A 100% guarantee for being in God's will

1Thessalonians 5:18 - ¹⁸In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

HOW THANKFULNESS MAKES STAYING IN GOD'S WILL AS EASY AS CANDIED YAMSWith tomorrow being thanksgiving, it is inevitable that before the day ends, my wife's cooking abilities will prove pleasant to my palate.  She makes the best honey glazed turkey you would ever want to eat.  I can even now taste her candied yams with a mountain of marshmellows blanketing the dish.  Things such as these make it easy to remain in the kitchen.  Thankfulness for the temporal pleasures like food points to the thankfulness we find in the goodness of God.  Thankfulness makes it much easier to desire to remain in the revealed will of God.    

HOW TO KNOW GOD'S WILL AND STAY IN GOD'S WILLWhen we gaze upon the goodness of our God, we will discover that staying in His will is a delight, rather than a drudgery.  How often do Christians find themselves wondering what the will of God is for their lives?  Not only that, but how often do you desire to remain in the will of God for your life?  These two questions have a surprisingly easy answer.  In fact, the answer is so simple that the Apostle Paul in the passage above explicitly says: "for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."  What is God's will for my life?  How can I ensure that I'm still in His will?  One word: Thankfulness.

THE LINK BETWEEN PLEASURE IN GOD AND THANKFULNESSThe command: "In everything give thanks" in the original language conveys the thought - "Keep on giving thanks".  Thanksgiving in the Bible was a Jewish concept that had to do with how people used their words to express pleasure with a person or object.  The Goodness of God is expressed by the concept of God's Glory.  To not glory (or deem most precious) God is to take away the root of thankfulness.  When I find pleasure in God by grace through faith in Christ, I am glorifying Him in the pleasure I find in Him.  Likewise, as I find more and more pleasure in the Lord, I discover more reasons to glory in Him.  In doing this, I find the true blessing of being guaranteed of being in God's will - by being thankful for Him, and to Him and through Him in all things. 

Why Boredom is the enemy of thanksgiving

Psalm 136:1 states - "O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever". 

1 Thessalonians 5:18 "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

God's goodness - the source of Christian thanksgiving
There is a disease that is circulating in every home that is detrimental to the Christian walk -boredom.   In the above passages, we see that the motivation for thanksgiving is a command to come and behold the goodness of God.  Every event, every circumstance, is a window through which I can discover the goodness of God in all things.  

The link between thanksgiving and God's goodness
It is only by God's grace that we can see His goodness in all things.   The above two passages are commands.  Clearly whenever God commands us to do anything, the command itself will lie outside our ability unaided by grace.   For every command there is always a provision of grace. 

Why true worship and boredom cannot co-exist in the same heart
Even when people are prone to become apathetic and disconnected, there is still ample reason to see God's goodness, however difficult it may be.  (please compare Romans 8:28)
There is one human expression that is never justified in any circumstance - boredom. When we get "bored", we are assuming that there is no good or benefit to be gleaned from the event or situation.  Boredom is the first step, however passive, in refusing to see the goodness of God. It not only is the enemy of thanksgiving, it is the enemy of worship. Boredom's origin is nothing short of idolatry.

How to declare war on boredom
Whenever I get bored, that indicates that there is an area in my heart where I have set up an idol.  Boredom comes as a result of unmet expectations.  That toy, that television, the thanksgiving meal, lose their perceived goodness because I forget and ultimately refuse to acknowledge that all things come from the Lord.  Boredom is what occurs when I expect a created object to bring the same fulfillment as only God can bring.  This is why boredom is the seed of idolatry.  

As we enter into this season of Thanksgiving, lets declare war on boredom.  Lets not lose sight of the goodness of God.  Lets not forget that in all things, give thanks to Him, for this is His will in Christ Jesus concerning you.

The Bible Alone is Sufficient

Isaiah 41:23 Declare the things that are going to come afterward, That we may know that you are gods; Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.

In this final installment on our blog series: "Defining God's Word", we will consider the issue of sufficiency.  We have considered three tests thus far in defining the marks of Divine authorship: inerrancy, infallibility and clarity.  When we consider all three of those headings, they come together under this last heading of sufficiency.  If a book can lead me into all truth, is free from error in all things and is clear in all of its meaning, then it demonstrates the qualities of divine inspiration and thus is sufficient for every rule and standard of faith and practice. 

Again we compare other would-be holy books to the Bible and ask the question: Which is the word of God.  In this final test, we are wanting to know whether or not any of these books are sufficient enough to live by, since Isaiah's final statement here has to do with actually living one's life by God's word in light of eternity. 

