If Jesus Is Seated At God’s Right Hand, Are There Two Gods?

            Honest seekers, students of the Bible, and the detractors of Historic Christianity seek clarity/answer to the presence of the ascended Lord Jesus at the right hand of God. The detractors ask questions such as, “Jesus ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God. Does God sit next to himself?”¹ Seekers and students of the Bible ponder over the narrative of the ascension and ask whether Historic Christianity teaches the presence of two Gods – one being, God the Father, and the other being, the ascended Lord Jesus.

            The Bible teaches that God raised Christ from the dead and seated Christ at HIS right hand, “That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…” (Ephesians 1: 19b - 20, NIV). This, to any lay reader, would appear as two persons – one being God and the other being Christ.

            Dr. William Lane Craig explains the ascension of the Lord Jesus in his Defenders podcast on the ‘Doctrine of Christ’:²

…when Christ ascends to the Father’s right hand and is exalted, should we conceive of this as a return to his pre-incarnate state or is this exalted state a kind of continuation of the incarnation? The answer to that question is the latter. It is not a return to the pre-incarnate state; rather, Christ always exists from now on in two natures – one human and one divine. That is the lesson of the ascension. Christ did not discard his body and leave it behind. The doctrine of the resurrection is that the same body that was crucified and laid in the tomb was now raised from the dead, gloriously empowered with immortality and incorruptibility and super-human properties, and then ascended into heaven to be exalted to the right hand of God the Father.

So don’t think of the ascension and the exaltation of Christ as an abandonment of his humanity. On the contrary, it is the glorification of his humanity. I think this is a precious lesson to us of the worth and value of our human bodies.[6] …The doctrine of the resurrection and ascension of Christ teaches us that Christ carries his exalted humanity into the eternal state just as we will in the eternal state have human bodies. They will be glorified bodies free from illness, disease, disability, sin, corruption, and mortality, but nevertheless they will be human bodies.

So the…lesson of…the resurrection and ascension is that the incarnation is a permanent condition of the second person of the Trinity, not a merely temporary condition for thirty-odd years to be abandoned by him. Rather it is a permanent incarnation of the second person and therefore an emphasis to us of the value of our material creaturely humanity.

            So this is what we understand. Christ in HIS ascended state exists in HIS state of incarnation with two natures – human and divine.

            Theologian R.C Sproul helps us to understand ‘Christ’s seating at God’s right hand’:³

God’s right hand is the place of “highest favor with God the Father” (WLC, Q&A 54), and the phrase is used throughout Scripture to indicate His power and sovereignty (Ex. 15:6; Isa. 48:13). To say that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father is to say, as John Calvin explains, that “Christ was invested with lordship over heaven and earth, and solemnly entered into possession of the government committed to him — and that he not only entered into possession once for all, but continues in it, until he shall come down on Judgment Day” (Institutes 2.16.15).

In sitting at the right hand of God, Jesus sits on the “throne of his father David” (Luke 1:26–33). He is the Messiah of Israel, “the highest of the kings of the earth” and the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to keep the offspring of David on the throne forever. (Ps. 89:19–37). We are not waiting for Jesus to enter into His messianic reign, He enjoys it now. All of His enemies are being put under His feet as His gospel is preached and His kingdom expands (1 Cor. 15:20–28).

Coram Deo

Even now, Jesus is seated on the throne of His father David at the right hand of God. This means that He is ruler over all and that the kings of the earth rule only according to His sovereign permission. As such, Christ alone is worthy of our highest allegiance, and it is to Him that we must render obedience, even if it means, at times, defying the rulers of this world. Jesus’ kingdom alone is eternal, and His rule is above all others.

            Pastor John Piper explains that when we see Christ, we see God. But this is not in the sense how a photograph represents a person. Christ is to be seen as the radiance of God’s glory:⁴

There are two things that might keep you from entering heaven and enjoying the glory of God and all his works. One is if your sins were not forgiven. The other is if you went out of existence and all the works of God went out of existence. So if you are to have a happy future in God's presence, two great works are needed: a work of purification of sins, and work of preservation of your existence…

If we will learn from Scripture how to see ultimate Reality, we will see that we need Christ not only to make purification for our sins, but also to provide preservation to our souls and our bodies. So Christ is doubly worthy of our dependence and trust and love and worship.

When we see him sitting at the right hand of the Majesty it is not only to honor the work of his purification in saving us, but also to honor the word of his power in preserving us. We owe our purification to him and we owe our being to him…

There are two more phrases in the verse to look at, but they are easily combined, and in fact do go together: "He [Christ] is the radiance of His [God's] glory and the exact representation of His nature." Or, as we saw from the original words: "He, being the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his nature . . . sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

The difference between this qualification for sitting at God's right hand and the other two is that those described what Christ did, while this describes who he is. What he does is "uphold all things by the word of his power," and "make purification of sins" by the worth of his blood. But what is he? Who is he? That's our last question this morning. Who died for sins? Who rose from the dead? Who upholds the universe by the word of his power? Who is sitting at the right hand of God?

The answer is: Christ is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his nature." What does this mean? It's important that we take these two phrases together, because they control each other and keep us on track.

