Intimate & True: Bible Truths in Simple Terms

Copyright © 2018 Robert W. Ferris.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture is taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-3416-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3418-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3417-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018908286

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/13/2018

CONTENTS

A Note from the Author

CHAPTER 1 A Place to Begin

CHAPTER 2 What Is Truth?

CHAPTER 3 The God Who Is

CHAPTER 4 Our Personal, But Unique, God

CHAPTER 5 God Reveals Himself

CHAPTER 6 How We Got the Bible

CHAPTER 7 God’s Image in Us

CHAPTER 8 What About Gender?

CHAPTER 9 Why Life is Tough

CHAPTER 10 Our Special Home

CHAPTER 11 How Things Work

CHAPTER 12 The Power of Prayer

CHAPTER 13 God’s Special Emissaries

CHAPTER 14 Our Mortal Enemies

CHAPTER 15 The Man Like Us

CHAPTER 16 Who is Jesus?

CHAPTER 17 Jesus’ Death For Us

CHAPTER 18 What’s Confusing About Sin and Salvation

CHAPTER 19 God’s Chosen People

CHAPTER 20 Turning Around

CHAPTER 21 The Big Change

CHAPTER 22 Amazing Grace!

CHAPTER 23 Being Sure

CHAPTER 24 Growing In Intimacy

CHAPTER 25 God’s Family

CHAPTER 26 On Mission

CHAPTER 27 When Jesus Comes Again

CHAPTER 28 Judgment Day

CHAPTER 29 Foreverland

CHAPTER 30 Testing Truth Claims and Making Space

APPENDIX A Who are Biblical Christians?

APPENDIX B Jesus, Our Example When Tempted

APPENDIX C Did Jesus Bear the Wrath of the Father?

APPENDIX D Calvinism and Arminianism

APPENDIX E What About Those Who Have Never Heard?

APPENDIX F Attentive Reading of Scripture

THIS BOOK IS FOR

Anna

Daniel and Will

Rayah and Kaelyn

And for

all others

of their generation

who desire to

understand and obey

God’s Holy Scriptures.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

Thank you for picking up this book. I hope you will find it helpful in understanding and expressing your faith.

The beginnings of this book stretch back forty-five years. In 1973, I was assigned to teach a one-year course in theology at Febias College of Bible, in the Philippines. I titled that course Bible Truths because that is what I intended to be the focus of the course. As I taught, I also learned. I learned that the task of the theologian is not simply to perpetuate answers from past questions but to show that the Bible contains answers to questions of people today. I also learned that the questions on the minds of my Filipino students were different from those of American students or of 17th and 18th Century European students.

In the process of preparing for and teaching that and other courses at Febias, helped by my students and many teachers and scholars before me, I worked out my understanding of God’s truth. Since then, I also have taught theology at Asian Theological Seminary and at Columbia Biblical Seminary and School of Missions, now part of Columbia International University. Along the way, I discovered that my job was bigger than I had anticipated and that God’s Word is richer than I had realized.

Forty years later, I had the privilege of teaching a Bible doctrines course for Anna, my home-schooled granddaughter. At the end of our course, Anna assigned me to write this book. Writing it has given me an opportunity to look, again, at the things God has taught me from his Word and to marvel at the beauty and consistency of his truth.

Each chapter in this book concludes with a section titled, Let’s Talk About It. The questions posed typically do not have right or wrong answers. Rather than asking you to repeat something included in the chapter, they invite you to extend your thinking about the topic—to examine the relationship of these topics to those of previous chapters or to explore implications of the things you’ve read for your own life and relationships.

You will find the chapters of this book most beneficial if you discuss them with others. Ideally, your conversation partner or partners also will have read the chapters you discuss. If you don’t have a dialogue partner, even internal dialogue is beneficial as you examine and explore these truths in your own mind. This will require you to pause and reflect, rather than moving immediately to the next chapter. In reflection, in making the truth of Scripture our own, its enlightening and transforming power is released into our lives.

Since this book is titled Intimate and True, you won’t be surprised to find that intimacy is a major theme running throughout the book. That’s appropriate, since intimacy is what God seeks in his relationship with us. Truth—specifically, the truth of God’s Word, the Bible—also is affirmed over and over. You will find many, many references to the Bible. Some scholars speak poorly of proof texting, as though citing Scripture somehow is inappropriate. Of course, Scripture may be twisted to say things that were not intended and Satan is a master of such distortions. It is my conviction and experience, however, that the meaning of God’s word usually is clear when read in context. When I cite Bible verses in describing God’s truth, I expect you to read those verses in context to assure that they mean what they appear to say. If a verse, contextually interpreted, expresses the truth it appears to state, then I see no problem in citing it when discussing God’s truth.

That raises an important point. When I taught theology at Febias College of Bible, I told my students they never should believe me; they should test everything I tell them. If the concepts I teach are supported by the Bible, then I want students to believe those truths because they rest on the authority of God’s inspired word, not because of any authority they may attribute to me. If, on the other hand, the concepts I teach are not supported by the Bible, then my students certainly should not believe them! I expect you to do the same as you read.

