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To view a list of featured topics, click here.
At this time, Matthew does not ask for any honorarium to speak. Honorariums are not required but they are appreciated.
God is good.1Ps. 25:8, 34:8, 92:15, 106:1, 107:1, 145:8-9; Hosea 3:5; Nahum 1:7; 1 Peter 2:2-3 Everything God does is good.22 Sam. 7:28; Acts 10:38; James 1:17; Rom. 7:12; Titus 3:4-5 This never changes. Any theology which sees God anything short of perfectly good is no theology at all.
Yet, we are confronted with the fact that Jesus frequently warned others about Hell.3Mt. 5:22, 5:29-30, 10:28, 18:9, 23:33. Many parables also discuss Hell. Scripture teaches that the unrighteous (that is, those who were never made righteous by the grace of God) will be consigned to various types of imagery. They will be “burned,”4Mt. 13:30, 13:40-42; Luke 3:17; John 15:6 “consumed,”5Heb. 10:27 “destroyed,”6Mt. 10:28; Phil. 3:19 and brought to “outer darkness.”7Mt. 8:12, 22:13, 25:30 Some have taken this imagery to mean a kind of annihilation, where the unsaved are completely wiped from conscious existence. As a doctrine of Hell, that is much easier to swallow. However, other passages demand that we understand this imagery of Hell to entail conscious punishment. It is an eternal place8Mt. 18:8; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 3:17 of eternal punishment9Mt. 25:46; Rev. 20:10 of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”10Mt. 22:13, 24:51, 25:10-13; Mark 9:43-48 Luke 16:19-31 tells a story of a man who is conscious in Hell. And Jesus, knowing that Judas would betray him, says that it would have been better for him if he had not been born.11Mt. 26:24; Mark 14:21 Passages like these are difficult—if not impossible—to understand if Hell makes it as if you were never born.
What do we make of all this? Hell is a very difficult subject and must be taught with both conviction and care. I’ll never forget when I opened a book by Francis Chan defending the Biblical doctrine of Hell and the first thing he says there is this “If you are excited to read this book, you have issues.”12Francis Chan, Erasing Hell, p. 13. Hell is a tough subject! But I do believe there are some things which can help us reckon with the idea of eternal punishment.
Imagine that you are walking down a path and you come to a fork in the road. At that fork you see two signs. One says: “This way to Hell: Eternal divine punishment and separation from God.” The other sign says, “This way to Heaven: Eternal glory and fullness of life with God.” Anyone in their right mind would go straight to Heaven without a second’s thought. And we think it’s that simple.
What if you are standing at the fork in the road and God is there? As you look at God, you see the intense, infinite glory and light and holiness of His majesty. At the same time, your eyes are opened to see—clearly—the extreme darkness and depravity and wretchedness of sin which you have committed against this Holy God. You would be like the prophet Isaiah when he saw the glory of God and cried out “Woe to me… am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (Isa. 6:5). It doesn’t matter who you are; without any sense of God’s grace, this would well up so much grief and guilt and shame. In that place, I struggle to think God would need to send people to Hell. I think we would escort ourselves.
People often ask: Why would a good God send people to Hell? That’s a legitimate question. But in the New Testament, that is not the question the authors are asking. Rather, they ask: Why would a Holy God allow someone like me into Heaven? The answer to this is much easier to find. It is the cross of Jesus Christ. It’s as if God the Son looked at eternal Judgment, he looked at Hell, and he said “over my dead body!”
Hell should disturb us. I think God made us that way because the prospect of Hell for any human being disturbs Him too. We learn from Matthew 25:41 that Hell was not made for people; it was made for Satan and his demons! That isn’t to say nobody goes there, but God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked13Eze. 33:11 and desires that all of us would choose Him and be saved.141 Tim. 2:3-4
Whatever you conclude about this place, it is so important to remember that if you have faith to believe what the Bible says about Hell, we also can believe what the Bible says about God: He is good, loving, perfectly just, and that His ways are infinitely higher than ours. The judge of all this universe is going to do what is right.15Gen. 18:25
Some Christians think that they can follow God without one another. Evidently, they don’t know what it means to follow God.
To follow God means to obey God’s Word. To do that, we need one another. We are to Love one another,16John 13:35 bear one another’s burdens,17Gal. 6:2 encourage one another,18Heb. 3:13 gather together with one another,19Heb. 10:25 serve one another,20Gal. 5:13 be devoted to one another,21Rom. 12:10 pursue that which brings peace and good for one another,22Rom. 14:19 instruct one another,23Rom. 15:14 be kind to one another,24Eph. 4:32 forgive one another,25Also Eph. 4:32 confess sins to one another,26James 5:16 pray for one another for healing,27Also James 5:16 be sympathetic for one another,281 Peter 3:8 have compassion for one another,29Also 1 Peter 3:8 accept another,30Rom. 15:7 and to rejoice and grieve with one another.31Rom. 12:15 We cannot do this on our own!
