DISTRUST IN THE AUTHOR

Not many people read anymore. Of those who do, not all read the Bible. And of those who read the Bible, many question its legitimacy and reliability and so they distrust its author is actually God.

How can we identify the fundamental core of truth if we don’t dig deep into what makes the Bible so controversial? After all, controversy is what makes us doubt God is the author, no? Why so many ambiguous passages if God is infallible? Why would a perfect God have commanded people to do things we don’t agree a perfect God would?

MISTAKEN TRUTH ISN’T TRUTH

We must become a society of masters at asking more effective questions in the search of truth. Is God’s truth controversial because it’s challenging, or because we carry a misguided belief that the veracity of the Bible is mistaken? Mistaken truth can’t actually be truth, however, because truth cannot be mistaken; truth is used to correct falseness (2 Timothy 3:16).

If the Bible is controversial because it’s challenging, that simply alludes to the need of the reader to accept the requirements of its author to correct and discipline the spirit of the person willing to identify the Bible’s message as humbling by its supernatural means of generating foundational truth, as well as to be discerning of the Bible not to be a scholarly collection of errant religiosity.

MERELY FUNCTIONING

For those who read but avoid the Bible, some of us are seeking truth while others merely seek an escape from what they believe are the lies of the world at large. Too much worldly corruption and manipulation leads us to doubt our (and especially others’) ability to discern and detect truth in its rawest form. That’s why we tune out to the static of mental fog just to function… but we don’t really live, because merely functioning—especially the stoic’s numbed countenance towards life’s unanswered-ness—isn’t truly living.

NECESSARY EVIL – EMPTY SHELL LIVING

Merely functioning is absent of intentionality. We turn ourselves into robots believing we have free will, but we abuse it by choosing to live a shell of a life; empty and void of a truth bigger than the world we see with our eyes; eyes that see living as only a necessary evil to drag our feet through one day to barely reach another with the same empty shell. We believe we’re living in the Matrix while living in the real world but ignoring and preferring to forget all about what even makes reality so real in the first place.

So let’s be clear: we weren’t created to sustain a stoic lifestyle of nonchalance, or to perpetuate the avoidance of clarity in the areas of our lives carrying our deepest wounds.

We were created to experience purpose, fulfillment, and relationship with the God of heaven.

TESTED, REFINED, PREPARED FOR GLORY

But we wouldn’t know or understand the depth of this, however, without reading the Bible, or speaking to someone who has.

We are tested in order to be refined into the state of mind and being in which God can move us towards His higher calling in our lives. Being tested is, to some degree, God’s way of saying:

“Can I make you ready for the blessings I want to bestow on you?”

“Are you willing to suffer so I can show you that which you’ll only be able to understand and appreciate by suffering?”

“Will you let go of your control and trust in Mine?”

MISSING OUT ON THE BIGGEST MOMENTS 

For every time we say no, or neglect to respond, or live as though we were never asked because we’ve never taken the time to listen with a humble heart, we miss the blessings; we miss the things God has for us prepared beyond our comprehension. The Bible is full of these stories.

It’s full of sinful, imperfect people being blessed by God and being tried by Him. God always had a plan, He always knew what He was doing, but so many people miss out on trusting God’s eyes, hands, and heart in the ways He wants to mold our lives into masterpieces.

BEYOND COMPREHENSION

When we trust, and we pray, mountains move. When we have faith and surrender, lives change. When we embrace His truth, we find peace beyond human understanding. It cannot be related to with rationality or reasoning. We cannot grasp it fully on our own; we need the Holy Spirit in us to experience it personally. We experience it through seeking Him first and letting go of the world saying we shouldn’t.

A TRUST CONTRADICTION

That’s where relationship is. The Bible teaches this, but many don’t read it. For those who do, many don’t seek the Truth. Many only see the words on the pages of Scripture through the lens of skepticism and judgment, rather than openness and a docile spirit. When we judge God, we misunderstand the infinite depths of His knowledge and the incomprehensibly unconditional nature of His love.

When we read Scripture for loopholes and contradictions, nothing godly seems godly at all. Nothing truthful stands out as fundamentally incorrigible. We lose sight of what it means to trust based on truth, and then we forsake it by trusting our choice to feel unable to trust. But then… we are trusting ourselves, and we’re the ones convinced trust is unviable.

DECEIVED EVEN WHEN WE STARE TRUTH IN THE FACE

We’re lost. This is one way of looking at what it means to be lost: when we can’t see truth when it’s right in front of us because the world (and the devil and the principalities of darkness) has convinced us not to trust what is revealed to us by the truth of God Himself.

The opposite of clarity is the inability to see clearly. We are lost in the lies that the truth is unknowable, unreliable, and that we must trust in nothing, but then… we are still trusting. It’s just that we’re trusting whilst being unwilling to see we have forsaken the very nature of trust itself because of a lie… but that lie didn’t come from the Bible. It came from the devil’s influence in the lives of so many skeptical people who have become deceived in wanting to believe their choice to live their own way—stoic, mechanical, survival-mode lifestyles—is better than the fundamental truth that we were created for a higher purpose than we could ever have imagined.

WHY DO WE THROW THE TRUTH AWAY?

But we’ll throw it all away, and the Bible too.

The devil has been manipulating so many people all this time. He’s caused us to choose to believe in ourselves. That’s what he caused Eve to do; he caused her to believe she could be like God without the need for God. Why are we still letting the devil deceive us like that—especially when we have the Bible telling us what happened because of that choice?

CONNECT WITH ME

If you felt spoken to by this article, please write about it in the comments below, or send a message through my contact page. You can also subscribe to my blog, and/or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Threads if you’re interested in reading newly published articles. Please let me know if there’s a topic any of you would like me to write an article about that would help you on your faith journey.

Thanks for reading!

Image by Leroy Skalstad from Pixabay