Today in our Christian School's weekly chapel program, the seventh grade class put on a skit that dramatized the book of Acts. The students did a great job of weaving together the trials and triumphs of the early church. Their performance was commendable -- especially in light of what happened the day before.
Yesterday afternoon Miss Davis, the seventh grade teacher, came into my office and asked me (a bit nervously, I might add) if I had taken the scripts for their play out of the sanctuary. I told her I had not even been over to the sanctuary and asked her if perhaps the cleaning crew had been over there and thrown them away by accident. As it turns out, they did. Thankfully, the play went off without a hitch. The students rose to the challenge and put on a terrific performance.
But all this got me to thinking. It's amazing how easily and inadvertently those scripts got lost. Yet THE script of Acts -- Scripture itself -- has been preserved for two millennia and more. Just one small slip-up, one small oversight, one inadvertent throwing away of a manuscript, and we would not have the inerrant, infallible Word of God that we do today.
Now, in addition to this, think of all the enemies of God who have purposely tried to eradicate the Holy Scriptures, to banish the Bible on purpose. They have failed! Go back 2500 years ago to the days of Jeremiah, and you'll read of the time when Jehoiakim tried to destroy the Word of God by burning the scroll which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah. Yet "the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 'Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned" (Jer. 36:27-28). This faithless king thought he could destroy God's Word. But he failed.
Jump forward five hundred years to the time of the early church -- specifically Acts 12 (which was acted out very well by our students). The chapter opens with James dead, Peter in prison, and Herod triumphant. The chapter ends with Herod dead, Peter freed, and the Word of God triumphant!
Move ahead another two and a half centuries to the time when Diocletian, the emperor of Rome, uttered threats and curses to the followers of Christ. Several copies of Scripture were burned. Many Christians suffered agonizing deaths. Yet all his Satanic zeal did nothing to thwart God's Word. He is long dead, whereas the Bible is very much alive. Scripture still stands.
Henry V of England considered Bible reading to be a crime and passed a law saying, "Whosoever is found reading the Scripture shall forfeit his life and land." Yet "all of his decrees could not shorten its life one minute or lighten its weight by one ounce" (George Sweeting, Is the Bible the Word of God?). The monarch is dead. The majestic Scripture still stands.
Voltaire said arrogantly, "Another century and there will not be a Bible on earth." Voltaire is no longer on earth, and the Bible has been the best selling book on earth year after year after year.
How do we account for the indestructibility of the Bible? Simply by seeing it for what it is: a supernatural book -- the very Word of God.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. -- Isaiah 40:9
Yesterday afternoon Miss Davis, the seventh grade teacher, came into my office and asked me (a bit nervously, I might add) if I had taken the scripts for their play out of the sanctuary. I told her I had not even been over to the sanctuary and asked her if perhaps the cleaning crew had been over there and thrown them away by accident. As it turns out, they did. Thankfully, the play went off without a hitch. The students rose to the challenge and put on a terrific performance.
But all this got me to thinking. It's amazing how easily and inadvertently those scripts got lost. Yet THE script of Acts -- Scripture itself -- has been preserved for two millennia and more. Just one small slip-up, one small oversight, one inadvertent throwing away of a manuscript, and we would not have the inerrant, infallible Word of God that we do today.
Now, in addition to this, think of all the enemies of God who have purposely tried to eradicate the Holy Scriptures, to banish the Bible on purpose. They have failed! Go back 2500 years ago to the days of Jeremiah, and you'll read of the time when Jehoiakim tried to destroy the Word of God by burning the scroll which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah. Yet "the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 'Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned" (Jer. 36:27-28). This faithless king thought he could destroy God's Word. But he failed.
Jump forward five hundred years to the time of the early church -- specifically Acts 12 (which was acted out very well by our students). The chapter opens with James dead, Peter in prison, and Herod triumphant. The chapter ends with Herod dead, Peter freed, and the Word of God triumphant!
Move ahead another two and a half centuries to the time when Diocletian, the emperor of Rome, uttered threats and curses to the followers of Christ. Several copies of Scripture were burned. Many Christians suffered agonizing deaths. Yet all his Satanic zeal did nothing to thwart God's Word. He is long dead, whereas the Bible is very much alive. Scripture still stands.
Henry V of England considered Bible reading to be a crime and passed a law saying, "Whosoever is found reading the Scripture shall forfeit his life and land." Yet "all of his decrees could not shorten its life one minute or lighten its weight by one ounce" (George Sweeting, Is the Bible the Word of God?). The monarch is dead. The majestic Scripture still stands.
Voltaire said arrogantly, "Another century and there will not be a Bible on earth." Voltaire is no longer on earth, and the Bible has been the best selling book on earth year after year after year.
How do we account for the indestructibility of the Bible? Simply by seeing it for what it is: a supernatural book -- the very Word of God.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. -- Isaiah 40:9