Do testimonies matter? How are they important? And is the Bible enough for us to believe? Is your faith focused on the experience of others or can you articulate to others the reality of truth surrounding God’s word? That is an important question that all Christians need to answer.
I wasn’t raised in a Christian home and growing up my parents had very little to knew little about God or Christianity. The only thing I knew from my childhood was that we prayed at Thanksgiving and Christmas and somehow that equated to being a Christian.
Outside of that, my family had little to do with church. In fact, my dad looked at religion much like he did politics–you have your beliefs, and he had his. There wasn’t much to discuss beyond that. I have noticed that many people find it is easy to state what they believe. However, can what we believe be articulated? Not only can it be articulated, if we believe it, can it be supported by facts and can it be corroborated? This is especially important in our postmodern culture today where truth is whatever you make of it.
My conversion story is not one that I like to share much. Not because it is not important. Simply put, my testimony is not the gospel and how I came to faith was not by listening to someone else’s testimony. I have heard lots of people share their testimony who have wonderful and great stories of coming to faith who are devout Christians. However, I have also heard many testimonies from folks who I had to question if they believed God’s word. If you believe in the inerrancy, authority, and sufficiency of scripture, then your testimony will be framed around that!
I would agree that a testimony is a good conversation starter. It helps shape others understanding of my life and how I came to faith. I think it's very important for Christians to articulate for other people how and why they became believers. We all should have a prepared testimony, and we should be willing to share when asked about our hope. However, we should not confuse our personal testimony with the gospel. A testimony in my opinion should say more about how God got your attention as a believer than why you believe His word is true. What is true about a maturing believer is whether we come to accept the authority and sufficiency of scripture.
As I started to mature in my faith, I noticed something interesting about the churches my wife and I had attended and watched online. The music and messages were focused on the experience of attendees. The message of sin and repentance was often absent. I also learned that many of these churches did this to gain attendance and growing beyond one location into the multi campus model we see today.
Experience was the dominant theme in many of these churches! From the music to the sermon, everything was about an experience that drove many of the stories I would hear about someone coming to faith in Jesus. I realized that many had no real deep love for knowing their Savior. Theology and doctrine were far from anyone’s real concern. I realize this is not all churches. However, I started researching churches and watching sermons online, big and small, and found that an overwhelming number of the messages had very little to do with teaching truth of what they believe and why they believe it. They often focused on a more self-help theme.
It was not the experience or my testimony that brought me to faith in Jesus. What Brought me to my knees is the question that I think all Christians need to be able to answer. Why do I choose to believe the Bible? The Bible is God’s word, and it tells us in Romans 10:17 that faith is directly associated to hearing God’s word. That is because it tells us a story about a plan and a purpose that God has for rescuing us from ourselves. It explains death, evil, suffering, loss and much more. The Bible also tells us that in the end there will come a day when people that call themselves Christians are not going to put up with what the Bible teaches. Instead, they will find those who teach a message that contradicts the truth of God’s word (2 Tim. 4:3). If you pay attention, you will see that this is taking place topics that contradict what the Bible teaches us.
So, why do I believe the Bible? The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 3:15-17 that we need to be ready to give an answer for why we believe what we believe about God’s word. The answer for me, and it. should be for any Christian, is that we don’t live by a blind faith. The Bible is a collection of literature, books, poetry, and letters written over a span of 1500 years from 40 different authors whom for the most part did not know each other or live in the same lifetime as one another and from all walks of life, written from three different continents. Yet, despite this marvelous array of authorship, the Bible displays a flawless internal consistency. It never contradicts itself or its common theme of redemption. Only a holy and powerful God who transsends time and space could accomplish something so grand as the Bible.
The Bible provides for us the confidence in God’s word through an understanding that it is a reliable collection of historical documents that was written by eyewitnesses, during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses, who reported supernatural events that took place in the fulfillment of specific prophecies and claimed that their writings are Divine rather than human in origin (2 Peter 1:16-20).
From Genesis to Revelation, we see man’s repeated rebellion against his holy Creator. God made a perfect world, but mankind has continually rejected His authority and sought to decide truth for himself. Nevertheless, God promised to extend His love, grace, and mercy to unworthy people through His Son Jesus Christ, who deserve to be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity. Those who reject this invitation will be present in that lake of fire for all of eternity.
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