From Is Scripture True? Audio
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness  —2 Timothy 3

If you make my word your home, you will indeed be My disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. —John 8

If you're in the flow of American politics, the discourse right now is on mid-term elections. If you're in the flow of College Football, the talk is student NCAA violations and the BCS playoff system. But if you're listening to discussions on Christianity, they're asking, "Is Scripture true?" Click the player, below, (or here) to stream the lesson wherever you are:

That seems like a strange thing for Christians to debate, but this nuclear option is an age old answer to a persistent problem. When you don't like something, blow it up just enough to be able to rebuild something on it later.

You'll hear that it comes up almost immediately in this lesson, but you'll have to listen to understand what this decade's unpopular issue is. It'll be . . . 

. . . something different next decade, for sure. 

In the meantime, if you're unable to listen to this lesson now, or want to listen to it later, here's an overview of a few of the highpoints:

1. Professionals hit shots that have a chance to score, but put them in the best postion for the next shot. How can we use that professional thinking in the biggest life choices?
2. Pacal's Wager had four possiblitlies: I believe and God exists, I believe and God doesn't exist, I don't believe, and God exsits, I don't believe and God doesn't exist. This cuts an issue cleanly, but what if I believe AND God exists? Within that box, exists a number of perspectives on the truth of Scripture. 
3. A Brief History of the Bible. The Bible is 66 books written by 40 different authors of varying different backgrounds. They were shepherds, sons of Kings, judges, priests, Pharisees, doctors and tax collectors. It was written in 3 languages over 1,500 years and of all the 27 books considered to be divinely inspired, it is the only one to contain specific, fulfilled prophesey. But to me, the two greatest proofs that Scripture is what it says it is are a) that men died for it, and b) despite the authors and the languages and time (what do you have in common with someone living in 514 A.D.), it is written with One voice.
4. So why ask the question now? Well, three answers:
   1. The arguments for overlooking or denying Scripture are slick. I reviewed one of them here, but as that book has continued to surface at my church and others are on the way, it's important that we all recognize the line between standing up for Scripture (even when we don't understand it) and making ourselves into god-deciding what is and isn't really about Him.
   2. The verdict on this decision comes very quickly. Juries are convened to be rational, impartial deciders of the facts. They use the standard of reasonable doubt to decide. Applying Pascal's wager to this, where should we put the burdon of proof? If you didn't recognize how quickly things turned in this very talk, I give the example of Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester to show how quickly you'll need to rely on the decision-which side of the line you stand.
   3. The entirety of Scripture confirms that we worship a God who holds us accountable for what we believe. Some of that Scripture is linked here and more of it is listed in Chapter 10 - Tune Into Life's Belief in A Rooster Once Crowed, but there will come a day when the most important thing about me/you/us is what we believe.

So what's the professional shot? This lesson can be streamed by clicking here. I'd love to hear what you think.

l love you.          

We're not quite done with our #nothingbuttheblood series, so stick around for another post or two on it and look forward to our new series, Prayers For. I hope you'll continue to come along with this ministry. You can hear this IS THE BIBLE TRUE? lesson on the player, below, or make sure that you get all these posts sent to you via email (and you're not already). Just click here to register and make sure to tell us that you're a Back Porch Friend.