A square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not necessarily a square

Rectangle - A plane figure with four straight sides and four right angles.
Square - A plane figure with four equal straight sides and four right angles.

You see that a square has one requirement that a rectangle does not have.  A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not necessarily a square.  A rectangle is only a square if all of its sides are of equal length.  So if I'm holding a square in my hand, you know it is correct to say I am holding a rectangle.  But if I tell you I am holding a rectangle in my hand, you would have to measure its sides to know whether that rectangle was in fact also a square.

What is the spiritual significance of this?  Read James 2:18-26,

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Faith will produce good works but good works are not necessarily the product of faith.  Let me say it another way:  Good works are the product of faith; not the cause of it.  However, there are other things that cause good works.  Self-promotion can cause good works.  That's why Jesus said,

5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:5-6)

He said if we do things for the accolades of other people then we've already received our reward for doing them.  That is, no reward will come from God.  Self-esteem is another cause of good works.  From personal experience, sometimes I "do good" just so I feel better about myself and then I delude myself into thinking I'm better than someone who isn't as "good" as I am.

Of all the causes of good works only faith is credited to someone as righteousness.  In fact, at the judgment there will be people who have done good--maybe lots of it--and by doing so will think they are in right standing with God only to find out (to their great dismay) Jesus never knew them.  In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus makes a frightening statement:

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

So you see the motivations behind your deeds is indeed critical.  But here's the thing, while this should produce a holy fear in you to examine your heart, when you look honestly at the condition of your heart I think you will see how corrupt your motivations are--not how pure they are.  For Psalm 14 says,

2 The Lord looks down from heaven
    on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
    any who seek God.
3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
    there is no one who does good,
    not even one.

When we truly understand how sinful we are (how much spiritual debt we've accrued), it takes us back to the cross where we remember our Savior died for us and forgave us of ALL of our sins (paid off ALL of our debt).  This will produce a harvest of joy and thanksgiving and out of the gratefulness of our hearts good works will come.

This is not a call to modify your behavior.  If you, like me, find that you just can't muster up the ability to love people who seem unlovable or serve people who need help understand the problem is not a lack of willpower--the problem is we've forgotten how much debt Christ paid off for us.  The process always starts with examining your heart and understanding your sinfulness.

So are you a square or a rectangle?  I hope this helps you see the harmony between the messages (faith and works) of the Bible.

The secret sauce

And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that

“they may indeed see but not perceive,
    and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they should turn and be forgiven.”” Mark 4:9-12

It's impossible to believe the Bible if you don't have faith.  It's that simple.  To those who don't have faith, those who trust the Bible look foolish.  Being a religion major at a university impatiently trying to break away from its conservative religious history meant studying under professors who taught the flood could not have happened, the Red Sea did not swallow the Egyptian army (Religion 11), the biblical creation story is just an amalgamation of other cultures' creation stories (Religion 310), the Bible is anti-women (Religion 360), Paul didn't really teach belief in Jesus was required for salvation (Seminar class)...

I'm sure they (the Religion department) knew the vast majority of their student body came from conservative Bible-belt areas and so it seemed their number one goal was to break us out of the Biblical box we grew up in.  In all honesty, I had grown up taking it for granted that animals came two-by-two into the ark, and hearing it was historically preposterous to even consider that as reality caused me a lot of spiritual turmoil.  If that's not true, then what else in the Bible may not be true?  All of a sudden, everything in this book I trusted was open to debate--even the ultimate question of who Jesus was and whether he even existed.

I can tell you that in every conflict of faith I've had the resolution always seemed to come through a conversation.  Not a planned conversation, mind you, but just some casual conversation with someone who was more sure of the Bible than I was at the time.  I still remember a conversation I had while I was conflicted over how I could trust a Bible that was canonized by committee.  What about all those other books that were left out?  How do I know the committee wasn't biased or out to push their cause?  Somewhere in the midst of that conversation the guy said, "The same faith that allows me to believe Jesus is the son of God, allows me to believe the Bible contains the exact books God wanted it to have."  That was all it took.  I don't remember the guy's name but I remember the peace that came over me when he said that sentence.

You see, the answer to "can I trust the Bible?" doesn't rest on the satisfactory resolution of each historical question and qualm.  It rests on whether you have done as Peter instructed in 1 Peter 3:15, that is, "in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy", which is why some people get it and some people don't.  When Christ is not the holy, all-powerful, sovereign God in your heart, your mind will never be open to trusting the Bible.  Your mind will suppress any truth your heart wants bad enough not to believe (Romans 1:18).  That's why to the faithless scholar with the PhD fulfilled prophecies in the Old Testament must have been written after the events occurred because divine revelation isn't an option.  To the faithless, Jesus could not have been resurrected because people don't come back to life after they die and divine intervention isn't an option.

Does that mean I have to just trust what's in the Bible without seeing any evidence, or even after seeing contradictory evidence?  Not at all!  As John Piper writes,

"faith is not a blind leap. Faith doesn't come to Bible and say, "Well I don't know what you say, Bible, but I'm going to believe you." That is not an honor to the Bible or to God...it takes some measure of faith to believe and embrace the inerrancy of Scripture. But it's not blind. In fact, it's rooted most profoundly in seeing, according to 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 especially:

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

In 1 Peter 3, Peter continues his writing by encouraging us to "always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect".  Because of this I don't believe we should cast aside researching and investigating the Bible using extra-Biblical sources, but also as Piper says, "faith does have to suspend condemnation when it bumps into a problem that it cannot immediately solve".  Faith allows and requires us to rest in the assurance that one day all our question marks will turn into exclamation points.  As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:9-12, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known."

Over time I may find a reasonable explanation for each strange story in the Bible that satisfies everyone.  Archaeology may validate every historical detail.  But it probably won't, and I tend to believe that's by design.  Because God has orchestrated His beautiful plan such that faith is the secret sauce.  Faith requires mystery and faith isn't something someone can conjure up by her own effort alone.

"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:14-17

Still to come...

Among the topics I hope to cover in the near future are:

How I view the Bible as a text
Heaven vs the resurrection
The creation account
Does the Church supersede Israel?
The end-times and why I care
...

Knowing the "What" and the "Why"

"but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.  For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil." 1 Peter 3:15-17

The Apostle's Creed is a fascinating statement.  The early church leaders wrote it because there was a need to establish some definition around what it meant to be a Christian.  I use the past tense "meant" intentionally because I think to call somebody a Christian today tells you very little about what that person actually believes.  Even recently I met someone who defined herself as Christian but told me she didn't know if Jesus was a real person.  One pastor told me that when he asks someone about their faith he specifically asks, "Are you a Christian or a born-again Christian?"  He's had to distinguish between the two because Christianity has become a cultural identification rather than a spiritual one.

Here's the Apostle's Creed:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
    the Maker of heaven and earth,
    and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
    born of the virgin Mary,
    suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
    and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
    from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
    the holy catholic church;
    the communion of saints;
    the forgiveness of sins;
    the resurrection of the body;
    and the life everlasting.

Amen.

When I read the Apostle's Creed I can't help but think the authors felt it was pretty important to know what they believed.  They didn't just want a hunch; they wanted something they could look at, read aloud, and point to and say "that's what I believe."

In the same vein, I am going to write some posts outlining exactly what it is I believe and why I believe it.  While I can usually identify something I don't agree with when I hear it, I am convicted by Peter's words that I'm not always able to explain the "why".