When it says that Christ is the exact representation of God's nature, we are to realize that to see Christ is to see God. Jesus said, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father" (John 14:9). Colossians 1:15 says, "He is the image of the invisible God." To see what God is like, you see what Christ is like.

But that could be taken in an entirely wrong way. Suppose you take it to mean that Christ represents God the way a photograph or a painting represents a person, or the way an authorized letter represents the king, or the way a wax impression represents a golden ring. That would be totally wrong. And the other phrase here is meant to protect us from that misunderstanding. He is the exact representation of God's nature not the way a painting represents a person, but the way radiance represents glory. Verse 3 says, he is "the radiance of God's glory."

An Analogy of Sun and Sunlight

In other words he relates to God the way radiance relates to glory, or the way the rays of sunlight relate to the sun. Keep in mind that every analogy between God and natural things is imperfect and will distort if you press it. Nevertheless, consider for example,

There is no time that the sun exists without the beams of radiance. They cannot be separated. The radiance is co-eternal with the glory. Christ is co-eternal with God the Father.

The radiance is the glory radiating out. It is not essentially different from the glory. Christ is God standing forth as separate but not essentially different from the Father.

Thus the radiance is eternally begotten, as it were, by the glory—not created or made. If you put a solar-activated calculator in the sunlight, numbers appear on the face of the calculator. These, you could say, are created or made by the sun, but they are not what the sun is. But the rays of the sun are an extension of the sun. So Christ is eternally begotten of the Father, but not made or created.

We see the sun by means of seeing the rays of the sun. So we see God the Father by seeing Jesus. The rays of the sun arrive here about eight minutes after they leave the sun, and the round ball of fire that we see in the sky is the image—the exact representation—of the sun; not because it is a painting of the sun, but because it is the sun streaming forth in its radiance.

            While we strive to interpret the Bible, we should understand that the Bible cannot be read and understood literally, all the time. In other words, the Bible cannot be literally interpreted always.

            Christ is not literally seated at God’s right hand. In fact, God does not have a right hand!

            God is an incorporeal being. HE is Spirit. God does not have hands, legs, eyes, and ears as we do. But the authors of the Bible speak of God in anthropomorphic terms. This is to attribute human characteristics to God. Hence, in this instance, God’s right hand does not literally denote the right hand of God.

            Christ seated at God’s right hand is a metaphor that expresses the exaltation of Christ. The right hand symbolizes a position of authority and honor.⁵

            The Bible teaches that Christ rules over everyone and everything because HE is seated at the right hand of God. The right hand of God is a position of power over all other powers, “The right hand of God, therefore, is a reference to both a place of proximity to God the Father and a position of power above all other powers. Jesus the Messiah exists at this right hand of God today, perfectly reigning with God the Father and God the Spirit in community and power.”⁶

            Since God is incorporeal and Christ exists in HIS incarnational state with both natures – the human and the divine, the Bible does not suggest the existence of two Gods. Christ remains the second person of the Blessed Trinity. God’s core divine nature (The Father) is now exercising power through the Son via HIS incarnational state.  

Endnotes:

¹https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/muslim-objections-to-jesus-deity

²https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-1/s1-the-doctrine-of-christ/the-doctrine-of-christ-part-7/

³https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/seated-at-gods-right-hand/

⁴https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/he-sat-down-at-the-right-hand-of-majesty?fbclid=IwAR1TuQy_qJ8f0BjKFYjjxQ6ddtaj-3b4aJRTNWIU1z3blkn5bIbx__v43e0

⁵https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/muslim-objections-to-jesus-deity

⁶https://www.compellingtruth.org/right-hand-of-God.html

Websites last accessed on 31^st January 2019. 

Why Is God Referred To As The Father And Not The Mother?

            God is spirit (John 4:24). HE is neither male nor female. (Male and female are the attributes of the corporeal humans, not the incorporeal God.)

            However, when the Bible reveals God, HE is mostly revealed metaphorically in the masculine and not the feminine. Why?

            Professor Marc Zvi Brettler, the Bernice & Morton Lerner Professor of Judaic Studies at Duke University, and the Dora Golding Professor of Biblical Studies (Emeritus) at Brandeis University offers an explanation from the perspective of the Biblical language, Hebrew:¹

Unlike, e.g., German or Greek, Hebrew has no grammatical neuter gender, so all items must have a grammatical gender of masculine or feminine.  Thus, every item must be assigned either a masculine or feminine grammatical gender—and the particular assignment often seems arbitrary to us.  Thus, for reasons we can no longer understand, a table, שֻׁלְחָן (shulkhan) is masculine, while a bow, קֶשֶׁת (qeshet) is feminine.

Within this framework, YHWH in the Bible is masculine.  Most scholars believe that this is irrelevant, claiming, e.g.:

The grammatical forms for God are masculine and the representations of God are mostly masculine. Although God does use a comparison to a woman in childbirth (Isa 42:14), nonetheless there is a strong scholarly consensus that God is regarded as nonsexual. “If sex must be applied to Israel’s deity, it would be monosex, and this is either an incompleteness or a contradiction in terms.”^[12]

In other words, most scholars suggest that the fact that God is grammatically masculine has no more bearing on the actual gender of God than the fact that table is masculine meant that ancient Israelites viewed tables as masculine and bows as feminine.