The insufficiency of other religious writings
When it comes to the Hindu writings for instance, Hinduism and all other forms of Eastern thought advocate conflicting ideas as part and parcel of understanding the meaning of life.  The concepts of "absolute morality and truth" are not prized in much of Eastern thought, since many versions teach for instance that evil is an illusion, and that we must escape consciousness of ourselves in order to achieve inner illumination. 

Islam claims that one cannot truly know who God ultimately is, even though in much of its teaching it claims to be the fullest revelation of God.  Now which is it?  

Mormons claim that God was once a man like we are, since we someday will be our own gods, having our own planets.  They also, every year, have statements coming from their leadership concerning God's will for their lives.  Jehovah Witnesses have a similar set up.  Even though they claim to believe in the Bible, yet much of what they believe comes from their head quarters in New York called "The Watch Tower and Tract Society."  In many cases, the proof that a religion's book is not the word of God or that a religion has added to or deleated from the scripture is when it has leadership adding statements to supplement already existing documents. 

Even many of the books written today that claim to be written by people that have seen visions of heaven or hell differ in their details.  Furthermore, such books are not authoratative for all people in all ages.  Sufficiency covers so much area that quite frankly - only one book has demonstrated that it alone is sufficient.

Only the Bible is sufficient
When it comes down to it, the Bible alone is sufficient. It alone tells me all I need to know about Heaven, Hell, God, Christ, salvation, man, life, marriage, children, church, government, science, philosophy and everything else.  Though it may not be a specific textbook about science for instance, yet every major assumption upon which science rests (belief in an objective, measurable world; belief in cause and effect) comes straight from the Bible. 

Unlike other would be contenders - the Bible alone tells me that it is not from good behavior that one is made right with God, rather it is by grace alone through faith alone. (Ephesians 2:8-9).  When I preach on Sunday, I don't bring a commentary (although they are helpful in studying the Bible) nor do I bring anything else.  I have my Bible.  And that is enough. 

I have seen the Bible heal marriages, convert sinners to salvation and prevent people from committing suicide.  I gave just one verse to a friend who owned a small business, and he learned how to run his business from that one verse.  Imagine what would happen if we took to heart the over 31,000 verse in the Bible.  The Bible is sufficient enough to run a church, run a business, talk to your teenager and revolutionize your prayer life.  It is enough. 

The Bible Alone is Clear

Isaiah 41:23a "Declare the things that are going to come afterward, That we may know that you are gods;"

Isaiah continues, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to issue the challenge to all other would be claims of Divine authority.  We have looked at other books in comparison to the Bible under the tests of infallibility and inerrancy.  Today we want to consider the test of clarity.  Is the given book clear in its meaning and consistent in its message?

The Miracle of the Bible's Clarity
The Bible is remarkable in the fact it was written by 40 different authors, over 1500 years period of time, living on three different continents (Europe, Africa and Asia) and writing in 3 different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek).  The Bible is composed of 66 smaller volumes called "books" which would had been originally scrolls.  The Bible has its own system of making plain its meaning, since you can take a passage (in context) and use it to shed light on another passage (in context). 

The Methods used in bringing out the Bible's Clarity
Though there are parts of the Bible that can be more difficult to interpret than others, yet the Bible is clear enough to where on major doctrines, there is full clarity of meaning.  The Bible as the inerrant and infallible word of God (see previous posts) is meant to be explained (preached or taught).  Whenever it is read, explained or taught, God is said to be speaking (compare John 6:66-70 and 1 Peter 4:11). 

Motives for appreciating the Bible's clarity
No other book has this quality of clarity like the Bible.  The Bible, being clear in its meaning, also makes clear issues that would be otherwise hidden from human understanding.  It alone can pierce into the depths of the human heart and soul (Hebrews 4:12).  Unlike man, who by reason alone cannot even fully comprehend his own heart (Jeremiah 10:23), the scriptures (The Bible) can penetrate the heart and bring about understanding (Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:15). 


As much as this quality of the Bible has been under attack in recent years, yet for millennia Godly men and women have been studying and coming away with clarity from God's Word.  it truly is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path (Psalm 119:105). 

The Bible Alone is Inerrant

Isaiah 41:22 Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place; As for the former events, declare what they were, That we may consider them and know their outcome.  Or announce to us what is coming;

In yesterday's blog we considered the test of infallibility, whereby we are testing to see whether or not a book with the claim of Divine authorship can lead us to an accurate knowledge of truth on any matter.  We saw yesterday that the Bible alone fulfilled this.  Today we want to look at a closely related idea - inerrancy.  If infalliblity has to to with the character of revelation, then inerrancy has to do with the contents - the words of a given text.  In short - are they without error.

