Is the Bible Reliable?

I recently found a link to this website and have been perusing the material.  I definitely recommend it.  Many of today's skeptics about the reliability of the Bible will rest on the authority of skeptics with degrees like Bart Ehrman.  He casts doubts on whether we can get back to what the original writers of the Bible actually said since we do not have the original manuscripts.  Are we able to reliably reconstruct what they said?  Before you can really get into the website, there is a lengthy two hour debate between Ehrman and Dan Wallace, a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary.  It is interesting, but I actually really like the website once you get into it. 

Spanning the course of Dr. Ehrman's more popular written works, the website asks pertinent questions and then gives short 3-7 minute videos of other more conservative Biblical scholars and theologians to give answers to Ehrman's doubts.  I find this to be just highly interesting first of all, but it is also strengthening to my faith.  I think I sometimes feel doubts just because of how far removed we are from the first century, and they are doubts that I don't always take the time to address head-on.  And I think that this is good seed for future conversations that you may get into with people who doubt the Bible.  We should be able to give a reason for the hope that is within us, and insofar as that hope rests on the Bible, we should be able to give good reasons for why we trust the Bible. 

I hope that this resource may be used profitably by you.  Let us thank God for speaking to us through his Word; we can trust his Word because He is trustworthy.  Soli Deo gloria!

http://ehrmanproject.com/

Carson/Zaspel on Sanctification

This is a video of a discussion on sanctification by Carson and Zaspel.  Hopefully you enjoy and are edified in this break from my multi-part blog on humility.

An Inquiry into the Nature of Humility - Part III

Having given a thorough and Biblical apologetic for the goodness and necessity of humility in the previous two posts about the nature of humility, I return to the original question of whether humility means thinking less of myself or of myself less.


For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Romans 12:3)



I think the original question can be separated into two different ideas, both of which can be examined. The first is this: How should I think about myself? The second is this: How often should I think about myself?

Concerning the first question, Romans 12:3 makes it clear that we should not think of ourselves too highly. It is best to err on the side of caution. I ought never to brag to others, but I also ought not to brag on myself to myself. We should examine ourselves with sober judgment. I think this means taking a clear look at ourselves in light of Scripture, asking the Holy Spirit to search us, and opening ourselves up to the input of other believers. Sober judgment probably grows with maturity. Only faith can really take an honest look inside because only faith is willing to see indwelling sin in light of God's reality. All other inward looks are inevitably deluded or misguided.



What are some errors that we might fall into as we think with sober judgment about ourselves? The first error would be to underestimate our sin, its power, its pervasiveness, its deadliness. We might underestimate our condition apart from God. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8) We must admit that we are sinners. What does that mean? How deep is the problem? Let us look at what Scripture says with sober judgment and be willing to turn the Sword of Scripture on ourselves:



None is righteous, no, not one; no one understand; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Romans 3:11-18) That is a bleak picture, and it is clear that no one is righteous. We are depraved, and we need a Savior.



For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (Romans 1:18) Our hearts have evil desires, and our minds are happy to accomodate. Our minds become twisted as we systematically suppress truths that would call us to repent. One of the primary ways that we will suppress the truth is in our assessment of ourselves as we will think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Untangling this mess we only be done with the help of the Holy Spirit through the Word dealing with both mind and heart as we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. The Holy Spirit uses the Word to help us begin to think with sober judgment.



Scripture obviously provides correctives when we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to, especially in regards to our moral standing before God, or if we think we are especially good. No one is good but God.



But I think there is also a way to think of ourselves more lowly than we ought to think. This is a subtle temptation, but I think it is also pretty pervasive. This is also what I would take to be one of the more controversial points in this blog entry. What do I mean?



I really believe the Gospel takes us radically further in two seemingly different directions than we ever would have gone without it. It definitely brings us low. It tears us down before delivering any good news, and Romans 3 above is a good example of its gritty forthrightness about how hopeless and depraved man is in his natural state after the Fall. Paul pummels out of us the idea that we are good. Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes decimates the idea that we can achieve any sort of meaning on our own. Moses gives us the creation account and heads off the idea that we came from nothing and are therefore unnacountable. John in the book of Revelation thrusts before us the coming judgment of God, and we know that we will not pass the test on our own record. Jesus, like no other, penetrates our outer facade of righteousness and exposes the deepest motives of our hearts as only our Creator and Savior can. We ought to have no illusions about these things. The Gospel and the Word bring us low.



But the Gospel also radically builds us up. We have so much in Christ. We are so much in Christ. This is a message we are slow to hear, often because it does not yet resonate as well as the first, and we are justifiably wary of veering off into prosperity theology, and we really do not want to commit the sin of pride. But where Scripture speaks to us here, we ought not listen to it any less than we do about the lowering part. So what does Scripture say to build us up?



So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27) Though the Fall has twisted the image, it is still there. Because every human is created in the image of God, we believe that they all have dignity and worth before God and should be treated impartially. God's put his stamp on us.



