This was printed in the Squamish Chief newspaper this week. Be encouraged and pray that God's message reached readers. Bible believing Christians are often ridiculed for “taking the Bible literally.” Unfortunately, in some cases there is merit to the accusation, especially so when what the Bible says is taken wildly out of context and therefore applied too literally.
Another problem people have about faith in God and Christianity in particular, is that they are not sure they can trust the Bible. After all, hasn’t it been proven to be historically, scientifically and culturally either unreliable or outdated?
And so it goes.
The reality is, most people today have never really read the Bible, including the pundits. Now, we don't expect everyone to understand that the whole Bible is about His story (together we get the word history), about Jesus and God's plan to rescue his people and his creation, but I do hold out hope that one day everyone will at least read the Bible along with someone who knows their Bible.
In my own experience, whether I was studying music, marketing or theology, it was always helpful to be holding a textbook while listening to someone who was actually knowledgeable on the subject teaching me what the manual or textbook was really saying.
At The Rock Church we do take the Bible literally and what we mean by that is this—we take God at His Word! The very first words of the Bible declare two amazing facts. First, that God IS and secondly, that he has and does speak to us.
Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God.” In the first four words of the Bible we simply see the declaration that God IS. No debate, no question and yes, no proof from the author. That comes a few verses later in Genesis 1:3, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
From that point on we learn about a God who loves us so much that he sends his Son Jesus to speak to us directly. What we learn is that God promised to send Jesus and that he promises many more things, all of which have either come true, are true or will be true.
Bottom line is, you can take God at His Word. Join us some Sunday and hear for yourself what the Bible really has to say—literally ;-)
Glenn Davies - Lead Pastor The Rock Church