What the Bible says about knowing God

God loves us

God loved the world so much that he sent his only son, so that those who believe in him will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

We are separated from God

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is already judged, for not believing in God's only son. (John 3:18)

The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)

Jesus is the way back to God

Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

We have confidence to enter into the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way opened up to us through the curtain of his body. (Hebrews 10:20)

Repentance

Repent for the Kingdom of God is near. (Matthew 3:2)

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:32)

Baptism

Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38)

Having been buried with him in baptism, you have been raised with him through your faith in the poser of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:12)

The Holy Spirit

If you love me you will keep my commandments and I shall ask the Father and he will send you another advocate to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth ... The advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send you in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything that I have told you. (John 14:15-17 & 26)

You will receive power then the Holy Spirit comes upon you. (Acts 1:8)

Living for God

So I urge you, brothers and sisters, because of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is real worship. Do not conform yourselves to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you can prove God's will that is good, acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1,2)

The Bible

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a guide to my path. (Psalm 119:105)

Prayer

Don't worry about anything, but by offering thankful prayer, let God know what you need. (Philippians 4:6)

This is how you should pray: Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, give us today our daily bread and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, forever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13)

Church

Every day they met together in the Temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. (Acts 2:46)

They devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer. (Acts 2:42)

Let's not neglect meeting with each other, as some do, but encourage each other, especially now that the time of his return is drawing near. (Hebrews 10:25)

Is God a hard taskmaster?

The Father will give us the Spirit of Truth to be with us forever.

It can easily get a bit confusing. In the Bible Paul talks about being saved just through having faith in Jesus, but even he tells us how we should live and the dire consequences of living as we shouldn't. James says that faith is vital, but without works it is dead. Jesus, the ultimate in speaking against blindly following tradition, says that following the Law isn't enough. So are we saved by faith but then have to follow rules laid out in the New Testament? I think that Paul would go ballistic if he heard me ask that!

Rules don't work. OK, don't steal or commit adultery or murder - we generally have control over that, so a law containing those commands is sensible. A lot of what we are told to do in the New Testament is much more difficult though: don't be angry, love those who persecute you etc, etc. If I feel angry with someone, then I have to stop. Why? Because there is a rule? That doesn't really help me.

God wants us to live an amazing life that meets his high standards, and gives us all the support that we need to do that.

Paul hit the nail on the head in Galatians (chapter 5, verses 22-25): be filled with the Holy Spirit and then His fruit will develop in you - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law about these, but if we have given our lives to Jesus and allow His Spirit to live in us, then that is how we shall naturally start to live. Similarly, Jesus said that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments - that is how it is. We naturally start to live the way that Jesus wants us to out of our love for Him and through the help of the Holy Spirit whom He gives us as a helper (John chapter 14, verses 15-17 & 26). It isn't a matter of, "Do what I say and then I will believe that you love me." It's the other way round.

God has high standards that we can't meet. That's why Jesus died for us and rose from the dead. If we commit our lives to Jesus, He doesn't then start forcing us to do what we couldn't before, in order to keep our salvation; He grows His way of life in us. He also gives us spiritual gifts to make us more effective in living the Christian life (1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 1-11). If you haven't committed your life to Jesus, or if you haven't asked the Holy Spirit into your life to transform you, then why not do that today. There is more information in the knowing God section, or you can contact us. Life will never be the same again.

Proving evolution?

In the field of mathematics rigorous proofs abound. There are various formal proofs of 1+1 =2, ranging from a few lines, to several pages, which is perhaps surprizingly long for something seemlingly so obvious. Similarly, Fermat's Last Theorem was in the general news headlines in 1994 when Andrew Wiles completed the proof in 129 pages after mathematicians had been trying since 1637. Yes, mathematicians will go to enormous lengths. There is a common misconception that scientists work in the same way; however, no one can prove a scientific theory.

Science works on the basis that we come up with ideas, or hypotheses, and test them. While the tests all prove positive, we still have a working theory. When a test gives a result which contradicts the theory, then it has been disproved, or falsified, and we need to move on to find something better. Newton's theory of gravitation was very good, and still is used in most situations. It was written in a way that meant that it could be tested and falsified. In the end it was found to be lacking and Einstein replaced it with general relativity. This is also formulated in a way that can be falsified, but no test has yet given a contradictory result after over 100 years. There are reasons, though, why even general relativity cannot be the final theory of gravitation. No theory is ever proven in science - we are always testing and moving forwards.

Science has to be carried out rigorously if it is going to mean anything and we have to accept that proof is utterly illusive.

There is, however, quite a lot of hype about the theory of evolution. Many biologists, if you

were to put it to them that evolution has not been proven, react quite strongly. Various arguments include that it is inconceivable that evolution did not take place, or that the use of falsifiability in the definition of theories about the past is inappropriate. These responses mean that they understand the issue, but consider it unfair to call it into play in this case. We can understand the problems of dealing with historical data, where experiments cannot be repeated, but that doesn't make theories which can't be tested properly scientific.

We could only show that evolution actually is possible if one species were ever to transform into another, yet that would still not prove that it happened in the past. However, so far, although it is clear that there is evolution within species (micro-evolution) the sort of changes that produce radically different species of animals or plants (macro-evolution) have never been observed. Even the famous experiments on fruit flies, where it is possible to get through vast numbers of generations in a relatively short space of time, have never led to anything other than fruit flies.

As a final note of caution, although there is no direct evidence for macro-evolution and no way of proving that it occurred in the past, even if it were ever to be observed in the future, it is important that creationists don't fall into the same trap of discounting the proposals of other scientists without proper scientific presentation of their arguments. There is still a lot of valid work to be done in this field from both perspectives.