Is it OK with Jesus for
us to believe him (and believe in him); and also have severe doubt about the
bible being "OKed" by 1.Him 2. the Holy Spirit 3. or God?
Great question! (But that seems to be the only kind I get around this wonderful
website!..I am blessed!). My short answer is "yes," but of course I cannot leave
it at that! The question, though phrased to expect a "yes" or "no" checkmark, is
deep and layered enough to require a more qualified and nuanced response. So
don't turn off the sermon yet! It's "yes..and yet" answer, for sure.
By the way (and this goes for all questioners on this website), if I have not
really addressed your underlying concerns, let me know; I'd love to address
them, or attempt to; so feel free to send me ..and maybe stump me with..some
"questions behind the question."
So again, it is "OK" with Jesus, but Jesus is dying to (actually "died
to"...literally) help folks see that the Bible is not only "OK"ed by him and His
Father and Spirit (it was a joint endorsement), but God's unique and necessary
written word and revelation ,and therefore something that we should not live or
navigate life without. It is "OK" with him in the sense that he is thrilled we
are even considering reading it/actually reading it/exploring questions of its
origin and purpose, because He of all people knows the untold gold we inherit as
we read it in such a way that it is our Lifeline and plumbline. And he knows
that the more we read it, even with an honest uncertainty(might as well be
honest..too and the church hasn't always allowed that), we are drawing closer to
grasping it and finding it real. To apply the old cliche about "Jesus loves you
just the way you are, but too much to leave you that way," aimed towards this
current question, it becomes, "Yes, it's OK with Jesus for you to believe him
(and believe in Him),and have severe doubt about the Bible being OKed by Him,
the Holy Spirit and God...but he loves you so much that he will go out of his
way to lead you to the inevitable conclusion of that belief (if it is pursued
with prayer and honest inquiry) that the Bible does have the Trinity's blessing
behind it.
Of course, questions arise. If the "us" you are speaking of is yourself, I would
be sure your "severe doubts" are not actually about one person's/one tradition's
INTERPRETATION of the Bible. I have severe doubts about many groups' spin on
Scripture. So clearly we need to whittle down to what is the Bible, and what
does it actually say and mean. This may sound all too obvious, and something
that should go without saying, but I think the issue is potentially huge. Many
have doubted or discounted the Divine inspiration and breathing of Scripture
because they have been taught that the Word says or implies something that it
does not (women must always wear their hair in a bun, we have to dress a certain
way to please God, we have to keep tons of commandments to keep God happy or us
saved, wives are to blindly submit to husbands even when they are abusive, etc.
etc.). Even the most seasoned and studied Christians sometimes assume the script
of Scripture says something even antithetical to what it does! Another crucial
question: which "Bible" do we mean: Catholic? Protestant? Mormon? Which
translation/version: NIV? King James? The original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts?
Watchtower? These choices make a clear difference (as you might guess, I believe
the 66-book version, which has the unbelievably strong and stalwart backing of
the early church councils as being the extent and content of Scripture (for
further info, see F.F. Bruce's classic: The New Testament Documents: Are They
Reliable?", and my column on translations here), is the "Bible" as we were
intended to receive and believe , and that versions translated by non-Christian
sects..like Mormon and Watchtower versions... are severe and dangerous
departures from what we are meant to treat as God-edited.
Clearly, the Bible is self-authenticating in its witness to itself. By this I
mean, in its own pages it offers an unconditional and explicit "OK" and stamp of
approval by all three members of the Trinity that you named.( 1.FATHER: "All
Scripture," 2 Tim 3;16 boldly asserts, "is God-breathed, and profitable...";
2.JESUS: In Luke 24:27, Jesus personally endorses the Bible by calling it
Scripture; 3.HOLY SPIRIT: 2 Peter 1:21 asserts unapologetically that the Holy
Spirit is the source of Scriptural inspiration) Of course this can be seen as a
circular argument... ("Of course the Bible assumes/affirms that," the sincere
scoffer can argue," but is it TRUE just because it claims truth?") ,and we
cannot trust wholly what could be a logical and philosophical fallacy; all based
on a potentially erroneous "a priori" argument that may not hold weight or
water. So indeed I have staked my life and salvation on the prior (and post)
faith-assumption that the Bible is authentic, accurate and authoritative. And in
the end, it must be a scientifically/philosophically "untestable" leap of faith
that what the Word says is divinely inspired. And the way you have carefully
labeled your question: "believing him(and believing in Him)," leads me to
suggest that such belief will inexorably lead to increased "holy confidence" in
the divine "OK" and inspiration of Scripture. However, in addition to the
Scriptures' witness to its own veracity and authority, God has promised us
abundant wisdom (James 1:3) as we pray..even about such "taboo" (or so we have
been told) prayers, as "God, please reveal to me whether Scripture is Your word
or not. I have severe doubts." A well-intentioned " I do believe; help my
unbelief" is a valid and vital prayer, and in fact is a "straight out of
Scripture" prayer that Jesus didn't judge but immediately jumped on to answer
(Visit Mark 9:24 for this amazing transaction). Even 'saints' and spiritual
heroes in the league of Noah, Moses, Job (he had good reason, eh?), and Jesus
himself (!! Matthew 26:39, Mark 15:34) tasted and expressed seasons of doubt and
were not doomed and damned because of it. And Thomas, what was his nickname for
a spell?
