As Christians, we believe that the Bible is the Word of God given to man. The entire Bible does three things: it manifests God, exposes man, and unveils Christ. First, it shows us that the God who blesses us is loving, righteous, and faithful. Second, it shows us that man is nothing, has nothing, and can do nothing. Man is filled with sin; thus, he is only good to be crucified and nullified. Third, it reveals Christ, the hidden mystery, as the Savior, the life, the life supply, and everything to fallen man. By believing and receiving Christ, man may come back to God to be filled up with God and express God as one corporate man.
We believe not because of outward proof but because of a living touch with God the Spirit by praying in our spirit with the Word. Although we do not need any outward proof to believe, it is still good to know a few crucial facts. It is good for us and for our friends. But never forget that people believe by the spirit, not by the mind. Doubt is in the mind; faith is in the spirit (see note 2 of 2 Cor. 4:13).
This lesson and the following lesson are based on a Chinese book entitled Is the Bible Inspired by God? by Y. L. Chang, published by the Taiwan Gospel Book Room in 1982.
Since there is a God in this universe, and since He created man, He must want to reveal Himself to man. He is very great and man is very small. What is the best way for Him to reveal Himself to man? He must use the way man communicates—speaking and writing. Thus, there must exist on this earth a book through which God can communicate with man. There are so many books on the face of the earth; which one is God’s book to man? How do we know? We can expect God’s book to meet the following suppositions:
Let us consider all the books in this world. There are only three books that claim divine authorship—the Bible, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon. The Bible states more than two thousand times that it is spoken by the Lord God. Immediately, we eliminate all the other books.
What about the moral tone of these three books? The moral tone of the Koran is too low. Its heaven is full of lusts and flesh. God could never write a book with such licentiousness and immorality. The Book of Mormon is also substandard in moral tone. It tells men that they will have many wives when they go to heaven, and it promotes bigamy on the earth. Only the Bible has the highest standard of morality. It disallows divorce. Marriages of divorced people are considered adultery (Matt. 19:3-9). The Bible further states that even lusting in the heart is equivalent to committing adultery (Matt. 5:28). This standard exceeds that of any other book on earth. It also teaches people not only to forgive from their heart (Matt. 18:35) but also to love their enemies (Matt. 5:44). It condemns hatred as murder (Matt. 5:22; 1 John 3:15). All books on ethics deal with outward behavior; only the Bible deals with the heart to produce a moral living.
Only the Bible tells us about God, His purpose, His reason for creation, man, man’s problem, solutions to man’s problem, and the destiny of creation and man. We will talk about these matters in subsequent lessons.
The Bible is readily available to man. It has been translated into approximately two thousand languages. In 1989, six hundred million Bibles were sent out to a world population of 5.5 billion. Within ten years, the number of Bibles sent out will surpass the population of the world. This means that most of the people on the face of this earth will have an opportunity to read a Bible.
As you can see, there is only one book that is qualified to be God’s book to man, and that is the Bible. All other books on earth do not pass the test because they are not written by God to reveal Himself to man. How we praise Him for giving us the Bible and letting us find the Bible. How much we need to treasure the Bible and see God revealed in the Bible!