There Must Be Something More

102 | Have Faith

"So, the Bible," Trey began. The projected screen flashed a big landscape picture of an open Bible.

He continued, "The Bible was written over a span of one thousand five hundred years, by forty writers. Unlike other religious writings, the Bible reads as a factual news account of real events, places, people, and dialogue. Historians and archaeologists have repeatedly confirmed its authenticity."

Another slide showed on the screen. All sixty-six books of the Bible were listed in order. From the Old Testament to the New.

Trey cleared his throat. "How can we be sure that we have the correct sixty-six books in our Bible? The Bible is a unique volume. It is composed of sixty-six books by forty different writers over one thousand five hundred years. The story is about God's plan to rescue men and women from the devastating results of the Fall, a plan that was conceived in eternity, revealed through the prophets, and carried out by the Son of God, Jesus Christ."

I had goosebumps. The hairs on the back of my neck stood. I could feel the Spirit of God in the place.

"The Bible is understood by Christians to be a book without error," Trey explained. "Each writer of the Bible books wrote in his own language and style, using his own mind, and in some cases research, yet each was so overruled by the Holy Spirit that error was not allowed to creep into his work. For this reason, the Bible is understood by Christians to be a book without error.

"This collection of 66 books is known as the "canon" of Scripture. That word comes from the Hebrew kaneh (a rod), and the Greek kanon (a reed). Among other things, the words referred equally to the measuring rod of the carpenter and the ruler of the scribe. It became a common word for anything that was the measure by which others were to be judged (see Galatians 6:16, for example).

"After the apostles, church leaders used it to refer to the body of Christian doctrine accepted by the churches. Clement and Origen of Alexandria, in the third century, were possibly the first to employ the word to refer to the Scriptures (the Old Testament).

"From then on, it became more common in Christian use with reference to a collection of books that are fixed in their number, divine in their origin, and universal in their authority."

I spotted Calum. He stood from his seat in the back and took a seat at the second row. He was closer to the stage now. I wondered if he was actually interested or just looking for a loophole in Trey's lecture. I imagined the crowd being a pack of wolves. And to me, Trey looked like a sheep being pawned to the slaughterhouse.

"You gotta have faith," Meredith said under her breath beside me. She turned to me, her brown eyes flashed against the harsh lighting from the ceiling.

I nodded. Have faith, I reminded myself.

Trey cleared his throat once again, "In the earliest centuries, there was little debate among Christians over which books belonged in the Bible; certainly by the time of the church leader Athanasius in the fourth century, the number of books had long been fixed. He set out the books of the New Testament just as we know them and added,

"'These are the fountains of salvation, that whoever thirsts may be satisfied by the eloquence which is in them. In them alone is set forth the doctrine of piety. Let no one add to them, nor take anything from them.'

"Today, however, there are attempts to undermine the clear witness of history; a host of publications, from the novel to the (supposedly) academic challenge the long-held convictions of Christians and the clear evidence of the past. Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code claimed, 'More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only relatively few were chosen for inclusion-Matthew, Mark, Luke and John among them.'

"Richard Dawkins, professor of popular science at Oxford, England, has made similar comments."

"This is ridiculous," Calum said. I heard him. I was, like, twenty feet from him, but I knew my best friend's voice pretty well. He sat in the second row, eyes glued on Trey, but he was glaring. His hands folded to his chest as if he only came to the lecture just to see how wrong we were.

"Shut up! Richard Dawkins is my hero!" a boy stood up from the crowd. He wore a lab coat. He had wavy brown hair and thick-rimmed golden-framed glasses.

Principal Powell stood up as well. "All comments and questions will be addressed by the end of the lecture. Sit down, Mr. Hedrick. You may be the president of the Science Committee, but I will not excuse this behavior."

"Weird," I muttered. "Powell's pretty polite. What's going on? A change of affection?" I smirked.

Meredith elbowed me playfully. "And who's that?" She turned to Alex.

"Mark Hedrick," Alex said, her face grim. "I didn't know he'd be here. Well, I should've guessed. I was the president of the Science Committee and he was vice president. But now that I'm out, he's replaced me.

"During your previous lecture, Charlie, he had no interest of coming to these lectures. He said he knew God isn't real anyway. That's why I was the only one who was there. He was my best friend. But ever since he found out I became a believer, he wouldn't talk to me. I tried to tell him about my experience with Jesus, but he wouldn't give me the chance."

"This might be your chance. Tonight." I told her.

"What do you mean?" Alex turned to me.

"You share your testimony after Trey's lecture. He won't be able to leave. Besides, I don't think he'll be able to when he sees you up there. He'll be interested to see you."

Meredith grinned. "That plan might just be crazy enough to--"

"--to get me killed," Alex said, rubbing her forehead. "I'm still new to this. And honestly, I wanna lay low for a while. Everyone's just been after me lately."

Meredith patted her shoulder. "We understand, Al."

"If you say so," I gave Alex a reassuring smile and patted her shoulder too.

"Thanks, guys," she said, smiling in relief.

"So, what is the evidence for our collection of 66 books? How certain can we be that these are the correct books to make up our Bible-no more and no less?" Trey said. He smiled confidently now. His blond hair looked golden under the spotlight. And for a minute I saw God's glory in him.

I smiled. I turned to the crowd. Even Mark suddenly seemed interested at Trey's authority.

I breathed a silent prayer, "Thank You, Holy Spirit."

Disclaimer: This info was taken from the article by Brian H. Edwards entitled "Why 66?" In the answersingenesis.org website.