Chuck Foreman – Teaching Pastor

When it comes to people’s views and opinions about the Bible and it’s integrity and reliability, I’ve found one thing that most skeptics and believers have in common—ignorance. 

Most skeptics I’ve talked with simply parrot objections to the integrity of the Bible they’ve heard which are unfounded. They haven’t researched the evidence for themselves. And most believers simply parrot clichés and slogans they’ve heard which are pro-Bible, but sound more like one-sided propaganda than objective discovery. To the thinking and genuinely inquiring individual, neither camp has any credibility. What most people, regardless of their persuasion, are unaware of is that the Bible has been put through the most brutal investigation imaginable. And it should be brutally investigated because it makes some claims for itself and for some of its key figures, i.e. Jesus, that are outlandish, unless of course they are true. And the quest for what is true should be ours if we ourselves want to have any credibility. So, whether you consider yourself a skeptic or a believer, I’d like to make a couple of recommendations: (1) Read the book you’re either criticizing or adhering to. Make sure you know what it actually says before you talk too much about it. And, (2) Look into the evidence both for and against the integrity of the Bible, before you parrot the forgone conclusions of others again.

While we’re at it, let me suggest a couple of sources on both sides of this issue. Against: Bill Maher. You can Google him and read all of his objections to the Bible and to Christianity and religion. Against: Stephen Hawking & Neil deGrasse Tyson. Google them and you can read about their appeal to science as having no need for the existence of God. For: Norman Geisler & Frank Turek. They co-authored a book clearly outlining the road they took to arrive at their conclusion, which is also the title of their book, “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist”, Crossway Books, 2004. For: Hugh Ross. He’s an astronomer who appeals to recent astronomical discoveries which point to the existence of a causal creator. See, “The Fingerprint of God”, Promise Publishing Co., 1989 and recent reprints. For: Ravi Zacharias is another modern day Indian thinker who has concluded that God is there. He’s also written many books explaining his conclusions.  Compare the evidence both sides present and then form your own informed conclusion. You’ll be glad you did, so will the rest of us.