The skeptic wants to make the Bible out to be irrational, illogical nonsense. Bible believers are viewed as some backwoods, barely literate yokels. The reality is that you do not have to check your brain at the door with your hat when you enter the church house.
Let me begin by stating THE REASONABLE PROPOSITION. God exists, and He is a God who communicates; since we are made in His image and communicate, it is logical that He would communicate with us; and since written communication is the most accurate and enduring form of communication, God has given us His written revelation.
“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God. And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, Since I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come, Let them show these to them. Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one. ’ ” (Isaiah 44:6-8 NKJV)
This purports to be God’s testimony—that He exists, He speaks, and those who heard Him have witnessed to Him.
So, God exists. It is folly to think otherwise. I spent several weeks this year on the evidence for God. I am not going to re-preach those sermons—you can go online and listen to them again, if need be. Visit www.polecreek.org and go to the sermon tab, and look for “Can I Believe in God?” It is ludicrous to believe nothing became something, and that through random accidents and mutations over millions and millions of years the material became biological and the biological transformed into one new form after another—a process unobserved in history and not replicated in a laboratory. There is only one reason not to believe in God—we want to be our own god and set our own standards. That is the underlying reason for rejecting Scripture, as well.
To think that there would be a God and God would not choose to communicate His nature, attributes, and will for us is unreasonable. We know from nature and conscience that there is a God and that He has moral demands—but what is that God like and what are His demands? If we look to nature, we can come up with all kinds of speculations about the nature of God—even worshipping nature itself—with innumerable ideas about Him. How would you know? If we look to conscience, it becomes very subjective—some would say this is right and some would say it is wrong—and we would find nothing authoritative to guide us.
It is reasonable then that God would choose to communicate to us clearly. That we—as creatures made in His image—communicate with each other, and those words reveal who we are, points to a higher Being who would communicate in a flawless manner. The medium of communication is words. If you want to build a brick house, you need bricks. If you want to construct an automobile, you need auto parts. If you want to communicate, you need words. Humans communicate with words—we speak them, compose songs, write poetry, post on social media, text, email, and the like. It is a wondrous, God-given trait. This is also His way of communicating with us via His Word—the Bible. That makes sense, doesn’t it?
We do not want people to lie to us—and yet they do. But we do not like it, and we would certainly think it unreasonable that an infinitely higher moral Being than even the most honest of mortals should lie. He does not. What has been given by God is perfect as He is—inerrant and infallible.
The best way for God to communicate in an accurate and enduring manner would be for it to be written communication. We don’t have to rely on our memory—that is a dangerous thing. If I want to recall something, I better write it down! We don’t have to rely on oral traditions handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation. Did you ever play the “Gossip Game?” You know—you whisper a sentence in someone’s ear, and then they do it to the next person, and as it is relayed down the line, by the time it reaches the last person, what is spoke barely resembles what was first uttered. God’s message would get that twisted. Instead, we can look it up and read it. Rather than trying to recall the ingredients of a cake with precise measurements and baking time, we can open a cookbook and look at the recipe—and God’s recipe for successful life is found in His Book. We might try to recall the directions the man in the convenience store told us about how to reach our destination, but looking at a map is far better—and God’s roadmap for reaching heaven is the Bible.
The existence of God and the nature of man provide the logical rationale for why we must have the Bible. It just makes sense!
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