Is God's Word Really without Error?

December 3 (II Timothy 3:16, 17)
When God called me into His kingdom, one of the first things that struck me was that we have a book, more accurately stated 66 books, compiled into one that claims to be filled with His actual communications to humans. Think about it. Christianity is the only movement in the world that makes that claim. I refrain from calling it a religion because that is a misnomer in the case of true Christianity. I seldom use the word Christian in any of its forms because it has been so abused in America. Great multitudes think if you aren’t part of some other religious movement, you must be a Christian. Mohammed claimed God spoke to him in the deserts of Arabia, but all one has to do is read the Koran to quickly discover it was written by a man, and that man really wasn’t very intelligent. Actually, the historical record of Islam indicates only about 15 pages of badly written notes began the assembly by later generations of what Muslims now call the Koran.

So we don’t stray from the point, today I’ll provide the evidence that scripture, in the original manuscripts was literally God breathed. There are a lot of fancy terms systematic theologians use, but I will try to avoid the temptation to sound smart and write in language even I can understand. The first thing one would expect to learn if a writing is God breathed, a claim protestants make about the entire 66 books of the bible, is that it would be without error in its original manuscripts. The problem with which we have to deal is that the earliest manuscripts early church fathers had to translate into English were about 200 years removed from the originals. Since scribes hand wrote every single compilation before the printing press, it seems logical there might have been errors somewhere along the way. Actually we do learn there are several insignificant errors like misspelling words, occasionally verb tenses are different, as well as other minor and insignificant differences in the ancient manuscripts. The reason I say they are insignificant is that those errors do not result in an interpretation any different from any other interpretation. If one is careful to make sure the bible verifies its own inerrancy by using several cross references properly, there is zero chance he will draw a wrong conclusion about God's original intent.

The next problem with which we have to deal is that of cultural differences between the original group of middle eastern residents, and, in some cases we even see significant cultural differences between those middle eastern tribal groups to whom the words were originally written. That’s why a few of the things Isaiah said for example make little or no sense to us today. His original listeners knew to what he was referring but nearly three thousand years later and 5000 miles from that culture to whom he spoke makes some things a little hard to understand. Then we have to deal with God’s propensity to hide prophecy that will be fulfilled latter within a message to the people who originally heard it. Over two hundred prophecies of Christ’s first coming fit into that category. No one realized they were spoken about His first coming until He fulfilled them. Three things help us avoid misunderstanding God’s original intent when He first breathed His word through His prophets: 1. the interpreter must study the original culture(s) to whom the words were spoken; 2. the interpreter must study the language in its ancient setting; 3. the interpreter must read the translation from which he is working dozens of times to make sure it testifies to its own inerrancy. I have discovered in 38 years of studying scripture, reading dozens of books about how to interpret it, learning the original ancient languages of Hebrew and Greek, teaching dozens of classes on most of it, and writing treatises about more than 25 bible topics, the most important of these three skills is for the interpreter have read scripture from cover to cover multiple times in multiple modern translations. I attended bible college taking Greek and Hebrew among other things. I studied biblical history in that setting; then I attended several secular colleges and universities and studied ancient middle eastern history in that setting.

As a brand new believer, I knew God was calling me to teach His word, so I made sure to put myself on a rigorous schedule of reading through it multiple times each year. I didn’t want to take the chance I wasn’t sure I knew what God meant when He spoke to us in His word (James 3:1). My first year as a Christian, I read it through once a month from four or five different modern translations. Since then, I have been on a rigorous schedule of reading it through from cover to cover at least 8 times a year. I do that by reading 24 chapters a day. Sometimes I read more; on rare occasions I read less. Of course, there have been times I was so ill, I was unable to sit up long enough to read anything. I’m not bragging when I provide this information, and I’m most certainly not suggesting anyone else has to go and do likewise. I just want those reading this blog to understand I practice what I preach. I am not speaking from ignorance, though I make no claim to have figured out the entire word of God yet. Actually, I think it would take a lot more than one lifetime to do that.

