From time to time we will examine challenging Bible verses, verses that can challenge our trust in the Bible. The first one in this series will be Matthew 7:1, "Do not judge," which is almost certainly the most well known verse in all of the Bible in our nation today.
How does this verse challenge trusting the Bible? Their are two reasons. First, it is not understood correctly. Second, it is applied inconsistently. Here is an example of what I mean. If a Christian and a liberal atheist are talking about politics, and the Christian says that he sees global warming as a real threat to the well being of our children, and that the government should take much stronger action to force people and companies to make changes to their lifestyle in order to fix the problem, the liberal atheist is likely to nod his head and agree. But if the same Christian then says that he believes abortion is the killing of a human being, is wrong, and should be stopped, suddenly the atheist may stop him by saying, "Doesn't the Bible say, 'Do not judge?'"
This type of argument, which is repeated over and over again, illustrates the two problems with how this verse is used. First, it is not using it the way Jesus intended at all, as we shall soon see. Second, it is used selectively, only when it is helpful in silencing a biblical position that someone disagrees with. It puts different biblical statements against each other. It suggests that, while the Bible may teach that all human life is valuable and worth protecting, the Bible also says, "Do not judge," and everyone has to pick which biblical principle to follow, and which to ignore. It is really an argument that the Bible cannot be trusted, that our own judgement must be used to evaluate which parts of the Bible to keep, and which ones to throw out.
Jesus gave this command in the context of a culture that was very different from our own. Our culture views judging as expressing a different belief on a moral issue, or that you think someone was wrong to do something, even if they disagree. In our culture this is one of the only things that it is acceptable to condemn someone for doing. It is not okay to judge, but it is okay to judge someone for judging. Therefore, many people assume Jesus is agreeing with them when Jesus says, "Do not judge."
However, in Jesus day, judging did not have anything to do with differences of moral beliefs. There were different interpretations of the Bible, but Jewish leaders agreed that morality was based on the Bible and there really was a right and a wrong. They enjoyed debating these things! Jesus himself taught all sorts of moral principles. He taught that adultery was wrong, because the Law of Moses said so. But not only that, he taught that looking at a woman with lust was adultery of the heart. A sin because of the wrong thoughts, even if the act was not committed. He did this in part to prove to everyone that we have all sinned and need a Savior.
In fact, in Matthew 7:15, Jesus warns people to "Watch out for false prophets!" That comes just after his command not to judge earlier in the chapter. Here he calls on people to listen carefully to what teachers say and determine that some are false teachers because they differ from the Scriptures. Was Jesus breaking his own rule to not judge, certainly not!
No, when Jesus talks about judging, he is talking about hypocrisy. He is teaching against having an attitude of superiority over others, when you yourself sin in the same or similar ways. Here is the whole verse:
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. (Matthew 7:1-5, NIV)
Notice verse five. The offender of his command is a "hypocrite." He does not say that someone should not seek to remove a speck from a brother's eye, he says that he should not do so while there is a plank in his own eye! In fact, Jesus is the one who encourages us to point out faults in others, it is the Great Commission. In Matthew 28:19-20, just before Jesus leaves his disciples to go to heaven, he commands them (and therefore all who claim to be followers of Jesus) to go to all nations and "teach them to obey everything I have commanded you." A Christian is supposed to help people see and understand the commands of Jesus.
What Christians are not supposed to do, according to Matthew 7:1, is to think that we are better than others, or that everyone else should be held to a higher standard than we hold ourselves to. Anytime we express a moral view, it should be done with a motive of love and concern for others, not to try to make ourselves look more righteous.
In the atheist example above, it is actually the atheist, not the Christian, who violated Jesus' command! The atheist is expressing his moral superiority, essentially saying, "I do not judge others like you do," when in fact, he is judging the Christian...for judging. He is holding the Christian to a higher standard than himself. "I am allowed to judge you for judging," he is essentially saying, "but you can't express your views that differ from mine." As long as the Christian was simply expressing his belief in a biblical command, and not trying to impress someone else with his own righteousness, not judging hypocritically, and not holding others to a higher standard than himself, he is not judging.
The Bible does not have contradictory commands, rather, it has statements that must be interpreted the way they were intended to be taken. Simply explaining one of the Bible's teachings on a moral issue is not a violation of "Do not judge."
