What is the Bible about? Can you answer that question?
Technology has made life physically easier and information (and misinformation) more available while decreasing the work of living (farming, cleaning, cooking, maintaining, etc.). As a result, more people have more time to edify or to entertain themselves than ever before. Meanwhile, man’s naïve belief that technology would bring about utopia (embodied in modernism) has given way to a belief that utopia is not achievable or even desirable. There is no meaning in the universe aside from what man puts into it and the best we can hope for is personal peace and affluence, as defined by each person (reflected in post modernism). No religion, worldview or other metanarrative is any better than another, much less true for all people at all times.
Since the Bible makes exclusive claims to truth, it is diametrically opposed to such relativism. Over the millennia, many people have attacked the Bible, and this is also true today. People attack the Book and those who believe the Book. Respectful debate is good, challenging believers to think through their faith and non-believers to honestly consider the claims of Christ. Such debate, however, seems rare. Human nature being what it is, mockery, discrimination and violence are the order of the day. Persecution of Christians throughout the world, and even in the West, is growing. Many people across the globe are shedding Christian blood, but believers should never fear; the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.
There are many types of people who reject Jesus Christ and His people, the Church, but I wish to mention three categories. First are those who are determined to reject Christianity. Some may have been hurt by a local believer or church or may be angry with God. Others may be full of their own pride or have acquired a thoughtless animosity from those around them. Nothing that I write or say, except perhaps in prayer, can change their hearts.
The second group includes those who honestly have questions about the Bible. They have read the Bible and would consider following Christ if some of their questions could be answered. To these people I have dedicated many of the articles on mdharrismd.com. I have covered scores of questions about Christianity and invite anyone to read and ponder them. Email me or go to a local church or Christian college and ask the staff what they think. You will get some good answers and some not-so-good answers. Either way, those who honestly seek God through the Bible will find Him.
The third group is comprised of people who haven’t ever read or even honestly considered the Bible. Into this large group fall most non-Christians in my experience today. I sometimes hear that the Bible is impenetrable. It seems so disjointed that a casual reader can’t make heads or tails of it, so they stop trying. Even people who have grown up in churches sometimes have this reaction. Having 15 years of Bible stories in Sunday School often does not provide a coherent overview of the Bible. In my 30+ years of Christian teaching I have developed a simple overview of the ebb and flow of the Bible. Hopefully it will be as useful to you as to my other students.
