Expert: Kit Goins - 6/28/2008

Question
QUESTION: I know that the Bible is completely true and trustworthy. My sister, however, pointed me to a website which claims that the events from the Bible (raising of Jesus, the flood, etc.) were actually stories in other books and cultures, written thousands of years before Jesus existed.

They claim that these stories were then copied (with slight changes) by the writers of the Bible.

I do not believe this, of course. I know that the Bible is God's Word and God is the Author. I do believe that God may be testing us as He allowed such earlier writings to come into existence in the first place.

Can you tell me if you've ever heard of such a thing, that the events in the Bible were already pre-written in other stories? And also, what is the answer to this? Are those earlier stories not real? If they are real, is God just testing us?

ANSWER: Greetings in the name of Jesus, the christ...

If you know that the Bible is completely true and trustworthy, then why allow it to bother you?  By acting as you did in front of your sister, you now appear to your sister as double-minded, confused etc. and that is exactly what the devil wants.

I would of handled it differently. I would have told her that God gives us permission to believe as we wish. We make the decision to believe or not believe, based on our FAITH. If she wishes to believe that, then she has that right, just as we also do, to believe as we do.

In this way, in the end, God can not be blamed for anything.

We choose our final destiny, by believing then acting on our beliefs, just as your sister will in what she believes.  I would of told her, that if she wishes to believe all that, then so be it...but I would of reminded her that based upon her decision, she will either end up in heaven with God and her loved ones that made it, or she will end up in hell, with the devil. Then I would of just walked away and prayed for her.

Hopes this helps
In His Service, and love
Bro  Kit

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Actually, God is the One Who has to save us. Man cannot save themselves by our own faith or whatever.

Answer
Actually, it was God's plan for mankind, from the beginning. Yes man can not save himself. But it is a gift from God, freely given, it is through our faith we are saved, faith in a risen Lord,faith in acceptance of His lordship over us, faith in what He accomplished at the cross etc.

God Bless