4a) Some Spin-off Questions about the Bible:
If we believe that this Bible is the Word of God, then we should take it seriously. Why is it here? One point made earlier is that with the Scientific Method we can observe processes in action and fit equations to them to predict their behavior. However, we can't determine the reason for the primordial origin of these observable processes by studying them. Since we were not there, we need the designer to tell us why He did it. As such, we have always looked to the Bible as this source of Devine revelation.
What does the Bible tell us about the Thinker's plans? Well, although fundamental Calvinists would disagree, it says that we have "free will" and it invites us to choose between "life" (ie everlasting life) and death (ie immediate gratification perhaps, but followed by everlasting non-existence). It encourages us to "Trust the Thinker" and not the many alternatives that offer tempting but temporary gratification. This was the example demonstrated by Christ the human. He prayed constantly and thus maintained a deep personal relationship with the Thinker. Hence He was able to ask anything in the Thinker's name and eventually get it. In the longer run, He was given a glorified body, which made everlasting life realistic and exciting. He says we can do likewise, but that requires trust. Then again, who are you going to trust, if not the Thinker? This suggests some spin-off questions.
If as we say here, the Bible is the Word of God, how can we assure ourselves that we are interpreting it correctly? It was recorded thousands of years ago in another language, in another context, and the physical world we now live in was not even imagined by those human writers.
- The first constraint would
clearly be to assemble all the texts in the Bible on a given subject and review
them together, to minimize the room for out of context errors.
- Next, remember that the perspective of God is from outside our timeline. He alone sees our end from our beginning, predicting events
in the Story of Mankind 100% accurately. He may not predict the fate of His
free will beings, because He is leaving options open for the individual to
choose from. However, He does
provide us with landmarks in the Story of Mankind, for which He is certain of
the outcomes. We use
these landmarks to identify the events in our timeline by key historical
happenings that no historian would miss, eg the rise and fall of major empires.
- God deals with His created beings in this world. The Old Testament is
faithfully recorded by the Israelite nation, acting as His timekeeper. By their
writings we can verify that what was said in the past has happened. Likewise,
we have other written and archeological historical records since the death of
Christ, which continue to verify this.
Nevertheless, the action centers around the subject people. Throughout the time when the Bible was recorded, these Israelites were living in and around the Mediterranean Sea, so those empires that affect them are mentioned as well: Egyptian, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians/Medes, Greek, Roman, and Holy Roman. The masses living in China, India, were initially having no direct influence on them. However, in the prophetic books such as Daniel and Revelation, the rest of the world eventually does enter into the equation. This process begins with the command to preach the Word to the Gentiles and to the whole world. In the "End Times" it is clear that those who follow the Word of God are oppressed by a composite of what had been the "Eastern Arts". It had always manifested itself in the pagan Church-State Religions, but in the end times, Spiritualism forces are unveiled and overtly persecuting those that follow the commandments of God and keep the testimony of Christ, on the global scale.
-
I contend that God's purpose in the Bible is to show us the
way to everlasting life. It contains historical data and predictions about
future events, but only to make the points that all the information is from the
Creator/Source and thus accurate. The bottom line is that in this life, we must
learn to trust God and not the many alternatives, or we will surely die. This
message is communicated by stories that are set in the context of the time, yet
dealing with situations we can still relate to today (eg Farmers, Wars, Death
and Sickness, Greed and Pride, Personal Sacrifices, Poor Values, Poor &
Rich People, Love, ...). Above all, these stories illustrate how trusting in
the Thinker to follow through on His word is the right idea. His promise is to
give us everlasting life - not now, but in His own time. It could take a
million years to get it, but after we have it the wait will seem like nothing,
in eternity.
- You might well ask why God doesn't just give everyone everlasting life
immediately. Why is there a drama unfolding here in this universe, and why is
it possible for some of us to never get this gift of everlasting life? This is
the subject of Chapter 6 – the
Eternal Gospel.
- The Bible indicates that this world is about a choice we have to make.
"I lay before you two choices, Life and Death, choose Life." Deut
30:18-20. "Sin" is the consequence of choices we make for immediate
gratification, when we know it will be an impediment to receiving everlasting
life. By those choices we determine if we want to be the kind of people that
God will continue to think about or not. I believe this need to make a choice
would apply to every thinking, free-willed being that God has ever created as
well as it applies to us humans.
20 August 2001, updated 15 November 2001
For more on this and a response to any questions, please email any comments to nasamike@nasamike.com