Statements of Truth

Circular reasoning

There are many things the Bible talks about: how the universe came to be, what we're doing here, why we act the way we do, how we should live, etc. The Bible also claims it is True. As in: the official authoritative word of God. That is a very bold claim to make. To prove it, does the Bible say "this is true because it is true"? Is there circular reasoning there?

What are some things the Bible claims?

So if the Bible is True, then what it says about the universe and people, etc. should be true. Let's look at various Statements of Truth found throughout the Bible and ask ourselves:

• Is this really how it is?
• Is there some way this doesn't apply?
• Are there cases in the world where this is not true?

For example, if the Bible said "all frogs are the color blue", then if we found one green frog, that would make me question the rest of the Bible!

Statements of Truth

All have sinned

The Bible says everyone has sinned against God (Romans 3:23). What a statement for a book to make! Is there a nation of people in the world that are known to be without sin? Is there a Pleasantville town where there are no police because there is no crime? Is the Pope or Mother Theresa without sin?

The wages of sin is death

Adam and Eve's original sin started the process of physical, emotional, and spiritual death from God for all people. Though in Christ we can be made alive again (Ephesians 2:4-5).

If we are suffering spiritual and emotional separation from God, then we should be able to see this in the world. Do you see a world falling apart? Do you think of everyone as good inside, or bad?

We are created in God's image

Michelangelo - Creation of Adam (cropped)

Christ is the image of God (Colossians 1:15), but we are created in God's image (Genesis 1:26). A number of our characteristics mirror what we read about God doing in the Bible: having relationships, being creative and wanting to construct things, having emotions and personality, having moral judgment, even our intellect and soul which separates us from the animals. Do you see how these things set us apart from everything else God created? The God of the Bible is not a color or an abstract sound, or some other strange construct, but Someone we can relate to, call Father, have a relationship with.

I suppose the statement of "being in God's image" would require you to see God as someone like you. When you read about how God or Christ act in the Bible, does it seem strange to you, like they are aliens? Of course, after we were created in God's image, we entered a state of sin and have become corrupted, so many of the ways Christ acts seems unnatural to me, like wanting to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39).

God made all animals

Are there any derpy animals in the world? They say the Platypus is a "joke by God" because it looks so weird. It's still an amazing creature. Can you see God's creativity in the animals around you? If you think about the long nosed animals (elephant or anteater), the long necked (giraffe), the ones that fly (birds) or swim (fish): there's such an incredible variety for us to study! If we had read about the God in the Bible with His imagination and grandeur, and then if we looked around us and saw just rocks or maybe just cube shaped masses wiggling around, we might wonder who this God is that the Bible talks about given the lack of animals. But that isn't the case! One of the main arguments for God is to say "look around you!" (Romans 1:20)

God made all insets

These are my favorites. It's the same argument as animals: there's so many amazing creatures, it points to an amazing God, the God in the Bible (Genesis 1:24). There's more types of insects then there are animals. As a kid we had an entomologist club and we'd go out in the yard and see how many different types of insects we could find that matched our books. One of my favorites is the antlion that makes a cone in the dirt for other insects to fall in, and then it eats them. I've written up a little blurb about the different types of Spider Webs.

God made all languages

If we look at the different languages of the world, do they have complexity? Do they have distinction? Do they have similarities (same Author)? The Bible talks about God's attributes being perceivable through the world around us. We might think about this when we look at a sunset, mountain range, or stars. But also look at the different languages out there and wonder about how a group of people agrees to speak which words for which things. I understand languages have mutated over the centuries, but the root started with God (Genesis 11:9).