Is The Bible True?

Wait! Don't answer that question too quickly. If you do, you'll likely judge the Bible's veracity by categories established 1,500 years after it was written. Perhaps I should explain.

Disillusioned by the religious fervor that fed the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), the early architects of what would later be called the Enlightenment demanded that all claims about the natural world be verified by the exercise of human reason rather than dogmatic pronouncement. In doing so, they distinguished betweenvalues (things one may believe but can't prove) and facts(things one can, and therefore should, prove). For these early modernists, both values and facts represented truth claims, but each of a different order. Over time, however, rationally verified facts -- and the scientific method to which they led -- became so productive and influential that it wasn't all that long until notions of truth became associated almost exclusively with facts.

John 3:16, Like It Or Not!

Maybe when you think of John 3:16, you think of the guy in the rainbow-colored wig sitting between the uprights holding the sign painted with the world's most famous verse. But when I think of John 3:16, I think of six year-old Benjamin, protesting his bedtime, and I'm reminded of God's unexpected, surprising, and even offensive grace.