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To: Mrs. Don-o

I’m walking out of the door and won’t be back home until sometime late tonight, so I really don’t have time to give a full thoughtful answer. But I’ll say this much, it’s not a book that can be read and understood by men. Of course the can read and understand words, but the real truths are spiritual in nature. They can only be understood by those to whom they are revealed by the Lord. When the Lord opens your eyes to the truth there can be no doubt as to Divine Authorship. Things that seem foolish or perplexing to most become precious to one who has experienced the miracle of the new birth.

Christ speaking from John 6
44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.

Referencing Isaiah 54, that section of John tells us all those who are saved have been “taught of God.” That doesn’t mean they are taught about God, but they are specifically taught BY God. It’s God who opens eyes to see and ears to hear. And every single person taught by By God will come to Christ and be saved. I believe part of being taught by God is the ability to read the Scriptures with spiritual eyes. A friend of mine likes to say, “if you get it, you got it.” He’s exactly right. Now that doesn’t mean we understand everything. God doesn’t work that way.

Later in John 10, some of the Jews ask Jesus if he is the Christ.

25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.

26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

They didn’t believe because they weren’t among the sheep given to Him by the Father. But His sheep hear His voice. Well, His voice is on every single page of the Bible. I was saved 40 years ago, graduated from a Christian university where I studied a lot of Bible, I have studied it constantly throughout my adult life, yet I have just barely scratched the surface. New truths leap off the page all the time. Books written by men don’t have that power.

Because of our fall in Adam, we are, one and all, spiritually dead from the moment of conception. A fruit tree bears fruit after its kind. It can’t do anything else. We sprung from Adam’s loins, ergo when Adam died, we died. A dead man can’t see or perceive spiritual things unless he has been given new life, which is the gracious gift of God. That’s what happens when a man is born again. At that point we are no longer in Adam, but in Christ, which means he has been by reborn by a miracle of the Holy Spirit.

Now contrary to popular opinion, a man can’t simply decide he will be born again any more than he decided to be born the first time. The early verses of John 3 make that clear. When asked how a man can be born again, Christ likened the work of the Spirit to the wind and said that no one knows where it comes from and it blows where it wishes.

So the New Birth is is a miracle performed in the heart by the Lord. And when that happens, everything changes. A man who has been reborn begins to hate things he once loved, love things he once hated. And he begins to be able to perceive and understand spiritual things in a way that up until that point would have been impossible. For the person to whom this has happened, the Bible becomes self-authenticating. There’s simply no doubt as to its otherworldly origin. As the Bible tells us, it was written by the hands of men as they were directed by the Holy Spirit.

Ok, that’s a rambling answer and, while I could say much more, maybe something in there is helpful for you. I really do have to leave.


73 posted on 03/03/2016 8:51:17 AM PST by .45 Long Colt
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To: .45 Long Colt
W"hen the Lord opens your eyes to the truth there can be no doubt as to [the Bible' s] Divine Authorship."

To clarify: I have no doubts at all about the Bible's Divine Authorship.

None at all.

We may have a dispute about what constitutes the Bible.

75 posted on 03/03/2016 10:07:22 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Point of ??)
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