Recent linguistic studies, however, show that this is incorrect; grammatical gender does spill over to understandings of real gender.  The same object—let’s say a table, may be marked as masculine and feminine in different languages.  And depending on the language you speak, you will then view tables as either more masculine or feminine!^[13]

Thus, it is far from trivial that when YHWH was referred to in the Bible, YHWH always governs a masculine verb and is described by a masculine adjective.  This grammatical fact derives from a view of YHWH as masculine, and would have reinforced that view.^[14]

            William Lane Craig explains that the metaphor of God as the Heavenly Father portrays both the parental love and the authority of the father in a Jewish household, “Since God is neither male nor female, why does He reveal Himself as Father and Son? In the Old Testament there are passages in which God presents Himself as a mother tenderly caring for her children. But Jesus thought of God as his Heavenly Father and revealed Him as such. In using the metaphor of God the Father, Jesus expresses two attributes of God which would not be so aptly captured by the metaphor of God as a Mother. The metaphor of God as a Heavenly Father captures both the parental love that God has for us and the authority that a father, as the head of the Jewish family, exercises. No other image could express so beautifully this combination of qualities in God.”²

            God is not androgynous (being both male and female). It is incorrect to think of HIM as such. Here’s Professor Marc Zvi Brettler’s explanation:³ 

Genesis 1:27 reads:

וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֶת הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ     God created person in His image;

בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ                  in the image of God did He create him/it

זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃                   male and female did he create them^.[18]

For many readers, this verse suggests that God is male and/or female since people, who are male and female, are created in God’s image.^[19] This interpretation is possible, but far from certain.^[20] Genesis 1:27 is an unusual poetic verse in the Bible.  The basic structure of biblical poetry is the two-part verse (bicolon) where the halves parallel each other.^[21]  Well over 95% of Hebrew poetic verses have this structure—and in it, the two verse-parts are tightly connected (or parallel).^[22]  Gen 1:27, on the other hand, is an infrequent biblical tricolon, and in tricola all three verse parts need not be tightly connected.  Thus, some tricola may be read as a bicolon plus an additional thought.  If this is so here, then the verse may be read as:

            God created person in His image = in the image of God did He create him/it;

            and, in addition, male and female did he create them.

This verse would then have no bearing on God’s gender or sex. Given what we know of the structure of biblical poetry, such a reading is certainly possible, and therefore this verse may not be used to prove that God is both male and female.^[23]  Thus, the constant reference to God using masculine grammatical forms, and the depiction of God as king in the chapter, suggest that this deity was viewed as male and masculine.

            It is also important to learn that God being genderless does not prevent HIM or conflict with HIM inhabiting a male body during incarnation. Here’s William Lane Craig’s answer to such a question:⁴

Hi, Dr. Craig…Most theologians believe God is genderless, but if that is true doesn't that mean a genderless spirit was inhabiting a male body in the incarnation? That seems potentially problematic from an ontological perspective as humans are, of course, male or female. What are your thoughts on the matter?

DR. CRAIG: I am inclined to think that because the Genesis narrative says that God made man in his image – male and female he created them – that men and women alike are created in God's image and that, therefore, God includes in himself the properties that go to make up masculinity and femininity. Therefore, it is not that Jesus would be genderless. He would be a man – he would have a male body – and included in the divinity are the properties that go to make up masculinity that would be represented in him.

            Finally, we should accept God’s revelation in the masculine without trying to dilute this fact:⁵

While God contains all the qualities of both male and female genders, He has chosen to present Himself with an emphasis on masculine qualities of fatherhood, protection, direction, strength, etc. Metaphors used to describe Him in the Bible include: King, Father, Judge, Husband, Master, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One famous Christian scholar, C. S. Lewis, has suggested that gender is far deeper than our human distinctions reveal. He suggests that God is so masculine that we all are feminine in relation to Him. If this is true, it might explain why the church is referred to as the bride of Christ, though it is composed of both men and women.

There are those who would like to blur this emphasis in some of the newer Bible translations, but it is very dangerous to tamper with the way God has chosen to reveal Himself. He most certainly does not intend to minimize women, since men and women are revealed as being made in His image and are of equal value to Him. But it remains that He is Father, not Mother, and even in the Incarnation chose to come to us as a man, Jesus Christ.

Endnotes:

¹https://thetorah.com/the-gender-of-god/

²https://www.reasonablefaith.org/question-answer/P40/why-god-the-father-and-god-the-son

³https://thetorah.com/the-gender-of-god/

⁴https://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/reasonable-faith-podcast/questions-on-god-and-gender-eternal-life-and-the-resurrection/

⁵https://billygraham.org/answer/why-does-the-bible-refer-to-god-in-masculine-terms/

Websites last accessed on 28^th November 2018.

How To Answer Difficult Questions From The Bible?

