Introduction
The rational support for the assumed existence of God and the rational support for one’s faith is good.
Why is the Bible inspired?
Because the principal cause of religious unbelief is a valid crisis in valid authority. It starts from one’s beliefs in saying that the Bible is infallible and the rejection or acceptance of that statement. There are some believers that think that some of the Bible are not inspired. For example, ‘the woman’s role in the church’.
Is the Bible trustworthy?
The division is caused in the religious world because of the attitude towards the Bible. The consequences of losing a high regard for the scripture have many consequences. One of them is people deny God and religion. Denial of faith. One of the other consequences is, that if the scriptures are not inspired they look for something else.
Another consequence is the start of a new religion. Another consequence is rejection of an absolute standard. Another consequence is moral and spiritual anarchy.
When an absolute standard is removed, this is where everything and anything goes. ‘Licentiousness’. This happens because people have taken away the absolute standards. All that is in the Bible, especially the New Testament depends on revelation.
All the Bible writers had a sense of revelation. That God had revealed things to them and they transmitted these things to other people and the Bible writers saw and believed that God made his final revelation in Christ.
The Bible writers state revelation and they simply excepted it. They did not go into what revelation was. But they also transmitted it to others and that’s why we have Revelation 21:19-20 ‘Do not add to it or take any out of it.’
They never tried to explain inspiration and passed that on to other people. We are talking about authority. Faith is a very important aspect of it.
We don’t have revelation today, so we need to know what it is and how it came about. Everyone has a religion of some source and the end result is faith of that person. Many religions are based on the assumed existence of their god or gods and this conclusion is based on faith sensory perception. God cannot be put under a microscope, you can’t behold him physically and so because of those 2 things, the common accusation is that God is non-scientific and non-rational.
Our faith in God and in the Bible can be supported by several senses. The sense of logic, a sense of the right way of thinking and the sense of logic are excepted by even the best of them. ‘Mathematicians’. Inadequate reasons for believing in God and the Bible. Some reasons do not convince the believers and do not always stand the test when tested.
If the reasons are unsatisfactory etc., what happens to that person? They are not convinced. There’s nothing wrong with these but they are not enough.
1. Some believe in God because they were taught to by their parents or friends. When kids grow up their faith is tested but they need to know the correct answers.
Tradition doesn’t prove anything. Tradition of the world and the tradition of the scriptures.
2. It is necessary to get the source of traditions. Unless we can show that God said it, it has no value, the church itself is not the authority.
Honesty is the best policy. This is why I believe the things I do. Is the source, the truth and if it is, it will be proven to be true. We believe that God has to be the source of truth and simply passed that information on.
3. Circular reasoning will not convince anybody. Catch 22 situations.
What is the source?
The Bible assumes the existence of God but it doesn’t set out to prove that God exists. Proving the existence of God will prove that the Bible is reliable.
4. We can’t depend on personal feelings or subjective feelings. Most people believe that there are someone supreme and feelings can be deceptive and also feelings can be taught.
The fact is that knowledge must precede feelings because feelings can change and feelings must be the result of knowledge, Proverbs 12:15 / Proverbs 14:12 / Proverbs 28:26.
Feelings are not a good test of things. Unless they are told there is a standard, their feelings can lead them to destruction. So, a proper approach to the question of the existence of God is to be willing to take an adjective and look at the evidence for and against it. Often study is subjective. We study to support what we already believe. Socrates said, ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. ‘The unexamined faith is not worth having’.
There are several passages
The Bereans were not afraid to examine, Acts 17:11.
God expects us to examine things for ourselves, 2 Timothy 2:15.
We need to be ready to give an answer, 1 Peter 3:15.
Examine ourselves / to test ourselves. Holding to the faith, 2 Corinthians 13:5.
There are 2 sources of evidence that you must consider when approaching the question of the existence of God because truth has nothing to fear.
1. The 1st source is nature. God works in His creation. The existence of the universe shows creative work and proves the necessity of a creator. Psalm 19:1-6.
2. The 2nd source is the Bible. We believe that it is the creator’s revelation of himself in human language. Psalm 19:7-11 / 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
1. We need to use our own reasoning power. Mental industry. No man can be an authority for what you believe.
You must come to your own conclusions.