For me it would have been incomprehensible not to have been on this schedule. I have never been able to get enough knowledge about the God of Creation to suit me. I want to know Him as well as it is possible to get to know Him in this life. The incredible thing is that every time I reread a verse or one of the stories of the saints, I learn something else about the nature of God. Of course, one would logically expect that to be true if He really is God. I write these things because I would like my readers to understand I wouldn’t have bothered to spend the necessary time to read the bible from cover to cover once if I did not believe within its cover lies the very words of the Creator of the universe. The bible contains, ancient history, though it is not a book of history; it contains scientifically verifiable information, though it is not a book of science; it is filled with poetry, wisdom literature, parables, types, images, similes, paradoxes, and specific instruction for living a godly life. There are a myriad of reasons it is the best selling collection of books in the world and has been since it was first compiled.

No other book will prepare you for the coming kingdom of God. No other book reveals how one can be sure he will not spend eternity in hell. No other book was written over a period of approximatelhy 4,000 years by at least 40 different men that is in complete harmony with itself. It says of itself it is God breathed and thus without error. The prophets declared hundreds, maybe thousands of times, “Thus saith the Lord.” Peter implied Paul’s writings were scripture in II Peter 3:16. Paul claimed his writings were God’s words to His church in I Thessalonians 2:13. The bible testifies of itself thousands of times that it is the word of God.

In closing today’s devotional, I believe it behooves us to spend a lot more time than most of us do actually reading and then studying His infallible word. It is the sword of the spirit with which we do battle with the enemy. It’s little wonder so few who claim to have been called of God actually seek daily to do battle with the enemy. The strongholds of Satan, any stage show (including mud wrestling) that demeans women, most alcoholic establishments, pornography in its many forms, the public system of education in America, most government entities across this land, most clubs (i.e., Elks, Moose), most fraternities and sororities on college campuses, great multitudes of law offices, a huge contingency of doctors’ offices, and even the local family theatres are all breeding grounds for satanic activity. And the Christian church settles for holding its meetings one to three times a week, doing an occasional community service project, and buying time on television and/or radio so those who need to hear the gospel who will never likely listen to one of those programs may hear it and be convicted of sin, righteousness, and the coming judgment.

Jesus went into the streets, into the homes of prostitutes, alcoholics, tax gathers, soldiers, and fishermen to preach the gospel. The reason God the Father gave him the power to heal the sick and raise the dead was because when one storms the strongholds of the devil he must have God the Father’s full cooperation to be successful. I’d like to humbly suggest that’s the same reason we don’t see the kinds of miraculous things happening today we saw happening in His life. I know there are men and women who claim to be doing miraculous things in their ministries, but I’ve watched too many of those side shows to believe they’re anything more than side shows as part of a really bad circus act. Now if I saw a plainly dressed man on skid row quietly preaching the gospel to small groups I’d be expecting to see him heal some of those men and women on the spot. If I saw someone walk into the middle of a meeting of the Hells Angels biker group, I’d expect to see him heal someone who had just gotten shot by a rival gang.

I trust and pray if you’re reading this, you’re beginning to get the picture. I’ve preached on sidewalks outside pornographic theatres. I’ve preached in lock up facilities; I’ve preached door to door; I’ve preached in mall parking lots. I’ve preached in open air parks; and I’ve preached in bars and lounges. I’ve had owners of pornographic theatres threaten to have me arrested. I’ve had bosses threaten to fire me if I didn’t leave my religion home. I’ve been fired at least once for refusing to do so. I was harassed for years by one boss because I used recent court rulings to point out why he couldn’t fire me for talking about Jesus at work. I’ve been asked to leave at least one church, told to leave another, and told I would be happier someplace else by several pastors of local churches. In 38 years of ministry, I've only had one pastor welcome me with open arms to teach in the local church where he preached for more than a few months because I always insist on teaching the entire word without compromise.

My point for today is that we will never see revival in America if those who claim to be the called of God don’t get off their proverbial butts and storm the strongholds of Satan, snatching those held in his power from the flaming jaws of hell. Our nation is sinking into the depths of depravity from which it will never recover if we who claim to be followers of Christ don’t begin doing what He came to do and what He has commanded us to do (Matt. 28:18-20). We’ll never fulfill His prophecy that we'll do greater works than He did if we don’t stop reading about it and actually begin doing it. That’s literally where the rubber meets the road. And that’s God’s word for us today.