God's Word: Fact or Fiction

***DISCLAIMER: I encourage anyone who reads my blog to fact check anything I write. First of all, I don't want to lead anyone astray. Secondly, I would appreciate knowing if I was in error so I can correct my ways. Thirdly, I am a scientist who became a Christian; I am not trained in biblical studies. The stuff I come up with is the stuff I have picked up from my church, reading the Bible, and doing random bits of research in the last year since I converted. ***
This topic has been on my mind for a couple of weeks now. My husband feels that the Bible is a guide book for us to live by and that as long as we try to live good lives we will get to heaven. He further believes that there are some parts of it that are true and some parts of it that are fiction. We recently had a discussion on this latter belief. Unfortunately I am not very good at discussing things. I have an easier time writing out why I agree or disagree with him. So the topic of this particular post is an argument for believing in the entirety of the Bible.
I will address three points brought up in mine and my husband's discussion. They are as follows:

1. We are told throughout the scriptures that they are God's inspired Word: written by men, inspired by God.
2. Many people are concerned about the Bible being corrupted (I was one such person).
3. There are clearly illustrative stories in the Bible. Jesus frequently makes use of such (parables), and for good reason. (I believe that this is going to have to be a post of it's own).

First I just want to give a little background on the Bible in general. For a newbie in Christ there were several connections that I had to make when it came to God's Word, the Bible, the Old Testament (OT), the New Testament (NT), scriptures, and Jesus. Some of these connections I am still grasping. Basically I will use God's Word interchangeably with the Bible. The Bible is made up of the OT and the NT. Scriptures make up the Bible. Jesus is also referred to as the Word (John 1:1-5). When Jesus refers to scriptures, he is referring to OT (that is probably obvious to people who were raised in the church, but not so obvious to someone who has never actually studied the Bible--or maybe just me :) ). A reference in a gospel to scriptures is going to refer to the OT, but a reference in the epistles (all the books of the NT that are not the 4 gospels or Acts) to scripture may mean OT, books of the gospels, Acts (this is a history of the start of the church and is extremely important), and the epistles that early churches authenticated as scripture (and by early I mean churches in the first and second century). Some of this is so easy to grasp, that people overlook it and I think clarity of these words is important to my effort to make my argument (not that I offered much in
the way of clarity, but at least it is all laid out :D).
Point 1: Written by Men, Inspired by God.
When my husband and I were having this discussion I forgot that I had bought a Bible study guide (Self-Study Bible Course, by Derek Prince) a while back--which I have barely started. The first topic in the study guide is on God's Word. The first memory verse it gives you is 2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;" Obviously my point here is "ALL Scripture is inspired by God." Ok, dictionary.com defines inspired as an adjective:
1. aroused, animated, or imbued with the spirit to do something, by or as if by supernatural or divine influence: an inspired poet.

So yes, God inspired men to write the Scriptures. Peter basicaly tells us in 2 Peter 1:20-21 that humans can not interpret prophecy into Scripture, on a human moved by the Holy Spirit have spoken from God. The OT can be divided into sections. The first five books are the Law, then there are the histories, the poetical books, the major prophets, and the minor prophets. When you read a book of a prophet you are told over and over that the prophet is being told what to say (or write) to the people by God. I am not going to list actual verses because they are too numerous, but look in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel for examples. The interesting thing about stuff the prophets told of is that their prophecies came true! (Again I can't cite these verses because they are too numerous, basically read one of the gospels, particularly the book of John). This brings us to
Point 2: Incorruptible (if God laid out a plan of salvation dontcha think he would protect it?).
A lot of people worry about the fact that men have messed with the Bible. But that is one of the interesting things about the Bible. A lot of people have messed with it, yet we still have the "originals." It is just a matter of figuring out who is right and who is wrong.
Here are a couple of interesting points that I have learned over the last year (*WARNING* if you belong to a particular denomination/religion this may upset you):
The Bible has been corrupted into other books that claim to be holy texts. However, the plan of salvation is laid out for us in the NT.
Israel broke God's covenant with them over, and over, and over (Judges is a good example of that). I am no better than the ancient Israelites;  I try, and try, and try to do what is right in the sight of the Lord. But that is the beauty of the NT--the gospel is the fulfillment of God's covenant (the old covenant, AKA the OT) with Israel and the beginning of the new covenant (i.e., NT. examples: Matthew 5:17--Jesus came to fulfill not abolish the Law or Prophets; Jeremiah 31; Jeremiah 32:40; Ezekiel 16:60--the establishment of an everlasting covenant; Hebrews 9; etc). So the Gospel, which is defined as "glad tidings" (dictionary.com #6) is that (for those who choose to believe in the Son) Israel is free from trying to gain salvation from following the Law (thanks to the Grace of God) and the rest of the world (gentiles) may also become God's people and receive God's Grace. All of us now have the opportunity to obey God's Word and join our Creator in heaven (provided we follow God's plan of salvation that is outlined for us in the NT).
With that said, why would it be necessary to add anything to the Bible? (For those of you who don't know this, the Quran and the book of Mormons are based--or perhaps "include" would be a better choice of words--on the OT/NT Bible--but please note, I have not read either of these so I can not say what is different and what is the same, I would like to be able to study these one day to strengthen my arguments, but I do not have that kind of time at this period in my life). It is also important to note that very few religious texts claim to be revelations of God. At least in the case of the Bible we have history to show us that prophecy did come true. As far as I can tell, none of the other texts that claim to be divine revelations can boast such a claim.
Now, I could continue this discussion, but it is very late (for me). So I am going to stop here, on a weak note, and pick this up again on Thursday (Lord willing!). Sorry to leave you guys hanging. May God bless you and keep you safe!

