“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NIV)
Picture, if you will, living at a time when it is illegal to own or even quote an English translation of the Bible. In 1526 in England, those who owned an English copy of the Bible were under the threat of execution by order of the king of England himself. Many Christians today are not aware of the incredible sacrifices that were made for an English translation of the Bible to end up in their hands today.
Knowing what it cost others and how willingly they made those sacrifices is inspiring and motivates me to treasure my Bible more dearly. William Tyndale was one such man who gave up so much out of devotion to God and love for others. Prior to Tyndale translating the New Testament and much of the Old Testament into English, only scholars in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew could read and understand Scripture. Everyone else had to rely on their bishops to tell them what the Bible said.
This is hard for us in the 21st century to wrap our minds around, because today we have the Bible at our fingertips, a mere click or two away. But Scripture foretold times when there would be a famine—”not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11, ESV).
Tyndale had studied Greek and Hebrew and knew the treasure of having a relationship with God based on Holy Scripture. He knew that Scripture was not merely the words of wise men, but the very words of the living God, which could be translated into any language (1 Thessalonians 2:13). His heart burned with a passion for the common people of his day to experience the Word of God in the same way.
At one point, a highly esteemed Latin scholar told Tyndale, “It would be better to be without God’s laws than without the pope’s.”
Tyndale courageously responded, “I defy the pope and all his laws! In fact, if God spares my life, I intend to make it possible for a common farmer, a plowman, to know more of the Scripture than you do!”
He spent the next ten years working tirelessly across Europe, fleeing persecution from one nation to the next, translating the Bible into the language even a plowman could read and understand. Tyndale was eventually betrayed and imprisoned. Although he couldn’t do the translation work in prison, he continued to preach the saving message about the crucified and risen Jesus. In fact, the jailer, the jailer’s daughter, and other members of his household surrendered their lives to the Lord Jesus.
Finally, on October 6, 1536, Tyndale was taken out of his prison, strangled to death, and his body was burned as a warning to all who would participate in his Bible-translating rebellion. Just before dying, William Tyndale prayed aloud, “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes!” That prayer was answered three years later when the king of England decreed that Tyndale’s New Testament be placed in every church in England!
It’s impossible to calculate the value of having God’s Word so readily available today.
When I hear about Tyndale’s devotion and sacrifice that led to me having a Bible in my hands, I am deeply moved and compelled to treasure these words and never take them for granted. I hope you feel the same way. God has spoken. And He intends for us to know Him through His Word.
“In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.” (Psalm 119:14-16, ESV)
I pray that just because the Bible is so accessible in our day, it would not be overlooked as the precious gift that it is.
Have thoughts on this post? I’d love to hear from you!
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12, ESV)
An objection I often hear on college campuses is the charge that the Bible is just an ancient book written by men. Sure, some say, it claims to come from God,[1] but why give it special authority? Think about that question. How would you respond? Well, one thing you could do is show them some of the archaeological evidence or fulfilled prophecy. Those are both very powerful pieces of evidence for it being a divinely given book.
That can be a great approach, but it also can be hard to have all that evidence ready at your fingertips when you’re in a brief conversation with a skeptic. So, another approach I like to go with is to first point to the evidence all around them for the Bible’s uniqueness.
For instance, you can turn this objection around and say, “You’re right: the Bible was written thousands of years ago. Now, isn’t it incredible that the Bible is still the best-selling book of all time? What does that tell you about the Bible that so many people live their lives by its teachings after 2,000 years?”
See, you’re using their very point about the Bible being old and leveraging it to show the uniqueness of the Bible. After all, what other ancient book has 40 different authors yet one consistent story, was written across 1,500 years, and has had so much influence on the way we live and think today? The Bible has stood the test of time. In that sense, its ancient origin is a point in its favor.
Many people in the last 2,000 years have tried to stamp out the Bible’s influence. Some have even tried to destroy the Bible. But God responds:
“Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29, NIV)
Military generals, pagan rulers and emperors have tried to destroy the Bible. But it seems that the more that people try to silence the Bible, the stronger it grows. In the 16th century, Mary, queen of England, also known as “Bloody Mary,” ordered that anyone owning a copy of the Bible should be burned at the stake. Five years after that edict, Bloody Mary was dead and her half-sister Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne. Not only did Elizabeth repeal her sister’s nasty edict, but under her reign, more Bibles were published in England than ever before.
The fact that the Bible, though written thousands of years ago, still has enduring influence in countless societies demonstrates its supernatural origin.