Paul uses a body metaphor in the Bible to help illustrate how much we need one another. 1 Corinthians 12:15-20…
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
Many Christians attempt to accomplish all of this within their own natural-born family, calling it “church” but they never meet together with the community of their city. Apart from the fact that Paul refers to the “church” as belonging to cities and regions and not single home units,321 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:2; Col. 4:16; 1 Thes. 1:1; 1 Thes. 2:14. The Angel in speaking in Revelation 2-3 also refers to the Church by city. this still won’t cut it. How does a single house unit practice the diversity of gifts for one another (1 Cor. 12:1-11) or build one another up with the various offices of ministry (Eph. 4:11-13), or walk through the process of church discipline (Mt. 18:15-17)? It just doesn’t work. For centuries, Christians have left their homes to meet with other believers, even when persecution made Christian gatherings incredibly dangerous. They celebrated communion together, they celebrated baptizing new believers together, and they celebrated God together.
And so that phrase “All you need is Jesus” can a bit misleading. We forget that the body of Christ is the Church.33Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 4:12; Eph. 5:23; Col. 1:24
One of our deepest longings in the human heart is to find a place of belonging. God gives this to us through the church!
If you are a follower of Jesus, if you have repented from sin and received Christ for the forgiveness of sins, then you belong to a family of other believers. Like it or not, you have brothers and sisters. Some of them are immature. Some of them have deep disagreements with you. Some of them are a little crazy. Some of them are the last kinds of people you would ever want to be around. But they are your family. And you know what? It’s is a blessing from God! We need each other.
Why are we a family? It’s because we are children of the same father.34John 1:12; Rom. 8:14; Gal 3:26; Phil. 2:15; 1 John 3:1-2. Paul constantly referred to his fellow Christians as his own brothers and sisters.351 Cor. 1:10; 1 Cor. 7:24; Gal. 1:2; Phil 1:12; Col. 1:2; 1 Thes. 1:4. The sames goes for Peter,36Acts 1:15; Acts 12:17; 2 Peter 1:10 Luke,37Acts 11:29; Acts 21:7; Acts 28:14-15 (Acts was written by Luke) James,38James 1:2; James 1:16; James 2:1; James 5:10 John,391 John 3:13; 1 John 3:16; 1 John 4:20 and also Jesus.40Matthew 12:48-50; Hebrews 2:11
In the Bible, Paul refers to “our Lord” 54 times and “my Lord” only once.41The spot where Paul says “my Lord” is Phil. 3:8. Similarly, he prefers “our savior” much more than “my savior.” Salvation is not just being saved from your sins, and it is not just being saved toward holy living. Salvation is also being saved into a family.421 Cor. 12:13 If this were merely a metaphor, it would break down somewhere. It doesn’t. Even 1 Corinthians 6, when members of the church were going into court with one another, Paul is horrified that they are doing these things to their own brothers and sisters!
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” -Romans 12:1
We have talked a lot about the work of Jesus to save us, and how we can not use good deeds to save ourselves. Some people think that Christianity gives is a license to live immoral lives. After all, if Jesus removes sin from us, why should I care about doing good things?
It doesn’t take much time reading the Bible to see that there is NO room for a theology which allows bad or evil behavior. Consider this passage from James 2:14-17 (NIV):
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
James understands that faith is what saves, but he also recognizes that faith looks like something. Salvation is not just grace from sin, but it is grace toward righteousness. God not only removes us, but he transforms us. If someone says “I love you,” but does nothing to show his/her love, what good is that?
The good news is that the same grace which saves us is also ready to transform us. God gives us his Holy Spirit so that we can be effective for His purpose in our life. God also gives us his Church—other our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ—who gather together on a regular basis to encourage one another toward love and good works (Heb. 10:24-25). God does all this because he loves us and he knows what is best for us.
Don’t be fooled: Grace is not a license for sin; it is an invitation for love. Scripture is consistent in placing salvation before good works. It is always in that order. It has to be, because good works flow out of thankfulness and love for God. Those use use cheap grace to sin freely are in grievous error, (Rom. 6:1-4; Jude 4) even flirting with Hell (Heb. 10:26-27). In the Bible, obedience to God is always because of salvation, not for salvation.
God is also merciful! Psalm 86:15 calls God “a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” The Lord’s mercy is great (1 Chronicles 21:13). Mercy is so close to God that the most sacred space of God’s temple is known as the place of God’s mercy seat,431 Chronicles 28:11, a gold slab which sat on top of the Ark of the Covenant where the high priest would sprinkle blood for the atonement of Israel and where God would meet with His people,44cf. Exodus 25:17-22; Leviticus 16. We need God’s mercy because God is righteous and punishes sin. Thankfully, God’s great mercy is readily available! All over the in Psalms, the poet appeals to God’s mercy (Psalm 25:6, 30:8, 57:1), knowing that God will hear us (Psalm 28:6, 116:1, 119:132). God’s mercies are new every morning (Lamentation 3:22-23)!
