(By: Norm Rasmussen)

To help you understand where I was spiritually at the time -- I used to have two major problems with Christianity. (There were many minor problems as well). I did not believe that Jesus Christ actually was God, and I did not believe the Bible was truly the inspired Word of God. How could I? Man goofs everything else up, doesn't he ... I surmised? How in the world could the Bible make it through all the translations its gone through and still be trusted to say exactly what God wants it to say? Impossible, I thought . . . until something happened one day that erased all doubt forever!

If you're having difficult believing the Bible can be trusted, may I encourage you to read the encounter below I had with God regarding this issue.

(If you would like to view this testimony on YouTube, you can click on these three parts:  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3)

I was fasting at the time this experience happened. My purpose for fasting was to get closer to God and hopefully have Him reveal more Truth to me. (Many years later, I've learned this is the kind of fast God desires EVERYONE to engage in who struggles with the question of WHO Jesus Christ truly WAS and IS and shall FOREVER BE, and/or struggles with being able to trust popular translations of the Holy Bible. Another reason to engage in a fast like this is to ask the Father to reveal spiritual deception from spiritual Truth, because there is so much spiritual deception growing around this planet ... and it's NOT going away until Jesus returns. It's only going to keep growing and getting more difficult to discern spiritual Truth from counterfeit Truth.)

Although I considered myself to be a serious born again Christian of about two years at the time, (the year was 1982), I secretly wouldn't tell anyone that I just could not trust the Bible. When you can't trust God's "spiritual contract" to the human race, your faith in Jesus Christ and your love for our Heavenly Father is on a very shaky foundation, though I didn't fully realize it at the time. Here's what happened:  

I stayed home from church that Sunday morning and for some unexplained reason decided to read the New Testament like a novel. I was renting a room from a Christian friend, and he had an NIV translation I had never read much before. It was much easier understanding than the KJV translation I had. I would not study it passage by passage like I normally would. And, I would skip the first four books and start reading first in the book of Acts.

Several hours later I was near the end of the book of Revelation, and in chapter 19, I read verse 13, which reads: 

"And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is The Word of God."

Now, up to this point, I had not once pondered anything I had been reading, but suddenly I could not help but ask myself something about what I had just read. What does this mean, he's called the Word of God? Who is this person called the Word of God?

I could not continue with my reading. Curiosity was driving me bananas. The gears were churning in my brain, and the gospel of John kept coming to mind for some unexplainable reason. I turned to that book and began reading in chapter 1, verse 1:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.

Yeah, okay, I thought, here it's now talking about John the Baptist. I don't care about him right now. I want to know who this one is called the Word. I kept re-reading those same passages over and over and it was about driving me loony. Who was this Word person, and how strange it all seemed to me ... but that's the Bible for you, right? Full of strange things that are hard to understand. Still, I was curious; very curious.

My eyes scanned down the page and suddenly they stopped on verse 14 of chapter 1: 

"And the Word become flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." 

Then I thought, who is this "being" talked about here? Who became flesh, and dwelt among us? Was it John the Baptist? Was he this "Word" person - the one who dwelt among us? I read a few verses further, and suddenly I made the connection!  John was doing the talking, and it was Jesus Christ John was talking about!

Now comes the crazy part. You may find this hard to believe, but here's what happened. I was just sitting there when all of a sudden a voice inside my head that was not my own asked this question right out of nowhere: 

"How would you like to see God?"

Without giving it even a second thought, immediately I answered, "Of course! Who wouldn't?!" Especially doubters like me. Then I heard this still, silent voice say: 

"Okay, if you want to see God, go into the living room. He's in there."

I was out of my kitchen chair and into the living room before you could bat an eye. I wasn't going to miss this for the world! I stood there in the entryway of the livingroom looking about, but I didn't see anything different. And I thought to myself ... huhhh? I don't see God. Then I started feeling sort of dumb.

I started to turn around and go back into the kitchen when again I heard this voice inside me say: 

"Look at the coffee table. What do you see on it?" 

I looked over across the room at the coffee table and saw the solitary item on top. It was one of those big, fancy Bibles given to my friend, Bob Huffman, for Christmas from his grandmother. "All I see is a Bible," I told myself.

"How would you like to hold God?" this voice inside my head suddenly asked at that moment. 

Hold God, I thought to myself - huh? I hadn't even seen Him, how could I hold Him?! My head was spinning from confusion, but before I could do anything else again I heard this voice inside my head say: 

Walk over, pick up that Bible off the coffee table, and hold it in your hands." 

So ... that's just what I did. It seemed to be the right thing to do, crazy as it sounds. I walked over, picked up the big Bible, and stood there feeling pretty silly, to be honest about it. Thank goodness, I heard this voice inside my head one last time, and it said: 

"What you are holding is Jesus Christ in print."