Today, influential thinkers like Jordan Peterson and Jonathan Haidt have increasingly drawn their insights from the wisdom of the Bible. They’ve recognized that while in one sense the Bible is ancient, there’s another sense in which it speaks with a timeless and transcendent authority on all the perennial issues of the human condition. Ironically, most people who have mocked the Bible as outdated don’t realize just how indebted our society is to the Bible.
For example, our society loves the idea of freedom and equality for everyone. But where did this idea that we are all equal come from? It didn’t come from Darwin. If you trace it back, it came from Genesis. Even secular historians have frankly admitted that we owe this idea of equality to the Bible and its teaching that we are all made in God’s image.
One area where we see the powerful influence of the Bible is in our laws.
Sociologists have long recognized that if a society doesn’t have some kind of law by which to live, it will end up self-destructing. We humans need to live under a code of ethics. Without a law to govern us, anarchy and violence is the result.
The historian Will Durant, who is not a Christian, has recognized that many of our laws in Western civilization are derived from the Ten Commandments. For example, the sixth commandment forbidding murder is the basis for all the protections against taking life. The seventh commandment forbidding adultery was designed to protect marriage and the family, and so many of our laws protecting the family are derived from that. The eighth commandment forbidding stealing gave us the concept of private property and our need to protect ownership with various laws.
Professor Israel Drapkin even said:
“The Ten Commandments [are] the moral and legal foundations of Western Civilization.”
But how did the Ten Commandments come to have so much influence across so many countries? Historians are compelled to say that it’s primarily through the spread of Christianity and its high view of Scripture.
One example of this is the Christian Roman Emperor Justinian who came along in AD 482. Justinian ended up taking the Roman law that then existed and throwing out a good portion of it so that he could bring about a new set of legislation that was based on the Law of the Bible.
Will Durant and other historians argue that Justinian’s Code of laws was based on the Bible. And virtually every nation of Western civilization is largely indebted to Justinian’s law code. So, what does that tell us? The Bible is at the root of every major legal system in the Western world.
In fact, have you ever wondered why we have a court system of trial by jury? It’s because Christians witnessed kings presiding over cases and acting as corrupt judges, and they recognized that this contradicted the Bible.
And in view of that verse, they recognized that a plurality of judges—which we call a jury—is more likely to root out arbitrary convictions. The whole reason for placing your hand on the Bible in a court room was to remind people that they were answerable to a higher authority when giving testimony in a human court.
So, is the Bible relevant today? One of the most powerful pieces of evidence that we’re dealing with a supernatural book is the way countless people have had their lives turned upside down by a powerful encounter with Jesus Christ in its pages. In the words of Hebrews, it is “living and active” and discerns even “the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”[2] Which is why the best case for the Bible’s divine origin is the Bible itself. Countless skeptics have had their eyes opened to its power and authority through finally reading it.
Personally, I’ve experienced this in my own life. The Bible has shaped the way I understand God, myself, and the world I live in. Time after time, I’ve had my priorities reoriented, my perspective challenged, my desire for God fueled, my love for others revived, my soul sustained through trials, and my passion for reaching the world with the good news of Jesus reignited through submitting my mind to the Word of the Lord, and to the Lord of the Word.
I’ve only scratched the surface looking at all the incredible ways the Bible has transformed our world. So, when someone says the Bible is irrelevant to our modern world, they are revealing their ignorance about how powerfully this book has shaped every aspect of life. To push the Bible to the margins is to the push away the basis for freedom, equality, justice, love of neighbor, and everything else good in our society.
And at the level of the individual, the Bible tells us the truth so that we can finally understand ourselves. We were made for a relationship with God, but things have gone badly wrong—not just in the world, but within our own hearts. First and foremost, within our own hearts. And apart from God revealing Himself through this precious Word, we are utterly lost and without hope. Mark this. There is no substitute for the Bible. Though the hubris of man may imagine otherwise, nothing outside of Scripture can ever replace it.
The Bible is more to be desired “than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings from a honeycomb” (Psalm 19:10). “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him” (Proverbs 30:5, NKJV). Applying the biblical book of Deuteronomy, Jesus taught, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
The Bible doesn’t just tell me about God’s standards and reveal how I’ve failed to live up to those standards. It shows me that there is hope of forgiveness, new life, and peace with God through the good news of Jesus Christ’s substitutionary death for sinners like me and His glorious resurrection.
