This is part of an ongoing series that establishes the foundation of my faith. It may seem a little academic to some, too light for others. I have endeavored to strike a balance in order to provide clear reasons and support for each belief. The bottom line of my faith is that I believe the Bible has a message from God, the Creator of all life. That message is one of truth and love, justice and forgiveness and above all, an invitation to abundant life.

I believe the Bible

          The first, most basic foundation of my belief system is that I accept the Bible as true. I have chosen to believe the Bible is the Word of God. I could use the traditional hot-button words like inerrant, infallible, Word of God and more. That isn’t my style, though. While I like and use precise “dictionary” words, I really prefer talking in a way that others easily understand. The bottom line is that I believe God inspired every word, every truth written in the Bible and then protected that Word throughout the centuries so that what we have now is substantially the same as what He originally inspired. Any differences are minor and inconsequential to the main message contained in the Bible.

          Granted, on one level that belief is faith, something that each person must choose in their own heart and mind. It is not a faith without a basis, though. The fact that the book we have today called the Bible is substantially the same as what was available thousands of years ago is well-documented historically. In fact, the Bible is the most thoroughly documented historical document in existence today.

          Historians use several criterion to evaluate the authenticity of historical documents. Those documents are subjected to internal, external and bibliographic tests by archeologists, historians and other scholars. The Bible has undergone those tests. There are no conclusive internal contradictions; the external data available corroborates, or at the very least, does not contradict the Bible, and the Bible passes the bibliographic test (the amount of ancient copies that can be compared and the length of years before the first copy was made) better than any other historical work of its time.

          Instead of duplicating work already done in numerous places on the Web, I’ll send you to a few websites which do an excellent job presenting informative explanations and examples of these tests. I’m sure you can find even more by googling “Bible authenticity,” or “bibligraphic tests Bible,” or some such phrase.

Know Truth

Grace Bible Church

Christian Research Institute

Apologia

          Since I have, on several occasions, remarked that everything I do and write about comes from a spiritual foundation, it occurs to me that it might be useful to make that spiritual foundation clear. Many months ago, I posted my statement of faith, What Do I Believe?, with Scripture references and lengthy (for me) explanations. It is unfinished in places and, even with that, a bit long. It might be easier to understand in smaller “bites.” (Not to mention that this way the unfinished bits are more likely to get finished. )

          This series also serves as another introduction, a “getting on the same page” so to speak. While anyone is welcome to visit and comment on this site, my specific target audience are those of similar culture and faith. This blog, and any other venues that grow from it, are meant to be an encouragement and inspiration to those who consider Jesus their Savior and Lord and seek to follow the teachings of the Bible within the culture of contemporary United States of America. (Ancillary to that, of course, is the desire that my ramblings and musings will make the gospel’s message of hope clearer to all.)

          Even within that precise a mission, there is room for many, many variations and differences of opinion. As a guide, and as a help for readers trying to determine if they even want to read what I have to say, I think it will be useful and prudent to lay out for scrutiny the minimal foundations of my worldview, that set of beliefs from which all my opinions and life experiences grow. Hence this series of posts, one each Sunday. Once posted, this series will be compiled into one page for easy access to all who visit this blog.

          Back in late March, in the blog post “ANOTHER New Start?” I wrote I was now going post more often. I said it would most likely be a hodgepodge of different topics, but I would at least consistently post something each weak. I meant it. I really did. And I did post at least once a week for . . . not long enough. I’m here to start over yet again. And I will keep starting over as long as it takes.

          One of my favorite quotes is from Teddy Roosevelt, “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

          That said, even though I may fail miserably, I will continue to strive valiantly to give you something worth reading. Let the hodgepodge begin! (Again. )