First Importance

03/27/2018
|In Uncategorized
|By Robert Cruz Jr.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday June 8, 2017

 

Let’s honestly, intellectually, and unemotionally answer the following question: How do we know that the Bible really is the word of God? How do we know if the Bible truly is divinely inspired? Who validates the Bible? For those of us who believe that the Bible is the infallible word of God, the Bible validates itself. However, in order to validate something, you need someone or something of greater authority to validate it.

 

For most Christians, the problem is that the starting point for their faith is to say, “The Bible says”. The Bible however was never intended to be the starting point of our Christian faith. The starting point for our Christian faith is to ask ourselves, who is Jesus? When we look back in history to the birth of the Christian faith, we find that for the first 250 to 300 years they had no Bibles. What the early Christians had were the laws of God and an historical document we presently refer to as the Old Testament. The starting point for their faith was not “the Bible says” and the starting point for their faith was not even the teachings of Jesus. The starting point for their faith was what Jesus did after He died; the starting point was the resurrection.

 

Jesus’ resurrection was proof that He was like no other man and that He had an authority no other person had ever displayed. Prior to Jesus all people had was the law of God and a lot of hope. What we need however is proof, because proof moves us from I hope so to I know so. Proof moves us from hope to faith. Hope is the desire for something to be true but not having the evidence necessary to prove it to be true. Faith is the desire for something to be true and knowing that it is true because you have the evidence to back it up. “The Bible says” was never intended to be the starting point for our Christian faith. The starting point for our Christian faith is supposed to be the question, who is Jesus?

 

1 Corinthians 15:3-8

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 
– Apostle Paul 

 

Let’s return to my initial question. How do we know that the Bible is the word of God? We know because Jesus validates it. If Jesus is who he says he is, then Jesus has the authority to validate the Bible. Jesus made constant references to the Old Testament not as though it were some mythological or philosophical document but rather as a factual document. Jesus believed in the existence of Adam and Eve, He actually believed that Noah was real and that the flood was a real event, He also believed that a man was swallowed by a large fish and lived inside of its belly for three days. Want to know why I believe the Bible is the actual Word of God? Because Jesus believed that it was.

 

Once you are able to honestly answer the question: who is Jesus? Then you will find the starting point of your faith. Mind you, evidence both religious and secular overwhelmingly suggests that Jesus was and is who he said he is. This is why Jesus is the starting point of the Christian faith.