Is there really a God? This is the big question for all people and all times. Back in the 1966 the statement of German writer/philosopher Friedrich Nietzschke first published in 1883, made the cover of Time Magazine. "God is Dead" I'm not one to simply accept what one man says; are you? If there is or ever was a real God, He would not die. For many years I have pondered the questions, "Is there really a God?", "What is He like?" "What does He have to do with us?". The most ancient authoritative source on the subject is the Hebrew scriptures, referred to by the Jews as the Tanakh and by Christians as the Old Testament.
The Hebrews have been around a long time and their remnant descendents, the Jews, have gone to great sacrifice to preserve this account of their relationship to God over at least 30 centuries. So is the Old Testament a reliable document? If you look at the efforts and sacrifice the nation of Israel made to support, protect and defend their scriptures you have to admire the lengths to which they have gone to assure they were preserved in their original form. We're talking about somewhere around 3500 years ago when Moses put what began as oral history to pen.
If you are careful and precise about the basis for your beliefs this may not impress you. Many peoples throughout the world have oral and written traditions which have been shown to be nothing but fanciful and imaginative representations of their history and relationship to home spun gods. My point here is the credibility this document has earned in it's centuries of existence.
The New Testament which is approximately 2000 years old, was authored by men who lived during the time of Jesus Christ, who claimed to be the Son of God. This set of scriptures testifies to the accuracy of the Old Testament. Part of the credibility of the New Testament includes its support by other many historical writings of the time. The Christian scriptures are the most historically documented writings of all. If you would believe in the existence of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and other well known philosophers who lived hundreds of years prior to Christ, then you must believe in those who testified to the life and times of Jesus Christ.
With this introduction, I begin a series of personal blogs based on what I believe and why I believe it in relation to Jesus Christ and the bible which includes both the New and Old Testaments.
