Tonight, for a little while, we are going to take a look at two very important and intricately related questions.
These are extremely important questions that if left unanswered can inhibit or prohibit your personal walk with the Lord that is vital to your personal eternity.
Let’s see what two of our past and arguably greatest presidents had to say about the Bible. George Washington said, It is impossible to righteously govern the world without God and the Bible. Later, President Ronald Reagan said this, Within the covers of one single book, the Bible, are all the answers to all the problems that face us today.
I will add this. Want to know what God says about the issues of our times? Issues like abortion, homosexuality, how to treat your children, how to treat your parents, premarital sex, extra-marital sex, how to handle money and the list goes on and on? The answers are in the Bible.
Let me see a show of hands, How many of you today have at least one Bible in your home? How many have more than one Bible in your home? Statistics show that 93% of the homes in America have at least one Bible and the average home has 5 Bibles. It has been the number one selling book in the world year after year after year after year, yet only 4 in 10 Americans know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. The majority of Americans cannot name the four Gospels of the New Testament and only 3 in 10 teenagers know why Easter is celebrated!
Over 66% of supposedly born again Christians in America do not believe there are any absolute truths to govern behavior. Fully half of those people deny the existence of the Holy Spirit or a real Satan and 1 in 5 deny the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ and believe He was a sinner.
People, these folks are not reading the same Bible that I read. How can this be? How come the Bible is continuously on top of the bestseller list, yet appears to hardly ever be read? Let’s take a look at some of the stated reasons that people give for not reading their Bible.
First, they say that it cannot be trusted. After all, it has been around for thousands of years. How do we know that some scribe did not just go crazy and decide to write what he felt about God?
To answer this we need to have a quick lesson in history. When the Bible was originally copied down, they did it by one method—they hand-copied it. There was no printing press since that would not come along until circa 1453. So the Scriptures, which until that time, had been handed down in an oral tradition that was extremely sophisticated in order to prevent any deviation from the original, and were then painstakingly hand-copied word for word on scrolls or parchment. We have found over 20,000 of these copies dating back to within 150 years of the life and death of Jesus Christ and they are virtually identical to our printed Bibles of today!
Compare that to the only 9 or 10 copies still in existence of Caesar’s History of the Gaelic Wars composed between 58 and 50 B.C. These existing copies that we have were written 1000 years after Caesar’s death, yet every historian today will accept the validity of those writings.
What does this mean? It means that we can trust the accuracy and the reliability of our Bible today as being true to the original Word of God.
The second objection is that the Bible is irrelevant to today. Well, I touched on that slightly earlier, but I find that that statement usually comes from someone who has not taken the time to read the Bible for themselves. Again, what will you find when you read the Bible? You will find romance. You will find how to handle your finances. You will find the purpose for your life. You will find what to look for in a spouse. You will find what to look for in a friend. You will find a road map for your life. But, just like a road map cannot get you to your destination solely by looking at that map, so the Bible cannot get you to your destination just by looking at it. You must apply the information that you receive to your own circumstance.
People will also say something like: There are mistakes in the Bible. This also is usually spoken by people who have never read the Bible their self and are just repeating something they have heard someone else say.
I will tell you this. I have read the Bible through several times looking for mistakes, and I have yet to find one. So, if anyone can find a true error, please let me know. All major doctrines in the Bible remain without contradictions regardless of the translation used. Any time more than one person retells an event and there are differences in minor details, but when the major points of the event are in agreement the event is to be considered a true happening.
That is true of ancient writings and today. For example, two people see a hit-and run accident and they are describing that accident to the police. One person says he saw a black car strike the pedestrian and speed off down the road and turn left onto a side street. The other person says she saw a dark blue car strike the pedestrian and speed off down the road and turn right onto the side street. Can these apparently contradicting stories be recounting the same incident?
Let’s see. What are the major points in the story? (1) A car struck the pedestrian and (2) then sped off the scene. What are the apparent contradictions? (1) One saw a black car; one saw a blue car. How can that be? Well, the person who saw the car as being black was in a position that only saw the car in shadows, thus appearing to be black. The other person was in a position to see a street lamp reflect off the car’s paint, which showed it to actually be a dark blue car. Does this negate the truthfulness of the major point of the first person’s testimony? No, the car still in fact struck the pedestrian and sped off down the street.
How about the other apparent contradiction of which way the car turned onto the side street? One person says left, the other says right. Both cannot be true can they? Actually yes they can. See the person who said the car turned left onto a side street saw the turn from a position to the rear of the car, which actually turned left in relation to that positioning. The other person saw the car from the front. So the car turned to her right to get onto the side street. Both people were describing the same turn, from different vantage points.
