works and grace. All religions, apart from Christianity, have their basis in the former premise. Christianity ex horts, “God already loves you. He sent His Son to die on the cross pay ing the penalty for your sins. He offers you salvation freely, with no strings attached. You have but one responsibility and that is, by faith, to receive Christ as your Lord and Saviour.” Such a concept could nev er have come from Judaism. Paul further testifies that education could not have given such teaching to him (1 :14 ). Tradition can never be a final authority for the Chris tian. Our final source can only be the Word of God. In verses 16 and 19 the apostle shows that an ecclesiastical author ity could never have given him such wonderful good news. This Gospel did not come second-handed. He had only barely seen Peter and James. The message came completely inde pendent of them. Paul says, “I went to Damascus.” In other words, he went back to where he had been converted. There he began his witness among those who knew he had come originally to persecute the church. Next he says, “I went to Jerusalem.” To do so meant he was taking his life in his hands. From there he went to Syria and Cilicia which was his home town. So, before beginning a ministry through the known world especially winning Gentiles to Christ, he went to the hardest place any might have—his own home-town en vironment. Then for the convincing proclamation, “For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” In every area of life today one of the most important questions is that of authority. Paul claims he knew because God told him so. We, too, have to answer the same question. Here are five basic evidences why we believe the Bible to be the Word of God, the revelation of Jesus Christ.
It comes as a handy acrostic. Write down the word “truth” vertically on the page. Let the “T” stand for the teaching of Jesus. Christ Himself re vealed that the Scriptures form the very Word of God. The Saviour cer tainly believed in verbal plenary in spiration. He forcefully showed that when Moses and other Old Testa ment writers spoke it was actually God speaking through them. The “R” of our acrostic represents the reliability of its contents. In the Old Testament there are hundreds of prophecies which have come to exact fulfillment to the minutest de tail. There is absolutely no question about this. Its history is recorded with the utmost faithful detail. Ar cheologists can only confirm our faith. Every spade of dirt unfolds some, further enrichment of Biblical accuracy. It almost goes without say ing that it is also completely reliable in its theology and total contents. There are no proven contradictions to be found anywhere in the Word of God. For the “U” we have the unity of the Bible. Here are 66 books penned by over 40 writers of completely dif ferent backgrounds. They lived in various countries and spanned over 1600 years. They had no conferences with each other. Yet the Bible is one harmonious, orderly account of the entire dealings of God with man. What strong evidence for the super natural origin of Scripture. The second “T” brings to mind the testimony of the writers themselves. How familiar were their words, “Thus saith the Lord!” The same emphasis is found in the New Tes tament ( I I Tim. 3:16). All of these men knew they were writing from God. There is no other possible hu man answer to be found. The final letter “H” reminds us of the help the Bible gives no matter where it is found. All of the writings Page 9
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