(Is the Bible God’s Word or Not?)
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” II Timothy 3:16,17
The Word of God is either all true, or it is not true at all.
The above verses from II Timothy tell us that the Bible itself says that all Scripture is from God. If these verses are accepted as truth, you would think that Christians would view all of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, as authoritative and factual. However, it seems that quite a few Christians today believe that certain parts of Scripture cannot be accepted as they were originally written, and must be “altered” in order to fit in with the current popular beliefs of our culture. But I am writing this article to explain why I believe it is not consistent or rational to re-write the Word of God.
In the past, there have been many examples of non-Christians ridiculing the miracles of the Bible – from the parting of the Red Sea, to Jonah being swallowed by a great fish, to Joshua and the battle of Jericho. And there is no doubt that many who refuse to acknowledge their sin and accept the forgiveness of God that is offered to mankind through the blood that Jesus Christ shed on the cross in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, will continue to ridicule the Bible and its miracles until they die or until Christ returns to this earth. I can understand the scoffing of unbelievers, but what is very hard for me to understand is the refusal of people of faith to accept the Word of God as written. And there is one book of the Bible in particular that has become the central focus for re-interpretation, and that is the book of Genesis.
The first two chapters of the Scriptures in Genesis speak very clearly about how the universe came into existence and how God created everything we now see in six days. The following chapters continue to explain the fall of man in the garden of Eden, the wickedness that led to the flood of Noah, and the confusion of languages that came at the tower of Babel. These events are all basic and foundational to the rest of God’s Word. There doesn’t seem to be a large group of Christians casting doubt upon the miracles that God performed when He brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt through the guidance of the prophet Moses, or the mighty feats achieved by Sampson, or Elijah, or Elisha, or even Jesus and then His disciples in the book of Acts. Although the Bible is filled with supernatural events that can only be explained on the basis of faith, the only part of God’s Word that seems to cause some Christians to withhold their acceptance is the book of Genesis, and especially creation. Why is it that this issue is the one that gets all the attention and has become so contentious?
The answer to that question is really very obvious, if you think about it. If you were the devil, and you really wanted to destroy the kingdom of God, which is exactly what Jesus said was Satan’s goal – to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10), then where would be the most strategic place for you to attack? How about attacking the very foundation of God’s Word – the very first book? If you want to sink a battleship, where do you aim? Don’t you aim for the middle of the hull – the main part of the vessel? Likewise, Satan knows if he can destroy the foundation of God’s Word, the whole structure will be compromised.
And what do we see happening in America and much of the world today? We see the theory of evolution, and especially the idea of millions of years, being embraced as “fact,” replacing the Bible as the standard authority for truth in modern society. Because much of our modern world has now accepted the philosophy of millions of years and evolution, many consider the Bible to be irrelevant. And the fact that many Christians go along with this re-interpretation of Genesis helps to perpetuate this feeling that Scripture is somehow out of touch with today’s world.
We should expect the proliferation of lies in the unbelieving world, but God has called His people to resist the devil, and “become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—-” (Philippians 2:15,16) The first two chapters of Genesis are not the only places where God’s Word speaks about creation. Exodus 31:17 echoes the words in Genesis, saying, “in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth,–“. This seems very clear. How could God speak more plainly than this? There is absolutely no reason why Christians should not accept the clear words of Almighty God. Is He incapable of communicating so that we humans must help Him out? Are there certain “scientists” today who are more intelligent than the God of heaven, whose “theories” we must accept as fact rather than the plain truth of Scripture?
The practice of many Christians today is very troubling to me. God’s Word warns us in several places not to change His Words, or to add or subtract from them. However, when we take out “six days” and add “millions of years,” we have actually done both! I don’t think this is a trivial act, but a very dangerous one indeed.
Even non-Christian atheists can see the inconsistency of Christians who pick and choose between which Bible verses they will accept as truth, and those they do not. Non-Christians actually love it when they hear Christians revealing that they do not accept the book of Genesis, or other parts of the Bible, because it makes it very easy for them to then point out their inconsistency and then tell people to reject the Bible, and faith in Christ, entirely. One well-known television personality has said, “If it’s not 100 per cent true [speaking of the book of Genesis], I would say the whole thing [the rest of the Bible] falls apart.”[1] And one atheistic evolutionist has said, “evangelicals have got it right in that there really is a deep incompatibility between evolution and Christianity.”[2] If the atheists can see this, why can’t Christians?
