THE BIBLE WILL SAVE THE WORLD

THE Bible contains the true religion, or there is none. There is light in the Bible to save the world, or the world is lost. Our only choice is between the Bible and nothing. Judaism is abolished. Mohammedanism has no claims in internal merit or external evidence. The fruits of all Paganism show that it is evil, and only evil, continually. Infidelity has nothing for the world. While it would take Christianity from us, it has nothing to propose. It is no system—no doctrine—teaches nothing and defends nothing. Its only province is to stand and deny. It finds fault with everything, starts doubts, destroys confidence, fills the world with fears, and spreads an eternal gloom over the prospects and hopes of all nations. Reason and the light of nature have been tried longer and more effectually than any system in the world. At least four thousand years have the pagan nations been trying what they could do for our race without a revelation from God. In all the experiments yet made, with no guide but reason and the light of nature, the tendency has been downward. Deterioration has been the universal result, without the light of the Bible.

We then, cling to the Bible, and the religion it reveals, as the only hope of the world. If it fails, all must fail, and all must be lost. But it is folly of the most stupid order to speak of the Bible failing. Its Author is emphatically the friend of man. Its holy lessons are all for our good. All who have been led by it, are thankful they ever knew it. It has never deceived one or misled one. No one has ever lamented being led by it. The more solemn and affecting the circumstances around us, and the greater the trials in which we are placed, the more comforting and precious are its holy consolations to the soul. It encourages all that is good; discourages and condemns all that is evil. It is our guide and comfort through the journey of life; nor does it fail when we are sinking in death. No one who believed it before, in a dying-hour denies and repudiates the Bible. But many determined infidels have recanted and repudiated their infidelity when sinking into the eternal state. That which they talked in health, that which dwelt upon their tongues in their mad career through life, they themselves condemned, in the most awful and solemn moments of life, and with their dying lips repudiated. How shameful and preposterous, that a man should live such a life of folly and inconsistency as to be compelled in his dying moments to condemn all his past life, with all the sentiments he had cherished and inculcated, and warn all men against them!

Benjamin Franklin (1812-1878)

It Survives Still!

In I Peter 1:25 the record reveals, “But the Word of the Lord abideth forever, and this is the Word of good tidings which was preached unto you.” As a young preacher I preached a lesson called “3 Reasons Why I Believe The Bible” and later changed it to “7 Reasons Why I Believe The Bible.”

Now as a not so young preacher it is “12 Reasons.” In each outline my final point has remained the same. I believe the Bible to be God’s inspired, inerrant and infallible word because of its indestructibility! The Bible has been subject to attack from without and within. A book written by mere men alone could not have undergone the attacks the Bible has sustained, and still survive!

Consider the persecution of the early Christians for believing the gospel message. Some were burned alive, others were delivered to the lions, still others were crucified, some were placed into leather bags with scorpions and snakes – then thrown into a body of water. The listing could go on. The first translators of the English Bible were persecuted and some martyred for their efforts.

Contemplate the efforts of modernism and liberalism toward the destruction of the Bible. One of their most vicious attacks has been through the modern versions (perversions) of Scripture; whereby they have denied the deity of Christ, the existence of hell, the virgin birth of our Lord, the resurrection, the truth that one day this earth will be burned up, Jesus’ teaching on the subject of divorce, that there is but one church, ad infinitum.

Call to mind the efforts of denominationalism to “kill” the Bible. Both the state and the corrupted church tried to stamp out its influence during the middle ages by openly burning copies of the Bible and subjecting those who owned a copy to severe persecution and sometimes even death. Yet, in spite of all these attacks across the ages – the Bible lives on!

Continually the Bible is attacked from without and within. The Bible still survives! Ingersoll held up a copy of the Bible and said, “In 15 years I’ll have this book in the morgue.” Fifteen years rolled by and Ingersoll was in the morgue – the Grand Old Book lives on. Voltaire said that in one hundred years the Bible would be an outmoded and forgotten book. At the end of that century, Voltaire had died and his house was used by the Geneva Bible Society to print, store and distribute the Bible. Recently in a pulpit in this area a preacher (?) held up a copy of the King James Version and a copy of the New International Version. He adored and praised the NIV – then referring to the KJV he stated the world would be better off if all the copies of it (KJV) could be gathered up and cast into a giant fire. Nobody came to the defense of God’s precious Word that day. But, to this day the Bible remains the #1 best seller and KJV of the Bible outsells all the others (NIV included) combined! The Bible lives on!

Clifford’s poem, “The Hammer and The Anvil” says it...

Last Eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door

And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;

When looking in, I saw upon the floor,

Old hammers worn with beating years of time.

“How many anvils have you had,” said I,

To wear and batter all these hammers so?”

“Just one,” said he, then said with twinkling eye,

“The anvil wears the hammers out you know.”

And so, I thought, the anvil of God’s Word

For ages skeptic’s blows have beat upon;

Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,

The anvil is unharmed – the hammers are gone!

“But the word of the Lord abideth forever...”

Jesse Whitlock

Conversion or Hardness of Heart

In admonishing Christians of their responsibility to continue to speak the God-saving Truth that they may grow thereby (I Peter 2:2), the apostle Peter reminds them of how the Jews did not accept Jesus as the only begotten Son of God. Peter declared: “They stumble at the word, being disobedient” (I Peter 2:8). We learn from the Greek word translated being disobedient, that its meaning is not to allow oneself to be persuaded. (see Thayer or any reputable Greek lexicon). Implied is the fact that man has the power to reject obvious Truth. 

