Before We Begin
July 27, 2003
Dear Friends,
Have you ever sat down with someone for a particular purpose and they say “Before we begin…” Many times what follows are a list of ground rules for meeting.
I have ground rules for discussing the Bible and Biblical truth. If the person I am talking to can agree to these ground rules, there is no real point in proceeding until we can get agreement on these ground rules. I don’t mean that I end the conversation, I mean that I really to work on gaining agreement to the ground rules before meaningful conversation can take place. So many times we try to teach people about God and the Bible but end in miserable failure because we fail to set these simple ground rules.
Ground Rule #1: The Bible is the wholly-inspired word of God. This sounds simple enough, but you would be surprised how many people say that they believe in the Bible but then go on to say how it is wrong here or mistaken there. What I mean when I say that the Bible is inspired is that God, working through mortal men, produced a book that was exactly (down to the very words) what He wanted to say. I once had a religion professor (also an ordained and active pastor) in college who always talked about how the Bible was inspired. He would then go on say how the Bible was full of mistakes and myths. When I questioned him at considerable length of what he meant by the word “inspiration”, he said that the Bible was inspired the way that Shakespeare was inspired. To him, everyone of us is inspired by God when we paint a picture or write a story. This does not meet my criteria for ground rule #1.
Ground Rule #2: The Bible is the primary basis for truth for understanding God and what He wants us to know as truth. It amazes me at how many people acknowledge that the Bible is truly the inspired word of God and then essentially say “so what.” Their version of truth is a mixture of sources and experiences which may or may not have any Biblical content whatsoever. They may acknowledge the Bible as true, but have no idea what is actually in the Bible as they have never read it. Their truth is based on what some person tells them is true or upon other life experiences. Their belief in the Bible as inspired has no practical application. Other sources for truth are important such as science and history, but ultimately, we must come back to the Bible for the last word on truth.
Ground Rule #3: Truth matters. This is not a philosophical discussion about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or who will win the World Cup. The story of the Bible is a story which has profound implications for all of us. It really matters what we believe and how we conduct ourselves. If Ground Rule #1 and #2 are true, then verses like John 17:3 are incredibly important. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
If we can get these ground rules established, a truly meaningful and very powerful conversation can take place. Unless we can get these ground rules established, we are stuck in a discussion where opinion reigns and there is no right or wrong answer. So many times we are so excited just to find someone who wants to discuss the Scriptures with us that we fail to establish the basis for the discussion and end up confused or disappointed when the talk bears little fruit.
In a world that is buying into the “anything goes” philosophy faster than Carl Lewis on a downhill slope, we have an obligation to get the word out that truth can be found. There are moral guideposts and absolute truths that we can cling to in an unsure world. These vital guides to living and truth are found in the pages of the Bible. “So, before we begin….”
Have a great week!