          A few days ago, a prominent personality posted an apparent contradiction from the Bible on his social media page. He had thousands of ‘likes,’ hundreds of ‘comments’ and ‘shares.’

            This person did not discover a new contradiction from the Bible. He did not ask a question that had the potential to destroy Historic Christianity.

            He merely posted an asked and answered question/contradiction! He asked a question that many have asked before.

            Christian theologians and apologists have answered this apparent contradiction. Hence, there is no need for anyone to lose their faith in Historic Christianity because of this question or similar questions.

            The question he asked was answered decades ago:¹

GENESIS 1:14—HOW COULD THERE BE LIGHT BEFORE THE SUN WAS MADE?

PROBLEM: The sun was not created until the fourth day, yet there was light on the first day (1:3).

SOLUTION: The sun is not the only source of light in the universe. Further, the sun may have existed from the first day, but only appeared or became visible (as the mist cleared) on the fourth day. We see light on a cloudy day, even when we can’t see the sun.

This excerpt is from When Critics Ask: A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992). © 2014 Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe.

            Now, this is what we need to understand.

            Had he genuinely sought an answer to this question as an honest seeker, a simple search on the internet would have yielded him the answer. But no! The actual reason that motivated him to ask this question was to plant seeds of doubts in the minds of naïve Christians.

            How do we respond to such tirades against Historic Christianity? When we encounter such rants against Historic Christianity, do remember that all these questions have been asked and answered reasonably well. So instead of being perplexed, all we need to do is to understand the dynamics of solving an apparent contradiction from the Bible.

            First, what is a Bible difficulty? “A Bible difficulty is an apparent problem posed by the biblical record. It might be called an error, a mistake, a difficulty, a challenge, a contradiction, or any number of other terms. Critics of the Bible are sometimes hostile in their claims that the Bible is "full of contradictions" or "difficulties," but these apparent problems are also brought up by committed Christians wanting to make sense of God's Word,”² says an article posted on the website of the ‘Focus on the Family’ ministry.  

            Second, how do we solve Bible difficulties? The same article says, “Essentially, handling Bible difficulties is a matter of hermeneutics or interpretation (specifically, biblical interpretation). But other factors also come into play when interpreting, such as looking for a reasonable explanation, carefully making comparisons to other passages when necessary, and in general puzzling through possible answers and satisfactory resolutions to apparent problems.

            Theologically liberal approaches to the Bible, on the other hand, often simply accept contradictions as part of a flawed record. But if the Bible is God's Word, and if God is all knowing and all powerful, it stands to reason we should be able to trust the Bible.”³

            This article offers useful tips to handle Bible difficulties:⁴

Here are some tips gleaned from the late Gleason Archer's fine book Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties 1

"Be fully persuaded in your own mind that an adequate explanation exists, even though you have not found it yet." In other words, Archer is accepting the Bible as an accurate, authoritative collection of documents – God's inspired Word. Once a case has been made for this fact, then it stands to reason that the Bible should not contain any serious discrepancies in the manuscript copies. If you come across a Bible difficulty, there should be one or more reasonable explanations for it.

"Carefully study the context and framework of the verse in which the problem arises until you gain some idea of what the verse is intended to mean within its own setting." This is a key point of biblical hermeneutics – the science and art of interpreting the Bible. Context matters significantly. Keep in mind the context of a particular verse in a book, as well as the context given the broader teachings on the subject throughout the entire Bible.

"In the case of parallel passages, the only method that can be justified is harmonization." This helpful tip applies more to the four New Testament Gospels than anywhere else, though there certainly are parallel accounts of historical events in the Old Testament as well. There's no doubt that the Gospels contain various accounts from different perspectives, but these accounts should be able to be reconciled. Critics would not be happy if the four Gospels were identical in their reports of certain events, accusing the authors of collusion. Ironically, however, they aren't happy with the differences either. The best approach is to study the passages and find a way to harmonize them without compromising the essence of the text.

"Consult the best commentaries available, especially those written by Evangelical scholars who believe in the integrity of Scripture." A good commentary is a valuable resource. Many alleged Bible difficulties are addressed in such books. One helpful series is the Expositor's Bible Commentary(Zondervan). With the rise of Bible software, many commentaries are now included in these packages as well.

"Many Bible difficulties result from a minor error on the part of a copyist in the transmission of the text." This is an important point, especially when it comes to apparent numerical discrepancies. While Christians who adhere to inerrancy believe the original Bible manuscripts contained no errors whatsoever, they do grant that copies may contain a small number of errors. These errors or variants, however, do not change any key Christian doctrines.

"Whenever historical accounts of the Bible are called in question on the basis of alleged disagreement with the findings of archaeology or the testimony of ancient non-Hebrew documents, always remember that the Bible is itself an archaeological document of the highest caliber." Again and again throughout history, the archaeological evidence has supported the biblical record, not contradicted it. The evidence is clearly on the side of the Bible. Be wary of the latest news story claiming to debunk some key aspect of Christianity on the basis of recent findings that have yet to be studied in detail by qualified scholars. For more on the archeological evidence for the Bible see The Archaeological Study Bible (Zondervan).

