Wonderful to spend time reading Bible

A letter by Sue Pilgrim (‘Bible can help you live through crisis,’ Aug 4) raised alarm. I saw one estimate of 35,000 (or even more) Protestant groups existing.

Most Anglicans, Calvinists, Methodists, Lutherans, Pentecostalists or Baptists, will subscribe to the tenets of the Apostle’s Creed, as the defining mark of biblical orthodox. But are there also “Bible cults” with no connection to the apostolic Church of the East or West?

A small number of people come to faith when they open the Bible and privately read it from Genesis to Revelation.

That was my own experience, while working as a remote rural GP in the Hebrides.

The faith of my clients on the Isle of Harris, combined with their resilience in the face of death, challenged my atheism and drew me to make a serious study of the Bible in my middle years.

We need to be honest, though, because the fellowship and worship of the Church, plus the two sacraments, are critically important.

Many people come to faith when they engage with Christians informally, or in Church meetings, or through midweek activities like prayer meetings or the Alpha Course.

The Jacob Deshazer testimony (worth looking up online) sounds authentic, but it is not typical of the way most people come to be embraced by divine love.

In our ever more sceptical age it’s good to consider the strong and simple evidences for belief plainly before our eyes: Creation-christconscience.

Life on our planet is no accident, when we look at the precise scientific factors present, plus the absence of other evidence of life in the vast universe. ‘One Solitary Life,’ Our Lord’s, fulfils the clearest and most concise messianic prophecy in the Bible (Isaiah 53).

Human conscience points to our inner moral compass, sense of sin, guilt and need for redemption.

A person with time on their hands (retirement, illness, social isolation) may often benefit from reading the entire Bible, perhaps over one to two years.

It’s wonderful to read just a chapter, or even a few sentences, as one’s daily timetable permits. But it’s also good to engage with the local Church and join worship or prayer meetings, perhaps online if worried about the pandemic risks.

For the educated sceptic, drawn to intellectual study, it may initially be hard to fully acknowledge the strength of evidence for belief.

Before committing to a full reading of the New Testament (or the entire Bible) a cynic might benefit from reading ‘Your Verdict on the Empty Tomb’ by the late Val Grieve.

The author came to faith as an undergraduate Oxford law student and later wrote a superb 80 page paperback on evidence for the resurrection. (A deal of £1 a copy may be available for bulk orders to churches or larger groups).

Prayer becomes more fervent, genuine and more likely to be answered, when a person sees the full reality of the case for belief in the true and living God of the Bible.

J T Hardy

by email