The Message of Salvation

Quote the Bible without full context as atheists do and you can easily paint God as a tyrant. For every reasonable argument you can come up with to defend the Scripture, the non-believer, who is determined to convince you that the Bible is not the inspiration of God, will come back with a never ending list of atrocities and injustices in the Bible. Their aim is to put you on the defensive, and trap you into believing that they have proven the Bible, of which they have misrepresented, and text that you may not have the full understanding of because in many cases recognizing the full context may take more than a casual glance at the Biblical passages referenced, as being in error.

I believe that the Bible is God's inerrant and inspired Word. I study its text constantly, continuously hungering for the teaching the Scripture offers me. But salvation is not dependent on how well I know the Bible, or whether or not I am capable of arguing against the attacks against it.

The message is about Salvation. Sure, it helps that over 25 percent of the entire Bible contains predictive prophecies that have been literally fulfilled (of which is true of no other book in the world), and I believe that Creation testifies to an intelligent designer that could be none other than the God I believe in. But what is most important is that the sins I remain in separates me from God, but because of His love for us, God did the only thing that could satisfy His justice, holiness, and love for us by coming to Earth in the Person of Jesus Christ and taking our sins upon Himself.

Once I accept that gift, and allow His Grace to envelope me, it is then that I understand the Word of God, and recognize that a Christian's Faith does not stand in the supposed wisdom of man, but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)

In other words, I am not saved because of the message of the Bible, but because of the love of the Lord. Remember, the early believers in Christ were not converted by the text of Scriptures because the text did not exist in full form, yet, and most of them in that age could not read. They were saved by the spoken word. The foundation of faith is not written on a page, but exists in the person of Jesus Christ who then writes His Love and Sacrifice on your heart.

I am not downplaying the importance of Scripture. I am saying that while the enemy's poison darts are being thrust at you by challenging passages of the Bible without the full context attached, your response need not be an academic defense of a scholarly nature explaining to the poor soul the true meaning of the text they are challenging. The message should be the Cross. Salvation. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16