At our church, we are studying as a whole church why we believe what we believe. The whole church means from babies to those who are eldest in our church. Our pastor wants us to be on the same page. I am a Southern Baptist and my husband and I chose to be baptists for very specific reasons. I am glad to be a part of a church that holds true to what it believes and works cooperatively with other churches around the nation to share the love of Jesus Christ with the world. Churches like Westboro Baptist give other Baptists a bad name. BTW, Westboro was removed from the Southern Baptist Convention for their unloving, unforgiving stands that they take towards our soldiers and other members of our society. I serve in a church that loves it community and seeks to help those who need it the most. I serve with other members to pray for and serve our community and our world as Jesus did when He walked this earth. Many people have an opinion of how we as Baptists believe. I think that even people who belong to our church don't really know why it is we believe what we believe. Our pastor will be expounding on that over the next few weeks. I will be passing this info on to you. None of these points did I come up with on my own but after careful consideration, I know that I believe the same way. First off, what do we believe about the Bible.
Many people believe that the Bible is a compilation of good stories often with a moral but it has no real impact on our lives today. I often hear that the authors of the Bible wouldn't understand about our society today. What do we as a church believe? We believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Breathed from God's heart to the hearts of the people who wrote it. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
1) It is a unique publication. There is no other like it. It has over 40 authors with 20 occupations, in 10 countries written over a time span of 1500 years in 3 different languages with a constant theme: God's redemption for mankind. Flawed people told stories of their weakest moments. There was an honesty in their writing. History written from other historians of the time has proven it to be accurate. There are over 24,000 manuscripts of just the New Testament alone. All of them agree with the exception of punctuation and grammatical errors. If you discount them, the you must discount the 7 manuscripts written about Plato, the 10 written about Julius Caesar, 49 written about Aristotle, and 643 copies of Homer's Iliad. There are more reliable manuscripts written about the man Jesus and His death and resurrection than any of those above. If He didn't exist, then neither did those others and we can trust nothing that we know to be true.
2) There is consistent archaeology. Scientists are constantly finding ruins and other manuscripts that confirm what is already known in the pages of Scripture.
3) The issue of fulfilled prophecy is not to be discounted. The Bible is the only Holy book with documented fulfilled prophecy. Over 300 prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus Christ coming, dying, and rising from the grave. His crucifixion was foretold 500 years before that was even a method of execution. It also foretold that He would die between 2 thieves. That is pretty specific. The prophecies like 30 pieces of silver for Jesus' betrayal were fulfilled by those who hated Jesus and His message. They should have been seeking to disprove Him but only added to the veracity of His claim.
4) The Bible has had undeniable impact on the world. It is the only book that tells you that you don't have to work to receive God's love but that God loved you so much that He did all the work so that you might have eternal life. It is a love letter to us from our Heavenly Father.
We don't like the Bible because we don't want to be corrected or told that we are doing anything wrong. We are sinners in need of a Savior to save us and correct us. There is a solution! There is Hope! Jesus Christ is that HOPE!
Check out our website for more info www.fbchnc.org