Faith, the final frontier. . . (man I am such a dork!)

Now, I have been having an email discussion with a fellow believer, who used to be a staunch "once saved, always saved" believer, but has relaxed his stance over the years. I haven't had a chance to respond to his most recent response in our discussion, but I have been meaning to tell him I think we actually agree with each other on the fundamental fact that Grace cannot be earned. That is what makes it Grace. Once we are in Christ we receive Grace, which is a gift that is not deserved. I think that this is an indisputable fact. Humans do not deserve to be in the presence of God. But God loves us and has made it possible for us to be with Him one day. He has given us a precious gift. We also agree that a person can loose faith, and then loose their place with God. What we might disagree on is how one goes about losing faith.
I believe that we should recognize our sins and ask God to forgive us of them. I believe that we have to have faith that God will forgive us of them. I think people give up on repenting, because they listen to that evil inner voice that tells them, "You will never be good enough, you might as well give up, and you know you will do this again tomorrow." When that happens, you are losing faith that God will forgive you. You lose faith that Christ's blood is all that is needed to purify you. As my friend pointed out, the only thing God requires of a Christian is to have faith. Why should we have a place in heaven if we aren't going to have faith to believe in God? Now my friend and I probably disagree on how faith is demonstrated. I do not believe in faith only, per se. I believe we demonstrate our faith in God by obeying God's word. I feel like if we could go to heaven on faith only or once saved always saved then the New Testament would have a lot less books and pages in it. What would be the point of the epistles? Even if we remove the epistles that people say aren't as "important" as others, there are still several epistles describing to us how a Christian should live. I think we demonstrate our faith by obeying these guidelines that God had the apostles write for us. I also think these guidelines are timeless. Therefore they are just a useful and pertinent now than they were 2000 years ago.
From an atheist’s point of view, the Bible is a bunch of rules that goes against our natural urges. Why fight it? Well, little do atheists know (and don't forget I was once such a one), if you try to live by God's rules, your life is so much better. If you look out for others first instead of looking out for yourself, you will be sooo much happier. It is when we are looking out for ourselves that we end up getting ourselves hurt.
Well, it isn't very late, but I am very tired (I've been working a lot lately, and work has been pretty crazy the last few months--it wears on a girl). So I am not sure if this blog even makes sense, but I started writing it at the end of the other one, when I realized they weren't really the same topic. I think the take home message of this post is that, you have to have faith to go to heaven. By obeying God's word you are demonstrating your faith. When you lose faith, you are lost.
Remember, God loves each and everyone of you, but he hates your sin. He wants all of us to be with Him, but it does require a little effort on your part. Feel free to post a comment I was considering putting my email out there, but with all of my *controversial* topics, I think I'll just let people leave comments. Please note: I will post your comment even if you disagree with me. I will not post your comment if it is hateful or obscene.
God bless you all and I pray that if you are searching you find Him :)