In addition to Archer's helpful tips for handling Bible difficulties, When Critics Ask also offers its share of useful insights. Here's a selection of the advice: 2

"Mistake 1: Assuming that the Unexplained Is Not Explainable." This ties into Archer's advice "that an adequate explanation exists." Be confident that if you encounter a Bible difficulty, there is a reasonable explanation.

"Mistake 2: Presuming the Bible Guilty Until Proven Innocent." This is not treating the biblical text fairly. As with other historical documents, let's grant it the benefit of the doubt unless clear evidence says otherwise.

"Mistake 3: Confusing Our Fallible Interpretations with God's Infallible Revelation." Usually the problem with alleged Bible contradictions and difficulties is with our interpretation, theology, or approach to the text, not with the actual text itself. We make mistakes, but God doesn't.

"Mistake 4: Failing to Understand the Context of the Passage." Again, context is supremely important when handling Bible difficulties. In most cases, a careful reading of the passage(s) in question, in their proper contexts, will resolve apparent difficulties.

"Mistake 5: Neglecting to Interpret Difficult Passages in the Light of Clear Ones." This is a key concept to keep in mind when approaching Bible difficulties that fall into the category of an obscure or particularly challenging passage. We may not be able to completely understand or explain the isolated passage in question, but given the broader context of the Bible and clear teachings on the subject elsewhere, we should be able to come to a good consensus on the matter at hand. A concept known as the perspicuity of Scripture is relevant in such cases. This means that the Bible is clear in essential matters.

            Finally, remember that every difficult question from the Bible has been reasonably answered, “Does the Bible contain some difficult passages? Yes. Are they unresolvable? No. Whenever a critic or sincere believer comes across an alleged Bible difficulty, it has always been answered. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness …" (1 Timothy 3:16, NIV)”⁵

Endnotes:

¹http://defendinginerrancy.com/bible-solutions/Genesis_1.14.php

²https://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/the-study-of-god/how-do-we-know-the-bible-is-true/how-do-i-handle-bible-difficulties

³Ibid.

⁴Ibid.

⁵Ibid.

Websites last accessed on August 21, 2018.

Why Don’t Most Churches Teach The Bible?

           The Bible should be studied, not read. Unless the Bible is studied, its rich content cannot be understood. The Bible is the Word of God; the 66 books that make up the Bible belong to different genres, or types, of text (Narrative, Poetry, Wisdom, Prophecy, Gospels, Epistles, and Apocalypse). One cannot understand poetry as he/she understands a narrative. Hence the need to study the Bible gains greater credibility.  

            Christians’ faith in God and their relationship with God is always consistent with the extent and intensity of their Bible study. It’s more likely that the Christians’ relationship with God be deeper and better if their study of the Bible is rigorous. This is a no-brainer.

            The term ‘churches’ in the title refers only to those churches subscribing to Historic Christianity. Hence, it does not include the postmodern, the liberal, the progressive or the emergent churches. So the title, “Why Don’t Most Churches Teach The Bible?” incriminates only those churches subscribing to Historic Christianity that do not teach the Bible.

            Quite a few churches take great effort to teach the Bible to its members. These churches preach from the Bible and they conduct sincere and intense Bible study programs. Blessed are those who utilize these opportunities to study the Bible. Even those worshipping in such churches are blessed because they have a convenient opportunity to study the Bible.

            However, many churches do not teach the Bible to its members. Hence, those worshipping in these churches are deprived of an opportunity to study the Bible.

Why Don’t Churches Teach The Bible?

            Indifferent Pastor: The pastor is the leader of the church. If the pastor is not keen on teaching the Bible to its members, then, more often than not, the church would not teach the Bible.

            There are many reasons for a pastor to be indifferent towards teaching the Bible. A pastor may not have the time to prepare for the Bible study or he may have other priorities. But the fact remains that he is indifferent to the importance of Bible study, hence his church does not focus on teaching the Bible to its members.

            Institutional Church: If the church remains bogged down in a package of programs, committees, policies, team, ministries, initiatives, budgets and events, then the church may be an institutional church or on its way to being one. There’s nothing different between this church and an organization.

            A church is an institutional church when its primary agenda is in the material, and not in the spiritual. Such a church would not be interested in Bible study since it is not interested in the spiritual growth of its members. Instead, the church would be scrupulously interested in its material growth (number of people attending the church, increased offering, and the likes).

            Ignorant Members: The Bible is filled with unpleasant truths. For instance, the Bible unequivocally states that unless a person believes in Christ, he/she cannot inherit eternal life. But a convenient lie to mask this unpleasant truth is that God saves everyone – those who believe in Christ and those who do not. This convenient lie is the doctrine of universalism or inclusivism.

            There are churches that choose to not preach the unpleasant truths. Instead, they preach the convenient lie. Such a church would rather let its members remain ignorant of the Bible. An ignorant mind cannot distinguish between a lie and the truth so it will accept the convenient lie as the truth. Hence the church leadership will have an easy time preaching the convenient lies.

            Intimacy With Culture: If the church prefers to be intimate with the popular culture, then it will refrain from teaching the Bible. However, the Bible consistently opposes the popular culture.

