When William Tyndale, translated the New Testament into English in 1526, church authorities in England were less than enthusiastic. In fact, even after publishing thousands of English New Testaments, Tyndale had to smuggle them into England. Sadly, church authorities bought up many of these copies and had them publicly burned because they felt only the church should be the one to interpret what the Bible said. Instead of being hailed for his great accomplishment Tyndale had to live the remaining years of his life in hiding from the church who sought to bring him to trial as a heretic.
Historian Bernard Ramm once commented: “A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put. No other book has been so chopped, knifed, sifted, scrutinized, and vilified. What book on philosophy or religion or psychology … of classical or modern times has been subject to such a mass attack as the Bible? With such venom and skepticism? With such thoroughness and erudition? Upon every chapter, line and tenet? The Bible is still loved by millions, read by millions, and studied by millions.”1
Charles Colson added: “The BIBLE — banned, burned, beloved. More widely read, more frequently attacked than any other book in history. Generations of intellectuals have attempted to discredit it, dictators of every age have outlawed it and executed those who read it. Yet soldiers carry it into battle believing it more powerful than their weapons. Fragments of it smuggled into solitary prison cells have transformed ruthless killers into gentle saints.”2
And R. A. Torrey even said: “For eighteen centuries every engine of destruction that human science, philosophy, wit, reasoning or brutality could bring to bear against a book has been brought to bear against that book to stamp it out of the world, but it has a mightier hold on the world today than ever before. If that were man’s book it would have been annihilated and forgotten hundreds of years ago.”3
It’s hard to believe that our most cherished book, the Bible, which contains the most wonderful news – salvation through Jesus Christ – has been subject to such amazing persecution down through the centuries. Or is it surprising? You see the Bible is a book that shares the ultimate and absolute truth on all matters. And one of these matters is that man is a sinner by nature and in desperate need of a savior. And here is where the controversy lies. Not only is man a sinner but he suppresses the truth about his nature and wants no part of a God that stands to hold him accountable for his sins.
I believe that mankind knows instinctively that the Bible and Jesus stand for righteousness. Man will do everything he can to hide, deny, and suppress this truth about himself because he loves his sin too much to repent of it and come to Jesus. As a result, he has, down through the centuries, done everything he can to try to destroy the Bible – the one book that is willing to show man exactly who he is – a sinner in need of repentance. However, as we have seen through some of my past devotions, since the Bible is a divine book, its destruction is not possible. The Bible today is still the best selling book of all time and thankfully still has the power to convict men of sin leading to repentance.
Our role as Christians is to share the controversial message of Christ with a sinful world and pray for the conviction power of the Holy Spirit to open the blind eyes of those sinners who are perishing. The only way to combat suppression of the truth is with the truth of the Scriptures and prayer. This dynamic duo of the Word and prayer is our only hope to break the shackles that keep men in bondage to sin.
The Bible will always be a controversial book but praise God that this book is indestructible! Its message of salvation through Christ is the only hope for a lost and dying world. So let’s proclaim and pray – the eternal destinies of souls are weighing in the balance.
1 QUOTES BY BERNARD RAMM | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
2 Charles Colson quote: The BIBLE – banned, burned, beloved. More widely read, more frequently (inspiringquotes.us)
If you’re a bottom line person then this comment is for you. The bottom line is that man is competing against the God he knows exists. Since the fall, mankind’s singular purpose is to be like God. That means he has to duplicate everything about God, His Word, and His ways. Pick your own truth from centuries of philosophers. Build your own church with its own priesthood and call it public education. Create the ideal family structure and call it the State. You’re on your way to becoming godlike but some things are missing. You realize you can’t succeed by simply establishing your counterpart entities but you must eliminate the competition. So, you start the destruction by setting out to prove that the standard, the Bible, is not the Word of God. You rapidly move to the Church with its hypocrisy, charlatan leaders, jaded history, and irrelevance in today’s world. Next is Christian doctrine and so on.
Here’s the problem. While you tirelessly labor away at all these obsessions, no matter how hard you try to erase the fact that even though you are made in God’s image, you carry the wrath of the true God on your head while He laughs at you from heaven. Your efforts to be like God only bring misery and death and your destruction is sure. All is in vain.
Psalm 37
For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.
In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.
The wicked plots against the righteous
and gnashes his teeth at him,
but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he sees that his day is coming.
Are you tired of kicking against the thorns and bloodying yourself with this fool’s errand? There is only one God and you’re not Him. The path back home is gated with a sign that says, “Repent!”
Turn from your sin and enter into the rest that only God can give.
We are all worshipers—the only real choice we have is who or what we will worship, not whether we will worship.