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Can I trust the Bible? The bible is one of the most historically accurate documents ever recorded. Unlike other religious manuscripts, scripture is supported by many ancient historical documents and is often looked to as a historical standard. Specifically looking at the life of Jesus, we see that the accounts of his life, miracles and resurrection are supported by over 500 eye witness accounts and a variety of other documentation. Scholars look to the number of remaining original manuscripts to test its authenticity, for example Aristotle has 49 original manuscripts, Plato has 7, the Iliad has 643… meanwhile the Bible has 5,600 original manuscripts! How you respond to scripture is entirely up to you, but you can be completely confident that it is authentic and accurate! Can I trust science and God? Science is the study of everything that exists. Science studies the smallest molecules, the biggest planets and everything in-‐between. The goal of science is to understand how everything works, to see the world more clearly. Genesis makes it clear that God created everything! That means that science is the study of God’s creation. When we understand Gods creation more clearly, we actually have a better understanding of God. Think about it this way… Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso all have unique styles to their artwork. While none of us have ever met one of these artists, we can identify their artwork simply by studying their style! It’s the same with God, when we start to understand his brush strokes and his style, we start to see Him everywhere we go! Did God Create the Earth in six Days? The real answer to this question is… We don’t know! But here is what we do know from scripture… 1. God created the heavens and the earth. 2. God created humans differently that everything else (compare Gen 1:24 and 26). 3. God made humans in His image. 4. Genesis 1-‐3 is written in a form of Hebrew poetry not narrative, but the poetic language is lost in translation (similar to Psalms). 5. The Hebrew word for day is Yom which is used throughout scripture to denote a variety of different periods of time (Also God didn’t Create the sun and moon until the 4th day). So… God may have created the earth in six days, however given the structure and nuance of the creation account, He may have taken a longer time to do so. The important truth to understand is that God created it, and He set us apart to care for it! IS JESUS THE ONLY WAY? C.S. Lewis proposed that Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. In John 14:6 Jesus clearly states that He is the only way to heaven, so we can take this statement in one of three ways. 1. Jesus is a Liar, he knowingly led thousands (and in turn millions) of people astray. He knew he wasn’t God, yet he tricked his followers into believing he was in order to have fame and popularity… This seems unlikely, as his life and ministry led to his gruesome death, and even in Pilate’s court room he refused to deny his identity and instead went to the cross. 2. The second is that Jesus must have been a lunatic. He actually thought he was God and so he clung to his delusion even in the face of death. This also seems unlikely given the crowds of people that endured suffering to follow him, the miracles that backed up what he was saying, and the attention he received from political and religious leaders 3. So, then the final assumption must be that He was telling the truth and that He is indeed Lord. If this is the case then we must take Him at His word and recognize that his atonement for our sin is the only way to heaven. Why do bad things Happen? Often times we view sin as a decision. Basically, that each of us has the choice to sin or not to sin and that the impact of that sin affects us and only us. But if we think about it a little more deeply it is pretty clear that sin impacts others too. If I choose to hit my brother, he experiences pain. Did my brother sin causing him to experience suffering? No, but his suffering was a direct result of my sin. Well this principal carries on into much larger issues of sin, school shootings, war, slavery etc. those experiencing suffering are the victims of the impact of sin. One thing we know about God… He hates sin (Proverbs 6:16-‐19)! He allows sin, because he loves us… If God didn’t let us choose to sin or to follow him, then he would be forcing us to love Him too! Well, what about natural disaster? Another misconception about sin is that it only impacts humans. Genesis 3:17-‐19 tells us that the result of the first sin was a curse upon all of creation, God tells Adam that his sin has caused thorns to spring up from the ground and death to rule over all of the creatures. You see sin is like an infection that humans have brought into Gods perfect world. It is not God who allows bad things to happen, but sin which fills the world with suffering.
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