Investigate the Bible

In the 18th century two British lawyers by the names of Lord Lyttleton and Gilbert West came up with a plan. As atheists, they wanted to undermine the credibility of the New Testament, and they believed the resurrection of Jesus and the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (the apostle Paul) were the two most important pillars of the faith to attack. If, they believed, they could disprove those events, they could get people to leave Christianity. Their plan was to each take one of the topics, investigate it, and write a book about it. They parted ways and agreed to meet back to share their results with each other.

West set out to disprove the resurrection while Lyttleton took on Paul. When they next met with each other one of the men confessed that through his research he was beginning to believe the biblical account; the other man confessed the same thing was happening to him. When they were finished, Gilbert West published, The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Lyttleton published The Conversion of St. Paul. Both books were a defense of, not an objection to, the claims of the New Testament.

Similar stories abound. Lee Strobel wrote The Case for Christ (and several other “Case For” books) instead of the book he hoped to write that was going to be critical of Christianity. Josh McDowel did the same thing when he wrote Evidence that Demands a Verdict. So did C.S. Lewis when he wrote Mere Christianity.

Isn’t it amazing that when sensible, highly educated people investigate the Bible in order to attack it that they end up believing it? How many times do we hear that Christianity is for the weak and simpleminded? It is also interesting that people have a strong enough opinion that God doesn’t exist that they feel they need to write about it. People believe in Big Foot, unicorns, space men, and the tooth fairy; that doesn’t bother me. I couldn’t imagine being so motivated as to write a book criticizing something I do not believe in. Your belief in Big Foot doesn’t bother me, but our belief in God drives others crazy.

I think the reason people do that is they know deep down that there is a God who created all things. All the evidence points to intelligent design, not random chance. Not wanting to have a Lord, these people deny God, hoping to convince themselves that He isn’t real so that they can feel better living outside of His will. When they go down the path of investigating God so they can criticize Him, they end up accepting what they have denied all along.

So maybe you have your doubts about God and the Bible. Maybe violence, starvation, crime, and pandemics have got you saying, “If God is real, then why…” No problem. Investigate it. Investigate God. Investigate the Bible. God can handle it; in fact, He invites it. You may just end up accepting what you have denied all along.

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him (Psalm‬ ‭34:8‬)!”

Stubbing Your Toe

Have you ever stubbed your toe? Of course you have. It’s terrible, isn’t it? The worst, in my opinion, is stubbing the pinky toe. When the Florida Gators basketball team was playing in the 2000 National Championship game, I jumped off the couch in celebration at one point and stubbed my pinky toe on our coffee table. If I think about it, I can still feel the pain coursing through my body twenty years later (it was almost as bad as the pain of losing that game!).

Stubbing a toe hurts, and that is why it is such a fitting analogy for lack of unity in the church. You might not have heard somebody make that analogy, but the Greek language does that for us. You see, Acts 2:46 says the new church members were together “day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, [and] they received their food with glad and generous hearts.” I want you to think about that phrase generous hearts. 

In Greek the word generous literally means, “without rock, smooth, simple, or single.” Without rock? How does “without rock” turn into generous hearts? When everyone was getting along, things were nice and smooth; there were no rocks to make the path difficult, and no one was stubbing their toe. The opposite is to have a rocky road and many stubbed toes, including pinky toes. This is the scene depicted by lack of unity in the church. 

When church members fight with one another they are casting stones into the path where they are liable to be kicked by other people. They are creating an environment where people have to watch their step at all times. There are no generous hearts (or singleness/simplicity of hearts in the KJV and NKJV). 

What kind of path are you creating? Are you smoothing out the road by your actions, or are you laying down a rock bed? You can smooth the path by being forgiving, merciful, gentle, meek, loving, patient, and understanding. You can add rocks to the path by being selfish, hateful, bitter, unforgiving, and forcing people to take sides with a “my way or the highway” approach.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).” Peacemakers remove the rocks from the path and help other people get along. Nobody wants a stubbed toe, so let’s not add any rocks to this world’s already rocky road. 

Waiting Rooms

Aren’t waiting rooms frustrating? Any time we are taking a trip to the doctor we always hope we will not have to be in the waiting room very long, but that is rarely the case. Some waiting rooms have TVs or magazines to help pass the time, and the good ones have free WiFi. Has it ever occurred to you that waiting is inevitable in a waiting room? Everything about it tells you that you are going to have to wait. If they planned on getting you right in, they wouldn’t subscribe to magazines and pay for cable. We might get frustrated while we wait, but the room is literally called a waiting room. That’s the entire purpose of the room. 

In a similar way, as Christians who believe in the return of Christ, we may have a tendency to get frustrated while we wait for the rapture. Jesus promised to come back for the church, but it has been two thousand years. Why is He taking so long? Why won’t He just hurry up?