A final commentary again on the wonderful way you have framed and phrased the
question: assuming belief of, AND belief in, Jesus. Jesus is indeed perhaps the
member of the Trinity to focus on first in this matter. For only He of all three
members of the Godhead is specifically called /named the same name as Scripture;
He and the Bible are both called the "Word." So he is in a sense an incarnation
not only of God but of all that Scripture is intended to be (Matthew 5:17-20).
And in light of Stephen's "famous last words" at his Acts 8:54-56 martyrdom ,
check that as he was dying, he looked to see the "glory of God", and what did he
see? Technically, not the Father or the Holy Spirit, but Jesus. One of my
pastors, in preaching on this text, proffered the following principle which I
think is sound and helpful here: "Look for God, and you will see Jesus." If you
are really seeking the Father (which is step one, Matthew 6:33), you will drawn
to focus on Jesus (Colossians 1:15, step two); and once you have officially
"fixed your eyes on Him" (as in Hebrews 12:2), He in turn will build step three
for you, and introduce you the the third and final member of this Cosmic
Committee: the Holy Spirit, "who will lead us into all truth," and
(significantly) is then self effacing-enough to deflect the glory for himself,
and point and position the floodlight (J. I. Packer's appropriate image, see the
highlighted section of this good article:
Click here) back onto the center of the faith and Trinity: Jesus. So one may
start with any member of the Trinity, but there is a reason we are called
Christ-ians , and not "Father-ians" or "Holy Spirit-ians." There is something so
central about Jesus Christ, that as we make Him the central download of our
lives , our lives then revolving and evolving around him in the kind of "belief"
you
seem to have initiated, we will find wisdom about all truth being offered to us,
even about the very essence and essential of Holy Scripture.
Having said that, i reiterate again that yes it's "OK" , in the mind and economy
of Jesus Christ-- for now-- to be where you are. The way to the door of
salvation is narrow, this Jesus said, and "few find it." But it is also a very
simple qualification to receive salvation; in fact the "door" is wide open, and
actually IS Jesus Himself (John 10:9..Which brings up the most fundamental
question, "believe" in Jesus is not just intellectual assent..."even the demons
believe," the Book says in James 2:19, "but they are not saved"..one must
believe enough to "open the door" of Revelation 3:20).
And note that the Book nowhere says "believe in the Scripture and you will be
saved.' Jesus rebuked that heresy in John 5:39-40! It wisely places the locus
and focus elsewhere: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved."
And once belief in Christ is thus experientially and personally entered into,
even cautiously or experimentally, we will be lead into consequent truths, such
as the inspiration of the Bible. The old line many skeptics use, "I believe in
Jesus..I believe he was a good teacher, but I don't believe he was/is God," C.S.
Lewis so articulately and artfully demolishes and exposes as itself a logical
fallacy. What is Jesus main teaching, if granted, he was a "good teacher"? Even
a cursory perusal of the Book of Books which houses his teaching, reveals that
his teaching centered around ....(gasp!) the claim that He was God! Well, here
is that argument from a better preacher than me:
Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. It follows that he was either a liar, a
madman, or the Son of God in fact. Jesus' universally acknowledged goodness and
wisdom rule out the first two possibilities: we must therefore accept the third.
This argument, reduced to the neatly alliterative 'Lunatic, Liar or Lord' (or
'Mad, bad or God') and nick-named 'the trilemma' is a mainstay of much popular
Christian evangelism and apologetics. It sometimes seems to be more famous
either than the book, Mere Christianity, in which it appears or the man, C.S
Lewis, who wrote it.
The term 'trilemma' is not used by Lewis. It is coined by Josh McDowell in his
book Evidence Which Demands a Verdict, a collection of quotations and sources
intended to save preachers the trouble of reading any actual books. McDowell
presents the argument in the form of a simple flow chart, a series of
'either/or' propositions, (Jesus either was or was not the Son of God; he either
did or did not believe it Himself, and you must either Accept or Reject him.)
McDowell cites various secular and religious writers who insist on Jesus' moral
goodness and wisdom and thus rules out the possibility that he could have been
mad or bad. ('Someone who lived as Jesus lived, taught as Jesus taught and died
as Jesus died could not have been a liar.') He therefore takes Jesus divinity as
proven. In an astonishing post-script he adds:
'The evidence is clearly in favor of Jesus as Lord. However, some people reject
the clear evidence because of the moral implications involved. There needs to be
a moral honesty in the above considerations of Jesus either as a liar, lunatic,
or Lord and God.'
(Click
here for source above)
"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be
a great moral teacher, " Lewis himself said, " He would either be a lunatic on a
level with a man who says he is a poached egg or else he would have to be the
devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son
of God, or a madman or something worse." All this to say, I recommend C.S. Lewis
to any honest seeker or doubter, he is great companion on the journey, and the
last century's leading apologist for intelligent questions such as yours. I am
guessing I has similar reservations before I read Lewis's "Mere Christianity" .
So yes, its "OK," to answer your question with a qualified "OK", but because you
yourself have qualified the question as a believer in Jesus, and have not "framejacked"
the context, it is a likely a "given" that you are praying for wisdom about the
Bible, and thus will receive the clear answer of Scripture itself about itself ,
AND experience, perhaps in a serendipitous and simultaneous ("Spiritaneous")
way, an "objective" answer to prayer, that the Word is heartily and eternally "OKed"
by Father Son and Holy Spirit. At least I hope I have helped along that path.
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