So, here’s my encouragement. Treasure your Bible by committing to study it regularly, expecting to encounter the living God Himself in a real and powerful way. And what could be more relevant than that?
I pray this encourages you to read the Bible. If you have any thoughts or questions about this, I would love to hear from you!
Recently, my family and I stopped to feast our eyes on an exquisite sunset, complete with a bright glowing blend of red, orange, and purple. Just after dusk, my three boys and I went frog hunting on my in-laws’ property. We crept up on a little pond, from which we could hear a chorus of croaks and chirps. As we closed in on the frogs, they suddenly fell silent in unison. It didn’t help that our dog, June, plunged into their pond a moment later.
On our way back to the house, we stopped to gaze up at the night sky above us, a deep black canvas dotted with tiny sparkling diamonds. It was sublime. We could even spot Jupiter and Venus. What a way to begin spring! Despite the cold March air, it was hard for the four of us to stop staring. In the midst of our shared excitement, I was reminded of the first line from Psalm 19:
“The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1, ESV)
Ears to Hear
According to the Bible, that starry sky above is making a declaration to us. It’s announcing to us that there is an Artist and Designer behind it all.
Everything you see in this world – towering trees, majestic mountains, fertile fields, mighty elephants, growling lions, chirping crickets – all of it owes its existence to an all-powerful Creator, who ordered and designed this world for the glory of His great name.
Some people might say, “I don’t hear any announcement.” But think of it this way. Someone can be shouting something to you from across the room, and you still don’t hear it. Maybe you’re deaf or you’re wearing noise-canceling headphones. Or maybe you’re just choosing to ignore that person. Although the stars don’t actually speak (v. 3), their message of God’s glory is being declared “through all the earth” (v. 4) to those who have ears to hear.
God’s glory is all the beauty and majesty of His character and nature. The word “glory” (kabod in Hebrew) gives the sense of something being weighty or having importance. So to say the heavens declare God’s glory is more than saying they point to His existence. All of creation is announcing His importance, His power, His worth. The starry skies are urging us to worship God as the One who deserves all the glory.
“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.” (Revelation 4:11, NIV)
Many people today like to say they’re not too sure about God’s existence; instead, they prefer to look for a scientific explanation. But the more we learn about the heavens, the more we should see God’s glory. The magnetosphere is a magnetic field surrounding the earth that stretches out into space 36,000 miles. It acts like a massive shield, protecting our planet from the sun’s harmful solar winds. When the charged particles of the solar winds are redirected to the north and south poles, they create the beautiful auroras, known as the northern and southern lights. Science should lead us to exult in God’s incredible design. Not only does the magnetosphere act as a massive protective bubble, but it also creates a breathtaking display in the night sky.
Interestingly, scientists have discovered a host of features like the magnetosphere that have to be just so for earth to be a habitable planet. This includes the size of earth in relation to the sun, the size of the moon in relation to earth, the amount of oxygen in our atmosphere, the amount of water on earth, the size of the surrounding planets, and even our location in the Milky Way galaxy. These are well-documented in The Privileged Planet, a book written by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W. Richards.
The Sufficiency of Scripture
David, the psalmist, goes on to say that while creation declares there is a glorious Creator, it doesn’t tell us how to get right with Him. General revelation (nature) tells us there is a Creator, but we need special revelation (Scripture) to learn that there is also a Redeemer.
“The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple.” (Psalm 19:7, ESV)
While astounding things can be learned from observing the created world, true wisdom is found in God’s law. Such wisdom comes from above; it is more precious than gold (V. 10). Most people don’t realize what an extraordinary privilege it is to have a Bible in their home. It’s like they are sitting on a storehouse of treasure, and they’ve never realized it. God’s Word alone is perfect, flawless, and true. Through Scripture, our eyes are opened to see that this wise Creator has made a way for us to be forgiven and granted eternal life. Many have chased after gold and riches, but David reminds us that “the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever” (v. 9).
David wants us to understand the sufficiency of Scripture. The wonder of God’s Word is that you don’t need to have an advanced degree in physics or philosophy to know what God is really like. Scripture itself imparts wisdom to even the “simple” or uneducated (v. 7). It tells us plainly of God’s goodness, justice, and grace. And most importantly, it tells us about the Redeemer Jesus Christ, who alone lived a life acceptable in God’s sight (v. 14) and then offered that life as an acceptable sacrifice in the place of sinners (Ephesians 5:2).
So while creation declares God is powerful and wise, Scripture declares that God is loving and gracious. The Bible alone is “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15, ESV).