Another excuse for not reading the Bible is that it is boring. We have probably all been there. I remember when I first started reading the Bible seriously. I decided that I would read it from cover to cover. I started in Genesis and thought, Hey, pretty good stuff. I went on to Exodus, no trouble there. Parting the Red Sea, all that good stuff too. I thought, Man I am going to just sail through the Bible in no time. Next was Leviticus. A little legalistic but still bearable. Then came Numbers! We begin to read, From the tribe of Reuben, Shamua son of Zaccur, from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori…etc. We think, oh my gosh the rest of the Bible is going to be just like this and we give up, close the Bible and do not pick it up again.
If any of you are new Christians, new seekers or if you are talking to a new Christian and they ask you where to begin to read the Bible, the best answer is not start at the beginning and go on through. Starting with Genesis is okay, but very shortly, if not at the very beginning, tell them to read John and the other Gospels first. Then go on to Psalms and Proverbs and from there to other books in the Bible. I would advise new Christians to save Leviticus and Numbers until last. Although, once you get through the beginning of Numbers you will find some interesting things in there, like a talking donkey. That’s right, a talking donkey! Check it out in Numbers chapter 22, verse 28.
The last objection that I want to touch on is this one: people will say to you, The Bible and Christianity are a crutch for weak people. I will tell you this. When someone says that to me, I tell them, You are absolutely correct. The Bible and the belief in Christ are for weak people, and we are all weak people. Webster’s dictionary defines crutch as, a prop for the lame. Jesus Christ is for the lame. He holds us up. The Bible tells us that He makes the weak strong.
You can come to know and to love this Book. More importantly, you can come to know and love Him about Whom this book is written, Jesus Christ. This book is not only pages with words written upon them. This book is the very Voice of God Himself, in all of His glory.
Do not worship the Bible. Worship the God of the Bible. If you will make the Bible a part of your life, the rest of your life will not be the same. A regular reading and study of the Bible will help you to do several things. It will help you to:
So, we see that it is vitally important for us to spend time reading and studying the Bible and just spending time alone with God and His Word. How do we do that? Life is so busy. And not only is it busy, these days it is fast. There never seems to be enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done. You all have class, homework and many of you work jobs on the side. For those of you who think it will slow down some when you are out of school, I’ll let you in on a secret, it doesn’t. Is it any wonder that we have so much difficulty finding time to be alone with God? After all, there is so much to do. So, God gets pushed aside or to the rear of our life.
I can remember in science class many years ago learning the simple concept of electrical circuits. I remember taking the battery, wires, receptacles and light bulbs and when we completed the circuit, flash, the light bulb lit up! Spending time with God’s Word is like completing that electrical circuit. Our light cannot shine; there is no transfer of power, until we complete the circuit.
How do we find the time to spend in God’s Word with all of the other things in our lives clamoring for time also? I have found that there are as many different answers to that question as there are people who ask it. I’m going to turn it over to you in a moment for we are asked as Christians to shoulder each other’s burdens and to help each other whenever we can. Part of that help can be to share with each other some ideas that work for you.
What I have found to be true though, is that the answer to, How can I possibly find the time to…? is directly proportionate to the level of importance that you place on that which you wish to accomplish. If spending time with God’s Word is a high priority for you, just ask the Lord in prayer to provide the time and commit to using that time to be with Him and I guarantee you that He will provide it for you.
One way, you might try, that may allow you to have that time is to commit to a certain time each day to get into the Word. Keep in mind that this does not have to be a long period of time. Even ten to fifteen minutes a day will provide rewards well beyond the amount of time spent. Maybe a short time in the library during lunchtime will give you the peace you need to concentrate on studying the Word.
If you are really serious about getting into God’s Word and spending time with God in prayer, and no other time will work for you, I suggest that you get up 30 minutes earlier than you usually do and dedicate that time to the Lord. I used to worry about being too tired to complete the regular tasks that I had to do on the days that I got up extra early to read or study the Bible, but I have discovered that when I do that, He provides the necessary energy and then some to do everything that has to be done and often times, He will add something into the schedule for that day that I did not even prepare for and still I do not run out of energy. And that is saying something for an old guy like me.
Let’s take a couple of minutes and share with each other some ideas that have worked for us and then we will pray.
Let us pray, O Lord, how great and wonderful are your ways of talking with us. Our lives are hectic, chaotic, in disarray and often speeding out of our control. We must confess that our first priority has not always been our relationship with you. We ask that you help us to keep our lives from controlling us. Help us to keep our relationship with you as our number one priority. Do not give up on us. Do not stop trying to get our attention. Do not allow us to move you to the back of our lives. Help us to make these commitments and remain faithful in keeping them. Thank you for your Word, the Bible. Thank you for your Son, our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, in whose holy name we pray. Amen!