Trust the Bible is a weekday radio program that begins at about 8:10 each morning on WDOG 93.5 in Allendale, SC. You can listen to previous programs online here: http://www.fairfaxfbc.org/trust-the-bible.html
The Bible says, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:1). God places the responsibility of teaching children about God and training them to obey Him on parents. Churches and children's ministries can offer some assistance in this, but they cannot do the job. Deuteronomy 6:6 instructs parents to talk about God's commands with children "when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." That's not exactly something your child's Sunday School teacher can do!
So, what about anger? Any parent can make a young child obey them by yelling, threatening, or even worse, resorting to physical abuse. Although the child may obey, inwardly they will grow up resenting you. One day, they will be too big to force obedience through intimidation. Your job as a parent is to train their heart to choose right when they are older, not simply force compliance today.
Anger is something we must deal with as parents. Even if you are not a parent of a child in the home, there are important lessons for you to learn about anger as well. Even if you feel angry when your children disobey you, you can control it. If you frequently get angry at your children and yell, think about this: hopefully, when you are angry at a boss at work you do not talk to them the same way! You see, you can control it. The problem is you feel you can get away with expressing anger towards your children.
But even more important than controlling anger is addressing the heart issues that cause it. James teaches that outward expressions of sin, such as outbursts of anger, begin with evil desires:
James 1:14-15, 4:1-2 "But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight."
There are good desires. God has placed us in a position of authority and given us responsibility to teach our children to obey his commands. It is good to desire our children to obey. However, even good desires can lead to sin when they become demands that we will do anything to satisfy. When you are angry with your children (or anyone else), ask yourself, "What desire has become a demand that is now giving birth to sin?" Are you concerned that your child learns to obey God, or are you now demanding that your child obey you? Are you ready to patiently teach and discipline your children for their sake, or are you ready to use any means to get what you want now?
After answering these questions, dealing with anger will be much the same way that we deal with addictions that was discussed on the program two weeks ago:
1. Call it what it is, sin. Confess your sin to God, and ask him to help you honor him in your behavior. Proverbs 28:13: "Whoever conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy."
2. Get Help from Community. James 5:16: "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other." We need a community of other followers of Jesus who can encourage us, pray for us, and teach us how to follow God's commands, including how to overcome anger and anger towards our children. God has created the church for this task. Seek a church and a small group or Sunday School class to help.
3. Cut off the Hand. Matthew 5:29 "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away." This shows how seriously to take sin. By asking the questions listed above, you can identify the sinful desires or even the good desires that lead to sinful demands and lead to anger. You must identify the root of the problem to solve it.
4. Put On/Put Off Ephesians 4:22-24 "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self; created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
You need to put off trying to get temporary obedience from your child through force (anger). You also need to put on a plan to teach your children to want to obey you. This should have two components
1. Consistently applied and appropriate punishments for misbehavior. Parents are called to discipline children, but in love, not in anger. Children need boundaries and consistent consequences.
2. Constant verbal instruction. Children need to learn why obedience is important. You can teach them Bible verses that address behavior problems. You can teach them about the life long consequences of not learning obedience. You can teach them about the purpose of life being to serve and glorify God. Remember, Deuteronomy 6 tells parents to teach their children throughout the day.
5. The Holy Spirit. Romans 8:6 "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace." Ask for the Holy Spirit to help you with anger.
6. Biblical Counseling. Don't be afraid to seek extra guidance in overcoming this problem. A biblical counselor can help you develop a plan of discipline, help you develop the instruction you can give to your children, and help you identify the root problems that are causing you to struggle with anger with your children. It may take an investment of your time- but your children are worth it, and so is the more peaceful home that you may have for years to come. You may also raise children that will be better parents to their children. Free biblical counseling is available at the First Baptist Church of Fairfax. Call 803-632-3228 to set up an appointment.
Trust the Bible is a weekday radio program that begins at about 8:10 each morning on WDOG 93.5 in Allendale, SC. You can listen to previous programs online here: http://www.fairfaxfbc.org/trust-the-bible.html
Has the Bible "changed" over time? This is a question that comes up frequently when people discuss if we can trust the Bible. Even if the original writings of the Bible were God's inspired Word, the argument goes, how do we know that men didn't change it to suit their interests over the centuries, or that mistakes were made as the Bible was passed along and translated. In the "telephone game," a message gets transferred repeatedly over the phone, or whispered from ear to ear, and often is unrecognizable after it is passed on a number of times. Did this happen with the Bible?
