Oxenhope Online

Christianity Explored, by Rico Tice and Barry Cooper

By kind permission of the authors and publishers, below is the preface contained in the book 'Christianity Explored':

You sometimes hear Christians talking about the Bible as if it were the last word on any subject. And I know that many of my readers will have a problem with that sort of attitude. Is it really possible for a sane person to reach the conclusion that the Bible is indeed God's way of speaking directly to human beings? On what grounds?

This is a simple illustration, but go with it. How do you know that a bag of sugar really contains sugar? Assuming you've been to the store and asked for a bag of sugar, how can you know that you've got what you paid for?

First of all, you could look at what it says on the bag. If it claims to be anything other than sugar, you might as well forget it. What does the Bible say about itself? It says it's 'God-breathed', that God speaks to us through it. Not that claiming something proves anything in itself. After all, I could claim to be two slices of apple pie. But any book that makes all the claims the Bible makes about itself demands some examination at least. For example, how many books insist that they hold the secret of eternal life, contain extraordinarily accurate prophecies (most of which have already come true, although some concern events yet to come), as well as claiming to show the only way that human beings can be saved from God's judgement? The Bible does all these things. Outrageous? It certainly seems to be. Provocative? Just a bit. True? It depends on who you ask. But even if there is only the tiniest, tiniest possibility that these claims might be true, the Bible deserves our attention. Because if the Bible did turn out to be the word of God, wouldn't it be extremely unwise to have deliberately ignored it?

 Secondly, you could open up the bag to see what's inside. Does it look like sugar? And if we open the Bible and read it, it certainly looks like God's word. Approximately forty authors wrote in three different languages over a period of one thousand five hundred years. Some of the authors were young, some were old, some were soldiers, others were fishermen, farmers, civil servants or kings. They wrote during different periods of history, in different geographical locations, to different groups of people. It wasn't like a relay race, with one author handing on the baton to another. Often, they were writing centuries apart. But despite this amazing variation - which alone makes it a unique book - the Bible has one theme running through it like rings in the trunk of a tree. There is one striking message, one striking person at its centre. That person is the subject of Christianity Explored. Given the diversity of its origin, the long period of time over which the Bible was written, and the even longer period of history that it deals with, this single-minded purpose is quite staggering.

Then there are the fulfilled predictions that the Bible contains - hundreds of them.  There are more than 300 predictions that refer to Jesus Christ alone, 29 of which are fulfilled in the final 24 hours of his life. Despite the attacks of people who claim that the Bible is just like any other book, full of mistakes and contradictions, it may surprise you to learn that the Bible's authority was not seriously questioned for 15 centuries. The book of Mark, which we'll be looking at in more detail, was written in about 65 ad. That's well within living memory of the events it records. So Mark knew that his first readers would easily be able to verify the truth of his account. But no one found fault. Even those who were hostile towards Jesus and his followers were unable to successfully dispute the historical accuracy of Mark's words. And even the harshest of today's critics have been unable to make any of their criticism stick. Furthermore, as you would expect from a book so grounded in historical realities, archaeological evidence has repeatedly confirmed the unwavering accuracy of biblical history. You see, it's important to remember that the Bible is not a collection of wisdom that may or may not be of interest to us. It is historical. For example, rather than just telling us that 'God is powerful', the Bible gives us real historical facts – such as the amazing deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt - that demonstrate the fact that God is powerful. So if you want to know whether or not there is any substance to the Bible, one way of doing it is to see if there is any substance to its historical claims.

Thirdly, you could always open the bag, dip your finger inside and actually taste it to see if it's sugar. That would really put the matter beyond doubt. You've heard people say that 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating', and the Bible is no exception to this rule. If you put the Bible into practice - and I hope that, by the end of this book, you'll want to - you'll see that the words the Bible contains could only have come from God. It proves itself to be God's word.

Don't be put off by those who tell you that the Bible can't be trusted. There are literally millions of people who would tell you otherwise. In any case, it's too important an issue to have other people form your opinion for you. Instead, I hope you'll want to see for yourself what the Bible says, examine its claims and then trust your own judgement.

'Christianity Explored' is published by Paternoster Publishing and is available from Amazon (Currently at £3.99)