I wonder how many Christians realize where the idea of evolution and millions of years came from. This idea came from atheists and non-Christians for the specific reason of turning our society away from the need for God. That is why T.H. Huxley, a popular anti-Christian philosopher in the nineteenth century, was so excited when Charles Darwin wrote his seminal book, THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. He was excited because he thought Darwin’s book would be a great help to support the anti-Christian philosophy Huxley often wrote about.
Neither Darwin, nor his family, had ever been devout Christians, even though Charles did receive a degree in theology. But his grandfather, Erasmus, who had died before Darwin was born, had achieved quite a bit of notoriety as a doctor, inventor, and especially as an author. The elder Darwin’s anti-Christian views were well-known and were prominent in his writings. And though Charles at one time had renounced some of his grandfather’s most radical ideas, many of the main points put forth in the Origin of Species can be traced back to the writings of Erasmus Darwin.[3] Shortly after Darwin’s book came out, he received a congratulatory letter from none other than Karl Marx. This is not meant to imply that Darwin was a communist, but it is very interesting, nonetheless, that a philosophy such as Marxist-Leninism, which was blatantly atheistic and anti-religious, had looked to Darwin’s new theory as a support. Another little-known fact is that Darwin’s cousin, Sir Francis Galton, was one of the pioneers of the eugenics movement, which believed in the possibility of improving the human race by selective breeding of the population. If you are wondering where he might have gotten such ideas, it may be because you have never heard of the original title for Darwin’s book when it was first published in 1859 – On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races In the Struggle for Life. Galton died in 1911, but unfortunately the eugenics movement did not and was actually the forerunner to the later atrocities of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, who murdered millions of those they “selected” as unfit in their quest to produce the “perfect race.”
Why would I even mention all of this? I mention it simply because many Christians do not understand that when they go along with the teaching of millions of years, they are accepting the philosophy that was begun by atheists to get rid of God. The science came after the idea of evolution. The “theory” of evolution is built on the assumption that this world came into existence naturalistically, without any supernatural assistance, and millions of years is simply a tool, the vehicle they used to arrive at their chosen destination – a godless society.
Even today, most evolutionists don’t give two hoots if Christians go along with millions of years or not. Christians came late to this issue. It was only after Darwin, Huxley, and other anti-Christians had developed the popularity of evolution, that some in the Church began to adopt these ideas and mix them with Scripture. But evolution and millions of years is not neutral to Christianity – it never has been.
I believe it is time that God’s people began to recognize that this world does not currently accept Jesus Christ as the Lord, and King that we, who know Him, know that He is. And because much of this world has absolutely no desire to follow Christ, they have rejected His Word as having any authority over them. However, as Christians, we are called by God to accept every Word of Scripture as authoritative and true. Jesus, Himself, who IS the very Word of God, and who appeared in human flesh, always confirmed the truthfulness and veracity of God’s Word in all that He did and said while He was here on earth. Therefore, we are going to have to commit ourselves to live lives of separation from this world in order to follow Christ. And when we do, this world will mock us, mistreat us, and maybe even kill us, but if we truly love God and want to serve Him forever, we will hold on to our faith in Jesus and do what He wants us to do, and what His Word has told us to do, come what may!
And furthermore, if we truly love God and want to see others come to faith in Christ as well, we are going to have to live our lives in such a way that VALIDATES and AFFIRMS the Scriptures, because it is the Scriptures that tell this world about the only true way to salvation and eternal life with God – and that is through faith in the blood of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. However, if we cannot affirm the very Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, why would we expect anyone else to take our message about Christ, which comes from the Bible, seriously?
Please think about that for a moment. Why would we ever expect someone to accept our message about Jesus when we, ourselves, have rejected major parts of the book that God has given to help us to tell the world about Him? That just makes absolutely NO SENSE whatsoever. Does it?