For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) Sinless Jesus became sin for us to be the righteousness of God. What does that even mean?!



The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:16-17) We are childen of God. He is our Father now that we are in his family. Adoption! And we are heirs of the Kingdom. Again, what does that even mean?!



Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1) There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1) I now have peace with God, and there is no condemnation. Because I am in the family (see above), God disciplines me as he disciplines a son, but his wrath is removed. I am freed. There is radical freedom from condemnation in the Gospel. I can take Romans 8:1 and shove it in Satan's face when he tries to attack me and tell me I am not good enough. I am not good enough is only half the Gospel.



For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. (Romans 6:5-7) We are set free from sin! And we are united with Christ. If we are in Christ, we have freedom from sin, whether or not it feels like it.



Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world... In love he predestined us for adoption. (Ephesians 1:3-5) I am loved from before the world began, chosen in Christ. Before the stars were there, and before I existed, I was loved. What can shake that kind of love? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.' No in all these things we are more than conquerers through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)



... and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30) I know with certainty there is a day coming when I will be glorified. I believe God will be glorified in my glorification, or else it wouldn't happen; perhaps my glorification means receiving greater capacities to enjoy God. Who knows exactly, but I am on my way.



Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own... (1 Corinthians 6:19) We are God's dwelling place. He lives in me.



Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her... This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:25,33) God's love for me, for us is a covenant love. God has set his heart and affection on his bride so greatly that a comparison to any human marriage is poor and paltry.



A good ending of this survey of the ways God lifts us up is found in Psalm 8 in which we see the juxtaposition of humility and subsequent exaltation: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.



The practical effect on our lives as we trust God is that we are humbled, yet we walk in a new freedom and boldness. The Gospel makes us humbly bold and takes away our fear. We care less and less about how great we look and more about pleasing God. When I am prideful and walking with a swagger, I desperately need the gut-punch Romans 3. When I am broken and contrite over my sin, I desperately need the glorious reassurance of Romans 8. I probably should spend my life walking in that tension, living in Psalm 8. There needs to be a balance, but I think that only comes through really hearing both sides, both tendencies, both truths... not through a premature averaging of the two so that I am never really brought low or high.



Back to the question at hand. How should I think about myself? My answer is that we should think about ourselves accurately. According to John 8:32, the truth will set us free. Therefore, when we aim to think about ourselves, we should not think about ourselves lowly just for the sake of the thing, but rather, we should think about ourselves soberly in light of the truths that Scripture tell us. Most certainly our tendency will be to overestimate how good we are, but God is not glorified by error in either direction.



Am I allowed ever to think highly of myself, and in what way? The answer to that should be a qualified "yes". I think in some ways we ought to think highly of ourselves - not more highly than we ought - but in such a way that the thinking highly of ourselves is really a thinking highly of God. For instance, God gives different gifts and abilities. In fact the section after Romans 12:3 talks about different gifts given to people in the Body. Would God be particularly glorified if I said I was bad at math? I don't think so. It simply isn't true, and God would not be made to look any better with me trying to think that I am bad at math. But how do I affirm that I am good at math in a way that actually does glorify God?



For me, math ability becomes a source of pride when I let it move me toward a point of self-sufficiency from God. I ought to attribute my math ability to God's sovereign grace and give deep thanks to him for it. A lot of my ability to do math was due the circumstances of my birth and environment, things outside of my control, and even for the part that isin my control, it is only in my control as a stewardship. My time is not my own, my body is not my own, my abilities are not my own. The part that seems to be under my own control, I also must attribute to God at work in me. Everything I do, I ought to do with the continual acknowledgement of thanks to God. I must never put down or attribute the good things about me as I something that I just accomplished on my own. God has blessed me with gifts, and this is balanced by an acknowledgement that I am not good at other things, like arts and crafts.



Jesus is our definition of humility. I do not think his humility was at all thinking of himself as less. I think he thought of himself with sober judgment in accordance with the truth about himself. His humility consisted mainly in action, taking the lower seat, stooping down, refusing to avail himself of all his attributes in order to save sinners. Jesus' humility is about loving action, not putting himself down. Practically, it is impossible to operate if we refuse to acknowledge what we're good at. God gives us gifts to use, but we should give him all the glory with them.



We should say something like... God, I believe that you have given me the ability to do math, you have blessed me with a supportive family, and by your sustaining power you have given me life and even the will to pursue math. Lord, I thank you. Help me not to count myself higher than those who are not as good at math. Give me the eyes to see others' gifts and to encourage them in sincerity. Keep me from judgment and from sinful comparisons with others. God, you know so much more math than I do - what I know is like a tiny drop in an infinite ocean compared to your knowledge. Above all, God, I pray that you would help me to glorify you in my gifting, that you would help me to find ways to serve you and help others, and that I would give you all credit, all glory, and all thanks.