God’s justice and God’s mercy are not conflicted with one another. They go together (Isaiah 30:18; Zechariah 7:9)
The Virgin Birth of Jesus is often dismissed as a myth. This would be a reasonable thing to suppose for those who have not come to believe in the truthfulness of Scripture. But for those who do believe in Scripture, we shouldn’t dismiss this teaching. The virgin birth of Jesus is described quite clearly in Matthew 1 and Luke 1-2.
Despite what Matthew and Luke have to say, some will argue against the Biblical basis for a virgin birth by challenging the virgin birth which was prophesied in Isaiah 7:14. The Hebrew word often translated “virgin” (almah) in this Isaiah passage could also mean a young girl who is not necessarily a virgin. While this is another possible definition, there are several reasons why modern English translators prefer to translate almah as “virgin” in the context of Isaiah 7:14.
While the virgin birth may seem like a petty thing for Christians to care about, it does important theological work. Jesus is no mere man, and the virgin birth (which happened by the power of the Holy Spirit) helps to demonstrate that. Without the virgin birth, we have no incarnation of God into man. Such a person cannot save us. An article by Kevin DeYoung published with the Gospel Coalition helps to explain this further.
The problem is sin. The answer is Jesus. I urge you to not try obtaining access to God by anything or anyone other than Jesus. He is the answer. He is the one who saves without fail. As God, Jesus can invite us into his own life so that we partake in life with God (2 Peter 1:3-4). By placing our faith in the work of Jesus, we are united back into a relationship with God!
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” -Ephesians 2:8-9
“Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.” -Acts 13:38–39
“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” -Romans 5:9-11
“Therefore [Jesus] is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” -Hebrews 7:25
“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” -1 John 5:11-12
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” -Romans 8:1-2
To learn more about how salvation works, and how we can be reconciled back to God, go here!
The resurrection of Jesus described in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20. Further, it is widely affirmed and talked about in the New Testament as an essential piece of salvation for mankind.45Rom 1:4; Rom. 6:5; 1 Cor 15:12-13; 1 Cor. 15:42; Phil. 3:10-11; 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 3:21
Christianity stands or falls on whether or not this event actually happened (See 1 Cor. 15:17). Certainly, there is wide disagreement whether or not Jesus actually rose from the dead 2000 years ago outside the gates of Jerusalem. However, a better way to approach this might be to discuss what scholars—Christians and Non-Christian, conservative and liberal—generally agree on. Dr. Gary Habermas, an American historian and scholar on the resurrection of Christ has done great work here.46See Habermas, The Risen Jesus and Future Hope The majority of academics who study the resurrection scene of Jesus would agree with the following points:
Put that all together: Jesus died. His tomb was found empty. His followers claimed to see him alive. They were willing to die. In fact, many of them did die!47Tradition tells us that 11 out of the 12 disciples died a martyr’s death for proclaimed to have seen Jesus alive. While we do not have good historical evidence to confirm this for all of the disciples, we do have strong evidence for several of them. Dr. Sean McDowell, a professor at Biola University to did his Ph.D. on the death of the disciples presents his research in his book The Fate of the Apostles. Please realize what I mean when I tell you that the disciples died proclaiming the resurrection. It’s one thing to say “I believe this, and I’m willing to die for it.” People do that all the time. It’s quite another thing to say “I saw this, and I’m willing to die for it.” It’s another thing, still, when you have multiple people saying “We saw this, and we willing to die for it,” and then they die for it! That is extraordinary evidence. They claimed to have actually seen, felt, touched, been with the risen Jesus in good conscience and sound mind! John, the author of the fourth gospel, says “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” (1 John 1:1). You don’t accidentally come to believe in this sort of thing, let alone 11 people.
Several alternative theories have been proposed. Here are a few of the big ones:
The only explanation I can think of, is that Jesus of Nazareth lived, died, and was resurrected from the dead as a testimony to this world that He truly is who he claimed to be: God with us. The way the truth and the life. No other event can account for everything that happened.
When someone says that Jesus is fully God, a common objection is that Jesus never claimed to be God. However, even if we only use the words of Jesus recorded in the four Gospels, are we really saying that there is no reason to see Jesus as God? This is simply not true. We do not have a quotation of Jesus saying “I am God” (He would have been killed immediately, before his appointed time of crucifixion!), but he frequently presents himself as God to his audience in more subtle ways.