            If the popular idea is to accept homosexuality, a church that desires to be intimate with the culture would approve and endorse homosexuality. Such a church would not desire to teach the Bible since the Bible is explicit in its condemnation of homosexuality.

What About Small Group Bible Study?

            Some churches promote small groups within their congregation to teach the Bible. How effective are these small groups?

            Small group Bible studies can be very effective if there is a strong leader to lead the Bible study. Any small group will be effective only if the leader excels in teaching the Bible and guiding the Bible study.

            A temptation the devil throws at the small group Bible studies is to morph it into a social group where friendships, business collaborations, and whatnot, are cultivated diligently. Small group Bible studies will always need to fight the good fight to remain a Bible study group instead of morphing into a social outfit.

            Small group Bible study would also do better if it manages its time effectively. Any effective Bible study requires a minimum of 60 minutes to a maximum of 90 minutes per session.

            Bible study should consume the entire 60-90 minutes. Singing, prayer etc. should be outside this time. Anything less than 60-90 minutes for Bible study cannot lead to an effective study.

            The small group Bible study should meet every week. Apart from meeting every week, there should be homework for the participants to keep them engaged in the study during the week.

What If You Are Worshipping In A Church That Does Not Focus On Bible Study?

            Approach your church leadership and request them to begin a Bible study program. If they do not implement your sustained request, then you are probably left without an option but to look out for a private Bible study program or another church. 

Biblical Illiteracy Is Hurting Christians Big Time

            Almost every Christian home owns a Bible, but how many Christians actually read the Bible? Statistics reveal very poor results! Majority of Christians do not read their Bible.

            It seems Christians do not have an urge or a desire to read the Bible. That deep desire to read and study the Bible seems to be lost in time.

            Here’s another perspective. If a lay Christian is in conversation with his Muslim friend about Jesus, it is exceedingly possible that the Muslim friend knows more about the Bible than the Christian. This is the plight of Christians today.

            An article in Christianity Today, authored by Ed Stetzer, emphasizes the problem of biblical illiteracy with facts:¹

Christians claim to believe the Bible is God's Word. We claim it's God's divinely inspired, inerrant message to us. Yet despite this, we aren't reading it. A recent LifeWay Research study found only 45 percent of those who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once a week. Over 40 percent of the people attending read their Bible occasionally, maybe once or twice a month. Almost 1 in 5 churchgoers say they never read the Bible—essentially the same number who read it every day.

Because we don't read God's Word, it follows that we don't know it. To understand the effects, we can look to statistics of another Western country: the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom Bible Society surveyed British children and found many could not identify common Bible stories. When given a list of stories, almost 1 in 3 didn't choose the Nativity as part of the Bible and over half (59 percent) didn't know that Jonah being swallowed by the great fish is in the Bible.

British parents didn't do much better. Around 30 percent of parents don't know Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, or the Good Samaritan are in the Bible. To make matters worse, 27 percent think Superman is or might be a biblical story. More than 1 in 3 believes the same about Harry Potter. And more than half (54 percent) believe The Hunger Games is or might be a story from the Bible.

            Biblical illiteracy is an epidemic that continues to soar. It is not limited to the USA or UK. This is a worldwide phenomenon. Biblical illiteracy may even be prevalent in our homes.

            Why should we read the Bible? If we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, then as God’s people, we ought to know God’s Word. Significantly, God has commanded us to learn HIS Word.

            Today, we have unlimited access to the Bible, yet we do not read it. An article from Biola University reveals why we should read the Bible:²

In the book of Amos, people who experienced a “famine of hearing the words of the Lord” are portrayed as undergoing divine judgment. Amos paints a picture of people without access to God’s revelation searching for a message from God like desperate people — hungry and dehydrated — in search of food and water (Amos 8:11–12). In Amos they want it, but are not permitted it. In our case, although we have unlimited access, we often don’t want it…

When God commissioned Joshua (the son of Nun), he charged him with these words: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it” (Josh. 1:8). How often should you meditate on it? Day and night. Why? So that you do what is in it.

The Old Testament book of Psalms leads off with these words:

          Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (Ps. 1:1–3)

And in another psalm: “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97). Have you ever wondered how it could be his meditation all the day? The psalmist didn’t have the Bible on his smart phone. Did he carry around a big scroll under his arm? No, he had memorized the passages he was meditating on and was thinking about them. He had committed large sections of the Bible to memory…

Are you aware that the New Testament authors included in their writings more than 300 direct quotations from the Old Testament writers — not counting hundreds of other allusions and echoes of Old Testament language? There is no evidence that any of these authors actually looked up the references as they wrote. They simply knew their Bibles — that is, the parts of the Bible that had already been written. How did they come to know it so well? They worked on it “day and night.” They saturated themselves in it. (Emphasis Mine).

