WHY WE SHOULD ACCEPT THE BIBLE'S INSPIRATION (Part 7)

By Bob Myhan

The Bible answers the three most im­portant questions that an individual could ask. What is my origin? What is my purpose? What is my destiny?

It is by means of his physical senses that man takes knowledge of the world around him and becomes aware of the existence of matter. He can handle it, taste it, see it, smell it, and hear its sounds. But his physi­cal senses cannot take knowledge of any­thing that is nonphysical. It is only through the use of reason that man knows of the existence of spirit. He knows, for example, that he is not his body. There is his body - composed of matter - and there is spirit - the man himself within the body. He knows that there is “the outward man” and “the inward man” (2 Cor. 4:16). But man cannot intuitively know he was created, any more than an infant can intuitively know he was born. We must learn from others the facts of creation as well as the facts of procrea­tion, if we are to know those facts at all.

It follows that, if we cannot know that we were created, we cannot know the purpose for which we were created. We cannot know whether there is a proper way to live, much less what that proper way may be. Neither could we know - by observation or intuition - whether the spirit will survive the death of the body, much less what will happen to the spirit after said death. But, if the Bible be a supernatural reve­lation from God [which this writer believes], God has answered these three questions.

#7 THE BIBLE’S CONTINUED INFLUENCE

How could any book of purely human origin continue to hold the interest of so many for so long? The Bible continues to be the best selling book of all time. It has also been translated into more lan­guages than any other book ever printed. The more one seriously studies it, the greater his interest in it and the greater its in­fluence over him. This, we believe, can best be explained on the basis that it does, indeed, represent the wisdom of God.

Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says 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. "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. (Isa. 55:7-11)

The Bible is the best-attested book of antiquity, not that it hasn’t had its critics. It certainly has. But they, unlike the Bible, are soon forgotten. &

The Anvil - God's Word

Author unknown

Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith's door,

And heart the anvil ring the vesper chime;

Then, looking in, I saw upon the floor

Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.

How many anvils have you had," said I,

"To wear and batter all these hammers so?"

"Just one," said he, and then, with twinkling eye,

"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know."

And so, thought I, the anvil of God's Word,

For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;

Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,

The anvil is unharmed--the hammers gone.

Almost Perfect

By Clif Dennis

Many times we hear someone de­scribe something as "almost perfect." We hear the term, "less than perfect" or "more than perfect." I be­lieve that such terms can be classified as oxymorons. Websters  dictionary gives the definition of an oxymoron as "a rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradic­tory terms are combined." Perfect is an all inclusive word meaning there are no de­grees of perfection. If something is "perfect," it cannot be "near perfect" or "less than perfect."

Could we describe the "perfect law of lib­erty" (James 1:25), as less, or more, than it was described by James? When Paul said "when that which is perfect" has come (1 Corinthians 13:10), was he speaking about near perfection? When something is per­fect, it is complete, nothing lacking.

But even something perfect can be di­luted or marred into imperfection. Paul marveled that the brethern in the congre­gations of churches of Christ in Galatia had done just that. (Galatians 1:6-9).  They had taken a pure, perfect, gospel and made it into something not "near perfect" but use­less as far as it was able to save men's souls. The watered down, diluted, per­verted social gospel being preached in most pulpits today, cannot save one soul from eternal destruction.

Another term which mutilates a Biblical concept is "spending eternity" somewhere. When we say we will "spend eternity," somewhere, we imply that eternity will end at some point and we will have spent eter­nity. The word "eternity" is another all in­clusive word to mean that it won't end. It didn't start, it will never end. We will LIVE in eternity somewhere, not SPEND it any­where. This means we will always live. Where is up to the individual . Time and eternity are often confused in the minds of people. The two are totally separate and not even akin. Genesis 1:1 says. "In the be­ginning," the beginning of what? Time.

Just as time had a beginning, it will have an end. That fact is prominently pointed out in the Scriptures, but never a hint of an end to eternity. I like to picture time as a straight line with a starting point and an end, but eternity as a circle, with no begin­ning and no end.

I hope this gives a clearer contrast of these two dimensions of time and eternity, and of the word "perfect" and that we may properly use them in our speaking of things spiritual. When you have reached that state of perfection, where will you live eternally? [Via The Reminder]