Accuracy in all matters past or future
Isaiah mentions "former events" and "outcomes" as criteria for the inerrancy test.  Does the text in question accurately tell you the facts of a past event and can it predict accurately what is yet to be?  The ability to predict the future accurately is the harder of the two tests, since only a supernatural, Divine Mind could ever deliver 100% accurate information about predicted outcomes. 

Fulfilled prophecy as the greatest mark of Divine authorship
According to Isaiah's test, if a given book, claiming to be from God, can accurately predict the future, then it is proof of it being God's word.  The question is, do any religious books contain fulfilled examples of prophecy or prediction?

The Koran, touted by Islam to be God's word, contains not one example of predictive prophecy.  Neither does the Book of Mormon, and its attendant volumes the Pearl of Great Price and Doctrines and Covenants.  The Hindu writings such as the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-gita does not, neither does the writings of Buddah and Confucius. 

Furthermore, of those organizations that claim to be the voice of God, they at some point have been wrong in their predictions.  The Jehovah Witnesses for instance have wrongly predicted the second coming of Jesus at least three times (1914, 1920's and in the seventies).

Does the Bible have examples of predictive prophecy?
According to studies done by Biblical scholars, there are over 600 general prophecies in the Bible.  Jesus Christ is the subject of 334 of them.  Micah 5:3 for instance predicted that the Messiah would be born in Bethelehem Epaphratha.  700 years later, we find in the birth accounts of Matthew and Luke Jesus Christ born in this same town!  Zechariah 9:9, written over 500 years before Jesus, declared that the chosen one, Messiah, would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.  Jesus does so the week of His crucifixion in the Gospel accounts. 

The most remarkable proof of the Bible's inerrancy
Daniel 9:23-27 tells us that in God's way of reckoning time, from the moment that a decree was issued to rebuild Jerusalem to the cutting off of Messiah would compute to exactly 483 years.  We know that Cyrus, King of Persia, issued such a decree in March of 445 b.c.  The Old Testament Jews counted their years in 360 day periods.  If we multiply 360 days times the 483 year period spoken of in Daniel, we come up with 173,880 days.  If we count those days from Cyrus' decree (spoken of by the way in Ezra 1:2-4) we arrive at the date of April 15, 29 A.D.  That is the exact day when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross! 

No other book, alleged vision, dream or any other claim to Divine authorship has this mark of inerrancy.  The Bible alone not only has it, but has hundreds of examples wherein it demonstrates its unique quality as God's word. 

The Bible alone is infallible

Isaiah 41:21 “Present your case,” the LORD says.“Bring forward your strong arguments,” The King of Jacob says.

Yesterday we began a new blog series on evaluating claims made by certain religions as to what is the Word of God.  When a document claims this title, it is claiming to be the very words of God communicated to human beings.  In this first test, infallibility, we are concerned with the character of the given revelation.  Will it lead the reader into truth, or error?  Is it trustworthy?  Questions such as these fit under this idea of infallibility. 

So lets briefly look at some religious books and the Bible, and determine, from Isaiah's first test, which book is the infallible Word of God.  A good test case would be whether or not the given book will accurately lead me to an understanding of the world around me as it pertains to history.

1. The Hindu Upanishads.  In Hinduism, one of the major documents claimed to have a mark of divine revelation is what is termed the "Upanishads".  Hinduism of course is not a uniform system of belief, rather it is more a system of "beliefs".  Whenever we begin to examine these documents, we discover that the universe started off from either an egg, non-being or in another instance, creation begins with a great horse sacrifice.  Clearly this will not lead me to a the truth about origins, since all the accounts are contradictory.

The Bible on the other hand has over sixty different passages spread over 66 books that do not contradict in the least.  Genesis 1 and 2, the chief among those texts, tells of God beginning everything from nothing, speaking all things into existence, investing into the creation laws and life.  The universe was originally created good, but then through the disobedience of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, decay entered, resulting in everything running down.   The other 60 or so creation passages in the Bible match exactly with this basic description. 

Science at its most fundamental level matches this as well.  The universe, according to the laws of thermodynamics, had to have had a beginning.  Furthermore, the 30 or so fundamental laws and mathematical equations describing the universe are so finely tuned that the only explanation could be that a Divine Intelligence is behind the universe's existence.  Lastly, if we deny that the God of the Bible created the Heaven's an the earth, we are left with two other alternatives - either the universe created itself or it is eternally old - neither of which is supported by well established laws of physics.   Thus the Bible leads me to a right knowledge of creation. 