The most explicit examples are in John. In John 10:31, Jesus says “I and the Father are one.”48This two-in-one concept gives us the building blocks for a Trinitarian theology. In John 14:9, Jesus says “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” In John 5:16-18, Jesus heals a man and defends his actions by claiming that his work is caught up in the work of the Father. The text explicitly tells us that the Jewish leaders, in response, sought to kill Jesus because he was “making himself equal with God.” In John 8:48-58, Jesus claimed that he was older than Abraham who lived hundreds of years before him. His accusers are shocked that Jesus would dare to make such an audacious claim. In response, Jesus get even more radical. He says “before Abraham was born, I am!” (v. 58). At this point, the Jews attempt to kill Jesus right on the spot. What was Jesus’s crime? They knew exactly what Jesus meant by the strange usage “I am.” It was a direct reference to God who called himself “I am” to Moses in Exodus 3:14.
Some historians of Jesus prefer not to use John, believing his his book came later than the other three—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—and is tainted by legend which developed after the time of Jesus. Most would agree that John was the latest of the four authors, but we can still find the deity of Christ in the other books, especially Matthew. Consider the following:
Those who say that Jesus never claimed to be God are giving misleading information with sloppy work. There is plenty of material of Jesus in the Gospels which communicate Jesus’s connection to deity. Given what we know in the Gospels, it is no surprise that we see this same lofty claim of Jesus on the lips of John52John 1:1-14, 1 John 5:20, Paul,53Rom. 9:5; Phil. 2:6-11; Col. 1:15-17, Col. 2:9, Titus 2:13 Peter,542 Peter 1:1 Thomas,55John 20:28. And no, Thomas is not saying “My God” as a mere expression of shock (“Oh my God!”). People didn’t do that in his time. That kind of exclamation does not show up in history until much, much later. and the author of Hebrews.56Heb. 1:3, 7-8
There are other places in the New Testament where it seems like Jesus is limited. For instance, Matthew 24:36 says “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son…” What do we make of these verses that seem to limit Jesus in some way? Put simply, such examples show Jesus in his humanity. Philippians 2:5-8 helps to clarity: “Though he was God… he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born a human being.” What we learn about Jesus is that He willingly gave up certain divine abilities.57The Greek word implies that Jesus “emptied” himself. Much ink has been spilled attempting to describe what this all entailed, but the general idea is not too hard to grasp. Jesus set aside many of His abilities as God so that He might receive glory in the end and serve as a realistic model for us. Probably the most vivid example of this is when He willingly let Himself die on the cross as the people mocked him saying “If you are are Son of God, come down from the cross.” (Matthew 27:40) Jesus could have come down easily. But even then, he chose not to. He loved us too much to take the easy way out.
We can be forgiven and restored back into a relationship with God! In a world constantly searching for God, this is amazing news!
Colossians 1:13–14: For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Ephesians 1:7–8: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.”
Acts 13:38–39 “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.”
The Bible is very consistent. Forgiveness of sin is found in Jesus Christ. Not just because of Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ. Salvation is a relational term. It describes our access to God and our ability to draw near to Him (Heb. 10:19-22). All of this is made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus!
Many different spiritual journeys idolize seeking but never knowing. People like to talk about God as a kind of source, or an idea, or theoretical love, or maybe the whole universe. This god of theirs had no face. This god has no name.
In the Bible, God is a person who desires to know us in a personal way. Notice the relational language in John 15 when Jesus speaks to His followers:
John 15:5–17 (NIV)
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
The same author of scripture describes the joy of this relationship which God offers us…
1 John 3:1–3 (NIV)
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
I stress this because the mission of God for humanity is not so that we can make it to Heaven. The purpose of God for humanity is so that we can make it to God (cf. Psalm 24:3-6, John 17:3). We were made to know God and to be known by God. He calls himself “Our Father” for a reason. If we miss this, we miss what the Gospel is all about. We are not just saved from sin. If that were true, we would have license to sin as much as we wanted. No, we are saved from sin towards God, into a loving and life-changing relationship!
The justice of God is talked about plainly in scripture. Deuteronomy 32:4 says “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” See also Ge. 18:25, Ps. 18:14, 111:7, Ro. 3:25-26, and Eze. 33:17.
Despite what scripture says of God’s character, people often read about God’s actions (particularly in the Old Testament) and think that God is anything but just. You will find various laws, commands, and behaviors from God which seem unethical to the modern reader. These are important questions for Christians to wrestle with. Without getting too deep, allow me to offer a few pointers to help us think well about God in the Old Testament.
I once heard someone say that the love of God is hardly talked about in the Bible. My guess is that he was looking for every word occurrence of “love,” and found that the love of God is hardly taught as a subject in the Bible. I desperately wished to ask him this: What about the love of God displayed in the Bible? What about when God clothed Adam and Eve, or when He blessed Abraham and promised to make Him into a great nation, or when He freed Israel from slavery in Egypt, or when He encouraged Joshua to be strong and courageous, or when He continually rescued Israel from oppressive nations, or when He warned through his prophets about the dangers of sin? What about when God sent His Son Jesus to receive the penalty we deserved by dying on the cross? What about the inclusion of the non-Jews and the commission to make disciples of all nations? Is the love of God found nowhere within these stories?