I thought for a few seconds ... then suddenly the lights went on inside my head! I let out a whoop that I'm sure could be heard a block away. I began dancing up and down, praising God and shouting hallelujah over and over out loud! I was so excited I didn't know how to express all the joy I had at that moment. For the next hour, I did nothing but dance around that house, praising and thanking God for what He had just done for me! The revelation that the everyday Bible that collects dust on many people's bookshelves and coffee tables is actually Jesus Christ in print about blew my mind. But I knew it was true, because God told me. And because of that fact, I suddenly knew Jesus Christ is God and because He is God along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, how can He be anything other than inspired?! 

From that day forward, I was easily able to trust every word printed in my Bible! Understanding every word and passage I read? Well . . . that was another matter! (Much of the Bible was purposefully written in such a way that requires the Holy Spirit to give one understanding of what God wants us to understand.  Leaning on one's own intellect, and not the Holy Spirit to help you understand the Bible usually ends with futility, in case you've never heard that.)

So ... do I talk to my Bible now? No, I'm not that weird. I pray like everyone else when I talk to God, but I'll tell you what . . . every time I read my Bible now, I know God is going to speak to me. You don't open up Jesus Christ without Him communicating what God wants you to learn when you know it's God Himself you're reading!  

And dear one: Be Informed Before Leaving Earth  [B.I.B.L.E]  

Maybe you're not capable of fully realizing right now how hard the devil has worked to try to get people to believe that the Bible cannot be trusted every since it has been given to the human race.  (Of course, if you were like I used to be for nearly 35 years, people who say there is a devil can't be trusted anyway, right?) If you really, really, really want to know whether popular, accepted translations of the Bible can be trusted, why not go to the source who knows for sure? Why not pray a serious prayer to our heavenly Father and ask HIM to reveal the truth of the matter to you once and for all? I promise you He will ... if you'll be patient, and if you'll treasure the revelation, once He gives it to you. He doesn't want the devil holding people in distrust of the accuracy or the authenticity of His "covenant love letters of promise" to us.

So which translation of the Bible do I believe is the most accurate translation? I put the original King James Translation (KJV) at the top of my list. Yet I struggle with much of the language used in it, so the New King James translation works much better for me. When trying to understand what God would have me to know about a matter, I'll research several different popular translations, such as the New American Standard, the New International Version, as well as others. Yet if any of the translations deviate very far from the KJV, I get a little nervous. Many men and women of God whom I've respected for their wisdom and understanding of the Bible over the years do the very same thing: they compare several different popular and accepted translations to the KJV before forming any solid conclusions and beliefs.

It was some years later, while reading in the NIV translation, 1 John 5:7:  "For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood, and the three are in agreement."

I cross referenced the KJV and the NKJV, and they both read: 1 John 5:7:  "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy ghost: and these three are one." 

This is a serious translation difference, and I learned early in my walk with Jesus Christ after that to be EXTREMELY careful about hanging on certain words in one Bible translation without checking other popular translations of the bible to see how it reads in them! I encourage the reader to always do the same!

Personally ... it has begun to make me very "nervous" (perhaps "suspicious" or "concerned" is a better word to use) of so many different translations of the Bible coming out. It would almost seem to me that competition for sales may well be the biggest motive behind publishers for doing so, and if so, I would suggest one be very, very careful with new translations of the Bible. Compare the wording in them to the old reliable and trusted KJV before you hang your hat on them as being more accurately translated than the KJV translation.

Many years have passed since that day that God delivered me of my doubt about the Bible being trustworthy, and who Jesus Christ really was and is. In growing in understanding of how demonic spirits serving Satan go about their evil bidding, I now understand why they work so hard - so diligently - in trying to keep people from reading the Old and New Testament Bible, and seeking God as to what He has to say to them in it. The Holy Spirit gives power and illumination to God's words in the Bible like nothing else on this planet ... to those who truly want to be pleasing to God, anyway.  

To those who don't truly want to be pleasing to God -- to those who have little or no concern about what they are going to say to God on the Judgment Day about their beliefs and actions during their time here on earth ... well ... perhaps the Holy Spirit may not waste His time on people like that indefinitely. I rewind the tape of my own life and shutter to think how close I may have come to being separated from God for eternity ... had the Holy Spirit given up on me.  

None of us have tomorrow promised to us, this side of eternity. Please ... don't take this reality lightly. If you truly want to be pleasing to God, He will bring alive the Bible to you in due season, and He will give you peace and feed your soul from the words of eternal life it contains, not to mention all the direction you need to keep being pleasing to Him. 

May God's grace and blessing rest upon you from this moment forward ... if you too have struggled with the Bible, and/or who Jesus Christ truly was, and is, and forever shall be.

Here are a couple of other resources that may help you feeling more comfortable with the Bible:  

How To Hear God Speak Clearly

But in hearing God speak, you need to know the eight important rules of Bible interpretation:  

Eight IMPORTANT Rules of Bible Interpretation

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YOU ARE SO GREATLY NEEDED!

Remember:  All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity. (Matthew 6:19-20 is our assurance)