Why I Believe that The Bible is the Word of GOD

I WAS BORN AND RAISED A CATHOLIC. I attended a Catholic elementary school, and graduated from an all-girls Catholic college. I remember asking my religion teacher who was a nun, “Sister, why do Catholics pray to saints? Aren’t saints just ordinary people like us? They are not GOD, so why do we have to worship them?” I have no recollection of what she said in response, but it had effectively turned me into a non-believer. I purposely became a self-proclaimed atheist as I was convinced there must be no God. Philosophy and logic were instantly my favorite subjects. That was in the year 2000.

In retrospect, that sort of religion was not beneficial for me. In fact, The Bible says that God hates religion, because what he wants from us is a personal relationship that is rooted in humility. If we do not know anything about God, there is nothing in our mind to awaken love. And if our love does not come from knowing God, there's no point calling it 'love for God.' God is not honored by groundless love.

“As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on thing and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down you cannot see something that is above you.” - C.S. Lewis

"I hate all your show and pretense--the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies." (Amos 5:21)

"I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings." (Hosea 6:6)

Perhaps you think I must first answer the question: Why do I believe in God? I can’t help but smile as I write this because it is kind of like asking, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”

Seriously, my answer is quite simple: I decided to have FAITH, and I still frequently exercise that faith. 

BY FAITH we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews 11:3)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through FAITH--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- (Ephesians 2:8)

Not long after I was water-baptized in 2011, I realized that although I enjoyed being a Christian and loved God himself, I did not possess much of the knowledge and skills that I needed to become worthy of my calling. I began to read large chunks of The Bible which I still do, although I haven’t finished it until now. I did some research about the validity of my faith and the inspired word of God. My strong desire to seek God led to a surprising discovery.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit--fruit that will last--and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. (John 15:16)

Wait…what? God chose me? Is this for real?

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

To me, these words were overwhelming, if not surreal, yet they held an awesome power to radically transform my life. And here's a fact: The Bible has transformed many lives. Drug addicts have been freed from the bondage of addiction, sick people have been cured, broken families have been made whole again, and the list goes on. Even my life has never been the same since I gave my heart to Christ.

Choosing to believe in God can be a rational decision. Rationality can be defined as reasoning based on empirical evidence. In other words, I made a choice to believe in Jesus (the author and perfecter of my faith) when he revealed himself to me through The Bible, and that was in 2010, way before I discovered Mere Christianity in a dusty old bookshelf of a school library.

C.S. Lewis makes this remarkable statement:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Without doubt, not all things are good for us to know, and so God has not revealed them to us; and there are some things that are good for us to know, even when we can't explain them fully.

Do you believe in God? Why or why not?