What a great time in the history of humanity...the creation of the blog has been a such a gift on one hand and absolute curse on the other. I recently read a blog post titled, Top Seven Things People Think are in the Bible (That Totally Aren't) http://faithinterrupted.blogspot.com/2013/11/top-seven-things-people-think-are-in.html?spref=fb&m=1
I thought...you know, that's actually quite a simplistic view. If you want to do a word search on what's in the bible, then by all means...help your self. But, to refute some historical truths of the church because you don't find word for word proof-texts in your eisegesis, then I think you may want to be hesitant at best.
So, here is my humble, subjective response...drum-roll please, The top 7 things people think are in the bible (that totally are).
7. The So-Called "Rapture" - According to the scriptures, there actually will be a final resurrection, and we will be caught up some how?! Jesus will come again. Do we know when...no! Will there be a tribulation before he comes or after...up for debate. But indeed, there will be a Rapture or Final Resurrection (I Thessalonians 4ff). We will be "caught up" = Rapture. It's actually in the bible...crazy! I hope I'm not driving a car when it happens...
6. God Hates haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies (ie...blog posts that say things aren't in the bible that actually are), and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers (ie...blog posts that refute other blog posts, I'm repenting as I type)....God's a hater, according to the bible. (Proverbs 6:16ff)
5. Everything happens for a reason because God uses all things for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his PURPOSE (Paul wrote that...not Rhyan) My dad was murdered 2 years ago...beaten to death by a young transient, who is serving 20 years in the WA state prison system for Murder 2. I don't know God's purpose or REASON for this, but I do know I actually got to live my faith out for the first time in my life in a real way. When I was tucking my kids in the several nights after my dad was stomped in the head repeatedly and left for dead, I said to them, "THIS is where we live our faith our...where we actually love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us." God's purposes...reasons, are not mine to decide, but I sure know this side of it all, I am more empathetic than I've ever been before, I understand the Gospel better than I've ever understood it before...maybe there is a reason for everything?!
4. God is in control...this is called, the Doctrine of Providence, tons of theological peeps have written on this topic (Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Hodge, Barth and many more...) it's the idea above all that God sustains, redeems, creates, etc...all things (John 1, Hebrews 1, Colossians 1, Nehemiah 9, Ephesians 4) to name a few places that speak of God being in control...it's there, boom!
3. We must accept Jesus into our heart as our personal Lord and Savior because the scripture talk about the idea of confessing Jesus is Lord and when we do and believe it in our hearts then we will be saved...Lord and Savior. Paul went on more to say this crazy thing that Jesus would actually dwell in your hearts through faith, but wait...THERE'S MORE!! Jesus said some how in the mystery of this all that the Holy Spirit would be with us and be in us, AND that those who love Jesus, the father and son will come and dwell ("Make our home!") in them...it's the greatest gift of the Gospel...the mystery as Paul says, "Christ in you!"...maybe that's ambiguous, sorry, I'm Presbyterian!
2 Jesus died for our sins...this is called the Doctrine of Atonement (specifically substitutionary atonement)...there's a few years of history behind this one, you could prob get a pretty quick and insightful list of scriptures by simply doing a google search on "Atonement of Christ". Perhaps the biggest scripture that we refer to on this comes from Romans 3 and 5...it's the whole idea of the wages of sin being death but the gift of God being eternal life in Christ, that crazy notion that we were sinners, but Christ died for us (for our sins presumably) because when we were his enemies we were reconciled by the DEATH of his Son...some how, the bible talks a bit about Jesus dying for our sins, there's this one verse that actually says, For Christ died for sins...(I Peter 3:18). You remember that one time you said, "Show me where it says that!" #justdid
1. God helps those who help themselves...you know what, I'll give you this one...I'll actually take this moment to respond to the idea that God doesn't give us more than we can handle. Some of the blogs I've read, one especially around millennials and the church, argued the idea that God doesn't give us more than we can handle isn't actually in the bible to which I say...actually, the concept comes from Paul's assurance to the peeps in Corinth that "God...will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear." I'll give you it's not word for word, but the principal remains...
For what it's worth... #:D