What I believe the Bible requires of us to become a Christian

Here I am posting yet another controversial topic. Yet this was something I was searching for before becoming a Christian. This was my problem with denominations. How do you become a Christian? Is it once saved, always saved (a topic of which I was considering discussing as well)? Or do you have to be baptized? What kind of baptism? Did I need to say anything special? So many people said sooooo many things. But I didn't know who was right. I thought surely the Bible tells us what is required, but I didn't know where to look. I firmly believe if you try to study the Bible on your own you will miss out on a lot. However, if you do decide to study the Bible on your own before making a decision about what you think is required, I encourage you to follow a Bible reading plan that is laid out in chronological order. I personally think that God didn't lay the plan of salvation out on one page all together because he wants people who are willing to work for it. I think that is one of the things Matthew 7:7-8 (. . . seek, and you will find. . .) is telling us. Seek the answers and you will find them.

Well that was definitely what I was doing when I walked in to my church last year on March 15. I was seeking the Truth, and I was blessed to find it, praise God. I will be honest, I don't remember exactly what the morning sermon was about (except that I just looked it up on our website, and it was about Love). But I do remember agreeing with everything that was said. Afterwards, our preacher came to talk to me, and asked me what I was looking for. I told him I wanted to be baptized! (I was pretty sure that was an important component of becoming a Christian because of multiple scriptures including Matthew 28:19--commissioning the 12 to make disciples of the nation; especially Mark 16:16--"he who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved"--Jesus' own words; Acts 2:38--"Repent, and each of you be baptized"; and many others). He invited me over for a Bible study and lunch, which I eagerly agreed to despite my natural shyness. So we went over straight from church and we studied a variety of things, what actually sticks out was the countless (ok, not literally countless, but there is a lot) verses that tell us not to add to or take away from God's word. It all made perfect sense to me. I mean it is all right there in the Bible. My preacher suggested we study once more before I get baptized and I reluctantly agreed. I was looking forward to the evening sermon though.
That night I do remember the topic (without looking at it :)). It was titled "What is a Christian." My preacher had decided to preach this sermon instead of his original sermon. Everything he preached was basically what we would have studied. Afterwards, my preacher asked if I wanted to be baptized still and I said, "Yes!" I was baptized. I distinctly remembered afterwards my preacher asking me if I felt like the Ethiopian eunuch, ready to go on my way rejoicing (Acts 8:39). Unfortunately all I could do was nod. I was kind of in a mild state of shock and was processing the events that had occurred. My preacher and his wife were probably disappointed by my reaction, but little did they know my heart was soaring on the inside, I was so happy!
So now I am going to go over what I was taught that night (with the help of the slide show that he used--which I am looking at through the churches website--www.princestreet.org--the PM slide show on 3/15/2009--in case you would like to look too, you can also listen to his sermon).
We go over the plan of salvation after every service, during the invitation. I am sure the children can recite the supporting verses, I unfortunately have yet to memorize them, but me blogging about them will definitely help me learn them better.
The first step for a person to become a Christian is to hear the gospel--Romans 10:17--faith comes from what is heard. ... Hopefully when you hear these words they land in your heart, like a seed landing in nice nutrient rich dirt with plenty of moisture content, so that they can take root and grow into wonderful healthy plants(Matthew 13:3-23--the parable of the sower).
The second step is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God--John 8:24--Jesus flat out says that if you do not believe he is the Son of God you will die in your sins, there is no debating this. Also see Acts 8:37 (Phillip tells the eunuch he must believe) and 1 John 3:23 (we have been commanded to believe).
The third step is to repent of your sins--Acts 17:30--Paul tells us that God commands everyone to repent. This also is supported by Acts 2:38 (repent and be baptized), Mark 1:15 (repent and believe the gospel) and others.
The fourth step is to confess Jesus as Lord--Romans 10:9-10--if you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth you will be saved. Again see Acts 8:37, this is what the eunuch does.
The fifth step is to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins--Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16, and the others I listed earlier.
And finally, live faithfully until you die--Revelation 2:10--Jesus tells the church of Smyrna to be faithful unto death and He will give them the crown of life. This is opposed to the second death as described in Revelation 20:6,14.
I believe all of these steps are of equal importance. I believe that once we follow these steps we will be "in Christ."
I started to write more, but I have decided it goes in a new blog. It is your lucky day! Two posts at once :P