by David Gibson<\/p>\n
A friend asked how I would respond if someone said he did not believe the Bible is inspired. This is what I told him.<\/p>\n
If the person is open to the truth, I would first prove that Jesus rose from the dead.<\/p>\n
“Nothing is more crucial in the field of Christian evidences than the question of the divinity of Christ. Nothing is more crucial in establishing the divinity of Christ than His resurrection from the dead” (Batsell Barrett Baxter, I Believe Because…, p. 223).<\/p>\n
“If our Lord said frequently… that after He went up to Jerusalem He would be put to death, but on the third day He would rise again from the grave, and this prediction came to pass, then… everything else our Lord ever said must also be true” (Wilbur M. Smith, Therefore, Stand, p. 419).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Jesus taught that the Scriptures are indeed God’s word and therefore authoritative (John 10:35; Matthew 4:1-11; 15:3-9).<\/p>\nIt’s only logical. Everything hinges on His resurrection. His resurrection validates all He claimed to be. It also validates all that He taught. If He did not rise, then we can dismiss Him as a deluded religious fanatic at best, or at worst a deliberate fraud. In either case, we could not say, as so many do, that He was a good man or a great teacher, but not the Son of God.
\nBut if He did rise, then our only logical recourse is to admit He truly is God’s Son (Romans 1:4).\nAnd then the next step: submitting to Him as our Savior and Lord.<\/p>\n
It only makes sense.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by David Gibson A friend asked how I would respond if someone said he did not believe the Bible is inspired. This is what I told him. If the person is open to the truth, I would first prove that Jesus rose from the dead. “Nothing is more crucial in the field of Christian evidences…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[37,709],"class_list":["post-96441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-apologetics","tag-evidence"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14284,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-was-johns-baptism-different-from-jesus-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":96441,"position":0},"title":"How was John’s baptism different from Jesus’ baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have some questions about John's baptism. I've read about how it was a fulfillment of prophecy to prepare the way, but I'm really confused about what that really means and what the point of John's baptism was. I am curious about a few things: What does \"preparing the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14708,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-thief-on-the-cross-work-when-he-rebuked-the-other-thief\/","url_meta":{"origin":96441,"position":1},"title":"Did the thief on the cross work when he rebuked the other thief?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I noticed your 'Is water baptism is a work?' and I found it very insightful. I was curious about the thief on the cross. Did\u00a0this thief\u00a0do a 'work' before he died by rebuking his neighbor? Answer: Obviously the thief demonstrates faith in Jesus. \"Then one of the criminals who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12785,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-would-the-sadducees-bother-claiming-to-be-religious\/","url_meta":{"origin":96441,"position":2},"title":"Why would the Sadducees bother claiming to be religious?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Matthew 22:23-31, it says that the Sadducees said there was no resurrection. Also, Acts 23: 8 says the Sadducees didn't believe in angels or spirits.\u00a0If they didn't believe in angels or spirits, then why believe in the words of the Old Testament? If the Sadducees didn't believe in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1549,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-repentance-necessary-to-be-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":96441,"position":3},"title":"Is repentance necessary to be saved?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When Peter preached to Cornelius and his household, was repentance anywhere in his sermon? Is a person born again by faith and repentance, or by faith? I think that I was born again when God revealed His Son to me, and I believed in Him, am I completely wrong?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1988,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-bible-speak-of-souls-sleeping\/","url_meta":{"origin":96441,"position":4},"title":"Does the Bible speak of souls sleeping?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do the Scriptures ever speak of souls sleeping anywhere? Answer: A common idiom for death is sleep. \"But man dies and is laid away; indeed he breathes his last and where is he? As water disappears from the sea, and a river becomes parched and dries up, so man\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14638,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-explain-all-these-similar-phrases-about-dying-with-christ-and-dying-to-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":96441,"position":5},"title":"Can you explain all these similar phrases about dying with Christ and dying to sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What do these phrases mean? I have been crucified with Christ I am dead in Christ I have died to Christ I am dead to sin I am dead in sin I am resurrected with Christ Answer: Let's examine each phrase in the statement in which it was given:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}