The Source of Truth
Why the Bible is an Authoritative Book (Things get a bit religious here)
Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientist of all time, was once asked, “Do you believe in God?” He replied, “I'm not an atheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvellously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.” On another occasion he wrote: “My religiosity consists of a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we can comprehend about the knowable world. That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.” (From excerpts from Einstein: His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson.)
Mr. Einstein addressed the question of faith in these quotations. Charles Lewis, in an article published by the National Post, quotes from Prof. Jordan Peterson who teaches psychology at the University of Toronto and has studied the impact of belief on society. He states, “Everyone is a person of faith.” And not necessarily in the religious sense. “Scientists believe in quarks, the tiny particles that are evidently one of the two most fundamental components of the physical universe. No one has ever seen a quark.” Their existence must be accepted in faith. Darwin’s theories must be accepted in faith. A child accepts in faith what it is taught. In fact, since we cannot be experts in every field, some sage has opined that perhaps 95% of what we know was accepted in faith.
The Bible states, ‘To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.’ And, ‘It is by faith that we understand that the universe was created by God’s word …’ (Hebrews 11:1,3. GNV).Faith begins with hope, faith is being sure of the things we hope for; to be certain of the things we don’t understand. We must have faith in God’s word, and faith in the truth of the Bible if we are to gain understanding of those truths. The Bible is the best teacher of the Bible. It gives us the liberty to question everything we read there provided we do so with complete honesty and with demonstrable sincerity. Our motives must be honorable beyond question if we are to receive understanding of these truths. In the meantime, until we receive understanding — a point at which certainty and conviction are added — we are to accept Biblical truths in faith. In view of the importance and the magnitude and the complexity of the subject this is eminently reasonable and sensible.
Then in verse six we read:
Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:6).
God does not deal with triflers, nor does He deal with those who doubt either His word or His existence. God reveals truth and He gives understanding to those who are committed to seeking truth and understanding for a right purpose. The New International Version Study Bible says, faith must have an object, and the proper object of genuine faith is God.
When we honestly and sincerely seek truth — in faith — confident that we will receive it, then we will be rewarded with knowledge and understanding of the truth we seek. This is a promise from God: ‘He rewards those who earnestly seek him.’ And, of course, the place to earnestly search for this truth is the Bible.
The apostle Paul writes: ‘The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned’ (1Corinthians 2:14).
The man who does not have God’s Holy Spirit within him does not, and indeed cannot, understand the truths that are recorded in the Bible; he cannot understand the deeper meanings that are then obscured. These truths are ‘foolishness to him.’ He can read the words but cannot comprehend their true meaning. These things must be ‘spiritually discerned’ in order to understand them; and if they are not understood they will not be believed, nor can they be.
The way the system is designed to function is to establish a connection with God’s Holy Spirit (to put it crudely), a connection between our human spirit and God’s Holy Spirit. We need to accept in faith that God is real and that the Bible is His Word. And to do this we must read the Bible (Romans 10:17). We may need to persevere in this to demonstrate our sincerity and our honesty but when we do persist, when we are diligent in our pursuit then the truth we seek will be given to us. This is a promise from God, and God keeps His promises!
It is God who ‘gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning’ (Daniel 2:21).
(The late Alexander Solzhenitsyn, one of Russia’s great writers, stated in his acceptance speech for his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970 [a speech transcribed to a tape and smuggled out of the Soviet Union] “By means of art we are sometimes sent — dimly, briefly — revelations unattainable by reason.” I concur. While researching and writing my book, in addition to the “dimly” received revelations, I sometimes received what were direct, explicit messages that addressed and clarified a specific point or concept that was beyond my understanding. They usually came at night and usually at 2 o'clock when the “sound” of a doorbell or the ringing of a telephone awoke me. This resource is available to everyone!)
No doubt before the ardent secularist will accept these matters as truth he will require an explanation with proof of how this is accomplished. To him I say: Since every living thing contains DNA — and is subject to its DNA — explain how the first cell with its DNA was formed and how it became a living cell. You see it is impossible to prove either argument. Both sides can point to their respective evidence but neither side can prove the method of achieving it. These are things that must be accepted in faith; faith that the Bible represents truth, or faith that what Darwin theorized is true. We know about DNA and the indescribable, inconceivable complexity of living cells, but what do we know about how the first cell made its appearance on earth?*
(Evolutionary theories violate some of the laws of science … Biogenesis, for example: Only life can give rise to life)
The big advantage that Biblical theories have over secular theories (faith) is that we get the results immediately when we try them. But it requires sincere study to understand these things and to be able to use them. The surprising result is that when we make the effort we discover the truth about many other things.
*There is a chapter in my book that explains what the Bible says about how God created the universe, the Earth and all living things.