The Love of God is the logic and the power of the Gospel message! It is so closely bound to God that the Bible says “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). The love of God is the reason that God has given us commands in scripture,59God doesn’t arbitrarily give us random things for us to obey. He knows our design and what leads to fullness of life. Psalm 119 is a massive song of scripture praising God for his life-giving commands. and the reason we are able to keep them.60Ezekiel 36:26-27 shows the loving action of God transforming us. Further, the love of God is the means by which we are able to love others.61John 13:34; 1 John 4:8 “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died” (2 Corinthians 5:14).
Some people really struggle with this simple truth of God’s love because they have seen deep pain in their lives and the lives of others. How could a loving God allow so much evil and brokenness to ravish our world? I don’t presume to have a perfect answer, but I do address the subject in a talk which you can listen to here. Long story short: the love of God is not the question when we deal with pain. It is the answer!
Without getting overly-technical, reason is actively using your mind to arrive at truth, and revelation is passively receiving truth that is given to you. These two means of attaining knowledge seem intuitive; sometimes you gain knowledge of truth by figuring out stuff yourself. Other times you gain knowledge of truth by being informed about stuff by someone else.
In the context of Christianity, revelation often refers to God as the one speaking. God has revealed knowledge to us through scripture (2 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Timothy 3:16), through the Holy Spirit speaking to us (John 14:26; Acts 8:29), and through creation (Psalm 19:1-2; Romans 1:19-20). Some Christians, however, would deny reason as a valid source of knowledge, insofar as the Christian faith is concerned. They often refer to these two reasons:
Ironically, these are reasons from Christian thinking which argue against the use of reason in Christian thinking. But more to the point, I believe that these reasons are mistaken.
In response to point 1, I would agree that the Bible contains all of the knowledge we need for Christian faith, and that the knowledge of the Bible should never be added to or subtracted from. But this does not assume that other knowledge is altogether unhelpful for the Christian trying to live out his/her faith.
In response to point 2, I do not believe that faith is a blind acceptance of things, so the argument is invalid. I defend my view of this here, in response to the third objection.
To say that the Bible is infallible is to say that the Bible is incapable of containing mistakes or being wrong. This would imply that the Bible is inerrant, that is, having no errors.62Technically, this doctrine applies only to the original manuscripts of the Bible. This is a whole other conversation which I will not get into here. (Other writings might also be without error, but unlike the Bible, they could have been wrong.)
In my statement of faith, I intentionally placed the infallibility of scripture after establishing the Bible as God’s message to humankind. Without this, a defense of infallibility would require encyclopedic knowledge of literally everything the Bible talks about. This, of course, is impossible. However, once we establish that the Bible is God’s message to humankind, we have something more to work with.
God’s message to us in scripture contains portions where God describes Himself, and one of these self-disclosures is that God is holy. This idea is central to the message of scripture. If God is not holy, then the Gospel of Jesus Christ dying on the cross is meaningless.63The Gospel is God’s answer for how sinful people can be made holy in order to be in fellowship with a holy God. I describe the Gospel in more detail here. But since God is Holy, it follows that God righteous,64Deuteronomy 32:4, 2 Samuel 22:31; Psalm 92:15 God does not lie65Numbers 23:19; Hebrews 6:18; Titus 1:2 and God does not make mistakes.66Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 12:6, 18:30, Proverbs 30:5 Since God is the one speaking in scripture, then scripture is infallible by virtue of God’s holy character.
Further, if we take it the the Gospel message of Jesus is true, then we ought to pay close attention to the things which Jesus says. Consistently, Jesus uses scripture confidently and authoritatively.67Examples are not hard to find. Practically everything Jesus taught was based on scripture. For clearest examples, just look for anywhere that Jesus begins with “It is written,” or similar phrases. His apostles, the ones who would bear this message to the world as well as other authors of the New Testament also handle scripture as authoritative and trustworthy in all that it teaches,68Again, examples abound. These people were constantly using scripture to fund the logic of their teachings. We also see a commitment to scripture explicitly in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and Hebrews 4:12. sometimes paying attention to even the smallest details.69Galatians 3:16 is a prime example of how Paul paid close attention to the details of the Old Testament.
What do we make of the apparent contradictions or historical problems in scripture? For starters, the infallibility of scripture must apply only to what scripture is trying to communicate. In our modernist society, there is a temptation to treat scripture as a kind of historical textbook instead of a theological expression of God, meant to give us spiritually-discerned revelation. For the authors of scripture, their goal was not to give us an even-handed representation of history. Rather, they are using historical stories in service to theological points. This doesn’t mean we should reject the historical component altogether, but we shouldn’t expect the kind of precision which is required in modern thinking. 1 and 2 Chronicles, for instance, retells Israel’s history in an idealistic kind of way. The stories of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John present different pictures of Jesus, often leaving out details or rearranging the order of events in order to develop their logic. All of these things are done to bear into a larger theological meta-narrative.