Have thoughts on this post? Feel free to comment below!
It’s an intriguing question, isn’t it? Just what did the carpenter from Nazareth think of the writings that Christians today call “the Bible”?
It’s a question worth asking because today there are many self-identifying Christians who claim unswerving loyalty to the King of kings while taking a much more ambivalent approach to Scripture than Christians generally have throughout the last 2,000 years. Why is it, for instance, that there is a growing number of Christians who hesitate to even call the Bible “the Word of God”? Such progressive Christians will often express great love and admiration for the Bible, but they are less certain about its abiding authority for believers today.
Take, for example, what Rob Bell says about Scripture’s origin:
“The Bible is a library of books reflecting how human beings have understood the divine. People at that time believed the gods were with them when they went to war and killed everyone in the village. What you’re reading is someone’s perspective that reflects the time and the place they lived in. It’s not God’s perspective — it’s theirs. And when they say it’s God’s perspective, what they’re telling you is their perspective on God’s perspective. Don’t confuse the two.”[1]
The problem with this assertion is that the Bible is filled with claims that it is God’s perspective, not merely man’s perspective on God’s perspective.[2] For instance, the Apostle Paul seems to be alluding to compromises similar to Bell’s when he writes,
“And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thessalonians 2:13, emphasis added).
Paul is crystal clear. The words he writes are the very words of God. They ultimately originate not with Paul, but with God. They are not primarily Paul’s perspective on God’s perspective (whatever that means), but God’s perspective written through the vantage point of a human author. While human authors were the means — and certainly they expressed their personalities and styles in their writing — what they wrote ultimately has a divine Author.
What Is at Stake
Theologian James White rightly observes,
“A solid view of the Bible begins with the recognition that God is its principle author, the origin and source of its very essence. All sub-Christian systems must, by definition, attack God’s Word at this very point, for the survival of their unbiblical teachings and views of authority is dependent upon overthrowing this precise truth.” [3]
Therefore, Scripture’s divine authorship is a truth that Christians cannot neglect, and the church must persistently and unapologetically teach it with unwavering confidence.
Is it possible that many Christians in the West are being deeply influenced by secularism without even realizing it? To claim that Scripture is not truly from God is to strip it of all authority. And that, my friend, is the point. After all, if the Bible doesn’t really have a divine origin, then it doesn’t have any say over how I live my life.
Let me be candid. To claim to follow Jesus while denying the Bible’s divine authority over your life is both a grave dishonor to the Lord and a tragic rejection of a precious gift we ought to cherish. But beyond this, how can anyone deny Scripture’s authority while claiming to love the very Jesus described in those pages?
Jesus’ View of the Bible
So, what did Jesus think of the Bible? Would Jesus have considered the Bible to be the very Word of God?
In the Gospel of Matthew, we read of a time when a group of religious leaders, known as Sadducees, attempted to trip Jesus up with a somewhat ridiculous scenario of a widow who consecutively married seven brothers, all of whom died soon after saying “I do.” (As an aside, shouldn’t we begin to suspect this widow of murder?)
Now, something you should know is that the Sadducees didn’t believe in bodily resurrection. They only considered the first five books of the Bible to be Scripture, and resurrection isn’t explicitly taught until later revelation. So they ask Jesus a “gotcha” question: “So tell us, Jesus, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her” (Matthew 22:28). Their aim was to make the resurrection look nonsensical. Jesus’ response is remarkable:
“You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:29-32 NASB, emphasis added).
Not only does Jesus demonstrate His belief in the absolute power and clarity of Scripture, but notice His question: “Have you not read what was spoken to you by God” (v. 31). According to Jesus, when we read from the pages of Scripture, the Creator God Himself is speaking to us. Consider the way Jesus frequently quotes Scripture with the preface “It is written.”[4] When settling a theological issue with the religious leaders, Jesus repeatedly asks, “Have you not read?”[5] Christ’s basic assumption is that if the so-called “experts” in the Law had only carefully read and submitted to the Law, they wouldn’t be mistaken. By appealing to Scripture in this way, Jesus was displaying His unyielding conviction that Scripture is the final word on the matter.
That’s because Jesus believed the Bible was the Word of God, and He had no problem calling it that.
For example, when the Pharisees and scribes confront Jesus and His disciples on their apparent disregard for the traditions of the elders (v. 2), Jesus turns the accusation around, calling these religious leaders to account for exalting their tradition while disregarding “the word of God.”
