Irresistible By Andy Stanley - 6-Day Reading PlanSample

Jesus First, Bible Second

The Christian faith began with the resurrection of Jesus.

It was birthed by an event, not a document—a birth, not a birth certificate. Our faith began when a handful of Jesus followers saw him alive from the dead. Just as the resurrection of Jesus served as the reason they would later give for the hope they had, so his resurrection must serve as the reason for our hope as well. To state it more directly: we don’t believe because the Bible says so. We believe because Jesus rose!

If the church is going to regain the first-century status of irresistible, we must change the way we talk about the Bible. Most educated people have an educated opinion about what the Bible is and isn’t. They don’t walk into our churches with blank slates; they come with full slates. Consequently, we must shift our approach. And, as we’ve seen, there is a first-century precedent for doing so.

Our faith doesn’t teeter on the brink of extinction based on the archaeology or the history of the Old Testament. Anyone who lost faith in Jesus because they lost faith in the historical or archeological credibility of the Old Testament lost faith unnecessarily.

The faith of Jesus’ earliest followers did not rest on a historically, archaeologically, scientifically accurate book. Your faith shouldn’t either. Neither should your child’s faith. Neither should the faith of the kids in your church. If the Old Testament had been written as a scientific textbook or according to modern notions of historical accuracy, chances are no one would have understood it until the modern era. Our faith does not teeter on the brink of collapse based on the historicity, credibility, or even the believability of the Old Testament.

When skeptics point out the violence, the misogyny, the scientific and historically unverifiable claims of the Hebrew Bible, instead of trying to defend those things, we can shrug, give ’em our best confused look, and say, “I’m not sure why you’re bringing this up. My Christian faith isn’t based on any of that.”

And, by the way, it isn’t.

Or it shouldn’t be.

Peter’s wasn’t. Paul’s wasn’t. 

Reflection: Do you know someone who has lost belief because of something in the Bible? Do you agree that the Christian faith should stand or fall on the fact that Jesus rose from the dead?