Love God, Hate The Bible?

My husband says he believes in God and that Jesus is the son of God and died on the cross for us, but he also says that he doesn’t believe in everything the Bible says. Do you have any suggestions on how to handle this?

Q. My husband says he believes in God and that Jesus is the son of God and died on the cross for us, but he also says that he doesn’t believe in everything the Bible says.

He believes that through translation and embellishing of stories over time that the Bible isn’t accurate in everything it says. We have talked about what the Bible says and the many things I have learned through this site and researching what I’ve read and he doesn’t believe that it’s one, going to happen in our lifetime and two, that it’s going to be such a dramatic situation.

I guess what I’m struggling with is how anyone can say they believe in God and not the Bible. I have absolutely no idea what to say to him when he says the things he does. I was raised in a Christian home and it’s very easy for me to have faith in the word of God. He was raised by parents that have the same reaction he does about God. He never went to church until we got married. I try not to “push” my faith on him, but it seems that any opinion I have that differs from his, he views as my “pushing”.

Do you have any suggestions on how to handle this? Thank you so very much for this web site. There was a time when I felt so very low and just didn’t want to go on when God led me to this site. It has helped explain so much to me and gave me back my passion for following God and living again. Words cannot express the thanks I feel about it.

A. This may sound like a silly question, and forgive me if it does, but are you sure your husband is born again? The way you describe him makes him sound like a typical denominational Christian with an intellectual understanding of who God is, but lacking an emotional commitment to Him.

His excuses for not believing the Bible are very popular in liberal circles where nobody ever actually studies the book, and are easily demolished by anyone who who has even a casual understanding of bible history. The nearly 5000 early manuscripts of the New Testament in existence today all testify to a continuity unheard of in any other ancient book, and the fact that every letter, line and page of the Hebrew Old Testament has a numerical value gives it an accuracy that’s beyond question. And of course the Bible’s unblemished record of fulfilled prophecy validates it beyond any doubt as a book of supernatural origin.

But apparently none of that matters to him. He sounds like someone who really doesn’t want to believe that the Bible is God’s Word for fear that it would require things of him that he’s not prepared to do. Whenever I hear of someone like this, it makes me wonder about their spiritual condition.

I don’t say any of this to offend you or him, but rather to discover how to help you. The Bible is a passion of mine as I gather it is of yours, and I would like to help you find a way to share that passion with your husband.