[Jesus] answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.” (Matthew 15:3-6, emphasis added)
Notice how Jesus clearly affirms Scripture as the “commandment of God.” His point is not that human tradition is all bad. Rather, Jesus is confronting the fact that their reverence and esteem for merely human tradition has supplanted Scripture’s rightful place of authority in their lives. God had clearly taught the great importance of honoring one’s parents, but there was a tradition handed down by the ancient rabbis that essentially nullified this teaching and muted what God had clearly said on the matter. By clinging so tightly to man-made teachings they had “made void the word of God” (v. 6, cf. v.9). This is a serious charge, and it demonstrates Jesus’ view both on the origin of Scripture and its supreme authority on every area of human life.
But the Pharisees and scribes aren’t alone here. Jesus would have us recognize this tendency even in our own hearts to exalt the wisdom of mere humans and disregard the wisdom of God. It’s a symptom of the brokenness from which Jesus came to set us free.
“Your Word Is Truth”
God has been so very gracious to give us the Bible. He didn’t have to do that. How tragic it is when we sneer at it and claim it is filled with human error.
For example, the late progressive Christian Rachel Held Evans wrote,
“While Christians believe the Bible to be uniquely revelatory and authoritative to the faith, we have no reason to think its many authors were exempt from the mistakes, edits, rewrites, and dry spells of everyday creative work.”[6]
She so emphasizes the human side that she discounts the fact that “those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21, NLT).
Compare Evans’ claim that the Bible is marked by “mistakes, edits, rewrites and dry spells of everyday creative work” with Jesus’ claim that “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). Jesus told God the Father “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). When facing Satan’s temptations in the desert, Jesus counters by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3: “It is written, ‘Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”[7]
Not even once does Jesus express even the slightest doubt that every word we find in Scripture is spoken by God, and, therefore, without error. Jesus would no doubt affirm Proverbs 30:5, “Every word of God proves true.” Kevin DeYoung has rightly concluded that “it is impossible to revere the Scriptures more deeply or affirm them more completely than Jesus did.”[8]
So this beckons the question: Do you share Jesus’ view of Scripture? Do you believe that what is written is “spoken by God” (Matthew 22:31)? Would you be willing to affirm that it is “the word of God” (Matthew 15:6). Do you believe those who wrote it “spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21), and thereby gave us an unbreakable “truth” (John 17:17)? Here’s my encouragement. If you consider yourself a Christian or follower of Jesus, you should want to see the Bible the way He saw it. God’s Word can give you the confidence to face each day and the certainty of what lies in store for you beyond the grave.
[1] Rob Bell, What Is the Bible? (New York: HarperCollins, 2017), 295-296.
[2] 2 Timothy 3:16 calls all of Scripture theopneustos, meaning “God-breathed.” 2 Peter 1:20 clearly says that Scripture does not come “from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Clearly, Scripture teaches that its origin, source, and wisdom begins not with humans, who are the active agents writing Scripture, but with God Himself who oversaw their environment, life, and activity, and carried them along in the writing process.
[3] James R. White, Scripture Alone (Grand Rapids, MI: Bethany House, 2004), 50.
[4] See the previous footnote. For but a small sampling see Matthew 4:4, 7, 10; 11:10; 21:13; 26:24, 31; Mark 7:6; 9:12-13; 11:17; 14:21, 27; Luke 4:4, 8, 10; 7:27; 10:26; 18:31; 19:46; 20:17; 21:22; 22:37; 24:44, 46; John 6:45; 8:17; 10:34; 15:25.
[5] cf. Matthew 12:3, 5; 19:4; 21:16, 42; 22:31; Mark 2:25; 12:10, 26; Luke 6:3; 10:26.
[6] Rachel Held Evans, Inspired (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2018), xxiii. Evans fails to recognize that when Paul uses the word “inspired” (theopneustos in the original Greek) in 2 Timothy 3:16, he is calling the Scriptures themselves “God-breathed.” She re-imagines inspiration to mean something totally foreign to the original text. She writes, “Inspiration, on both the giving and receiving end, takes practice and patience. It means showing up when you don’t feel like it, even when it seems as if no one else is there. It means waiting for wind to stir.” I don’t know of any Christian throughout church history who would have agreed with her definition.
[7] The familiar Greek phrase γέγραπται, usually translated “It is written” or “Scripture has it,” is repeated over 90 times by Jesus and the New Testament authors to connote Scripture’s authoritative declaration on a matter.
[8] Kevin DeYoung, Taking God at His Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 109.
Lamp and Light 