Thursday, October 30, 2014

8 Things Your Pastor Will Never Tell You About the Bible (Or some such nonsense)

Disturbing is the only word I have for it. I stumbled across an article written by an atheist who is a former Methodist minister. It listed several things that the author says your pastor won’t tell you about the Bible. Things like “Unlike Luke and Matthew, Paul didn’t believe in the virgin birth of Jesus.” Really?! Where did this guy get that? He gets it from Romans 1:3-4. The rest were of a similar nature, so let’s look at this one and not waste our time on the rest.

Consider what Paul is saying in Romans 1:3-4. “Declared to be the Son of God…by the resurrection of the dead.” Amazing! You tell me; which more clearly reveals that Jesus is the Son of God, that he was born to a woman who knew no man or that he rose from the dead? That fact that the resurrection of the dead is mentioned here is not evidence that Paul didn’t believe in the virgin birth. If Paul didn’t, then why did Luke? Luke was one of Paul’s closest friends and traveling companions. Based on what we know of Paul, if Luke was teaching something that Paul believed was heresy, they would’ve had a falling out.

What I find disturbing is that atheists are grasping at reasons not to believe the Bible. If this were any other book and they found something that didn’t quite match up from one chapter to the next, they would dismiss it as a simple mistake and accept that it didn’t invalidate the primary truth of the book. The Bible is different because they can’t find stuff like that. Instead, they have to fabricate things by taking verses out of context or by drawing upon assumptions that aren’t supported by the events.

I wish there was something we could do to wake them up and show them what they are doing. If they could just see how weak their arguments are. But they don’t see. Until the Holy Spirit shines his light into their hearts, they won’t be able to see. And the bad thing is that some have had the opportunity to see, but they have rejected God. I pray that it is not too late for them.