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The Bible is the most remarkable book ever printed. Were this book of human origin, it would
have been relegated to the dust bins of ancient writing long ago. More than six centuries
(approximately) have come and gone since God first communicated with man through the written
word. Other ancient writings have been read, studied, examined, digested, and placed upon the
shelves for curiosity seekers, linguistic studies, and history buffs. Few men read and study
the writings of Homer, or the sophistry of Socrates. Thomas Paine's Age of Reason, the
works of Karl Marx, and the diaries of Adolph Hitler are forgotten writings of those who
thought they could offer to the world a wisdom that was wiser, nobler, and more intellectually
stimulating than that book that tells us of the true Wisdom from above.
In view of the fact that there is nothing new under the sun, one would think that the not-so-new philosophical ramblings of our generation would be dismissed with a wave of the hand and the proverbial, "We've heard all that before." But every generation must be taught anew. We must remind ourselves, and those who follow in our path, that God's word still stands while the wisdom of men comes and goes with the passing of the ages. Yes, those who are now past the prime of life, and entering into the sunset years of their life, know and believe, that this grand old Book we call the Bible has stood the test of passing years. It has been through the fire; it has been tested and proven true, reliable, and worthy of reading and following. Someone has said, "His words have passed into laws, they have passed into doctrines, they have passed into proverbs, they have passed into consolations, but they have never passed away." Yes, the Bible has suffered at the hands of friends and foes alike, both ancient and modern, and yet the Bible still stands. We can be confident that we hold in our hands the genuine, inerrant, verbally inspired word of God. Think with me, then, of the indestructible word of God. First, God's word stands though infidels may attack it! Antiochus Epiphanes sought to destroy the Jewish laws and customs. Emperor Diocletian decreed death for any person who owned a copy of the Scriptures, boasting, "I have completely exterminated the Christian writings from the face of the earth." But when Constantine came to the throne and desired a copy of the Scriptures, within 24 hours fifty copies of God's word were offered to the Emperor. Voltaire boldly declared that within 100 years the Bible would be no more. But the very press upon which he printed his blasphemous material would be used later to print Bibles. Robert Ingersoll, famous American atheist of the 17th and 18th centuries made the same outrageous claim: "In 15 years I will have this book [the Bible, TW] in the morgue." Within 15 years Ingersol was in the morgue but the word of God lives on. More than 80 years ago Lenin sought to remove every vestige of religion from eastern Europe. Following in the steps of Lenin, Joseph Stalin and his cronies swept through every town and hamlet to remove Bibles from his newly established "utopian society." Lenin and Stalin lie in their tombs, but the word of God now spreads through that part of the world. Yes, God's word stands though infidels may attack it. Second, the word of God stands though Catholics may burn it! History attests to the concentrated efforts of the Catholic church to remove the Bible from the masses. Pope Innocent II, in 1199, had the French Bibles burned at Metz and forbade the people to have more. The council of Tarrogona, in Spain, under Pope Gregory IX, in 1234, ordered the people to bring in their Bibles so they could be burned. Pope Julius III was advised by a number of bishops to permit the least possible reading of the Bible in order that the papacy might be strengthened. The Jesuits claimed to have burned sixty thousand Bible in a single year (1637) in Bohemia. Pope Clement II, in 1793, condemned the reading of the Bible. Pope Pius VI did the same. Pope Pius III, on May 6, 1844, said those favoring Bible societies were guilty of the greatest crime before God and the church. The late gospel preacher Benjamin Franklin tells of his family's history in old England, and the efforts on the part of the government to subdue any study of the Bible. Here is a quote from his biography: "They [his family, TW] had got an English Bible, and to conceal and secure it, it was fastened open with tapes under and within the cover of a joint-stool. When my great-great-great grandfather read it to the family, he turned up the joint-stool upon his knees, turning over the leaves then under the tapes. One of the children stood at the door to give notice if he saw the apparitor [sp] coming, who was an officer of the spiritual court. In that case the stool was turned down again upon his feet, when the Bible remained concealed under it as before." One poet expressed the enduring nature of God's word like this: And thought their work complete But next day, with smiling face, They met it