The bible tells us about people who had intimate relationships with God in the past, and it shows how they were mightily blessed by them.
Jesus says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6). He says to Pilate: “For this cause I was born and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.” (John 18:37). Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit he bequeaths to us as: “The Spirit of truth.” (John 14:17). However, many Christians are not committed to truth. Indeed, truth endangers the faith of most Christians.
Bible worshippers
Nowhere is this more evident than in the dogmatic Christian defence of the errors, contradictions and falsehoods in the bible; in spite of the fact that the bible is no less an invaluable book for these. The fear is that if anything in the bible is not true, then the Christian faith is diminished. But nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, what this fear shows is that the faith of most Christians has shaky foundations.
The Christian faith cannot be based on the infallibility of the bible. It is based on the infallibility of God. People in the bible did not base their faith on a book. Instead, they based their faith on what God told them personally. Jesus does not tell us to have faith in the bible. He says: “Have faith in God.” (Mark 11:22).
The evidence indicates that those who don’t have a personal relationship with God are those who insist everything in the bible must be true. Jesus says to his Jewish opponents: “You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40).
The bible only points to Jesus. However, we cannot know a place by merely reading the road-signs telling us how to get there. We know a place by going there. Therefore, Christians should not just read the bible. We must go to the Jesus of the bible in order to receive and live the life he gives.
Knowing God
True Christianity is not a religion: it is a relationship. We cannot have a relationship with an inanimate book. We must have a relationship with a living God. What the bible does is to tell us about people who had intimate relationships with God in the past, and it shows how they were mightily blessed by them. This shows it is also possible for us to have similar relationships with God today.
Indeed, Jesus invites us to this. He says: “This is eternal life; that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3).
There is a limit to what we can know about God by reading about him in a book. To really know God, we have to interact with him on a personal one-on-one basis; the same way some people did in the bible. God expects us to draw near to him and to enter into fellowship with him. John says: “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3).
Living a lie
Therefore, beware of dogmatic Christians whose faith is based solely on the bible. There are many human errors and contradictions in the bible. But the God we serve never makes a mistake and he never contradicts himself. When these “sola scriptura” Christians discover errors and contradictions in the bible, their faith is shipwrecked. To avoid this, they end up living a lie; pretending an error is not an error, and a contradiction is not a contradiction.
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