This doesn’t solve every apparent contradiction of scripture, but it does satisfy a surprisingly large number of them. Other issues dissolve as we learn more about the language and logic of first century Jewish authors. If you pick up an apologetic study Bible, you will find notes underneath scriptural verses for almost any spot you could think of that contains an apparent contradiction. If you are interested in exploring this topic further, I suggest you read through some of them when you get the chance; it will help open up your mind to think more critically about the criticisms against scripture.
God often refers to Himself as holy (Leviticus 11:45; 19:2; 21:8; 22:32; 2 Kings 19:22; Isaiah 43:3; Hosea 11:9) and people of God were well aware of this (Joshua 24:19, 1 Samuel 2:2; 6:20; 1 Chronicles 16:29; Psalm 22:3; 99:1-9). The word “holy” implies this idea of being set apart. “The universal description of the holy is that which is separated from the normal in a conceptual way.”70M. William Ury, “Holy, Holiness,” Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996), 341. In the Bible, God’s Holiness is an attribute that defines every part of Him. Notably, God is holy in terms of His moral purity (Leviticus 11:44; Isaiah 5:16; 1 Peter 3:15-16), His glory and splendor (Exodus 15:11; Isaiah 6:1-4), His actions (Psalm 77:13), and His justice (Ezekiel 28:21).
The holiness of God is no light subject! It is the holiness of God that magnifies to the extreme all of God’s beautiful attributes, and exposes the depth of our sin that we have committed against him. In Isaiah 6, The prophet Isaiah describes a vision where he saw God seated on His throne, displayed in His holy splendor, being praised and worshiped by heavenly beings who cried out “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah was a good man, and yet he cried out “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”71See Isaiah 6:1-5 When you see the holiness of God, there are no more excuses. It is that crucial moment in life when people suddenly realize how deep their sin really goes, and how desperately they need to receive the hope of forgiveness that God offers.
Given that the Bible is God’s message for all humankind, we can look to see what the Bible says of itself.
When we speak of the Bible being “inspired,” we usually are referring to how scriptures describes itself in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. However, we do not mean “inspire” by the regular sense of the term, as if someone was inspired create a form of artwork. The original Greek of that verse conveys the idea that God has breathed out scripture.72In Greek, we read that all scripture is theopneustos, a compound word of theo (“God”) and pneuma (“Breath” or “Wind” or “Spirit,” depending on the context. In this case, “breath” is probably most fitting). As scripture was written, there was a continual kind of inspiration flowing from God into the minds of the people who penned its words. See also 2 Peter 1:21.
We have not yet discussed why the Bible can be trusted, and so it may seem premature to make a theological statement about knowledge and truth using scriptural support. But consider the following…
In the Bible, we see that the Spirit of God (the Holy Spirit) is known as “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel… the Spirit of knowledge…” (Isaiah 11:2). Jesus refers to himself as the “truth” (John 14:6), and those who are on the side of truth listen to him (John 18:37). Proverbs 1:7 says that the fear of God73That is, a kind of respectful reverence that seriously heeds God’s extraordinary power over all. is the beginning of knowledge and Proverbs 2:6 says that knowledge comes from God.
This is not to say that only Christians have knowledge. But if the above verses are true, then God exists, and God has a very close association with truth and knowledge. In fact, if God really is the author of all life, then our cognitive ability to know things through reason and revelation is ultimately a gift of God, just as life itself.
I would, however, stress that knowledge about God—deep knowledge that leads into into relationship and growth with God—is not possible without the help that God provides (1 Corinthians 1:6-16). For those (like myself) who endeavor to help their neighbor understand faith in Jesus, we need to be prayerful and mindful of God’s crucial role. Without God, our best arguments and most compelling presentation of the Gospel will be utterly worthless. Similarly, for non-Christians who wish to study whether or not the Bible is true, please consider this: If the Bible is true, then you will need God’s help to know God, because that is what the Bible says about God! This does not mean that God will make you blindly accept something (that is not the Biblical model of knowledge!). God gives us rational reasons to believe. But if Christianity really is true, you will need God’s help for clarity to believe those reasons, for humility to confront your own sin, and for the courage to receive God’s amazing forgiveness. The Good news is that if the Bible is true, then God is willing to offer the help we need (Matthew 7:7-11)! If you have never prayed to God for help, this would be a good time to start.
God’s eternal existence is established quite well in the Bible. Some examples are Deuteronomy 32:27, Job 36:26, Psalm 90:2, and Revelation 22:13.
