I Believe, and I Know Why I Believe

By Bill Walton

I believe there is a personal God who is the creator of the universe, the giver of life, and the judge before whom we must ultimately appear and give an account for how we’ve lived our lives. And I believe this God is the God revealed in the Bible. I believe Jesus is God’s son. And I believe Jesus was proven to be God’s son by his resurrection from the dead. I believe the Bible was inspired by God and is the revelation of God’s will.

When I say I believe in God, and Christ, and the Bible, I mean: I believe and I know why I believe. I believe because the evidence compels me to believe. Christian faith is not ignorant gullibility. It is conviction based upon convincing evidence. It’s not a matter of what I want to believe, or what my parent’s believe. Arid it’s not a matter of what I have always been taught to believe. It’s a matter of evidence. I have seen the evidence and I believe because of the evidence. Other people may believe (or, say they believe) for other reasons, but real Christians believe because of the evidence.

The Bible writers warn against being gullible and too easily convinced. For example, when the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Ephesus, he said they “should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4:14). In ‘his epistle to the Christians at Thessalonica he cautioned them to examine everything carefully and accept only what was proven to be true (l Thess. 5:21). The apostle John, in his first epistle, warned Christians everywhere about the many false prophets at work in the world. He said that every “prophet” should be put to the test (l John 4:1). And he commended the Christians at Ephesus for having exposed some who were false apostles (Rev. 2:2).

The Bible writers always pointed to the evidence in calling upon people to believe. Consider the example of Paul at Thessalonica: “And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ”‘ (Acts 17:2-3).

There are many reasons for why people believe the things they do, but the only valid reason for believing is the evidence. &

The Shortest Verse in the Bible

By Kent Heaton

One of the favorite passages among young children learning to memorize scripture is John 11:35 – “Jesus wept.” To memorize two words is very easy and if you were required to say a memorization passage this is the passage to be chosen (unlike Esther 8:9 which has ninety words). I heard a preacher recently refer to John 11:35 as the shortest verse in the Bible. This made me think of something I found in my studies –1 Thessalonians 5:16 says, “Rejoice always.” Of course, the term ‘shortest’ can be defined either by shortest passage in words (two) or shortest passage in syllables (John 11:35 has three; 1 Thessalonians 5:16 has four).

The Bible was not written with chapter/verse divisions. As Moses penned the Pentateuch (first five books of the Old Testament) he did not begin with Genesis 1:1. He began in the Hebrew as “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light …” and so forth. When Paul wrote his epistles found in the New Testament, they were letters written to various churches and individuals. This is the pattern for all of the books. There were various divisions within Isaiah, Lamentations and of course Psalm 119 but the divisions we are familiar with came later.

Stephen Langton and Hugo de Sancto Caro established the division of chapters between 1227 and 1248. The Wycliffe English Bible of 1382 was the first Bible to use this chapter pattern. The Hebrew Old Testament was divided into verses by a Jewish rabbi by the name of Nathan in A.D. 1448. Robert Estienne, who was also known as Stephanus, was the first to divide the New Testament into standard numbered verses, in 1555. The Bible in chapter/verse division is of recent history.

The lesson I draw from this illustration is that often we believe something that is not quite according to what the Bible says. I know that whether John 11:35 is the shortest verse in the Bible or not has nothing to do with eternal salvation but the principle of how we come to certain conclusions may have a bearing on such. There are many “chimney corner scriptures” held fervently by people that have no basis in Biblical truth. Phrases like “All men are created equal … An idle mind is the devil's workshop … Cleanliness is next to godliness … Spare the rod and spoil the child … Give the devil his due … Blood is thicker than water … Bread is the staff of life … Familiarity breeds contempt … God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.”

Many people hold fervently to the idea that Jesus was born on December 25; wise men saw the baby Jesus in a manger; Mary Magdalene was a prostitute; Peter was a “Pope”; salvation is by faith alone; join the church of your choice; the early disciples worshipped with instrumental music; the anti-Christ is a man with 666 on his forehead; Jesus will return to earth to reign on David’s throne; Armageddon is a nuclear holocaust still yet to come … and so the list of myths abound.

Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). To His disciples Jesus declared, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Truth is what the Bible says and what the Bible says alone. We must be diligent to examine scripture and declare what the scriptures say in truth. If it is not in the Bible, it is not truth. Our diligence must be to speak only what the Bible speaks (1 Peter 4:11). &

Giving Honor to One Another

By Kyle Campbell

Have you ever noticed that every song has to do with love? It is truly the cornerstone of the family; nothing comes close in society to the family. One of the saddest of all problems is marital problems. Couples who find that their glorious wedding and reception moments have quickly fallen by the wayside can be devastated. Marriage problems can come in many forms: financial problems, meddling in-laws, religious problems, or health problems. But when you join your hands together in the wedding ceremony, you have everything you need to make your marriage work.

God created marriage to be a beautiful experience, so He obviously wants yours to be a success! To have a successful marriage, we have to listen to the Bible. Peter speaks of the husband giving the wife honor because they are “heirs together of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7). If the couple will submit “one to another in the fear of God” (Ephesians 5:21), then marriage can be a lifelong, magnificent experience.

Although a lot of marriages fail because of the aforementioned problems, a lot of them fail because of extramarital affairs. God unites us in marriage (Genesis 2:24-25; Matthew 19:6). This is why when someone commits adultery, it is referred to as being “joined” to a harlot (1 Corinthians 6:16-17). The ungodly union with a harlot is a wicked and disgusting perversion of the divinely established marriage union. Sexual relations involve more than a physical act -- they join the two people together. How many men and women have ruined a good union by making the stupid mistake of becoming an adulterer and by joining themselves to an adulterer!

Society ingrains it into people to think only of themselves, and this worldly philosophy will doom a marriage. Finding flaws and deficiencies in your mate and harping on them will not make a marriage work. In fact, when we rail on spouses, we may very well create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because the Bible shows that the husband and wife are so closely tied together, when you shoot down your spouse, you shoot down yourself. &