I have an acquaintance who is a very friendly man who happens to be a Muslim. I notice his business is always very supportive of America. On the fourth of July their business is covered with American flags. He, and I believe some of his relatives come from Iran, probably as refugees. The rulers of Iran are very domineering, and use the Muslim religion's teachings to further their domination. My acquaintance and his family probably appreciate much about the United States that most Americans take for granted.
A couple weeks ago I asked him if he would read a Bible if I gave him one. He said, "yes". I have been very slow to respond. Partly because I wanted to do it the best way I could think of, which turns out to be by doing a blog post about what I want him to know, as an open minded reader of the most incredible book on the planet.
(updated 12/12)
One of the comments many people make about the Bible is that it is like many other books of the many religions. That is true in a limited sense, but not in the fullest sense.
The Bible is like other books considered holy which are used to teach aspects of living considered very significant. It is often used to justify teaching that certain people are special in a religious way, deserving of our obedience and support. Like other books considered holy, it teaches many things about how to be a good person, such as caring for widows and orphans, that defending your homeland from tyranny and rebellion are important, and so on.
Notice I said men use the Bible similar to the way other holy books are used, not that it necessarily teaches those uses clearly, or that our attitude toward that behavior is important for life in eternity. There are deceivers in every religion, because it is the business of religion to teach men how they should behave, and deceivers can abuse that position as a teacher for their own selfish reasons. God is patient even with such deceivers, hoping they will repent and come to know Him personally. One day that patience will end, when those men meet their own mortality or when it is time for this earth to be made New better than it has ever been.
A couple of the more interesting ways the Bible is unique include that it clearly teaches:
- God is so incredibly Holy no sacrifice of any kind by a human can gain God's favor. That is why Messiah as both God and man had to allow Himself to be sacrificed. The best way I know to begin seeking God's favor is to take seriously what He has had written for us.
- God is always noticing what we desire and counting that we desire Him and being like Him more than any other thing about us. So appreciating the good things about America that come from living His truth, such as freedom from religious rulers, the right to vote, and the right to defend your own life and property counts toward finding the only True God.
- God encourages us to be wise about who we give power and support to for our own good. That is why worshipping false gods and false ideas of God is wrong, because it is evil toward ourselves and others around us.
- God encourages us to refer to His Word (the Bible), to understand it for ourselves whenever anyone claims something about it to be important. So this post won't be complete until I can give the verses to support what I say here (which is one of the reasons I feel inadequate to start, there is a LOT of work to complete what I want this to be).
- God calls upon us never to trust anyone who claims to be a religious authority to whom we owe obedience. Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ or Messiah) never said, "I am God", but only demonstrated that He was the prophesied Messiah which anyone could understand by reading the related prophecy in the Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament"). He came as God in the flesh not just for anyone who witnessed the signs He gave, but for us also who can only read about it and Hope to find God through His Word.
- The Bible claims it is the complete revelation of God, and needs no other additions, nor any specially endowed human interpreters we must respect. This is because Messiah has already done what is necessary to win our hearts, and His Apostles have completed that by writing what we know as the New Testament to explain what is necessary for us to know about God's plan and our place in it. This completeness is clear in Revelation 18:20-22.
- The books which make up the Holy Bible were accepted by a consensus of believers using public dialog before the Reformation. Those books today are published as the Holy Bible by Protestant varieties of Christianity. Before the Reformation, what became the Catholic church added to the Bible teachings, such as that the Pope was a greater authority on religious truth than the original Bible, which led to the Reformation when Martin Luther led the Protestants in forming their own church(es). Similarly other christian-related groups have added to or modified the teachings of the original Bible, placing special trust in human teachers after the Apostles chosen by the Messiah, and in special human interpreters of those teachings (a common practice in those religions is that only specially qualified teachers may interpret, while evangelical christians expect every believer or seeker of truth to interpret for themselves). Jesus is warning against anyone who claims such special human authority over religious teaching in Matthew 23:8-12. Only a genuine Messiah would say never again trust a human with authority to rule over religious matters.
- Gifted human interpreters are still very worthwhile, but will never come with God's authority to be rulers, which is the way of evangelical Christian churches. Our pastors are chosen by the congregation, which often delegate them a merely human authority to rule, to spend money and issue rules of conduct within the church itself. Such self-governing churches were the model from which the American form of self-government was developed.
- Likewise only a genuine Messiah would say that hate is equivalent to murder and if there is any reason for hate between people, one should resolve that issue before giving an offering to God and those who seem to serve God. That looking at a woman with lust means your heart is just as offensive to God as committing adultery, and it is better to put out your own eye than to so sin (Matthew 5:21-30)
- The Old Testament (more respectfully the Hebrew Bible) is organized with the first five books attributed to Moses first, then books about the history of the israelites and the muslims, then books written by the prophets in approximately chronological order. These provide what God wants us to know about how He developed the relationship with men before the Messiah came, including several detailed prophecies about the Messiah. Such as that He would be the "offspring of a woman" (virgin birth) to finally defeat the evil god you and I give this world to whenever we consider our own wants more important than God's (Genesis 3:15); He would be born as a man, worshipped as God, called the "son of man", and rule earth forever (Isaiah 9:6, Daniel 7:13); As the perfect sacrifice Himself, He would feel forsaken by God, suffer the torment which is crucifixion (which is visible suffocation by exhaustion and cannot be faked) (Psalm 22 of David, Isaiah 52:13-53:12).
- The New Testament is organized with four "gospel" accounts of Jesus' life on earth, which share several points in common about chronology but differ on aspects they emphasize. Matthew is written by that Apostle for the very religious reader like the Hebrews themselves, and carefully traces the prophecies such as those above with when they occur in Jesus life, such as Matthew 27; Mark is written by a companion of an Apostle and is the oldest and shortest account, written for the action oriented reader; Luke is written by a Greek, a doctor and companion of Apostles for the analytical reader (Dr Luke is the only non-Hebrew author in the Bible. He also wrote the book of Acts); John is attributed to that Apostle, who wrote for the clearest proofs that Jesus was God in the flesh. Much of the rest of the New Testament was written by Paul, a highly zealous religious pharisee named Saul who actively pursued early Christians to be sure they were put to death until Jesus appeared to him personally (Acts 7:54-9:30), after which he became named Paul.
- Since it is nearly Christmas now, the best accounts of the first Christmas are in Matthew 1:18-2:9 and Luke 2:1-39.
There is so much more that needs writing here.
The way I found out the Truth was by listening to radio sermons, and reading along with my Bible, including freely writing notes on the page margins and underlining key words (God WANTS us to analyze His word very carefully - I feel unarmed without a Bible and a good pen). Like many similar ministries these have Internet archives of radio shows and free information they give away to help the readers follow along, especially Thru the Bible. My favorites are Thru the Bible http://www.ttb.org/, Truth For Life http://www.TruthForLife.org/, The Word For Today http://www.twft.com/. There are many local churches I would also recommend. The best way to find them might be in the newspaper listings.
To my Muslim acquaintance, maybe you celebrate Christmas, as many do who are not Christian, so...
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !
Tim
To be continued..
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