Genesis 1:1 in particular is quite important: “In the beginning God created the heavens the the earth.” Notice that God is already present and assumed. Even at the beginning of all things, there is never a place in scripture where it talks about God popping into existence. Instead, we get the sense that God’s relation to time is quite different from ours (Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:7), and so it makes sense to view God as outside and above time.
From a logical perspective, everything must have a beginning unless it is eternal. Further, no physical thing comes into existence except by something else which came before it, so the origin of everything must lead back to an eternal something.74Some scientists have pointed out that in quantum physics we have particles popping into existence out of “nothing,” but their “nothing” is a quantum vacuum, which is still something, not a philosophical nothing.Because of this, many people once thought that the universe was our eternally-existing source by which all other created things have their reason for existence. But we have since learned that even the universe had a beginning.75The Law of Entropy and the Big Bang both help to show this. The universe can no longer hold the role of eternally-existing explanation of all other existing things. God can.
This, obviously, is the crucial point of disagreement between Christians and non-Christians. It is easy to see why such a statement would seem so impossible to believe other than by sheer blind acceptance. And for many Christians, that is precisely what it is. But I hope to make very clear that a blind acceptance of things is not my approach to knowledge of any kind, religious or otherwise. We have reasons for trusting in the Bible as God’s message for all humankind other than just-so statements or circular reasoning (“because the Bible says so”).
A person may come to believe that the Bible is God’s message for all Humankind through this logical sequence:
All five of these points would need to be defended without appealing to the Bible as God’s authoritative message77This is necessary so as to avoid circular reasoning. But keep in mind that the Bible can still be examined through a historical perspective. This is especially important for points 2, 3, and 4. If Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are to be found trustworthy, they must be put under scrutiny. In order to put them under scrutiny, you have to know what they say., and they have been.78I have plans to write about this. For now, please refer to books and articles which have been written on this subject. Case for Christ by Lee Strobel is a great introduction to the study. More than a Carpenter or Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh and Sean McDowell are also helpful, or I Don’t have enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. Many more could be mentioned. Since all five points are defensible, we have a logical construction in order to understand the whole of scripture as God’s message for all Humankind.
Subjective statements are relative to the subject. For instance, a cat person might say “Cats are the best!” This is a subjective statement; it is a matter of personal preference.
Objective statements are truth claims about reality, regardless of who or what may be experiencing it, unrelated to personal feelings, opinions, or preferences. To say that the earth is round is an objective truth claim. We may not experience it’s roundness, but that makes no difference. (To say that earth is square is also an objective truth claim, albeit a false one.)
While most Bibles these days contain 66 books, some traditions of Christianity have extra books in their scriptures. The most common of these extra books would be the writings known as the Apocryphal books. These books were written ca. 300 BC-100 AD, and they appear in the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. The inclusion in the Septuagint shows that they were widely used in the Jewish community. However, their acceptance as inspired scripture is not so clear.79See Cross, F. L., and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, eds. Apocrypha. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. There are a number of reasons why the apocryphal writings are not included in most Bibles.
Unger’s Bible Dictionary provides four points of internal evidence80Internal evidence is evidence related to the subject. In this case, we are looking at the text of the apocryphal writings to determine if they should be treated as inspired. for why the apocryphal books are not accepted as inspired books of the Bible (quoted):
Further, Geisler and Nix offer 10 points of external evidence82External evidence is evidence outside of the subject. In this case, we are looking at the historical writings and events concerning the apocryphal writings, but not the apocryphal writings themselves. for why they reject the apocryphal writings as inspired books of the Bible (quoted):
Despite not having the status as inspired, the apocryphal books are still very useful to us today for historical purposes, providing rich insight into the Jewish world around the time of Christ. Often times, the apocryphal books shed light on the contextual setting for the New Testament.
Occasionally, other books not belonging to the apocrypha are argued for being inspired scripture. The Gospel of Thomas is accepted in some circles, as well as Enoch and others. Each of these writings deserve their own treatment. Most of these problems fade when one takes a closer look at how the Bible was formed.
Internal evidence is evidence that is focused on the subject itself. For instance, if we wanted to discover the dating of an ancient book, we could see if the writing style belongs to a particular era or see if the author talked about contemporary events which have definite dates. The other type of evidence is external evidence. This would be evidence outside the book itself. For instance, we could track down all the people to talked about the book and find out the times that they lived in.
External evidence is evidence that is focused outside of the subject. For instance, if we wanted to discover the dating of an ancient book, we could track down all the people to talked about the book and find out the times that they lived in. The other kind of evidence is Internal evidence. This is evidence that is focused on the subject itself. For instance, we could see if the writing style belongs to a particular era or see if the author of the book talked about contemporary events which have definite dates.
Is it self-affirming that some truth can be known. If all truth cannot be known, what about the knowledge that no truth can be known? Does such a person know that to be true?
