Thinking Through Time
For every book written there is an author. In order to examine the claim Christians has, that God is the author of the Bible, the first thing to do is ask the question – does God exists? If you don’t believe there’s an invisible Supreme Being who created all life forms, or you take an agnostic or atheist viewpoint on this topic, please stay awhile with me to the end. However, if you believe there is a Supreme Being who created humans, the next question would be – why did He create us and created earth for us to live? In conjunction to this question…do you believe the earth will forever languish in its former state of chaos and decay? And let’s take this thought even a little further: what is the ultimate final plan for people on earth? The aim of this lesson is to first unravel the answers to these questions, before delving into the authenticity of the Bible to you.
Every cell, every matter has life ranging in sizes, from so tiny to the naked eyes, to cells that are massive like the galaxies. Imagine an entity, a mass of energy that can be present everywhere at the same time because it is so huge. It’s size so large that it completely fills up everywhere. This entity can take on any form it choses, invisible or solid. It has all the creative abilities teaming as part of its nature. Now, imagine the universe as an empty space, an immense void, like an immense dark inactive womb. Picture a voice connecting to the womb and say “let there we life, let there be light”. And as the voice spoke the womb obeyed. The womb began to take in the breath of life from the voice that spoke, and the womb came alive and began to populate all kind of life forms. All life forms originated from this entity; and this entity commands the immense void with His voice, for all life forms to be created out of nothing. Thus, His Words…His Voice created living cells, that He alone can activate. And as He created all life forms, He also gave each living organism the ability to pro-create. In as much as our human imagination can grasp – God is like this entity.
At some point God decided to create out of nothing all living organism that we see, and some that we cannot see even with our modern technology, because they are so minute. And God made man in His own image. He loved Man in a special way, so much that we were the only creation on earth made in His image. When He looked at all His earthly creation, the Genesis account tells us that He looked at what was made and – “it was good”. But after He made Man, He looked at everything, and “it was very good”. With humans created, God saw that the Masterpiece of His Work was very good – we were created in His Image. And like the icing on the cake, Creation would not be complete (perfect) without us. God made us with a plan to commune with us, and develop a strong bond, a strong relationship. Pretty much like a marriage – like a man choosing a woman for her hand in marriage. A man choose a wife, so she could be with Him, because He love her and desire to bring her into His life to share in His joy. Because of His special love for humans, God just wanted us to share in His Glory…and what is His Glory? – all His attributes. He desired for us to experience this radiant joy, beauty and majesty living in His Light.
We have a direct relationship with God, but reading the Bible help us to understand more what God desire of His people. A relationship with God goes together with the manual – like in class-room: the Lecturer speaks to you, but you also need the text book to follow the course successfully. – (Jeremiah 32:33), (Luke 6:40), (Job 36:22). At times the Bible stories are like clauses in a contract filled with cases between God and Humans, where Humans are either agreeing with God or opposing Him. – (Galatians 3:15) (Romans 7:10), (Leviticus 18:5), (Luke14:31-33). Other times, it is like a Love Letter from God, revealing a Love that quakes the very fiber of our being, because we cannot humanly relate to such intense Love. – (Hosea 2:19), (1 John 4:19), (Jeremiah 29:11), (Jeremiah 31:3), (John 3:16). Still, other times it is like a roadmap from God written with codes, directions and clues to find our Way to Him. – (Luke 24:25-27), (2 Peter 1:19). Whatever way you want to look at the Bible, those who believe the Bible is from God believe in a dual-authorship i.e. God working with men as He imprints His Word through them. Thus, enabling them to write what He tells them to write, very similar to what we call telepathic communication.
Dual Authorship Is God’s Method or Penmanship
Let’s look at God’s position: God is a Deity who exhibits the greatest purity and holiness that we can’t even imagine, and with this supernatural perfection, no one can see Him in His true form and live. Plus He is:
- Omnibenevolence “unlimited or infinite benevolence”.
- Omniscience “state of knowing everything”.
- Omnipotence “the quality of having unlimited or very great power”.
- Omnipresent “present everywhere at the same time”.
- And?… (a host of “other attributes” unknown to humans)
As the Creator of Humans, He is coming from a position as the one whom we are supposed to learn from, since He made us. He is the only one who has the position to teach us, and show us how to live. This is part of the reason we were given the Bible. God’s Holy nature, and the fact that He made us speaks for itself: that He does have our interest at heart, and His will is only for our benefit. If we look at His position this way – it won’t be like what I’ve heard some people say: that He made us to rule over us. Absolutely not! Unlike a robot manufactured and programed without a choice to follow or not to follow, God’s sovereignty over us is not based on control. We do have the choice to follow or not to follow Him. There are consequences, however, to follow or not follow Him, but while we are alive we decide what those consequences are in the end.
When you read the Bible you’ll see that Creation itself is set in motion: we either choose to learn from God how a human should live in order to be happy and free, and transcend this life in immortality to be with God; or we choose to learn how to go against God and forfeit how we should naturally live if we submit to God’s sovereignty. It’s our choice, and our decision. We cannot choose not to live like we were made to live, and then blame God for how the world is. Right after Adam and Eve failed to live like humans were supposed to, this created a dichotomy in how their offspring will choose to live. That’s why Jesus had to come and give His life to open the curtains back for God to indwell with Humans, assisting us to live like how we were created to live – to live like Jesus. As humans we view sin as a natural action, but sin is actually the unnatural course of living. We were made in God’s image, including His Righteous ways, but Adam and Eve created another way, so now we have two paths to choose how we desire to live. Yes, they had a choice, but by making the wrong choice – that is, rejection of God’s way – they open wide the way of evil, for us to feed on the fruits of evil. If you follow the Bible closely, God will make that clear that to choose to listen to our Creator, who is wiser than us, is actually the natural mode of living. It’s our own inclination to choose not to listen to God, why we give ourselves this excuse “oh I’m only human, I can’t help it.” (Romans 1:20 – “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”) And although God knows that we like making excuses, He also knows that we are very weak, and it’s hard for us to see who we are made to be. So He continues to show us kindness, patience, mercy and love. Since Jesus came and has shown us the way to live, and gave us the indwelling of God’s Spirit, we have the ability the see the path of God clearer and the ability to choose the life we were meant to live while on earth.
So, getting back to the dual-authorship of the Bible. God is the main author and His Spirit dictates what the Prophets should write. The authors (mainly Prophets) of the Bible, were told by God what to write, because they were inspired by God. It is therefore God’s Spirit (God) who wrote the Bible. Why would humans write a book that over and over proves that humans cannot live without God, and over and over condemns humans for their rejection of the way God desire them to live? If fallen humans wrote the Bible, they would make sure humans are in control of what is sin, and there would be no condemnation. Since we are all equally condemned, Christ came as a substitute, for all of us. And whoever believes in Christ, and choose to live by His example will be saved from condemnation. God allow this system – the system of this World – to continue because He is patient and long-suffering. But, He has set a time to give us what each of us has sown – some chose eternal condemnation, separation and destruction; and others chose salvation, justification and immortality. And He has given us the Bible, filled with promises, stories, covenants, etc. as a resource Book of litmus tests for us to see where we stand, and decide what to do about it.
***Please Return To Get The Rest Of This Lesson:
- Definition Of The Bible
- Scrolls And Letters: The Resume (CV) of God’s Word.
- Jesus: Embodiment Of God’s Word.
- Why Is It Wise To Live Your Life With Deep Conviction That The Bible Is God’s Word?
- Some Scientific Evidence And Historical Accuracy of the Bible.
- Some Bible Verses To Start You Off With Spending Quality Time With God