But think about it: Jesus told us we are going to have to wait. In the Parable of the Ten Virgins Jesus spoke about the need to watch and be ready, because “no one knows the day or the hour” that He will return (Matthew 25:13). To illustrate this truth Jesus used an analogy of bridesmaids waiting for the groom to let them know that the wedding was going to begin, but “as the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept (v.5).” 

That little detail is so important. Jesus is the bridegroom in that parable, and He said He was going to be delayed in His return. Just as the waiting room should not surprise us because it is literally called a waiting room, the delay in the rapture should not surprise us because Jesus literally said He would be delayed. People may scoff and say, “Well, they’ve been saying for years Jesus will come back, and He hasn’t yet, so you’re crazy for believing He will.” Jesus said He would delay His coming to the point where people become drowsy and sleep, nodding off instead of watching and waiting. 

Here’s the reason for the delay: every day He waits He is giving someone else the chance to get ready. Peter said, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9).” Some may think He is dragging His feet or being slow, but God is actually just being merciful and patient. 

Maybe He has delayed His coming so that you have one more chance to get ready. If that is you, then don’t put it off another day; today may be your last chance. 

The Great American Seal

Annuit Coeptis, Novus Ordo Seclorum.

Those Latin phrases appear on the back of the Great Seal of the United States of America. The first phrase, annuit coeptis, basically means, “Providence favors our undertaking.” The second phrase is slightly more difficult to translate because it is an allusion to a classic poem by Virgil (Eclogues). It has been translated as, “a new order of the ages,” but here is the fuller context of the poem:

“The great order of the ages is born afresh. Now justice returns, honored rules return. Now a new lineage is sent down from high heaven.” 

Charles Thomson, one of the designers of the Great Seal, said the phrase was chosen to signify “the beginning of the new American era.”

Taken together, these phrases show that the idea was that America was favored by God, and the founding of the New World was meant to be a blessing to the rest of the world. Of course America has made its share of mistakes; there are black marks on our history that we would rather forget. That is what happens when fallen people are involved in anything. There isn’t a nation in the history of the world that can boast of a flawless history, but I would argue that America’s history is better than most, if not all, other nations. Other countries have gotten better because they were liberated by other countries, but America has corrected its own problems from within. 

I believe that America was favored by the providence of God from the beginning because Christian men and women set out to find a place where they could worship in freedom. Over the years many have recognized that this country was destined to be a shining city on a hill to give hope to the rest of the world. Those of us who are American Christians should continue in that tradition of using our place of providential favor to be a blessing to others. “To whom much is given, much will be expected (paraphrase of Luke 12:48).” 

We cannot control whether or not our country is a shining city on hill to the rest of the world, but as individuals we can be that city to our neighbors and coworkers. 

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Crossing that Bridge

“We’ll just cross that bridge when we come to it.” Have you ever used that expression? Typically when we refer to crossing a bridge somewhere down the road we are talking about a future decision that will have to made. Someone might present a hypothetical situation: “What will we do if…?” Our response might be, “We’ll just cross that bridge when we come to it.” We will make that decision if and when the situation actually presents itself. 

Usually when we use that expression we are hoping to never actually cross that bridge. We might as well be saying, “Hopefully we won’t have to make that decision, because hopefully we won’t have to cross that bridge.” We hope those dreaded future events never come to pass. 

But that way of thinking isn’t always responsible. There are many bridges in life that we will come to and that we must cross. If we wait until we come to the bridge, it will be too late to decide how to cross it. A responsible person is prepared for many of life’s bridges. Things like medical or life insurance, savings or retirement accounts, and spare change or spare tires all show that a person is preparing to cross a bridge before they arrive at it. 

We also need to make spiritual preparations before we come to certain bridges. The Bible says that one day every knee will bow…and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).” That is a bridge everyone will cross; everyone will bow before Jesus and confess Him as Lord. However, that passage needs to be properly understood. Many of us have bowed our knees before Jesus already, and we daily confess Him as Lord. But many people do not. If they choose not to bow and confess in this lifetime, they will do so in judgment after life. People need to be ready to cross that bridge while they are still alive. 

That is because there is another bridge we all must cross. Hebrews 9:27 says it “is appointed unto man once to die, and after this is the judgment.” Every person has an appointed time to die. We need to be ready for that appointment because there is a very real judgment that will follow. When it comes to matters like death and judgment, we cannot sit back and say, “We’ll just cross that bridge when we come to it.” We are going to come to it. That bridge is coming, but the problem is, we don’t know when to expect the bridge. 

We all need to be ready to cross that bridge because it is a certainty. If you came up to that bridge today, are you ready for it? Have you already bowed your knee and confessed Jesus as Lord? You need to be ready now. You need to do that before your appointment with death.