Robert W. Ferris

May 21, 2018

CHAPTER 1

A Place to Begin

A discussion of God’s revealed truth could begin almost anywhere since God’s revealed truth is consistent throughout. It is common for a discussion of Christian theology to begin with the doctrine of God, his existence, his attributes, and his work.¹ It also would be reasonable to begin with human beings, what makes us unique, why life is so difficult, God’s provision for us now, and his plan for our future. Or one could begin with Jesus Christ, with the church, or even with heaven—the end point of biblical revelation.

It seems reasonable to me, however, to begin where the Bible does, with the origin of the universe (Genesis 1:1). Why is there something rather than nothing? Why do you and I, this physical world, and the stellar universe exist rather than an infinite void? Many people tend to ignore the question of origins, or to assume that this universe always has existed.

If you stop to think about it, assuming that the universe always has existed doesn’t square with everything we know about matter. All our experience supports the principle of entropy—that undisturbed matter progresses toward decay, rather than progressing toward higher levels of organization or existence in a steady state. Furthermore, the principle of cause and effect is well established; no evidence supports the suggestion that, without a cause, something spontaneously appeared from nothing. It never happens! Yet, this world exists.

The (totally unsupported) suggestion that an infinite number of other universes preceded this one offers no relief, since it simply pushes the problem of origins back to an earlier point. Thus, something must be eternal, but we have no reason to think it is matter.

In fact, the Bible tells us, something is eternal. Furthermore, according to the Bible, the eternal also is personal and this eternal, personal being is God. This is good news, since it assures us that personality is not a celestial afterthought or the product of a fortuitous electro-chemical interaction. Personality lies at the very heart of the universe!

Healthy personality requires social relationships—to communicate with and love other persons. Although we do not understand this (because it is a form of existence which lies outside our experience), God has told us that he exists in three persons, each of whom independently knows and thinks and feels and wills and communicates and loves, and yet all of whom share exactly the same qualities and capacities—and exist as one being. Thus, not only does personality lie at the very heart of the universe but so does relationship and social interaction.

But wait! There is more good news: This personal God who always existed in perfect completeness, at some point in the remote past decided that he wanted to expand the circle of his relationships to include other beings who would love him freely. He did not take this decision because he needed to, only because he wanted to. Thus, the Christian message really is a love story.

In order to provide an appropriate venue for this love story to play out, God created the universe, not from pre-existing matter (there was none!), but out of nothing. God then created human beings like himself—with personality, intelligence, emotion, and will. He created them male and female so they could learn mutual submission and could experience loving another person whom they can see as preparation for loving himself, whom they cannot see. He gave them families so they could understand a creator’s love for his children and the heartbreak of watching children walk away.

Sadly, that’s what the first humans did and that’s what we all do. Rather than submitting to the God of the universe, we assert our own independence and rebel against his authority. This state of rebellion has fundamentally changed us—our bodies, our intelligence, our emotions, and our will. It also changes our relationships to other persons; it marks our societies in twisted and destructive ways. As a result and as a reflection of our rebellion, God also has given us a decaying and dangerous world.

Our rebellion is not the worst of it; there is nothing we can do to fix our broken relationship. We not only have offended God’s person, we have violated his character—the very foundation of his eternal existence. Ignoring our offense or pretending it does not exist is not an option.

The best news of all is this: The eternal, all-powerful, holy, and just God who created the universe and who created us for fellowship with himself recognized the hopelessness of our situation and personally chose to do what only he could do. He took the punishment which we deserve. In this way he satisfied the demands of justice for our rebellion, and reopened access to fellowship with himself. The only other thing required is that we acknowledge and abandon our lifestyle of rebellion and accept the gift of restoration which God offers to us. In the Bible, Paul says that God took the penalty of our sin to show himself both just and the justifier of those who put their faith in him (Romans 3:26).

How did he do this? He did it by first becoming one of us. The divine second person of the Triune God voluntarily accepted the limitations of human existence; he entered the world he had created through a human birth canal and lived as a Jewish boy in 1st Century Galilee. This man, known as Jesus of Nazareth, faced life as we do except he never embraced the rebellion which estranges us from himself. He lived a perfect life and died a perfect death in order to pay the penalty for human rebellion and open access to restored fellowship between the eternal God of the universe and human beings whom he loves so deeply. Furthermore, God, in the person of this same Jesus, returned to life three days after he had been declared dead in order to demonstrate that everything required for reconciliation between ourselves and our creator already has been done. That’s how much he loves us.

Sadly, however, that’s not the end of this love story. The reconciliation which God achieved by taking our rebellion into himself is ineffective until we, individually, as families, and as communities, abandon our rebellious ways and accept this gift of loving restoration. Even with all God has done for us, we still can frustrate his eternal quest for loving companionship with ourselves.

