Monday, February 1, 2010

Why Do I Bring up the Bible so Often?

Anyone who reads my blog knows that I bring up the Bible quite often. A quick glance at the archives shows that almost half of the posts I've written are tagged with the word scripture. I use that tag whenever I reference or talk about the Bible.

It should be obvious that I personally believe that the Bible's message is relevant even today. I believe that people should try to understand the message of the Bible and apply it to their lives, but not everyone thinks the way I do. I know that not everyone who reads this blog shares my beliefs about scripture. So why do I reference the Bible so often?

I talk about the Bible because I want to provide my readers with a fair presentation of the Christian faith. The Bible is accepted as an authoritative text by nearly every Christian tradition. I use scripture to show people how the arguments I'm making fit in with the Christian belief system.

I want to offer people a fair presentation of Christianity because, unfortunately, the religion is often misrepresented. A recent example would be Pat Robertson's remarks about Haiti. I don't like to see people get taken in by these deceptions. I want people to understand what the Bible actually teaches.

I want Christians to understand what the Bible teaches so they can put it into practice. I also want them to understand what the Bible teaches so that they won't be confused by bad preaching or deceived by preachers who have their own agenda.

I want non-christians to understand what the Bible teaches so that they can be more informed. I'm especially concerned for people who have decided to reject Christianity based on bad information. Like most Christians, I hope that someday everyone reading this will come to believe, as I do, that Jesus is the Son of God who paid the ultimate price so that we too could be called sons and daughters of God.

I know it's foolish to hope that the people reading this will all decide to convert based on my presentation of the gospel. I still do hope for that, but I know it is foolish. In any case, I hope that the people reading this will at least be able to make a more informed decision about Christianity. If people hear a fair presentation of Christianity and make an informed decision to reject it, that's better than if they reject it based on a lie.

Thank you for reading this blog. Thank you for hearing me out. Please feel free to let me know what you think. I'd love to hear it.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Jimmy,

    Thanks for keeping up this blog, it is always interesting. I have some general comments, if you would like some feedback.

    I would say that the entry you wrote on the Holy Spirit was the only one that put me off. I was glad that you followed up with a sort of apology later. The Holy Spirit always seemed to me to be the oddball of the Trinity. Presbyterians generally don't emphasize this aspect of the Trinity, although they do believe in it, of course.

    Anyway, if you want to talk about this topic some more, you might want to think about how to best approach it. Especially if you want to reach an audience that is basically materialistic in philosophy.

    One other suggestion for your future columns. I notice that you like to talk about the big issues of philosophy, and I find these things interesting too. But you might want to occasionally talk about more mundane topics, such as how your faith affects your daily life.

    Jim

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  2. Hi dad,

    Thanks for the feedback.

    Yeah, the Holy Spirit is kind of a difficult subject to tackle, especially in the Western (ie Protestant and Roman Catholic) church. The Western church tends to rely too much on the authority of the church or the authority of scripture rather than being lead by the Holy Spirit. That's starting to change, but change takes time.

    Also, I appreciate your advice about talking about mundane topics. Crystal says the same thing. I've already written this week's post, but I'll keep that in mind for future posts.

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