What Do I Believe?

          Every aspect of my life is governed by what I believe the Bible teaches. Of course, since I am not perfect (see what I believe about Adam and mankind), there are times I fall short of the ideal presented by the Bible. For the most part, though, my life decisions are based on my understanding of, and the desire to obey, Scripture.

          I believe the Bible to be the word of God because I have chosen to believe. That is called faith. Even so, it is not an unreasoned or unreasonable faith. On the contrary, the Bible stands up to all the legitimate historical tests to which it is subjected.

          To evaluate the authenticity of historical documents, those documents are subjected to internal, external and bibliographic tests by archeologists, historians and other scholars.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 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.

          In its essence, God’s message to us is, “I love you. Please come to me. I made it possible.” There is so much more to know about that message, though. Here I have tried to compile it into a logical format that is clear and comprehensive. Not an easy task. I hope it helps you find the One True God. Even if all my words do is compel you to pick up a Bible to find verses to prove me wrong, I’m thrilled. If you look for Him, if you look where He speaks and not where others dilute His message, you will find Him. And that is my deepest desire, that others find Him.

          That said, I have chosen to believe . . .

The Bible is the infallible, powerful word of God.

          The original documents were completely without error and what few clerical discrepancies that have been discovered in the copies are inconsequential to the message presented by the Bible.

• As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. (2 Samuel 22:31a)
• For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. (Psalms 33:4)
• By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. (Psalms 33:6)
• but the word of the Lord stands forever.” (1 Peter 1:25a)
• Every word of God is flawless. (Proverbs 30:5a)
• For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than 2’any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

God created the world, the planets and stars, the entire universe.

• In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
  (Genesis 1:1)
• So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:21)
• 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)
• For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Colossians 1:16)
• “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” (Revelation 4:11)
• And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay! (Revelation 10:6)

Adam was created perfect, without sin or any fault; He chose to
rebel against God and, thus, condemned all creation to his curse.

          Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

          The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not surely die,”
          The serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

          When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
          But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

          And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

          The man said, “The woman you put here with me– she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

          Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

          So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

          To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

          To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:1-19 NIV)

Because we are descended from Adam, we bear his guilt, propensity to
sin and condemnation.

• Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12 NIV)/
• We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:22 NIV)
• Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?
  (Proverbs 20:9 NIV)
• for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23 NIV)
• For the wages of sin is death, (Romans 6:23a NIV)
• As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10 NIV)
• Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. (Romans 5:14 NIV)

Jesus paid the penalty for our sinfulness.

          Born of a virgin, he did not inherit the sin nature from Adam. He lived a sinless life. He allowed Himself to be executed. This satisfied the requirement of God’s justice and allowed a way for sinful mankind to be cleansed of sin and guilt and for the curse to be lifted.

• For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NIV)
• For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness ofsinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4 NIV)
• God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV)
• He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:22-24 NIV)
• For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15 NIV)
• Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26 NIV)
• so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:28 NIV)
• But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. (1 John 3:5 NIV)
• But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:9 NIV)
• Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:14-18 NIV)

Only by faith in Christ and His cleansing/redeeming work can we be
released from our fallen state.

• But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:17-18 NIV)

Our faith in Christ’s redeeming work will result in a change of behavior.

• No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. (1 John 3:6 NIV)
• No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning,because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:9 NIV)
• We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. (1 John 5:18 NIV)