Why I’m a Biblicist

I have been influenced by the Bible throughout my entire life. There has never been a time in my conscious awareness when I did not know about and believe in this amazing book. Paul’s words to Timothy in his second epistle to him apply to myself as well: “From a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

I grew up in a non-denominational, conservative, evangelical church. I also attended a non-denominational, conservative, evangelical seminary. I’m baptistic in my theology. But the primary descriptor I use of myself is simply this: I’m a Biblicist.

I believe the Bible is God’s inerrant communication to us. It’s forty-four authors were guided by the Holy Spirit to write what they wrote, while at the same time expressing their own personality in their own culture and history. Therefore, I regard the Bible as authoritative for myself and for the world in general.

Of course, I had to make my own decision about whether I was going to believe the Bible and accept it as authoritative. I couldn’t and shouldn’t have simply relied on my parents or anyone else to tell me what to believe. As a young adult, I concluded that the Bible is worthy of my faith and obedience. That conviction has only grown over the decades since.

Here are some of the reasons why I call myself a Biblicist.

I’m a Biblicist because the Bible describes me as I really am. The one thing I know better than anything else is myself. Reading the Bible is like getting a spiritual MRI. It shows me what I already know is there: my guilt, my shame, my fears. It tells me about my soul, about my morality, about my sense of beauty. It explains why I crave meaning and purpose. It awakens my spirituality. It calls me to account. It forces me to examine my relationships. It is at one and the same time both attractive and repulsive; a light that both reveals and blinds.

I’m a Biblicist because the Bible is historically accurate. It’s been said that there are no maps in the back of The Book of Mormon, or any other religious text, for that matter…except the Bible. There are tons of maps in the back of most Bibles. The reason is because the Bible records God’s acts in human history, a history we’re learning more and more about through archaeology.

I majored in ancient history in a secular university precisely because I wanted to see how well the Bible fits in to what we know about biblical times and cultures. It was a stunning experience. I learned that the biblical skepticism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was largely based on ignorance. Simply by digging, archaeologists have validated biblical data again and again. In the words of Dr. Doug Groothuis, “The biblical authors knew what they were writing about.”

I’m a Biblicist because the Bible tells me who God is. If a personal God exists, I’d expect him to introduce himself. And he has. In the Bible, God tells us all about himself. He thinks, he feels and he wills the way all personal beings do. He’s also eternal, immortal, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. But most importantly, he is pure holiness and he is pure love; two qualities that have special relevance to us when we think about, and relate to, God.

I’m a Biblicist because the Bible tells me how I can know this God who is perfect holiness and perfect love. The Bible explains that all mankind has offended God’s holiness and rejected God’s love, setting up a conflict within God himself: on the one hand, God loves us with perfect love; but on the other hand, God must judge our sin with perfect holiness. The answer the Bible gives us to this dilemma is that God has satisfied both his love for us and his righteous requirement by providing a substitute for us – Jesus Christ. In his death on the cross, Christ paid the penalty for our sin – satisfying God’s perfect holiness – and made a way for us to relate to God by receiving forgiveness and eternal life through faith in his Son – satisfying God’s perfect love.

I’m a Biblicist because the Bible tells me about Jesus. In the Bible, we have prophecies that predate the life of Jesus Christ by hundreds of years. The Bibles tells us the story of how God became a human being in the person of Jesus and fulfilled those prophecies, sacrificing himself on the cross and rising from the dead. The Bible also tells me that Jesus is coming back and that I and everyone else who believe in him are going to be like him when we see him. In fact, we will share in his glory.

I’m a Biblicist because the Bible tells me about the Holy Spirit. The Bible and my spiritual rebirth have something in common: we’re both products of the Holy Spirit. The Bible explains the importance of this third person of the Trinity and how I can access His power to overcome sin, Satan and the wicked world I continue to live in. In the Bible, I learn that I have received amazing spiritual gifts that I can use for the benefit of the church and others around me.

I’m a Biblicist because the Bible provides a template for living life well. The Bible is an amazing book of wisdom. My marriage, my family, my work, and my interests have all been molded by this book. I’m an old man now and I can say that I have been blessed beyond measure because I have simply taken the Bible at face value. I have absolutely no regrets for believing in, and allowing myself to be guided by, the Bible.

I’m a Biblicist because the Bible is the most consequential book that has ever been written. Without the Bible, history just simply wouldn’t be what it is. All of western civilization has been influenced by the Bible. The way we view ourselves, the categories we use to think, the institutions we’ve developed, our language, the arts and literature – all these cultural factors and more have been massively impacted by the Bible.

This is why I’m a Biblicist, and why I will be until the day I die.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.