"For the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it" (Isaiah 1:20).
"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our GOD shall stand forever" (Isaiah 40:8).
One of the amazing things about reading the Bible is that it never changes. From the first time I started reading the sacred Scriptures until now, it still says the same thing. Our Creator is unchanging (Malachi 3:6), and He gave us an unchanging written revelation of Himself.
Men change, and their views change, but Scripture and truth changes not. I am bewildered by all the publishers wanting to get out "new Bibles." Not that we do not constantly need to study and understand Scripture, for we do (Nehemiah 8:8), but why the continual stream of "better" translations, unless it is mercenary-induced?
But I want to be positive here, not negative. Let us look at the glory and wonder of God's Holy Word. How God first communicated to Adam and Noah and Abraham we are not told. What language did He speak? We do not know. But we do know that later God revealed Himself to Moses, and gave Moses an inerrant knowledge of the past, present, and future (Exodus 17:14; 34:27; Deuteronomy 31:19).
And all through the Old Testament, God gave His word and will to various prophets to write down in words (Jeremiah 30:2; Habakkuk 2:2). Exactly how this was done, and what all was involved in doing so, is not clear. The main thing is that there is a written revelation of who God is, and what He says about man: God the absolute sovereign, and man the totally depraved sinner.
Ours is a day of awful unbelief in the trustworthiness of Scripture. No better illustration could be given than the recent debate over The Da Vinci Code, and all the fallout from such blatant denial of Holy Writ. God's Word warns us: "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it" (Deuteronomy 4:2). But, additions to Scripture, and subtractions from Scripture, are commonplace in our day. (Look at The Book of Mormon, for example, supposedly "Another Testament of Jesus Christ.") We do not need to add teachings and doctrines to the Bible, nor do we need to subtract teachings from Scripture! But we do need to "rightly divide the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).
However, even to "rightly divide" has been misinterpreted, for the Greek word orthotomounta here actually means "cutting straight" or "properly handling," not divide into various "dispensations." We are not "rightly dividing" God's Word unless we reverently and humbly acknowledge that this Book is not a newspaper or novel, but the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of the true and living God. Grass and flowers come and go, so do sinners and their sinning, coupled with their hatred for God's truth. Like Voltaire, many vow to destroy the Bible and its teachings, but all to no avail. The Word of God is like a mighty anvil, which has broken many a hammer beating upon it.
We can trust the Scriptures to be true in its history, its prophecies, and in its doctrines. Archaeology has actually proven the Bible to be true, not untrue. But this is not where we are to find its authenticity. If we have experienced the grace and mercy of Yahweh God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, taking our place as unworthy sinners before Him, we positively know the Bible is true. Those who are truly regenerate (immediate through the Sovereign Spirit) say with the Psalmist: "Forever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven" (Psalm 119:89). We also say, "Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart" (v. 111). And, "My heart standeth in awe of thy word" (v. 161).
The New Testament builds upon the Old, and never contradicts it. Listen: "The scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35). The casting of lots at Christ's crucifixion, and the parting of His garments, was all done "that the scripture might be fulfilled" (John 19:24). Christ's substitutionary death was all in fulfillment of prophecy: "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts 2:23). "Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things. The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ" (Acts 4:25-26).
Let men cavil (even so-called Bible teachers) against the sovereignty of God, predestination, unconditional election and salvation, and the Lord Jesus Christ the real and actual Savior of the elect. Truth lives because God lives, and truth lives in our inspired Bible: "For the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." And we had better remember the closing warning in the last chapter of Revelation (22:18-19), and stop "adding to" and "taking away from" the written, unchanging "things" of God's Book. I have a motto I try to always remember: "If it's new, it's not true." Anything after the apostles is new!
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