In fact, many people do. Having rejected God’s love, they effectively opt to bear the consequences of their rebellion—total alienation from God and eternal disintegration of the personal and social core of their being.

Thankfully, there are others—the Bible refers to them as a vast crowd, too large to count (Revelation 7:9)—who have accepted God’s offer of reconciliation and have abandoned their rebellious lifestyle. These acknowledge the ultimate reality—that God exists and that he fully deserves our humble obedience and heartfelt service.

The difference between those who have been reconciled to God and those who continue to reject his provision of reconciliation is so great that the Bible refers to them as a new race (Romans 5:14-17; 1 Corinthians 15:45-49). Although opportunity still is open for others to acknowledge our rebellion and to accept God’s gift, he has told us that will not always be the case. The time is coming when God’s patience with rebellious people finally will reach an end. At that time he will release this creation from its present flawed state, recreating a perfect world, and will realize the free and open relationship of love with his people which he initially envisioned. At that time, also, those who stubbornly have chosen to persist in rebellion against him will experience the full consequence of their choice. This is a dreadful prospect.

Does it surprise you that the reason for our existence lies in God’s desire for relationship with us? For a long time, Biblical Christians² have focused on status; the question often asked is, Have you been saved? (Note the past tense.) The Christian message is not about getting our ticket punched for heaven. God is not a divine conductor, checking to see who is going to heaven. God is a divine lover; he desires relationship—personal, intimate relationship—with us now and even more fully in the future, in a new and sin-free environment. The Bible tells us that then we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). That doesn’t mean we shall become gods—there is and ever will be only one God—but we shall be like him in character (pure, just, holy), freed from every impediment to intimate relationship with the God of the universe.

Intimacy need not be postponed for the future, however. Through study of and obedience to the truth revealed in the Bible and through attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we can grow in intimacy with God now. That is what he desires. It is what we also desire at the core of our being. As we refocus on developing intimacy, rather than on certifying status, God’s purpose is realized and our personhood finds its ultimate fulfillment.

As servants of God—having adopted his perspective on this world—we have a profound responsibility to act as his agents to invite others to embrace the reconciliation we enjoy and to heal the brokenness of our societies.

This is the intimacy and truth we will explore together.

Let’s Talk About It

• What significance do you see in the suggestion that the ultimate and only eternal reality in the universe is not matter but a person?

• How does it make you feel to realize that God desires an intimate, personal relationship with you, that this is the reason he created you?

CHAPTER 2

What Is Truth?

The nature of truth is a big issue today. The reigning epistemology (i.e., the theory of truth) in universities, the major media, and popular culture is constructivism. Constructivism begins from the observation that we all start from our own experience. As we attempt to make sense of our experience (with the help of our culture and our social networks, including our families) we construct opinions about what is real, what is good, and how things and events are related. We weave these into a perspective that we use to interpret life experiences and that we assume to be truth.

Constructivism naturally leads toward relativism. Because each of us constructs our own view of truth and because, for all of us, our experience is limited, no one can say definitively that his or her view of truth is absolutely correct. Thus, it is expected today that we will be tolerant of one another. (Tolerant, used in this way, means that we acknowledge the validity of the other person’s truth.) As the 19th Century German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche said, There are many eyes…. Consequently, there are many truths, hence there is no Truth.³

This combination of constructivism and radical relativism is known as postmodernism. It is post-modern because it has left behind the assumptions of philosophical modernism. Modernism is a philosophy developed in the late 17th and 18th Centuries that became the engine of the scientific revolution, industrialization, democratic political theory, and much of the culture we enjoy today. Modernism assumed the reality and order of the natural world and the existence of absolute truth. According to modernism, truth claims can be tested against reality and thus validated or falsified (i.e., disproven). Truth claims that cannot be subjected to empirical testing, therefore, may be dismissed as mere opinion, tradition, or superstition.

Modernity (another name for philosophical modernism) presented Biblical Christians with a dilemma. While Biblical Christians rejected the suggestion that all religion is mere superstition (since it cannot be scientifically demonstrated), they knew that truth is absolute. Jesus Christ is not just a truth, he is the truth. Postmodernity is even more hostile toward Biblical Christianity, however, since it asserts all truth claims are relative. As a result, Biblical Christians have tended to denounce postmodernity as false.

Actually, there are aspects of truth in postmodern epistemology. Our concept of truth is constructed; each person develops her or his own understanding of truth from experience, including experience mediated by family and culture. We don’t arrive with a data chip implant that enables us to view the world and conceive truth objectively. That our understanding of truth is constructed does not mean, however, that it is impossible to assess the validity of my conception of what is true versus yours. Truth claims can be tested. Everyone must live in the world which God created. If our understanding of truth does not match the reality of God’s world, life can become very difficult. If you believe you can walk through a wall, you are likely to get bruised. (That’s why there are many more postmodern professors in the humanities and social science departments