God has given the Bible a most prominent place in both the history of mankind in general, and in the history of redemption in particular. In fact, if we will think about it, this is just another way of saying that he has given himself this prominence. This is because, since the Bible is his own Word, or a revealed portion of his divine mind, and to separate a person's mind from the person makes nonsense of the whole idea of what it means to be a person, we can never separate the Bible from God himself as if it is possible to deal with one without also dealing with the other.

When we speak this way, we are not mainly referring to the Bible as a physical book, of which there are many printed copies, but we are referring to the incorporeal "Word" of God. We are referring to that portion of his divine mind that he has disclosed to us, which is in itself not physical. However, in what follows I will refer to the "Bible" instead of the "Word" in order to emphasize that God has disclosed his mind to us and recorded its contents in the form of a verbal and written revelation.

God rules by the Bible. By this book, he declares that he is the creator and that man is the creature. As the potter has the right to mold anything that he pleases out of clay, God has the right as creator to make any creature his wishes, and to make the creature for any purpose he wishes. By this book, God tells man his place as creature in the universe and in history. He tells man the standard by which he must conduct himself in this world, and he demands man to obey it.

By this book, he defines for man truth and error, and right and wrong. A false religion like the Baha'i Faith claims to encourage the "independent investigation for truth," that is, until your investigation suggests that the Baha'i Faith is false. You can investigate as much as you like – yes, even "independently" – as long as you finally agree with the Baha'i Faith.

Members of the scientific community are not above this hypocrisy. They encourage you to think for yourself, but when you in fact do so, breaking free from the irrationality of empiricism and scientism, they are outraged. They call religion irrational, and it is irrational because it is unscientific. However, what is it to practice the scientific method, but to first assume without justification the reliability of sensation and induction, and then to commit the logical fallacy of asserting the consequent over and over again? The method amounts to nothing more than a systematic irrationalism. Logic has never been the forte of science. It has its uses, but to discover the truth about reality is not one of them.

God, the Bible, and thus Christianity, are free from the hypocrisy of science and false religions. This book comes right out and tell you that if you attempt an independent investigation for truth, independent from divine revelation, then you will be misled and arrive at a false conclusion. The reason for this is that one can never conduct an investigation for truth independently from any principles. Since Christianity is the truth, to perform an investigation for truth independently of it necessarily means that the investigation must adopt a false starting point. In other words, if you attempt an investigation for truth that is independent from truth, then your investigation departs from truth at the very beginning, and there is no way that you will arrive at truth when you start out by running away from it. In bringing them to faith in Christ, God saves his elect from their initial intellectual waywardness.

The Bible is bold and honest. It tells you that if you disagree with anything in it, then you are wrong, and God will hold you accountable for your false belief and the false conduct that follows from it. It does not pretend to grant you the right to oppose or debate it. You must agree with it, believe it, and obey it. It does not respect private values and private opinions, as if we are each our own god. It ignores those things that we would consider our rights when we are dealing with our fellow human beings. This is because when we are dealing with the Bible, we are not dealing with other human beings, but with God himself. Even the rights that we have when dealing with other human beings must come from the Bible itself, since God is the ruler of us all, and he is the one who defines the proper relationship between his creatures.

By this book, God dictates to every aspect of human life. It tells us about earning, saving, and spending our money. It tells us how and what to teach our children. It tells us what kind of people we may befriend, trust, and marry. It assigns social roles, including those that pertain to age, rank, gender, and spiritual knowledge and maturity. It regulates what some consider the most private matters, such as human sexuality. Many people think that sexuality is their own business, but the Bible prescribes exact instructions and precepts on the subject, now exhorting and commanding, now forbidding and condemning. It announces principles concerning alcohol consumption, and it makes a sin out of gluttony. Then, it contains commandments even regarding our thoughts and motives, so that not only is it sinful to steal, but it is also sinful to covet. Because this book contains the whole will of God for mankind, it also represents everything that spiritual rebels hate.

(to be continued)

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