Articles
07 Back to the Bible – Restoration of Faith in Jesus
Back to the Bible – Restoration of Faith in Jesus
Mike Willis
In my last article, I wrote about man’s need to restore its faith in the Bible as the divinely inspired word of God. We noted that many individuals and church fellowships have lost faith in the Bible and, because of that lack of faith in Scripture, they also have lost their faith in Jesus. In many mainline Protestant denominations, the Jesus in whom they believe is designated “the historical Jesus” in contrast to the Jesus portrayed in the gospel.
Approaching Scripture from a secular viewpoint, they do not believe that the prophets of the Old Testament foretold the coming of Jesus. They do not believe that Jesus was born of a virgin. The Jesus in whom they believe was born to Mary as a result of her committing fornication with someone other than Joseph.
They do not believe that the adult Jesus was able to cure lepers, enable the cripple to walk, restore sight to the blind, enable the deaf to speak, walk on water, turn water to wine, or restore a withered hand. They do not believe that Jesus could cause a school of fish to swim into the nets of His disciples (this happened twice). Much less do they believe that Jesus could raise the widow’s son, Jairus’s daughter, or His close friend Lazarus, who had been dead for four days!
The Jesus in whom most mainline Protestant churches believe was a good preacher, but not an infallible preacher! What I mean by this is that they feel at liberty to challenge, disagree, and reject teachings attributed to Jesus in Scripture but which they do not believe. Have you heard any mainline Protestant preacher deliver a “hell fire and brimstone” lesson in the last twenty years? You don’t hear that because mainline Protestant denominations do not believe in or preach about hell. They believe Jesus was wrong when He spoke about hell.
I have a copy of The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels. The book was published in 1820 by the 77-year-old, former President of the United States. Its significance was this: he went through the Gospels and cut out those things he did not believe about Jesus. All the miracles are removed and the book ends with Jesus death and burial. That is the logical position of mainline Protestant denominations. They say that they believe in the historical Jesus, a Jesus who was only a man like the rest of us.
But the fact is, the Jesus portrayed in Scripture is the historical Jesus. Existing from the beginning and having the same nature as God Himself, Jesus chose to empty Himself to take the form of a servant and endure the agonies of Calvary, though at any time He had the power not to suffer and die on the cross. The New Testament Scriptures, our best historical documents for knowing anything about Jesus, emphatically teach that the body that died on Calvary was raised from the death on the third day following His death and was seen by more than 500 witnesses over a period of forty days. Men and women saw Him alive, ate with Him, touched Him, and recognized Him as the same man who died on Calvary. This is the historical Jesus who gave birth to Christianity. Men who reject what Jesus did and taught, while telling people that they believe in Jesus, are deceiving those who follow them.
I am appealing to people to go back to the Bible and believe what the Bible reveals about Jesus, the Son of God, who was born to Mary. He is the One who said,“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Though this teaching is offensive to many in mainline Protestant denominations, I believe what the Bible records Jesus to have said. Do you?
