Prophecy (cohUmied) their reason. In this way the revela tion of God, His Word, is brought to the bar of reason. Here we find, for instance, the fact that Jesus was bom of a virgin is unreasonable and unscien tific. But you see, the fallacy of reason is that man is trying to pit the infinite wisdom of God with the puny thoughts of foolish man. No wonder the Lord has told us, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8, 9). Because of these errors in reason, Peter establishes his au thority for the inerrancy of the Scrip ture. Peter does not regard the writings of the Old Testament prophets as hu man documents but as divine. Both the prophets and apostles were merely car riers of the Word of God. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (II Peter 1:21). There have never been any proven errors in the original manuscripts, and to say that there are is to blame God for He is the supreme Author. The reason Peter takes such a strong stand upon the Scriptures is revealed in the third and fourth verses of the third chapter of his second epistle. “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” Some of our readers may take this very same attitude. But, again our computation of time is by our own reason, not God’s! A thousand years are but a day to Him. Just because this great event prophesied hasn’t yet come, doesn’t it cause us to disbelieve or to doubt. Our faith is solidly riveted in the Word of God and we believe in the God who cannot lie. The integrity of His Word can be fully trusted. Since we believe the Bible to be the product of the mind
of God, not the wishes of men, we believe that we can, without any reser vation, rely on His precious promises. Read this entire chapter and see that God “is not slack concerning His prom ise as some men count slackness.” The Lord is long-suffering for one reason and that is that He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Oh, what match less grace is constantly revealed in His divine love and mercy. If you haven’t trusted Him, do so today, by faith in His finished work of redemption on Calvary’s cross for your sins. WHO IS REALLY GUILTY? How tragic that the popular concept of our day is to remove all inclinations toward God and His truth in public areas of service. The Lord has become “unconstitutional” in many of our af fairs of life. There was a prominent jurist who served as attorney for a con demned murderer. In his final sum mation to the jury he declared, “Ladies and gentlemen, my task is very easy. The accused has confessed and thereby has made any defense impossible. Yet, l cannot help but recall what is print ed on these coins in my pocket. You know the words very well. They de clare ‘In God We Trust.’ But why is it we no longer hear anything of Him in our public schools which this mur derer attended. Why should it be that the first time in his life to hear of God’s mercy and grace would be from a fail chaplain? I firmly believe that if the attention of my client had been directed toward the One upon whose truth this nation has supposedly been founded, he would not be standing at the bar of justice facing disgrace and death. With all of the force of my heart, 1 earnestly say, ‘It is you whom I accuse.’ We brag of our education and culture and yet we are a nation of practical atheists, living as if there were no God. May the Lord take pity on our souls as well as upon his.” This is a true evaluation. Where does the blame really belong? “Righteous ness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people!” 16
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