mtcodex

It struck me today whilst reading The Case for Inerrancy, by R.C. Sproul that my beliefs, my world view, my salvation, almost everything about me is bound up in history.

Think about it, if the Bible wasn’t historically reliable, what would we know about Jesus? A bit, but not a whole lot. Some may have heard of or read The Quest of the Historical Jesus. Well, I put it to you that that would be about our best guess as to who Jesus was – if we didn’t have the Bible.

Apart from my beliefs then, it alters my world view because the Bible is a history of redemption and it is historical record that Jesus endorsed throughout his life. Indeed, unlike many theologians and Christians today, Jesus had a high view of scripture. The prefix ‘It is written’ wasn’t an invitation to debate but the end of the argument for Jesus. (Matthew 21 v13,16. Et al)

Finally, Jesus accomplished the redemption of His people, including mine, at a specific point in past history when he uttered the words ‘it is finished’. (John 19 v30)

It’s trendy to view being a Christian and believing the Bible as a leap of faith. A leap, because it’s so hard to take it in that we have to some how suspend reality and just believe to do it. Well, it is hard to take it in, it’s true, but the Bible is historical, rational and straightforward in what it says about Jesus. The work of the Holy Spirit isn’t to help us take a leap of faith to accept the unbelievable, but as Jesus said, to lead us into all truth (John 16 v13). Truth that is already rational and believable, but not accepted because of our own sinfulness, because it tells us what we don’t want to hear about ourselves.

Also worth noting, is that because our salvation was obtained once in history, it cannot be lost and doesn’t need to be repeated. Some people, such as staunch Armenians, believe that you can become saved, and also unsaved ‘fall from grace’. Others, such as Roman Catholics, believe that our sins are forgiven continually after they’ve been committed by the re-sacrificing of Jesus (That’s what the Mass is).

On the basis of an historic event, however, the writer to the Hebrews affirms that neither of these are a possibility. Pay special attention to the tense used.

“ …every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But this Man [Jesus], after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God…
For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified”

(Hebrews 10, v12-14. Emphasis mine).

The future condition ‘perfected forever’ of Christians at the present time ‘those who are being sanctified’ is based on something that’s already happened ‘one sacrifice’.

And that is one reason the historical aspects of the Bible matters to me.