When we attempt to preach the truth about Christ to the world while at the same time we are discounting the book of Genesis, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Psalm 11:5 says, “When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” When we cast doubt upon the book that reveals to mankind exactly how we got here, and all that God did in the beginning, then we have allowed the enemy to knock the feet out from under the whole gospel. We all know how important a sound, secure and strong foundation is to anything that we build. Jesus spoke of the man who built his house upon a rock and the one who built his on sand. Buildings, bridges, houses, nations, ….. all are in need of firm foundations. If you begin to read a book and the first chapter makes no sense, what does that make you think about the rest of the book. And likewise, if we believe the enemy’s lies about the book of Genesis being only a story, then we will naturally begin to wonder about the whole Bible.
This, I truly believe, is the MAIN REASON why the Church of Jesus Christ in this nation has become so WEAK and INEFFECTIVE. It is because we have fallen for the lies of the enemy and are actually more concerned with our reputation in this world, and what this world believes and thinks of us, than we are about our reputation with our God and what His Word says!
I agree with what Billy Graham has said about this. “It is easy for Christians to allow themselves to be squeezed into the world’s mold.” “Too many times we [the Church] are concerned with how much, instead of how little, like this [world] we can become.” “We have moved in with the world, and we have allowed the world to penetrate the way we live.”[4] These are powerful words, spoken by a man whose life has been powerfully anointed by God.
It is time for the followers of Jesus Christ to focus their attention on their Lord, and turn the affections of their heart away from this world and the LIES and the distractions and the filth that have become so prevalent. God’s people MUST be separated from this world, in their hearts and minds. Not physically separated, but committed to God in their hearts and committed to His Word of truth. Until this happens in our nation, those who are unsaved will not be able to see that there truly is a God in heaven. The Church of Jesus Christ in America needs to stand up for the truth of God’s Word, and renounce the lies that this world teaches as truth. But as long as this world sees Christians as people who don’t even believe the Bible is completely trustworthy, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ will remain virtually weak and ineffective.
I believe that the return of Christ is approaching very quickly, and Jesus Himself, when He was still walking on this earth, asked a question of the people who would be living when He returned. He said,
“When the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)
Why would Jesus ask such a question? I believe it is because He “knows” just how powerful the pull of this world is on the people of God and He is calling us TODAY, to separate ourselves from sin and turn to Him in true repentance. The tug of this world pulls at my soul constantly, and I am sure it does the same to all of us. The Bible says that Lot was vexed, or distressed, by the filthy conversation of the wicked. The New Living Translation says that Lot “was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him.”(II Peter 2:7) Has anybody else ever felt that way lately?
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the Savior of the world. He is the ONLY way to the Father. How do we know this? Well, first of all, He proved it by being resurrected from the dead. But how do we know and understand who Jesus is and what He came to do for us? From the Bible, the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures.
The Word of God is the last word, the bottom line. It speaks authoritatively to both the small and the great alike – the intelligent and the common citizen of the earth. Therefore, we must take God at His Word, and not try to re-interpret what God has said. God clearly wants us to understand His Word of truth, but in order to do so, we must let Him speak to us instead of us telling Him what He really means. None of us is qualified, or authorized, to do that. We MUST let God speak for Himself. He is WELL able to do so!
If you are a Christian and agree with this article, please share it with your friends, and please let me know if you agree. Or, if you disagree, please explain why.
“FOR THE WORD OF GOD IS LIVING AND ACTIVE. SHARPER THAN ANY DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD, IT PENETRATES EVEN TO DIVIDING SOUL AND SPIRIT, JOINT AND MARROW; IT JUDGES THE THOUGHTS AND ATTITUDES OF THE HEART.” Hebrews 4:12
“IT IS TIME FOR JUDGMENT TO BEGIN WITH THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD, AND IF IT BEGINS WITH US, WHAT WILL THE OUTCOME BE FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT OBEY THE GOSPEL OF GOD?” I Peter 4:17
[1] Ken Ham, Six Days, Master Books, 2013, p.96
[2] Ibid, p.96,97
[3] R. Grigg, Darwinism: it was all in the family, Creation Ministries International, http://creation.com
[4] F. Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes, Thomas Nelson, 2011, p.368, 370
