Category: A Popular Defense of the Bible and Christianity

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.”                                                                                  (Jn. 1:14)

If the Bible and Christians contend that Jesus Christ is the blemish-free, Passover Lamb of God sacrifice for mankind’s sins, that He was perfect and without sin during His life and ministry on earth, by what or by whose standard do we judge the existence of this alleged perfect moral character in any person?

How would we determine that the life of Jesus was at the outer edge of intellectual and moral perfection, at the peak and the pinnacle of absolute goodness and virtue?

How would we know that no additional room or space remained at the highest top-most point of the vertical, graduated spectrum-line of virtue and morality for further improvement?

What would explain the existence of the diverse categories of moral criteria defining virtue, of the numerous moral concepts broken down into individual words as abstract thoughts accessible to human contemplation, that would enable and support a valid determination of the moral credentials of Jesus Christ?

And finally, where would our highly-advanced capacity to comprehend, to divide, separate-out, and parse these varied conceptual virtues and vices, consisting of finely differentiated realities that are true-to-life…come from? 

Where would this uniquely human capacity originate from, seeing that it does not exist anywhere else in the animal world and therefore cannot plausibly be attributed to the common descent, materialistic explanation for its origin extending seamlessly in small gradual steps from animal instinct to human intellect?

This current planet earth is the optimum environment to conduct individual research explorations into the knowledge of good and evil, using the lens of a fallen moral nature that is redeemed by Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary.

The broad array of moral concepts functionally operative within human relationships is the major leagues counterpart to the biodiversity and ecological balance we find in the natural world, that enables animal instinct to operate.

The brilliant invention of redemptive salvation by grace through faith in Christ is the means by which believers can with impunity and without risk to our eternal salvation, now enter into journeys of faith.

This becomes a reality by picking-up our own cross to follow Jesus Christ into adventures of challenge beyond our imagination…designed to open the door into the subtleties of the knowledge of good and evil for our eternal benefit.

An entirely counterintuitive insight comes from the modern scientific method of doing first-hand field research, that adds a new and unexpected twist to understanding the biblical interpretation of salvation by grace through faith in Christ.

It is that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was not just a way to provide forgiveness for sin and to restore our relationship with God, but also to open-up a living way into exploring the knowledge of good and evil through the research vehicle of an imperfect yet redeemed, fallen moral nature (Rom. 7:15-8:4; 2 Cor. 4:7).

In the detailed, biblical narrative stories of faith from Abraham through Paul, we see personal relationships created between people and God, and mission-plans often having enormous benefits to other people at that time and for mankind extending into the future.

But we also see life-scripts that are guided research programs into the knowledge of good and evil, that are purpose-filled at the pinnacle of rational thought and reasoning.

There is infinitely more to God’s plan of salvation than just reconciliation and addressing the guilt of our mistakes, as important as that is.

Redemptive salvation by grace through faith points directly to Genesis 3:4-5:

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

This is a classic example of a half-truth.

What transpired in the Garden of Eden was not an equally argued dispute over a set of facts about what beneficial outcomes might accrue by eating a particular fruit.

This dispute was about who possesses a perfect, absolute understanding of the moral concepts of good and evil, and therefore is in the singular position of being the topmost authority.

This dispute was about whether newly thinking humans created in the image of God are capable of adjudicating this issue and formulating our own moral standards.

The temptation in the Garden of Eden never reached anything like a dispute over empirical, fact-based evidence.

God did not show-up to debate the serpent with words alone, because Adam and Eve would have no experiential back-story of lived events to be able to separate lies from truth.

God knew from eternity past that eating a piece of fruit could not possibly provide the entire panoply of understanding and implementing the range of moral concepts at their end-points of perfection, in the lives of human beings.

God knew from eternity past that the only and best way that I can acquire a genuine knowledge of good and evil, is through a guided research program while inhabiting the four-wheel-drive vehicle of my fallen yet redeemed earthen vessel (2 Cor. 4:7), my imperfect moral nature being the perfect lens through which to understand the subtleties of the broad array of moral concepts.

When Joseph as ruler in Egypt revealed his true identity to his half-brothers (Gen. 45:3-15), they had every right to be afraid.

They expected retribution, revenge, and retaliation for selling Joseph into slavery in Egypt 13 years previously, when Joseph was 17 years old.

According to worldly conventional normalcy and thinking, payback for their evil deed against their younger brother would be the standard response coming from an all-powerful public official.

They would not normally expect anything else.

Under the now reversed circumstances, Joseph had complete power and control over their lives. 

But Joseph recognized years before that he had been purposely sent into Egypt through the higher mission-plan of a God-composed life-script to help other people.

The self-sacrifice of being trained for leadership in Potiphar’s house and in Pharaoh’s prison, was in service to helping a large group of people to survive a famine.

Any alternative series of events and circumstances living back in Canaan could never have produced a scenario where Joseph could find himself in the position of second in command of all Egypt directly under Pharaoh.