on the street. "They threw it in a dungeon damp And thought it was no more; But lo, it walked with lighted lamp Among them as before. "They scorned and ostracized it, And ordered it to depart; But still it dwelt in all the land And challenged every heart!" Third, God's word stands though pseudotranslators may mutilate it. Our generation has been blessed with good and accurate translations. There is a beauty to the reliable King James Version that no other version has ever captured. Though now almost 400 years old, the King James Version remains the best selling English version of the Bible. The American Standard Version of 1910 is the work of the world's ripest scholars. Word for word, the ASV has been acclaimed as the most accurate English translation available to man. The New King James Version follows in the steps of these two older English versions so far as reliability is concerned. But in our generation there have appeared various translations that are nothing more than commentaries. The translation process from one language to another falls somewhere between two extremes. The translator can use what is called the "Dynamic Equivalent" method, where the translator essentially communicates to the audience his "equivalent" of what the target language says. While this method may have some merit so far as producing ease of reading, the danger is that the translator's bias will enter into the translation process. You are more likely to get a commentary rather than a translation. The other extreme is the literal, word-for-word translation process, or what is sometimes called "Formal Translation." Such a method generally produces a translation that is cumbersome and difficult, if not impossible, to read. The most valuable translation is one that falls somewhere between these two extremes. Modern translations like the New International Version, Good News for Modern Man, and the Amplified Bible fall into the category of "dynamic equivalent" translations. The King James Version and American Standard Translation would fall into the "formal translation" category. Modern translations have mutilated the word of God by changing it, and by actually putting error into the text itself. But in spite of the efforts of men to change God's word through such an underhanded method of trickery and deceit, God's word lives on in reliable translations. In view of the undeniable truth that God has communicated to us through "words" (1 Cor. 2:13), we should desire a translation that respects those words and whose translators sought to provide us with an accurate transmission of the precise meaning of the words in our language. God has, in His providence, provided accurate translations of His Holy Word. A love for the truth compels us to seek out just such a translation. Fourth, God's word stands though denominationalists pervert it. The Bible clearly warns against perverting the gospel (Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18-19; Gal. 1:8-9; 1 Cor. 4:6; 2 John 9-10). But in what way have denominationalists perverted the word of God? First, they have perverted the word of God by ignoring its plain teaching. Most of God's commands regarding moral and religious responsibilities are so plain that even a child can understand the message. Take, for example, our Lord's words in Mark 16:16, "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved." Some years back I was drinking coffee in a cafe and a denominational preacher sitting next to me asked, "Tell me, what do you folks in the church of Christ believe with regard to baptism?" Without saying a word, I took my New Testament out of my pocket and opened it to Mark 16:16, pointed to the passage and said, "Read this." He did so, and then commented, "Well, we don't see it that way." Without so much as a comment on my part, our denominational friend "saw" what the passage said and taught, but chose to ignore its meaning and pervert God's word by "seeing it" a different way. Second, denominationalists pervert the word of God when they use it to justify evil practices. First Timothy 5:23 is often used to justify social drinking; John 8:1-11 is used to justify situation ethics; Matthew 7:1 is used to condemn judging another person's immoral activities. Third, denominationalists pervert the word of God when they make that which is figurative to refer to something literal. Premillennialism is one example where men have taken the figurative language of Revelation 20 and forced it into a literal mold, thus perverting the nature of the Lord's kingdom. Finally, denominationalists have perverted God's word by "wresting" the scriptures to their own destruction. Men "wrest" the scriptures when they take them out of context; they "wrest" the scriptures when they pit one passage against another; they "wrest" the scriptures when they read "into" the text what is not really there. But in spite of all of the twisting of God's word, and perversion of the plain text of the Bible, God's word lives on in the lives of those who truly love the truth and who are unwilling to compromise, "no not for an hour." |