            What are the effects of Biblical illiteracy? Ed Stetzer says that those who do not read the Bible could easily be deceived by the plethora of false doctrines that are in vogue today, “…Our lack of biblical literacy has led to a lack of biblical doctrine. LifeWay Research found that while 67 percent of Americans believe heaven is a real place, 45 percent believe there are many ways to get there—including 1 in 5 evangelical Christians. More than half of evangelicals (59 percent) believe the Holy Spirit is a force and not a personal being—in contrast to the orthodox biblical teaching of the Trinity being three Persons in one God. As a whole, Americans, including many Christians, hold unbiblical views on hell, sin, salvation, Jesus, humanity, and the Bible itself.”³

            If we do not know the biblical doctrine, we could believe in any false doctrine as if it were the biblical doctrine. The danger of not knowing the truth is that we could believe in falsehood as if it were the truth. Truth cannot contain even a speck of falsehood in it. But falsehood could have one or more strands of the truth. However, falsehood will remain a falsehood despite the presence of one or more strands of the truth.

            How could we recognize a false doctrine when we are oblivious to the truth? Unless the truth is in us, we can never identify a false doctrine. If we do not read the Bible, we would not know the truth. This is the primary reason why so many Christians believe in false doctrines. 

            What are the churches doing? Churches are one of the most significant reasons for this debacle says Albert Mohler, “Christians who lack biblical knowledge are the products of churches that marginalize biblical knowledge. Bible teaching now often accounts for only a diminishing fraction of the local congregation’s time and attention. The move to small group ministry has certainly increased opportunities for fellowship, but many of these groups never get beyond superficial Bible study.

            Youth ministries are asked to fix problems, provide entertainment, and keep kids busy. How many local-church youth programs actually produce substantial Bible knowledge in young people?

            Even the pulpit has been sidelined in many congregations. Preaching has taken a back seat to other concerns in corporate worship. The centrality of biblical preaching to the formation of disciples is lost, and Christian ignorance leads to Christian indolence and worse.” (Emphasis Mine).⁴

            How do we overcome this biblical illiteracy epidemic? Those who haven’t read the Bible tend to think that Sodom and Gomorrah were a married couple! Unless we read the Bible, we cannot think and believe in the truth.

            Albert Mohler believes that the ball is in our court i.e. the Christian’s court:⁵

This really is our problem, and it is up to this generation of Christians to reverse course. Recovery starts at home. Parents are to be the first and most important educators of their own children, diligently teaching them the Word of God. [See Deuteronomy 6:4-9.] Parents cannot franchise their responsibility to the congregation, no matter how faithful and biblical it may be. God assigned parents this non-negotiable responsibility, and children must see their Christian parents as teachers and fellow students of God’s Word.

Churches must recover the centrality and urgency of biblical teaching and preaching, and refuse to sideline the teaching ministry of the preacher. Pastors and churches too busy–or too distracted–to make biblical knowledge a central aim of ministry will produce believers who simply do not know enough to be faithful disciples.

We will not believe more than we know, and we will not live higher than our beliefs. The many fronts of Christian compromise in this generation can be directly traced to biblical illiteracy in the pews and the absence of biblical preaching and teaching in our homes and churches.

This generation must get deadly serious about the problem of biblical illiteracy, or a frighteningly large number of Americans–Christians included–will go on thinking that Sodom and Gomorrah lived happily ever after.

            Finally and more importantly, let’s not blame our parents or our churches for not teaching us the Bible. Let’s blame ourselves.

            Unless we have a great love and a burning desire to read and study the Bible, we would not listen to our parents or our church leaders, even if they teach us the Bible. If we do not read our Bible, our love for the Lord our God is seriously lacking. So if we do not read the Bible, then let us repent of our sin and begin to read and study God’s Word.

Endnotes:

¹https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/july/epidemic-of-bible-illiteracy-in-our-churches.html

²http://magazine.biola.edu/article/14-spring/the-crisis-of-biblical-illiteracy/

³https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/july/epidemic-of-bible-illiteracy-in-our-churches.html

⁴https://albertmohler.com/2016/01/20/the-scandal-of-biblical-illiteracy-its-our-problem-4/

⁵Ibid.

Why Believe The Bible?

            Have you ever wondered or has anyone asked you why you believe the Bible? This fundamental question requires an answer from every Christian.

            Christians believe that the Bible is the only authentic word of God – divinely inspired, inerrant and infallible. There are also the so-called Christians who believe in Christ but they do not believe the Bible entirely. These are not Christians, for Christ is revealed in the Bible as a whole, and partial belief in the Bible is not a belief at all.  

            Beware of savage beasts from within, prowling to maul gullible and naïve Christians. As a conservative Christian, if you believe the Bible to be divinely inspired, inerrant and infallible word of God or if you believe in “sola scriptura” (Scripture alone), you are then a prey to these savage beasts a.k.a. the asinine postmodern / liberal Christians, who would blissfully brand you as a Bibliolater. 

            Bibliolatry alludes to the worship of Bible. But well-meaning Christians do not worship the Bible. They worship the God of the Bible.

            Given this backdrop, here are a few reasons to believe the Bible as divinely inspired, inerrant and infallible Word of God.

Entailments Of Divine Revelation

            God should reveal HIMSELF to man, for the finite man to comprehend the infinite God. Nature reveals God’s existence. But God ought to reveal HIS attributes, mind, and salvific plan to man.