2. The Koran.  The Koran claims that Jesus Christ did not die on the cross, but rather someone made to look like Him died in his place.  The question is: does this statement lead me to an accurate knowledge of history?  Did Jesus actually die on the cross?  A quick review of non-Christian secular sources written around the time will verify that is was Jesus, as a man, who physically died on the cross.  Secular historians wiritng shortly after Christ's crucifixion, such as Cornelius Tacitus in his "Annals", chapter 15 verse 44, speak of "one Christus, who was put to death in the principate of Tiberius by the Procurator Pontius Pilate." 

The Bible. Yet all four Gospels in the Bible speak of such an event taking place.  Clearly the Koran cannot be the word of God, since it leads me to an innacurate knowledge of history. 

3. The Book of Mormon.  In the book of Mormon, the story is told of two tribes of indians descended from tje Jews populating North America.  One of those tribes were cursed, and the other blessed.  In the book of Mormon, Jesus Christ supposedly makes various appearances throughout history to these peoples, with the Mormon's founder, Joseph Smith, being the modern day recipient of such revelation.  The only problem with this story is that it has never been verified.  No genetic test, no Genaeological records exist that concusively ties the Indians of North America back to the Jewish people.  Furthermore, there currently exists over six different accounts of how Joseph Smith founded Mormonism back in the early nineteenth century. 

Thus in surveying these other documents, they have failed the first test of infallibility.  The Bible on the other hand, has demonstrated that it leads me to an accurate knowledge of history, science and eternity. 

Four Tests for defining God's Word

Isaiah 41:21-23 “Present your case,” the LORD says. “Bring forward your strong arguments,”
The King of Jacob says. 22Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place;
As for the former events, declare what they were, That we may consider them and know their outcome. Or announce to us what is coming; 23Declare the things that are going to come afterward, That we may know that you are gods; Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.

Many claims to "God's word"
There are at the writing of this blog over 7,000 different religions in the world today.  Almost all of them claim to have the true view of reality, current events and eternity.  Truth by its very nature is exclusive - meaning that once a truth claim is made, anything in conflict with that claim cannot be at the same time true. 

When it comes to claims about certain documents being Divinely inspired or revealed, many of the world's religions claim to have documents of divine origin.  Islam has its Koran, Hinduism has its Upanishads, Buddahism and followers of Confusius and Mormonism have the writings of their founders, and then there is the Bible.  Is there an objective way to measure marks for divine inspiration?  There is.  In the above text such a test is put forth.  In today's blog I am going to briefly outline what these four tests are, and then over the next several blogs submit the Bible and all the other would-be contenders to these tests to answer one simple question: What is the Word of God?

The four marks of the Word of God
When we say the phrase "The Word of God", we are claiming that a particular document was revealed by God, and that He both spoke and is speaking to people through the words of that document.  The above text helps determine whether or not a given claim of revelation is a product of men, or a product of God.  Four tests are given by the prophet Isaiah:

1. Infallibility.  Isaiah writes: "Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place".  Infallibility has to do with giving perfect guidance in all matters, no matter what."  Anytime someone is claiming to speak for God, we have to assess whether or not what they're saying is going to lead us to the truth, or lead us down a road of lies.  Infallibility has to do with the character of the given revelation.  

2. Inerrancy.  Then he states: "As for the former events, declare what they were, that we may consider their outcome".  Inerrancy, stated positively, describes a given document being accurate in all matters of science, faith and history.  Stated another way, a document is claimed to be inerrant when it contains no errors.  Does a given text describe the past in perfect, error free- detail?  According to the prophet, this is a crucial test for determining which is the Word of God.  This test deals with the contents of the alleged revelation.

3. Clarity.  Isaiah writes: "That we may consider them and know their outcome. Or announce to us what is coming; 23Declare the things that are going to come afterward, That we may know that you are gods."  Clarity is that quality wherein a document is clear in its explanation and meaning.  When I examine any book claiming Divine authorship, is it consistent and clear, or do I find contradicitions and confusion?  Is there a well-defined meaning in the context of what is written?  Clarity is another test for evaluating claims of Divine authorship.

4. Sufficiency. Then finally, Isaiah notes: "Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together."  Will I be able to take the given document and live by it in every area of my life?  In other words, can I trust what the document says about eternal salvation?  Raising a family?  Working at my job?  Making moral decisions?  Knowing God?  Understanding history, science and every major branch of knowledge?  Only a document that is God's Word can fulfill this criteria.  Frankly this last test can only be passed when the first three have been shown to verify the claims of Divine authorship of a given text. 

In tomorrows blog we will submit different texts and the Bible to the first test of infallibility to determine: Which is the Word of God.