I have decided to put under public scrutiny my examination of what I believe to be true about Christ, God, and the whole of the Bible. In so doing I will not be prefacing this with a biography of any type but instead will let my words define and shape your opinion of who I am and what I believe.
In this exercise I am determined to solidify my position on varying topics so that I more fully understand the foundation of Christ that I chose to build my life upon, chose to defend, chose to fight for, and chose to share with the world.
In this journey I believe it is important to have an antagonist that forces me to take a stand for what I believe or concede ground to. And in this method not only will I be required to identify the scriptural basis for my believes, but I will have the opportunity to understand how and why the Word of God has been twisted, manipulated, or otherwise misrepresented in an attempt to validate the claims and theology of those who claim another or other God(s) and of those who claim a kinship to Christ or God.
Some of you may have recognized that I have made certain assumptions and leaps already without defending them, and you would be correct. Let me address that next.
I believe that the only argument that exists is the accuracy of the Bible. I don’t have to prove it exists (If, however, anyone doubts it existence, go to your favorite bookstore and ask to be shown where the Bibles are). Also, I don’t have to prove it is the Word of God. The claim is made within the Bible itself, so if it is found accurate, then it must also be found to be the Word of God. I don’t even have to prove which one of the thousands is the real Bible. In determining the accuracy of the Bible, any that are inaccurate will eliminate themselves.
Now, it will be impossible for me to go down the lists of books that claim to be the Bible and one-by-one eliminate the inaccurate ones as new ones are being created every day. And because there is so much material to support the accuracy of the Bible, it would also be impractical to identify it all here. So instead I will identify the classes of supporting material here and devote a separate discussion on the actual details should anyone ask that I go deeper into it.
The accuracy of the Bible has been confirmed through Science, Prophecy (prophesies made and recorded in the Bible that later where shown to be accurate), Textual Evidence, Those living at the time of Christ, and Proof by Historians. This may not be all the classes there are, but these are the ones I have researched or read about.
To establish a common and readily available Bible from which I will find my scriptural sources, I will choose the King James Version. While this may make the KJV purists happy, I chose this version because I am most comfortable with it and because my concordance is linked to it. I by no means am arguing against any version founded upon the work of Westcott and Hort nor any that reference the Vaticanus or Sinaiticus manuscripts as source for some of their text. Despite the differences in the original Greek they have been translated from, I have yet to find any differences that are of any doctrinal significance.
I would also like to mention that my previous statements do not endorse all Bibles that reference the KJV or versions based on work by Westcott and Hort. I am aware of versions that pervert God’s word and claim the same doctrinal authority as what I previously mentioned because they claim to be “sourced” or derived from them.
To some, there seems to be quite a few Bibles I have not eliminated yet and therefore I have not fully explained my position. In answer to that, let me just say that I feel confident that the remainder of this exercise will, as a result, eliminate those as well. Any that you may find that still remain can be addressed then.
I am aware that I am a nobody in the world of theology or Christianity. I have no published works, no original research material, no pastorship, doctorate, or even a blog audience. Nonetheless, I am compelled to do this and if it is only useful to me then it is still worthwhile. Anything else is just bonus. But I am also aware that it could be useful for others and that chance alone makes this endeavor worthwhile.
Referring back to my statement about an antagonist, I will not be using one person or one group. Instead, I will use what I feel is most appropriate for the topic at the time. This could be a person or a group, in multiples or combinations, or anyone or anything at large. Whoever or whatever the antagonist will be, the selection will be deliberate and a distinction will be made to show the contrasting positions. It will be offensive to some and I make no excuses for that. I firmly believe that God is True and it is the Holy Spirit that is convicting. So for those who would form their comments with the words “How dare I…” understand that the reply you will receive will be scripture or scripturally based. As best as I can, I will try to follow the words of John, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”[John 3:30] I believe that his statement provides a very good example of getting out of God’s way so to speak.
So I will conclude here for now and consider this my introduction for what is to come. I am under no pressure to crank out text, so I will work on this as time permits.
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