I come from a Christian family, and can trace our family’s Christianity back for many generations. Back in the early 19th Century my great(x3) grandmother Pamela Ann Woods Prior was praying daily that “Not one will be missing from the family on the Coming Day of Great Glory around the throne of God”.
Wow! Quite a prayer!
But am I a Christian just because I come from a long line of Christians? I became a Christian when I was 11 years old. It was a conscious decision. You could say I was ‘born again’ (a phrase that Jesus used when he was talking to Nicodemus). 'Born again' has become something of a journalistic catchphrase, but actually it is a very good description of what happened. As I was talking to Jesus and committing my life to him I genuinely felt that a new life was beginning for me. I was at the time attending weekly a boy’s bible-class called Crusaders. (See footnote)
However, in adulthood I thought it through again. Was I a Christian simply because I had been indoctrinated by my family and by Crusaders? Or was there more to it than that? I’m sure there was more to it. I didn’t simply accept everything my parents wanted for me. You can read in ‘Grandpa’s story’ how and why I decided against going into the family business and became a schoolteacher instead. But I did accept and follow the Christian faith which they had. A major part of my re-think was based on the Bible, which I had been reading daily (and still do) since childhood. Christianity could only be true if the Bible is true. Is it? I have written about the bible and whether it is true elsewhere. (See footnotes)
Here
are some more detailed thoughts about why I believe the Bible, and whether the Bible is inspired
by God.
It claims to be inspired: (This may seem like begging the question, but we need to start by asking what claims it makes for itself)
Moses claimed that the 10 Commandments and the moral law were given to him by God and should be followed by the Hebrews
The Old testament prophets often said “Thus says the Lord” , and their words were quotted in the Bible.
Jesus referred to himself as the ‘Son of Man’ , thus telling his listeners (Jews who knew their Bible well) that he was the one referred to in Daniel 7.13 who is given everlasting dominion and glory.
He also quoted from the Bible many times, for example when he was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, and when he was teaching the people. Often he said “It is written...”
The apostles, who first spread Christianity, also assumed that their words had authority. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, saying “All scripture is inspired by God…” (2 Timothy 3.16)
The apostle Peter took the same view. 2 Peter 1.20-21. “no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
In 2 Peter 3.16 he accords the same authority to Paul's writings:
"Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him.... His
letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which
ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other scriptures
to their own destruction. "
So all this is a challenge, either to faith or
to unbelief.
The Bible is still to this day a best-seller – maybe the biggest
bestseller there is, yet in Britain there are many households who
don’t even have a bible, let alone read one! (Though intriguingly I
read recently that sales of Bibles rose in 2025 by 135%!)
There are plenty of people who think the Bible is simply a book,
liable to inaccuracy as much as any other history book. And
probably simply reading it with that attitude will not do much for
you. But if you really want to know God (He who created you, no
less!) and read the Bible believing that God speaks with authority
through it, you will find it, as I have done, to be inspired, just as it
claims to be.
Back to my original question: Why am I a
Christian?
It's to do with relationship. We all experience love in our lives - love
by a child for their parents, by parents for their child, love for a pet,
love between partners, and so on. Now
if it delights the one who created us to love us, and
if He shows us how to develop this relationship by inspiring
writers to tell us about it in a compilation of writings which we now
call the Bible, and
if He tells us that this love relationship will continue even after we
die
.....then who would choose NOT to respond to ths?
Belief
Belief is basic to a relationship with God, and the Bible comments
on it. One of the earliest believers was Abraham, and the Bible tells
us that "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as
righteousness." (i.e. like the rest of us Abraham wasn't good
enough to receive God's favour, but God graciously blessed him
because he believed. See footnote)
When Jesus rose from the dead. 'Doubting Thomas' intially refused
to believe it had happened, until he met the risen Jesus. Jesus said
to him "Because you have seen, you have believed. Blessed are
those who have not seen, yet have believed." (see footnote).
Disbelief
Many people in the western world put belief on one side, saying
"I'm not religious". This is a careless cop-out for those who can't be
bothered to investigate, or who fear that the challenge of belief
might upset their daily life. Or they think wrongly that belief
automatically means that they'll have to go to church.
But what if I'm right? The Bible says that there will one day be a
judgement day for everyone! What a feeble defence it will be if all
you can say in your defence is "I wasn't religious". (See footnote re
Judgement Day)
Footnotes
The story of Nicodemus is in the Bible in John's gospel chapter 3
You can read more about Crusaders in the middle of my blog entitled Grandpa’s story, August 25th 2023
I wrote about the Bible and whether it is true in my blog in December 2019
Abraham's story is in the Bible in Genesis 12 to 25, and the quotation is from Genesis 15.6
The story of Doubting Thomas is in John's gospel chapter 20. See 20.29 for the quotation.
Judgement Day is described in the Bible in Revelation 20, from verse 11 onwards
