During its long history the Bible has been the subject of many negative comments. People will tell you that the Bible is nonsense or that it doesn't actually say what Christians think it says or that church leaders have concocted the Bible so that they can manipulate people. Well I want to respond to charges like these. If somebody was to assert "The Bible is full of contradictions and the church has hidden the truth!", what would I want to say to them?
Well there are many things which could be said but in this talk I'm just going to list off four questions that I want to ask somebody making a statement like this. And I want to explain to you why I think these questions matter.
My first question is this: Have you actually read the Bible?
Now I want to begin with that question because unfortunately we live at a time when people like to bandy around opinions without any actual knowledge to back them up. We live in the age of opinion polls when people are regularly being asked their view on this or that.
Yet often those views are held on the basis on a very small amount of information. Odd articles from the newspaper. Thirty minutes in front of the BBC news each evening. An occasional documentary or best-selling book.
Well maybe there are lots of things you can have an opinion on with only a little knowledge, but let me suggest to you that the Bible isn't one of them. You need to give time to read it for yourself. Why? Because there is simply no other book like it.
The number of copies of the Bible which have been distributed around the world, are vastly greater than any other book – thousands of millions of copies. If you ask the question "what has been the best-selling book of all time?" then the answer comes back "the Bible". It has been translated into over 2000 different languages. It has profoundly influenced individuals, nations, continents and continues to do so. It has changed history.
Now all those things, by themselves, don't make the Bible true. But surely they at least say this: a book which has had this impact upon the world deserves to be treated with respect and given time. Nobody has the right to come along, having never read the Bible for themselves, and simply say "It's a load of rubbish."
But let's assume this person I'm talking to has read the Bible. What question would I like to ask them next? My second question : Do you know how the Bible was written?
Now I'd make that my second question because to understand a book like the Bible, you have to know what you're dealing with. The Bible has been written in a very remarkable way. It is not simply the product of one man or woman writing a book over the course of a year, or five years, or even forty years. It took around 1500 years to write, mostly in two major languages: Greek and Hebrew. It consists of sixty six smaller books which cover a wide variety of types from legal documents, to histories, to poetry, to songs, to lists of proverbs, to family trees, to letters, to prophecies. These books were written in different locations, by different authors at different points in history. The Bible is amazingly diverse, and yet there are also clear common themes pulsating through the whole of it.
So before anyone can start to form an opinion on what the Bible says, they first need to understand just what it is they are dealing with. Otherwise, they will simply make a fool of themselves. And remember this: the Bible has been subject to study throughout its history. People have been looking at this book, analysing it, trying to make sense of it, learning about it for more than 3000 years. There are many thousands of books by thousands of authors dealing with the issues that arise when studying the Bible.
The Bible has been studied in extra-ordinary detail by a massive number of individuals. And not just by academics and authors, but also by countless ordinary people. The result is that a huge range of people from very different backgrounds, have all come away from the Bible stunned by its consistency, its central message, its teaching and especially stunned by the man presented in the pages of the Bible: Jesus Christ.
Now all those people could be wrong. Their testimony by itself doesn't make the Bible true. But surely it warns you not to jump to conclusions. If so many people can treat the Bible so seriously and not find the problems you think are there, then maybe you ought to question you're own understanding. Do you know enough about the Bible truly to be able to say things like "it is full of contradictions"?
My third question is: Are you coming to the Bible with an open mind?
All of us carry certain assumptions through life and people regularly do that with the Bible. Some people know it cannot tell us anything about God, because God does not exist. Other people know that although God exists, He never interferes in this world: nothing can happen in this world, other than by the normal means which we can see and test. And so, say these people, the Bible must be wrong if it describes anything like a miracle and it must be wrong when it claims that God Himself wrote the Bible, through people whom He had chosen.
But are assumptions like these fair or are such people being close-minded? Well think about those who admit that there probably is a God but we shouldn't think the Bible comes from him because he doesn't interfere in the world like that. Is that a fair assumption? Well surely not. I can't think of any reason to assume that God wouldn't write a book using human beings or perform miracles which stand outside of the natural laws. Let me try to explain why.
Firstly, could God write a book using a great number of human beings over 1500 years of human history? Well why not? If God made the world, then He designed the whole idea of communication. And given what a hugely important role they play in human life, surely speaking and communicating is the very thing you would expect God to do. Why would God make a world full of human beings who love to communicate with one another and then go quiet himself? If any assumption is the safe one to make, it is the assumption that God has spoken to us. Now that doesn't tell us whether he's spoken through the Bible or the book of Mormon or the Koran. But surely it is an entirely unwarranted assumption to start with the idea that God couldn't write a book.
Secondly, could God write a book using human beings? Why not? It seems to me entirely possible for God to bring about the birth of a particular person who is prepared through all their life experiences which God has planned for them, to write a book in just the way God wants them to. If God is capable of creating all the complex series of interacting objects – atoms, cells, plants, animals, clouds, the sun and so on - which make life on this world possible, then I don't see that it is very hard at all for Him to use human beings to write a book.
Thirdly, why couldn't God perform miracles like making five loaves into enough food to feed thousands of people? Surely when we talk about "natural laws" all we mean is the way God, who created everything, normally does things in our experience. But if the creator chooses at some point to do things differently, then that is His business. The question about miracles is not whether God can do them but rather whether God has done them. And the Bible provides evidence in answer to that question.
So let's not allow our assumptions to write off the Bible, before we've considered what it has to say.
Fourthly: do you know what impact the Bible has had on the lives of real people?
One of the striking features about the Bible is that it constantly questions human beings about their lives and says offensive things to them. And yet people come to love this book and their lives are revolutionised by it. You can also find a whole host of very ordinary, very normal people from down through the years of history whose lives have been made more healthy and more happy through the impact of the Bible. And this has happened even though the Bible places such seemingly impossible duties on people.
Let me give you some examples. The Bible tells us to be truthful, when our habit is to spin the truth whenever it keeps us safe. It tells us to be sexually pure and faithful, when our fantasies roam off into all sorts of practises and relationships which cannot be described as pure or faithful. It tells us not to covet what other people own but rather to be satisfied with what we have, yet envy and jealousy are common emotions for us all. The Bible's standards constantly clash with our own and make us feel like failures.
But even though the Bible places these unreachable laws before us, yet still many people have come to love the Bible and be changed by it. They have found that these laws really are good for living – they make for the happiest life. But they've also discovered in the pages of the Bible, the way in which these laws can be kept. They've found that the Bible doesn't only tell them about God's laws but about God's way to keep them. It tells about how to find forgiveness for our natural tendency to law-breaking and how to be radically changed – being given a new heart which loves God and wants to obey him. What sort of people have been changed by the Bible? The answer is: all sorts. Young and old. Good and bad. Rich and poor. From all over the world.
Now again that in itself doesn't answer all the questions people want to throw at the Bible. But surely it at least says this: when you see how the Bible does change people's lives then you've got to give this book a fair hearing. It can't just be binned on the basis of a few unproven assertions.
Well, don't need to stop with this talk. There are many books which will help you go into more detail in these areas that I've spoken about and will help you investigate what the Bible really does say. And if you examine them, then you'll find that it won't do to say that the church has secretly hidden away what the Bible really should have said. There just hasn't been the opportunity for that to happen. The truth is much simpler. The Bible is what it should be and the Bible is what it claims to be: a book written by God.
So come and ask your questions of the Bible. But then allow the Bible to ask questions of you. And you'll find something which can change your life for ever. That's ultimately why you need to listen seriously to this book. If the Bible is right then you by staying away from it or by mocking it or by ignoring it, you are throwing away eternal life.