This is a great question, and actually is another evidence that we can trust the Bible. This is because, out of all ancient religious writings and historical writings, the Bible has far more evidence to support our knowledge of the original readings. This makes sense if God worked through history to preserve his Word, but would be quite remarkable if it is just a "coincidence."
Consider that we have 5,700 hundred handwritten Greek copies from the New Testament, about 1,000 times as many as most ancient works, and thousands more than any other ancient writing!
About 150 of these copies were made within the first 300 years of the original writings. Typically, there is a gap of 500 to 1,000 years between an original writing and the first copy that is possessed today. Those differences are staggering!
And the differences over time between early manuscripts and later ones are remarkably small and usually completely insignificant.
This is true in spite of the fact that early Christians were persecuted or killed for possessing or producing copies of the Bible.
God's Word comes to us through: 1. The original writings. 2. An abundance of copies of those writings that help us determine the original writings with great accuracy. 3. An accurate translation into English from the original Greek text.
There are numerous English Bible translations today because: 1. The English language changes over time and new Bible translations are more in line with changes that keep occurring with English. 2. Translations have different strategies. Some try to stay very close to the words and word order of the Greek text, while others try to capture the meaning of a Greek phrase or sentence in more natural sounding English. There are positives and negatives of each approach.
The bottom line is that most English translations accurately communicate God's Word to us. (I recommend any of the KJV, NKJV, NASB, ESV, NIV, Holman, and more!) We can walk into just about any store in the country and pick up a copy of God's Word in our language in an easy to carry, relatively small bound book. Considering that the Bible was written largely by outcasts from society nearly 2,000 years ago or more, in vastly different languages, and on fragile pieces of papyrus, who faced strong persecution and even death- is yet another sign of God's love for us and the fact that we can trust the Bible- make sure you are reading your copy!
Trust the Bible is a weekday radio program that begins at about 8:10 each morning on WDOG 93.5 in Allendale, SC. You can listen to previous programs online here: http://www.fairfaxfbc.org/trust-the-bible.html
The Greatest Challenge to belief in God is suffering. Atheists will point out the following:
If, God is loving and good,
and, God is powerful enough to prevent anything from happening,
and, painful and terrible things happen to people all the time,
Then: God must not be good (he doesn't care), or he is not powerful enough to stop it, or both. Either way, the Christian God cannot exist.
Here are several problems with this argument.
1. It is self-defeating. Atheists acknowledge that there is something "wrong" with the world by bringing this argument up. We all know that there is real pain and suffering, and that this is not the way it is supposed to be - there really is something wrong with our present reality. However, if atheists are correct and there is no God, how can there be such a thing as a "wrong" or way things are "supposed to be," everything just is. The universe and life on it came about by chance. We would all be merely the random product of the impersonal forces of the universe acting on matter. The use of this argument is an implicit admission that there is something more to the universe than atheists are willing to admit.
2. The Bible explains the cause of suffering - sin. While suffering is not proportionate to sin, it is a result. In other words, some who sin a lot suffer relatively little. But the Bible teaches that if no one ever sinned, no one would ever suffer. Suffering is a consequence of man choosing to reject God's commands which began in the Garden of Eden and continues to today.
3. The argument assumes that there is no good purpose behind the suffering. In other words, you can care about suffering, be capable of stopping it, and still choose not to stop it in order to achieve a greater purpose. The Bible tells us there is a greater purpose (see next post).
4. The Bible offers hope. Suffering is temporary. God is enacting a plan to bring about a time and place where there will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain. Atheists offer no hope of a solution to suffering.
5. God is not unfamiliar with suffering. God became a man and suffered along with us. He even suffered beyond what any of us have suffered through his death on a cross. He did this in order to save us from suffering.
Trust the Bible is a weekday radio program that begins at about 8:10 each morning on WDOG 93.5 in Allendale, SC. You can listen to previous programs online here: http://www.fairfaxfbc.org/trust-the-bible.html
Biblical Principles for Dealing with Addiction:
1. First, you may need medical help. Some drugs have dangerous withdrawal effects when you are coming off them. God has provided doctors for our benefit.
