God had the Bible written from man's point of view looking up to God. As such, the Bible reveals the inerrant and infallible truth about all of man's feelings and attitudes about God whether good or bad. Proverbs 20:27. For example, Job's comforters commented much about the nature and character of God, some true statements and some false. The true and inerrant message of God's Word is that sinful men can accidentally speak true and false comments when speculating about God, or anything else. Another example occurs in Psalm 137:9. Critics contend that God cannot exist because how could a merciful God approve of such a horrible action as this verse allows. But the true message of this verse is that it simply records how the psalmist felt when he wrote it. Even Godly men can have sinful feelings. God's message about the nature of man constitutes a basic part of the inerrant and infallible Word of God. Many other such examples exist in scripture.
Defenders of the Bible contend that every word of God must be true because it was written by holy men inspired by the Holy Spirit. II Peter 1:21. But God also had these holy men quote true and false statements made by sinful men because this is the simple truth about the nature of man. For example, Ecclesiastes 1:2 cannot possibly be a true statement. This verse espouses an atheistic and nihilistic philosophy, but the truth in this statement comes from the fact that it accurately records how Solomon felt when he wrote it. Godly men can make sinful statements even when writing the true Word of God.
Another truth about God's Word is that some of it was not written by Godly men, but was accurately copied by Godly men. In Acts 17:28, the Apostle Paul quoted two pagan poets whose words became a part of the true Word of God. In Acts 23:25-30, the Apostle Paul copied a letter written by a pagan Roman soldier into the true Word of God. Nehemiah inserted letters written by pagans into the true Word of God. One of the true messages from God's Word is that God can cause even pagans to write His inerrant and infallible Word.
Every judge knows that two different witnesses on the stand can insert minor contradictions into the same truthful story. Only when their contradictions begin to affect the truth itself can their veracity become doubtful. To the believer, whether Christ healed two insane men in Matthew 8:28 or only one in Mark 5:2 remains relatively unimportant. The same can be said about whether Jesus healed two blind men at Jericho in Matthew 20:30 or only one in Mark 10:46. The truth is that the Holy Spirit extracts the inerrant and infallible Truth from the written Word of God and imparts that Truth to the heart of every spiritual believer. God deliberately designed His Word so that unbelievers would see only the contradictions. The central, true message of the Bible is that Christ is God and that He can heal and save men. For this reason, every sincere seeker for the Truth often finds it when he reads the inerrant and infallible Word of God.
The genius of the written Word consists in the fact that those who despise God only find contradictions and errors in it. God deliberately wrote it that way. The Bible only imparts subjective Truth, not objective truth. God does not want anyone to be compelled to believe His Word, as we are compelled to believe objective truth. God wants people to choose to love Him and have faith in Him. God wrote His Word so that sincere seekers for the Truth will find it through the power of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, believers should always pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit when reading the Word of God. John 16:13.
No comments:
Post a Comment