Before we continue our journey together, I’d like to ask you a question. What are your biggest issues with the Bible? What have you heard that has caused you to question the Bible’s validity?

Maybe you’re like me when my professor looked at me with disdain, as though I had thrown my brains in the trash to be a follower of Jesus. Or maybe you’re like so many people that I meet who have unconsciously bought into the “who can trust a 2000-year-old book to give direction to their life” mentality, without ever having read it or studied its origin.

The fact of the matter is that we trust documents all the time to give us direction. Our life is built around written records of truth, whether they be in science, literature, or medicine.

How do we validate those? Don’t we dig into the past to find out if what they say is historically verifiable? Don’t we check out the author and discover where he came from, his credibility, and what credible experts say?

I know of no other issue that will make a bigger difference in your life than having full confidence that you can trust that the Bible is the Word of God. And by trust, I mean making major life decisions that affect both time and eternity with no sense of feeling inferior or anti-intellectual. In the next chapter I will share with you the turning point in my journey with the Bible and why I have full confidence in it today.

I happen to be rather logical and analytical in my thinking. As a result, as I’ve stated before, I tend to be a skeptic. So believing that the Bible was actually God’s Word was a big stretch for me. In the next chapter I will share the logical evidence that so overwhelmed me that it settled the issue once and for all and gave me an unshakable confidence that the Bible is in fact the Word of God.

Ingram, Chip. 2017. Why I Believe: Straight Answers to Honest Questions about God, the Bible, and Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.

We have just completed a 6-Week Bible Study Lesson Series on Chip Ingram’s book, Why I Believe. It is available on Amazon in both print and Kindle versions, as well as part of Good Questions Have Groups Talking Subscription plan. The idea is to invite each participant to purchase their own book and discuss it each week.

Topics include:

Why I Believe, Lesson #1
Chapters 1, 2
Why I Believe in the Resurrection
Did Jesus Really Die?

Why I Believe, Lesson #2
Chapters 3, 4
Why I Believe the Bible
Don’t Take My Word for It

Why I Believe, Lesson #3
Chapters 5
Why I Believe in Life After Death

Why I Believe, Lesson #4
Chapters 6, 7
Why I Believe in Life Creation
Science or God?

Why I Believe, Lesson #5
Chapter 8
Why I Believe in the God of the Bible

Why I Believe, Lesson #6
Chapter 9
How is that Working for You?

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