How We Can Know the Bible is What it Says

I believe that the Bible is a message from God himself, designed to lead humanity to peace with God through belief in Jesus. However, you may not agree with me. Perhaps you instead believe the Bible is corrupted, or that it is a work of fiction. Therefore, let me share with you how one can know that the Bible is, in fact, what it claims to be. First, consider how the Bible is constructed. It is not just one book, but a collection of 66 harmonious books penned by 40 different men (many of whom were willing to die for what they had written) of diverse backgrounds over the course of about 1500 years. All of these books follow a singular theme containing a broad variety of genres including historical, narrative, law, epic, poetry, prophecy, wisdom and letters. Add to this the fact it is made up of books written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and contains writings from three different continents, and one can begin to see how it should have been nearly impossible to keep a common story throughout the entire Bible without any true contradiction. Despite these odds, the Bible is a perfectly unified work.

Second, archaeology continues to support the places and events in the Bible, while discoveries like the Dead Sea Scrolls (ancient manuscripts discovered in the 1950’s) continue to confirm the accuracy of the Bible we have today. As well, all but 11 verses of the New Testament (the 27 most recently written books of the Bible) were quoted and affirmed by scholars within the first 300 years after Jesus’ death. To put it in perspective, no one would argue that the works we attribute to Plato or Homer were not written by them, yet the Bible is far more authenticated than they are!

Finally, the Bible has the ability to impact people at a personal level like no other book in history can. It has changed the behaviour of drunkards, murderers, molesters, and the common man. If one approaches the words of the Bible with humility, it will speak to him or her on a deeply personal level. If you don’t believe me, read the first four books of the New Testament with an open heart and mind and see what happens. Truly, the Bible is like no other book—inspired by God and revealing His plan for humanity. It is a book of hope and promise, a book that I pray you will come to see as God intended.

--Pastor Stephen Valcourt 

This article originally appeared in the Pincher Creek Echo

A Long Overdue Apology

The Church has been written off by many people, and perhaps you are one of them. Maybe you grew up attending a church, but something happened along the way that caused you not to attend any more. Whatever happened may have impacted you so greatly that you decided to turn away from God, or to say you hate Him and everything to do with Him. If this describes you there is one thing all Christians need to say, so let me start: “I’m Sorry.”

Maybe church just wasn’t what you expected. Perhaps you expected to see Jesus reflected in the lives of the people—loving, caring, passionate—but instead you were greeted by a church full of hypocrisy, judgmentalism, bureaucracy, and infighting. See, the church’s goal is to reach out to all people: those who are hurt, selfish, abused, angry, and hypocritical as well as the sincere, friendly, generous, helpful, and compassionate. God doesn’t turn anyone away, because He loves all of us! However, it follows that there are moments when we have a hard time getting along. We are not perfect people, although we serve a perfect God.

In the Bible, many letters are written between the early Christians regarding the troubles they had getting along. But the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28, “In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, employer and employee, male and female. Among us you are all equal.” Because Jesus suffered, was beaten and was killed before being raised from the dead three days later, all Christians share something that overshadows all else: we have been saved from hell by Jesus.

We are continually sorry for the part that we play in this messiness, but maybe it's time to give God another chance.

So we struggle to be a family, to teach one another, to be there for one another and to support each other. And there are times when we just mess it all up.

We are continually sorry for the part that we play in this messiness, but maybe it’s time to give God another chance. Maybe it’s time to come back to your local church and permit people of all different backgrounds and struggles to strengthen you, to sharpen you, to challenge you, and to humble you. But most of all, please don’t jeopardize your relationship with Jesus on account of our failures. He loves you like no one else can.

Yours truly,

“The Church”

by Pastor Stephen Valcourt. Article originally printed in the Pastor's Pen column of the Pincher Creek Echo, December 11, 2013

Nothing We Can Do.

Some people may not like what I am about to say: Nothing that you can do can get you into heaven. Living a good life, helping out the poor, going to church--none of it will ensure that you will spend life after death with God. You may feel like that is quite a hopeless statement (especially coming from a pastor); however, let me explain how we can get to heaven. God is perfect and holy and we are not. No matter how hard we try, we will never be “good enough” to be with him, yet he loved us so much he provided us a way: through His Son, Jesus Christ. See, in Matthew 19:25 the disciples asked Jesus, “Who then can be saved?” to which Jesus responded, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Believe it or not, you or I living with God in heaven is the most impossible thing imaginable! Our hope comes in John 3:16-18:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Nothing that you can do can get you into heaven.

If you believe in Jesus, the Son of God and in his death and resurrection to save us from our misdeeds and ill-thoughts; and if you desire to spend eternity with him, you’re saved! What is impossible for us to do through good-works and being a good-person is possible in the most beautiful way: through belief in God’s saving grace!

I hope you will join us at church on Sunday,

--Pastor Stephen Valcourt

This article wasoriginally printed in the Pincher Creek Echo