It shouldn't be surprising for a Christian to actually believe in the Bible. After all, it was the apostle Paul who said that all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), and he was one of the founders of the Christian church as know it today. And yet, more and more people no longer believe the Bible to be true. Moreover, I am not talking about non-Christians, but rather, church-going Christians.
This is why John MacArthur held an Inerrancy Summit a few weeks ago, and you might be wondering why such an event is even necessary. But I can tell you first hand, as a pastor in Christian ministry, it is not merely that more people do not know the Bible, it is also that those who do know it want to selectively live by it.
With each passing year, the Bible's authority and sufficiency is under attack. It is worth following as long as it is beneficial in the moment. But once it begins to contradict the move of culture or personal temporary satisfaction, that's when the Bible becomes inconvenient and ultimately irrelevant. However, rarely does a person want to completely jettison Christianity. They just want to ignore biblical Christianity. Christianity is great, so long as it doesn't impede on our plans, behavior, morality, ethics, or convenience.
So the easiest way to have the best of all worlds is to ignore or reject anything the Bible says that actually calls for sacrifice or commitment. If the Bible impacts my worldview, it's the Bible's fault. But rather than rid ourselves of the Bible, we can simply rewrite the Bible to fit our worldview. We don't need to wrestle with Romans 12:2 that says "Do not BE conformed to the patterns of this world," we can instead conform the Bible to the patterns of our world.
There is only one problem, what to do with that terrible inconvenient text in 1 John 2:3-4 which says:
This is why John MacArthur held an Inerrancy Summit a few weeks ago, and you might be wondering why such an event is even necessary. But I can tell you first hand, as a pastor in Christian ministry, it is not merely that more people do not know the Bible, it is also that those who do know it want to selectively live by it.
With each passing year, the Bible's authority and sufficiency is under attack. It is worth following as long as it is beneficial in the moment. But once it begins to contradict the move of culture or personal temporary satisfaction, that's when the Bible becomes inconvenient and ultimately irrelevant. However, rarely does a person want to completely jettison Christianity. They just want to ignore biblical Christianity. Christianity is great, so long as it doesn't impede on our plans, behavior, morality, ethics, or convenience.
So the easiest way to have the best of all worlds is to ignore or reject anything the Bible says that actually calls for sacrifice or commitment. If the Bible impacts my worldview, it's the Bible's fault. But rather than rid ourselves of the Bible, we can simply rewrite the Bible to fit our worldview. We don't need to wrestle with Romans 12:2 that says "Do not BE conformed to the patterns of this world," we can instead conform the Bible to the patterns of our world.
There is only one problem, what to do with that terrible inconvenient text in 1 John 2:3-4 which says:
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.