            God’s revelation to man should reach the many generations of mankind. So God chose the print / written mode over the oral transmission to reach out to mankind.

            The written mode demands a timeframe for the revelation to begin and end. God’s self-revelation need not be ongoing since God is immutable (God is changeless). Thus a onetime revelation from God was adequate.

            Evidently, the written mode of transmission required men to write about God. So, human authorship was necessary. This entails God’s self-revelation to human authors, who then would communicate their knowledge of God to fellow mankind. Therefore, divine inspiration of God’s Word is an entailment of divine revelation.

            Since God is perfect and cannot lie, the divinely inspired Word of God ought to be inerrant and infallible. Since man is fallible, errors could creep into his comprehension and communication. So the sovereign God should prevail upon human authors to ensure truthfulness of HIS Word. Consequently, inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible are corollaries of divine inspiration.

            Succinctly stating, God who ought to reveal HIMSELF to HIS creation deployed human authorship and written mode of communication to transmit HIS onetime revelation to mankind. Divine revelation thus entails divine inspiration, inerrancy and infallibility. 

The Only Credible Salvific Plan

            Why believe the Bible over other religious documents?

            Every worldview ought to answer four basic questions of life: origin, meaning, morality, and destiny.¹ The Bible offers the most convincing answer to these questions:

            Origin (Where did I come from?): God creates man.

            Meaning (What’s the purpose of my life?): Man is to know, enjoy, and glorify God always.

            Morality (How do I define right from wrong?): Christians obey God’s commands to do the right.

            Destiny (What happens to me when I die?): Those who believe in Christ will be with God in heaven forever.

            The central theme of the Bible is the Lord Jesus Christ – the Savior of those who believe in HIM. The Old Testament prophesies about Christ and the New Testament reveals Christ.

            The perfect atoning sacrifice and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ to the benefit of all who would believe in HIM is the keystone Christian teaching on mankind’s salvation. Christ’s sacrifice negates “salvation by works” principle (salvation of man through his good works) propagated by many leading religions.

            The biblical assertion of man being inherently evil and a perennial sinner is inconsistent with “salvation by works” doctrine. Hence, man, who by nature has a propensity to do evil, ought to be saved by the grace of God manifested through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. So a man who repents, believes in Christ and remains in HIM is eternally saved.

            Salvation is only through Christ, not through any other means, says the Bible. Those who believe in the Bible believe only in the Lord Jesus Christ.          

Internal Evidence

            The Bible claims to be God’s Word (2 Timothy 3: 16-17). The Bible claims to infallibly reveal the very words and mind of God. There are 3000 inferences of divine authority in the Bible.

            There is a fascinating unity and consistency without any contradiction between the 66 books of the Bible written by 40 authors of varying backgrounds and locations in 3 languages over 1500 years.

            The Lord Jesus affirmed the Old Testament (Matthew 5: 17-18) and fulfilled 300++ prophecies from the Old Testament.

            Almost 2500 prophecies are in the Bible, about 2000 of which have already been fulfilled e.g. prediction of Daniel 2 about the next three world empires. The odds for the fulfillment of these prophecies by chance and without error are less than one in 10²⁰⁰⁰⁰ (1 with 2000 zeros written after it).²

External Evidence

            Archaeological discoveries continuously validate the Bible (discovery of Hittite empire, house of Nebuchadnezzar, inscription of King David’s reign etc.).

            Historicity of Jesus Christ was affirmed by Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus, Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, and by other sources (Thallus - The Samaritan-born historian, Pliny the younger, Lucian of Samosata, Suetonius, Mara Bar-Serpaion and Talmud citations). So Christ did exist.  

            Moreover, historical evidence for Christ’s resurrection – the bedrock of Christianity – is overwhelming.³

Contradictions in Bible?

            The detractors of Historic Christianity appeal to the alleged contradictions in the Bible. However, Christian scholars have debunked every alleged contradiction with highly reasonable explanations.

            When the infinite God communicates with the finite man, God uses the language of man [with its innate limitations] to communicate to the mind of the man [that is sufficiently inadequate to comprehend an infinite God]. That which God created was good in its creational intent but not perfect. Hence, both the mind and the language of man are imperfect in their creational architecture.

            These imperfections are sufficient to misunderstand divine truths. The only means to comprehend divine truths is to possess an open, humble, and a submissive mind. Man, by submitting to God, should ceaselessly strive to understand God’s words.

Power to Change Lives

            God’s Word changes lives, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4: 12, NIV).

            God, through HIS Word, changes the life of every man who believes in HIM. When man offers his life to Christ, he is a new creation – a changed person. A believer’s eternal status changes from death to life in Christ.

            To conclude, the key to a successful Christian life is to remain in Christ and grow in HIM. Outside of prayer, reading and studying the Bible is the only other means to grow in Christ. Those who believe the Bible as God’s authentic word will read and study it to grow and remain in Christ forever so to eternally secure their life.

Endnotes:

¹ https://vimeo.com/47662226

² http://www.reasons.org/articles/articles/fulfilled-prophecy-evidence-for-the-reliability-of-the-bible

³ http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/historical-evidence-for-the-resurrection