He can close his understanding to adequate evidence if he does not love the Truth above everything else (II Thessalonians 2:10–12). When the Truth is offered to an honest man in error, one of two things can happen:

1. He will keep his honesty by giving up his error and embracing the Truth, or
2. He will reject the Truth, give up his honesty, and keep his error.

Speaking for God, Isaiah said: “Come now, and let us reason together” (Isaiah1:18). God created man a rational creature and has never bypassed man’s rationality in seeking to lead and guide him. God does not force Himself upon man against his will (Romans 1:28). If men will not receive the abundant and adequate evidence regarding their spiritual needs, God is not going to force it on him. The people in Isaiah’s day were unreasonable and would not accept God’s Word. They simply would not allow themselves to be persuaded (Isaiah 6:9–13).

Thus they lost their honesty and retained their error. In the words of Peter: “They stumble[d] at the word, being disobedient.” Hence, Paul’s request to the Thessalonians that they pray “that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith” (II Thessalonians 3:2). 

If you want to become wicked, just stop being reasonable. In doing so, you will forfeit your honesty and harden your heart as you embrace the “strong delusion of error."

David P. Brown

Oh for the Faith of Jonah

If folks had a biblical person who they desired to be likened to, the man Jonah probably would not top that list. Yet, as members of the church of Christ, we should note that Jonah’s problem of refusing to carry out God’s will is oftentimes our shortcoming as well. For example, Jonah was told to go preach to a foreign people (Assyrians), yet we so very often fail to carry out God’s instructions.

Ironically, the reason that we fail to teach as we should is for the opposite reason that Jonah failed to teach the Ninevites. Jonah’s reason for hopping the first ship to Tarshish was in way connected to the church’s reason for failure to adequately evangelize.

For example, Jonah did not flee from God’s presence due to a lack of confidence in the power of God’s Word. Quite the contrary, he knew that if the Ninevites heard God’s Word they would repent and be saved by God (Jonah 4:2) Like the apostle Paul, Jonah recognized that God’s Word was his power unto deliverance (Romans 1:16). He also knew that the Word of the Lord would not return to God void (Isaiah 55:11).

Jonah did not flee from God’s presence due to a lack of courage. In fact, such backbone had Jonah that when the great storm from God came upon the ship that was carrying him away from Nineveh, he said, “Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea” (Jonah 1:12).

These are not the words of a coward! Also, Jonah did not lack confidence in the power of God’s Word. These were not the reasons that caused him not to want to preach to them. The reason that Jonah initially refused to preach to Nineveh was prejudice. The Assyrians were a savage, militant people much like the American Indian of the 1700-1800s, and like the Indian of our recent history, they were much disliked. Jonah did not lack courage to go to Nineveh, he merely did not want to preach to the lost souls there.

How paradoxical then that we so often do as Jonah initially did, and fail to fulfill God’s instructions in the area of evangelism. Our problem is not prejudice, for most members of the church truly want all souls to be saved. Our problem is a lack of courage (II Timothy 2:1; Ephesians 6:10) that is caused by a lack of confidence in the power of God’s Word (Acts 20:32; II Timothy 3:15; James 1:22; Hebrews 4:12; I Peter 2:25).

Brethren, with the desire that most Christians have for all souls to be saved, imagine what we could do if we had Jonah’s confidence in the power of God’s Word and his courage to act when necessary. Why, brethren, we would again be accused of turning the world upside down!!!

Oh for the faith of Jonah!!

Author Unknown

That Time of Year Again

Undoubtedly, during this holiday season more people (in our culture, at least) will be thinking and talking about the birth of Jesus than at any other time of the year. We see the effect of this phenomenon in various marketing and advertising campaigns, music that is played on popular radio stations, greeting cards, and slogans such as, “Jesus is the reason for the season.”

The birth of Christ is certainly among the most important (supernatural) events in the overall history of the world. It was/is a cause for great joy—something which God saw fit to have recorded in His Word. It signaled the implementation and the culmination of His Scheme of Redemption, the gift of complete forgiveness, available to all mankind.

However, as important as the birth of the Son of God is, it pales in comparison to His death and resurrection. Christ’s birth was simply the means God chose to bring His Son into this world. His birth was not (as is true with us) the beginning of His existence (John 1:1–2, 14). But His death and resurrection are the events without which we would all be condemned to eternal torment.

The scriptures authorize and obligate us, in very specific language, to have a special, religious observance to commemorate the death of Jesus (every first day of the week—Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 11:26). The scriptures are completely silent, however, with regard to any special commemoration of His birth. We’re not even told when it occurred.

Lest the point of this article be misunderstood, there is nothing wrong with Christians participating in the secular traditions surrounding “Christmas” that have evolved in this country. It is no different, in principle, from observing various traditions that we associate with Independence Day (e.g., fireworks and cookouts). It is good for families and friends to come together, exchange gifts, and share a special meal; and no Scriptural principles are violated by these practices.

However, we need to be careful that we don’t give anyone the wrong impression about what we’re doing when we celebrate “Christmas.” False teaching is just as wrong on this subject as it is on any other.

To put it another way, it’s a mistake to do anything that leaves the impression that we attach any religious significance to this time of year. We simply have no Scriptural authority to do so (just as we have no authority for attaching any religious significance to the holiday known as “Easter”). Christmas is not a celebration of the birth of Christ, and we are not authorized to think or speak of it in such a way. Jesus is not “the reason for the season.” He is the reason for our joy and hope, every single day of the year.

Andy McClish