could not be considered until to day this is all I have left. Maybe if you stay another year my wife will have nothing but the covers left!" This was a terrific blow to the min ister's realization of the force and responsibility for his preaching. Fundamental, Bible-believing evan gelical orthodox Christians have always held to the full (plenary) verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. The One who is the living Word said of the written Word, "One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18). The jot is the smal lest letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the tittle is the most insignifi cant part of the letter. The Psalmist declared, "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven" (Psalms 119:89). Our godless often evolu tionary educational system seeks to destroy the confidence of young people particularly in the Word of God. The most subtle method has been through twisted translations which seek to alter the original meaning. All is foolish and futile. When an order was given pub licly to burn Martin Luther's books, those who were planning such ac tion were asked, "Do you think that Luther's doctrines are found only in these books? They are writ ten where fires can never reach them. They are in the hearts of the people." This is where the Word of God should be written even today as far as our lives are concerned. Three men had the courage to oppose Jehoiakim's burning of the scrolls. Still he would not listen (Jeremiah 36:24-25). Because of this, judgment came upon the wicked leader. "The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land" (36:27-32). The
Always be careful of such people. God's judgment will come upon them you may be sure. God tells us, through the life of Jehoiakim, that the sinfulness of mistreating the servants of the Lord and the Word of God will bring defeat and destruction. Jehoiakim was the king who came to the throne of Judah under the permissive will of an Egyptian phar aoh and then Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. His rule was noth ing more than as a puppet. To make matters worse he was evil in all his ways. When the Word of the Lord was uncovered and brought to his attention he threw the scrolls with contempt into the fire. No wonder he sustained divine judg ment. Unfortunately modern crit ics are still cutting the Bible into pieces. A new minister went to a certain church where he started teaching liberal theories of higher criticism. It was near the end of two years in the pulpit when he was called to the bedside of a leading man in his congregation who was dying. He asked, "Would you like me to read to you from the Bible and then have prayer?" Nodding in the af firmative the man's wife brought the pastor their Bible. He was somewhat shocked to open it and find that some verses, chapters, pages and even entire books had been carefully cut out. The copy of the Scriptures was rather mutilated. The dying man weakly explained, "When you came to our church I had the whole Bible. It included everything from Genesis to Revela tion. You began to preach, howev er, the Bible was in some places no more than myths or fiction. I began cutting out those parts you said
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