Welcome to “Church Words”, understanding God, through definition. If you’re like me, you may have grown up in a protestant church and heard these words throughout your life, but also like me, never took the time to completely understand their meanings. Or you may be new to the Christian Faith and I hope this podcast helps to bridge the divide between understanding and strengthening your relationship with God.

Today, we’re talking about the “Bible”

When I was a child, I loved it when we bought cereal, or Cracker Jacks because they often came with a prize. I recall on occasions finding one of those plastic, red, transparent decoder films. Sometimes they were fashioned into something resembling a magnifying glass.

From here, you could take that red film and place it over a specially printed paper, and read special coded text. The way it worked is the ink had a red tint mixed in with blue or black ink. The red tint of the viewer would mask the red ink allowing the blue or black ink to appear revealing text.

I say all of this for a reason.

As protestant Christians, we hold the Bible in high regard. We do so because just like the special red film I referred to above, the Bible acts as our filter. The Bible helps us to separate our own desires and to know if they are aligned with God. In other words, it’s our blueprint to understanding the attributes, behavior and will of God.

I mention this because we’ve often been accused of placing the Bible higher than God, and this is simply not the case. I’ve heard it said “God told me to do this or that.”, and He may very well have, but does it match up against the patterns we see in the Bible? I once had an acquaintance tell me their son said “God told me to leave my wife, and to go on the road and preach.” He ended up leaving his wife, meeting another woman, and having a baby with her. Would God tell a man or woman to leave their spouse? The patterns of the Bible along with what has been expressed as his desire would say no. But how often has someone justified an action because “God told me to do it.”? We need to see the Bible as a guide.

Overall, the Bible is the framework of understanding the heart of God. Yes, God speaks to us, but it’s important to know He’s never going to give us instructions which would run counter to Biblical teachings. If we didn’t have the Bible we would be relying on feelings instead of truth, and if we didn’t have the Bible we wouldn’t understand the simple formula on becoming a Christian.

It’s often asked if we should take every incident and story from the Bible as fact. Was the Earth really created in seven days? Did God really flood the Earth? Did time really stop? If you’re a Christian, you believe Jesus died and came back from the dead. How is it difficult to take the Bible at face value? As a youth I often tried justifying answers like “Well, a day is an eon to God.”, or “This story was symbolism.” When you do that you’re on a slippery slope, because then what will you choose to believe? By what standard are you using to justify your answers?

In the end, as a Christian, whether you believe the Earth was created in 7-days or millions of years it won’t stop you from entering Heaven. Perhaps we can ask God when we get there?

For more insight into the validity of the Bible, I suggest two books. One is titled “More Than A Carpenter” by Josh McDowell and the other “Gospel Reset: Salvation Made Relevant” by Ken Ham. Both of these books do a phenomenal job of supporting the foundational principles of our faith.

“The Bible”, on it’s own has no spiritual relevance if you do not know Christ, but it’s also through the Bible that we understand how to become a Christian. I encourage you to become a Christian by listening to episode 1 of this podcast series and then consult with your local Bible believing church.

Also as always, if you have any questions or comments please reach out by emailing [email protected].