalonians he went to give out, not to receive.

o As an apostle, he could have asked for money, food, water, etc. but they did not do that.

- Vs. 7-9 The three did not come to take, as stated above, but to give out. They did this by being gentle among the Thessalonians. They cared for and loved the Thessalonians so much that they spent their time ministering and working so that they could live among the Thessalonians. In verse 6 Paul says “even though we could have asserted our authority,” what he is talking about here is explained by verse 9, they could have asked for money and all of the material essentials, but because they loved the Thessalonians so much they chose to work for everything themselves and not ask for anything.

o This was difficult for the three, they considered this hardship.

- Vs. 10-12 Just like a father and son relationship, Paul loved, cared for, encouraged and showed the Thessalonians what it is like to live a life that is truly devoted to Jesus.

o There seems to be an implication of one on one mentoring here in verse 11.

o The life that Paul is encouraging the Thessalonians to live is not based on something material, but based on the gift that the believers in Thessalonica have received; they are called into His kingdom and His glory.

- Vs. 13 The three are praying for the Thessalonians; continually thanking God for how they understood that they weren’t preaching a message that mere man made up, but one that the God of the universe has spoken and called them out to preach.

o The Word of God that was spoken to the Thessalonians did not come to them without power, but it is actually at work inside of those who have believed. As Paul writes in Philippians 1:6 “And He, who began a good work in you, will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

- Vs. 14-16 The church in Thessalonica truly began living their lives for Christ and His kingdom. They not only received the Word, but they began acting on what is called on them to do by that very same Word.

o They suffered at the hands of their own people, but continued to persevere.

o They looked to those who were truly living out their faith, the churches in Judea, and became imitators of them. This is similar to what Paul said in chapter 1 when he said that you have “become imitators of us.” As they became imitators of true Christian churches they became imitators of Jesus Christ himself, as we should be according to Philippians 2:5

o Those who persecuted the true believers in Judea are not right with God and are not only waging conflict with the believers, but with everyone so that they could somehow try to stop the gospel from being preached. The churches in Judea suffered persecution from the Jews; their own people who killed Christ. The Thessalonians have undergone the same type of persecution

o The ones persecuting the Thessalonians and the churches in Judea similarly, have caused great distress among the people. Nothing displeases God more than to see the gospel being hindered and the salvation of souls being halted by a road block.

- Vs. 17-20 Paul, Silas, and Timothy wanted to come back to see the Thessalonians, but they were separated from them. Although they were separate, Paul writes that the Thessalonians were still in his thoughts and that the three longed to see the Thessalonians. Paul even attempted many times to go see them.

o Couldn’t make it to see them because Satan blocked his way.

§ Paul was a great leader and could have offered a lot of insight to the Thessalonians and, as we see in ch.3, he could have strengthened their faith if it was necessary.

§ This relates contextually to Paul talking about how he was afraid that the Thessalonians had been carried away by the tempter (Satan) (ch. 3:1-5)

· Paul was most likely afraid that Satan was blocking his way so that he (Satan) could overtake the Thessalonians through temptation

o The church in Thessalonica is what will be Paul’s glory in the time of Christ’s coming.

§ Material things do not matter; what matters are the souls who are saved and offer themselves as living and holy sacrifices to Christ.

· These things are eternal; and Paul, Silas and Timothy are directly linked to this church because they started it. This will be part of their reward in heaven