2. Call it what it is: Sin. Our culture has substituted biblical words like drunkenness for more neutral words like alcoholism. However, the Bible says this in Proverbs 28:13: "Whoever conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy."
3. Get Help in a Community. Addictions love to hide. They also create excuses. You need people who will pray for you, encourage you, and hold you accountable. According to the Bible, God created the church for this very purpose. We all need the help of others to overcome sin in our lives. "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." (James 5:16), and Colossians 3:16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom."
4. Cut off the Hand. Jesus says, "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell" (Matthew 5:29). This is not a literal command about cutting off body parts. It is saying to identify the causes of sin in your life and take radical steps to get rid of them. All addicts have things that trigger cravings many steps before the addict gives in. You must identify these triggers and make radical adjustments to your life to get rid of them. They may be harmless things in themselves- going to certain places, seeing certain people, or even being alone with a computer- but you know they lead to sin that is hurting your life.
5. Put On/Put Off. This is based on Ephesians 4:22-28. We have to "put off the old self," but also "put on the new self." We can't simply stop bad habits, we have to find and plan out good ones to replace them with.
6. The Holy Spirit. Romans 8:12-13 promises that the Holy Spirit will help believers in Jesus Christ to put sin to death in their lives. He uses Bible study and memorization to help you make the right changes in your thinking.
7. Biblical Counseling. You probably need some guidance in how to apply these biblical principles to your own life. Work through your church to find a pastor or other person who can help you. Biblical counseling is offered at First Baptist Church of Fairfax. Please call 632-3228 for more information.
Trust the Bible is a weekday radio program that begins at about 8:10 each morning on WDOG 93.5 in Allendale.
There are many ways to know that the Bible is God's Word (meaning that it is completely true, the ultimate authority on any topic it addresses, and is the means by which God speaks directly to us). I am outlining one simple way of seeing this on the show and summarized below:
1. Begin without any assumptions about the Bible, examine it skeptically. We should begin here with any religious text.
2. Notice that the New Testament has many credible historical documents in it.
A. They are written as history, not myth.
B. They date close to the events they are describing (Most within 20 to 30 years of Christ's life. We know this from internal evidence- what's written in the documents, the dates of physical copies we have found, and quotations from other sources).
C. They accurately record information about places, leaders, and customs, demonstrating their concern for accuracy and detail.
D. They are consistent with each other, yet provide corroborating testimony to the events- they are told from different perspectives.
E. They are honest- they do not withhold embarrassing details about the early followers of Christ, who are reported to be slow to learn and even abandon Jesus on the night of his trial.
3. Using this information as good history, along with other early non-Christian sources like Tacitus and Josephus, we clearly see that there was a devoted group of Jewish followers of Jesus, very near the time of his life on earth, who believed that Jesus died and rose from the dead and claimed that he was God. This is not to say that these things happened, merely that many people who lived in that time believed that they happened.
4. Search for any other plausible explanation of how this belief came about. The challenge is that these believers faced persecution for their belief and even death. Many would have known that their claims were not true. People will die for a belief but not for a lie. No suggestions that attempt to explain the belief in the resurrection are plausible. For instance, Muslims say that Jesus only appeared to die on the cross. But many eyewitnesses would have known that it was not Jesus. The disciples saw the wounds in Jesus' body. And Jesus would have been a total fraud to claim to his disciples that he rose from the dead. Nothing else about his life makes that idea credible.
5. Therefore, the only reasonable belief is that a man claiming to be God verified it by dying and rising from the dead. Through his disciples, we have an accurate record of his teachings.
6. One of Jesus' central teachings is that the Bible is the Word of God. We can believe this because of who Jesus is and the fact that this teaching comes to us through reliable historical sources.
7. Therefore, the Bible is the Word of God.
There are other ways to see that the Bible is the Word of God, namely Bible prophecy, which I will cover another time. I firmly believe that if you examine any other religious text with a skeptical starting point, it will not stand up to the examination the way that the Bible does. This is a brief outline and is not meant to answer every possible question about each step. So, if you have questions about it, please ask!