Building upon an idea from Jordan Peterson and applying it to the story of Joseph in Egypt, the mission-plan for Joseph inserted into his life by the God of the Bible involved sacrificing the present time and himself, for the future and for other people. 

Joseph’s high position, second to Pharaoh, was not about him or for him.

It was not about pride, ego, status, or climbing over other people to obtain power that had to be ruthlessly defended through force.

In Joseph’s life-script, God lifted Joseph’s moral character upward through events and circumstances in a joint-venture journey towards God’s higher character.

This process always in every case in the biblical narrative stories of faith…attends to the higher goal of helping other people while losing ourselves in the process.

Joseph as a foreigner in Potiphar’s house and in Pharaoh’s prison had learned how to lead with humility and with respect for others while in a foreign country.

The key point is that the mission-plans of the God of the Bible are at a higher level that actualize commendable self-sacrifice for the good of others.

Joseph was wearing the ring of authority that Pharaoh had given him to manage the famine.

His authority was unquestioned.

The word of Joseph was followed.

But the one goal set before Joseph by God Himself, set aside all other options and considerations as being secondary.

The worldly conventional normalcy and thinking of getting his revenge against his half-brothers was replaced within the mind and heart of Joseph by the much higher concern of managing the famine.

This is the direct opposite of the stereotypical approach in human history of the political strong-man who subjugates the people below them through authoritarian and dictatorial control.

Joseph was not therefore displaying weakness in forgiving his half-brothers.

Joseph was exhibiting a transcendent strength of character to do the one right thing in exclusion to all other options, including sacrificing the present and himself, for the future and for other people.

This was produced through an adventure of faith in which he placed trust in the God of the Bible to see ahead of the forward-looking curve in the road of future time, to produce a positive outcome, that Joseph along the way could not fully foresee.

Here I am quoting and paraphrasing Jordan Peterson in a discussion he had with John Lennox entitled “A Conversation About God” on You Tube.[1]

Jordan Peterson during this discussion asks the question of why is sacrifice important.

He starts his answer by saying that there exists a multiplicity of things in this world to pursue.

Every time we focus attention on one thing, we sacrifice all the other things…thus we are sacrificing.

We have to sacrifice other things to attend to a specific act.

If I am immature, there is only the present.

As I become more mature, there is only the present and there is only me.

As I continue to be more mature, there is the future at longer and longer durations, and there are other people.

So, what am I doing as I mature?

As I mature, I am sacrificing myself and the present, to the future and everyone else.

If I don’t do that then I stay dangerously immature, being self-centered and narcissistic.

I have to sacrifice to attend an act, and to mature.

Jordan Peterson then asks the central question of what is the sacrifice that is most pleasing to God.

The answer is to offer-up everything to what is transcendent.

This is what we see in the God-composed life-scripts patterned in the biblical narrative stories of faith.

This is what we see in this ancient life-script for Joseph in Egypt at the dawn of the first appearances of human intellectual and moral reasoning capacity.

This concept that the God of the Bible is writing life-scripts for people that can actualize the quality of the sacrifice of the present and of oneself to attend to a future, transcendent goal that helps others…is empirical fact-based evidence.

This idea is recorded in writing in the first book of Genesis in the Bible.

This cannot be lightly dismissed and swept-under-the-rug.  

This concept of the God of the Bible composing transcendent life-scripts for people that actualize reaching for higher goals that entail along the way acquiring a higher moral character, cannot be the product of an ancient version of modern humanism.

This concept is too deep to be the product of ancient, mythological literary invention.

What better way for God to show that this universe is more than matter and energy than to compose journey of faith life-script missions for people that are intellectually and morally deep and probing?

What better way than to demonstrate purpose and meaning in action in human lives?

Every positive biblical character is immersed in conflict, struggle, issues, and challenges, without exception.

Not a single story of a positive character in the Bible is about the easy life…of a green carpet, greased existence according to some timeless version of an achievable American Dream.

No human literary genius either in the Old Testament or the New Testament could or would deviate from the standard humanism that be definition excludes participation in our lives by a real living God.

All of the God-composed journey of faith life-scripts in the Bible contain the element of an advance, upfront training regime that prepares each person for a mission-plan goal they could not dream-up in their wildest imagination.

That is the point.

The mission-plans and the advance preparations are coordinated, timely, and transcendent above worldly conventional normalcy and thinking.

All of this is inexplicable arising out of an atheistic universe devoid of purpose and meaning.

This is empirical, fact-based evidence for the existence of an intelligent designer God, and disconfirming evidence for the worldview of naturalistic materialism.

This concept that God composes life-scripts for people that have end-goals that are transcendent above anything that could have been imagined by the people themselves in their time long ago or even today, entailing the incredibly deep element of sacrificing the present and ourselves…has to have some point of origin…some source for its existence.

We can ignore this fact-based evidence, but this does not make it go away.

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[1] See “A Conversation About God/Dr. John Lennox/EP394” on You Tube in Jordan b Peterson, Nov. 6, 2023.