Word to be false. God says in He brews 11:6 that without faith it is impossible to please Him. But the Lord hasn’t required that faith be unreasonable. He gives reasons whereby we may confidently trust the pages of Sacred Writ. The apostles were made eye wit nesses of the resurrection so that they might have all of the necessary evidence to believe the claims of the One about whom they were com manded to testify. Three of them had the privilege of seeing Christ trans figured into His glorified appearance. Yet Peter says, “We also have a more sure word of prophecy” (II Peter 1:19-21). We have between the covers of this wonderful Book suffi cient revelation of God for our hearts and lives. The favorite pastime of some pro fessors of higher learning seems to be the imparting of doubt as to the accuracy of inspiration. They delight in making sport of any young people who still believe the truth and hold to its standards. They say that in this scientific-enlightened day young people don’t need to believe these things. What terrible injustice and harm they do with their totally un real and erroneous views. Christians need not worry. There is a proper and accurate defense. To the honest questioner there is an abundance of evidence that the Word is exactly what it claims to be, the infallible Word of the living God. C hapter T hree O NE OP the wonderful ways to see the reality of the Bible’s inspiration is how it can be deter mined even from the standpoint of biographical evidences. God’s Word is inspired by the Holy Spirit and given to us for our salvation and spiritual maturity. How sad that we hear of people who consider many portions of the Old Testament, such as the Genesis record, as mythologi- 17
speaks God’s message to our hearts. That just doesn’t go far enough! Whether it speaks to us or not, the Bible still remains God's Word. To follow the liberal view, a hymn like “Amazing Grace,” or even one of Shakespeare’s plays could be just as inspired as the 23rd Psalm. It’s not only an erroneous view, it’s also a very dangerous one. We can’t trust our fallible judgment as the criteria for biblical inspiration and interpre tation. The eternal varities we have in this Book are literally “breathed by God.” We need it for the matur ing of the Christian man. If we don’t sense that God is speaking to us through some passage we should ask ourselves why. It may be that we need to search our hearts to see what sin has closed the channel of under standing for our growth in the faith. We needn’t judge the Word of God. We should let the Word of God judge us. All of the Word of God is equally authoritative. When God chose a na tion to bear His truth before the world, He told them how to recognize that message. He spoke to Moses face-to-face, to the accompaniment of thunder and lightnings. Israel recognized God’s presence. They were instructed how to recognize His prophets. If their sayings came true, they could be trusted. If their pre dictions didn’t come to pass, they were to be branded as false prophets. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 brings this singularly to our attention. There were those who attempted to confuse the people. God’s true spokesmen, whose words Israel carefully pre served, were increasingly vindicat ed, as their long-range prophecies were fulfilled. The fact of fulfilled prophecy is the one mark of authori ty God has placed upon His wonder ful Word. Our present knowledge has barely penetrated the fringes of God’s wis dom and His works. No man can sat isfactorily prove anything in the
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