Many things which people have considered to be true for centuries may not actually be true. This is very possible, and it has happened frequently in our history. However, this cannot be used as a blanket statement for all truth. For instance, we know with absolute certainty that 2+2 is 4. That has never changed and it never will.
Even if we don’t know something with absolute certainty, we can still know something with a certain degree of certainty. For instance, we know that the sun of our solar system is bigger than Earth. We know that people who eat food tend to live longer than those who do not. Now, If you wanted to be absurdly rigid about it, you could say that we don’t really know these things. It may be that in the future we discover some bizarre mechanism in our cosmos which severely distorted our measurements of stars, leading to a new discovery that our Sun is actually smaller than Earth. It may also be that food has actually done nothing to prolong life and it was only a coincidence 8 billion times over that food-eaters happened to live longer than non-food eaters. While it is good to have an open mind about things, it is unrealistic to obsess over every possible alternative to reality no matter how unlikely it may be, and it renders “know” as a useless word. If you think something is true with very high degree of certainty, it’s safe for you to say that you “know” it is true, and it is perfectly sensible to operate your life under such knowledge which is available to you.
To say that “truth is true for everyone, not just those who believe it” can lead to heated disagreement, but almost everyone shares some common ground in this. For instance, if you help a blind person across the street, then you believe that your experience of oncoming traffic is true for you in the same way that it is true for the person you are helping. If you tell someone to meet you at the local café on the corner of 5th ave. and 12th st. at 5:30pm CST, then you assume that your experience of space and time is true for you in the same way that it is true for the person you are scheduling with.
However, there is often disagreement with certain kinds of “truth.” For instance, you may like cats better than dogs. But we understand that not everyone is a cat person. In this case, you may proudly say “Cats are the best!” but someone else may respond by saying “That’s true for you, but not true for me.”
The difference is that one is a matter of fact and another is a matter of opinion. One is objective truth, and the other is subjective truth. Objective truth claims are statements about reality, regardless of who or what may be experiencing it. To say that the earth is round is an objective truth claim. We may not experience it’s roundness, but that makes no difference. (To say that earth is square is also an objective truth claim, albeit a false one.) Subjective truth claims are claims which are relative to the subject. In the example above, “Cats are the best!” is a subjective truth claim. It’s a matter of personal preference. Not all truth is subjective (or “relative,” as is often put.) Anyone who teaches that all truth is subjective is making an objective truth claim about the nature of truth for all the people that he/she is teaching it to. If all truth is really relative, then we would not be trying tell others about it!
To avoid confusion, we believe it is best to reserve the word “truth” for objective truth. This is the kind of truth meant by the statement “truth is true for everyone, and not just those who believe it.” When we disagree over objective truth claims, it is not “your truth and my truth.” It is your belief and my belief. This is especially important to understand when discussing religious truth claims. To say that only Jesus saves is an objective truth claim. We may disagree whether the truth claim is indeed true, but it is objective by nature nonetheless. Although it is noble for people to avoid conflict over trivial matters, it is dangerous to make out important matters as trivial in order to avoid conflict.
This is an example for a shortcode.
The existence of truth is self-affirming. The statement “truth does not exist” is either true or not true. If it is not true, then truth exists. But if it is true, then it is self-contradictory and logically impossible. Anyone who denies the existence of truth is making a truth claim about the non-existence of something.
One may try to work around this by saying that there is no truth except for the truth that there is no truth. Here is an attempt to avoid this logical self-contradiction. But if there really is no truth except for the truth that there is no truth, why bother to make logical sense about anything? Why assume that language has any usefulness to communicate thoughts? A reality without truth is no reality at all. It is impossible.
As thinking people, we constantly operate under what we know to be true. For instance, if you plug stuff into a wall, then you believe it to be true that functional power sockets will provide power for your devices. If you open the door before walking outside, you believe it to be true that your body cannot phase through solid walls. Nobody truly believes that there is no such thing as truth.
The so-called “New Atheist” is an atheist who doesn’t just lack belief in God, but also works to counter and suppress any kind of religious influence in the world, believing that religion is bad for society. Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitches, and Sam Harris are known as the “four horsemen” for New Atheism.
Soteriology (pronounced “so-tear-E-ology”) is the study of the doctrine of salvation.
In logic, a red herring is a distraction, either intentional or not intentional, which avoids the main issue at hand.
When Christians talk about the Bible being inspired, they mean that the Bible was written by human authors who were influenced by the voice of the Holy Spirit. Because of the Holy Spirit’s involvement, we can trust that the Bible, properly understood, is true in all that it says.
The Law of Moses, (Law for short) refers to all of the laws written by Moses for the people of Israel to obey. It is contained in the first five books of the Old Testament (i.e., Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). These fives books are also called the Pentateuch.