CHAPTER 2
THE BIBLE
The Bible is God's book. It tells us all about God. It is true from beginning to end. When you have a textbook at school (say chemistry or history) you do not want any mistakes in it.
We say that the Bible is inspired. 'All Scripture is given by inspiration of God' (2 Timothy 3: 16). What do we mean? We do not just mean what people mean when they say of a boy in a race, 'He ran like someone inspired.' We mean much more than this. We mean god-breathed. God breathed out the Bible.
Different men wrote—Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, and others. They wrote over hundreds of years. Some were very clever; some were simple men. But their words all agree. They claim special authority for themselves.
We are told that 'holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost' (2 Peter 1: 21). The word 'moved' is the word used for a ship being carried along before the wind. Peter well knew how the ships were moved on the Sea of Galilee; and he uses the very same word for how he (and the other writers) were moved by God.
God did not use the writers of the Bible just like a boy or girl may use a typewriter. The typewriter does not know or feel anything. The writers felt what they wrote, and Paul does not write like Peter, or Peter like John. But God saw that the very words He wanted to be written were used.
We also use the word infallible. That means more than saying the Bible is true. It means that there just cannot be anything wrong in the Bible (though, of course, there are things we cannot understand).
You will often hear people saying the Bible is not true. Perhaps a teacher at school, or a friend. But it is very, very important that we hold fast to the truth of the Bible. Really it is as simple as this: If God has been kind enough to give us a book about Himself, He will make sure there are no mistakes in it.
People so often will talk about contradictions in the Bible. They say, 'One place says this and another place says something quite different.'
Let me illustrate by a story. In the early years of my pastorate two teenage girls from chapel both sent me a postcard. They were on holiday together, staying in the same place. The postcards were written the same day, posted the same day, and arrived together. One said, 'It is a most beautiful day. The sun is shining.' The other said, 'It is raining.' They were both honest girls. Why did they write different things, and yet both told the truth? No doubt you can think of lots of answers. So it is with God's Word.
Have you noticed how the Lord Jesus always spoke so reverently of the Bible? He said, 'The Scripture cannot be broken' (John 10: 35). When He first preached He quoted from the Bible to introduce Himself (Luke 4: 16-21). When He fought Satan He used the Bible as His weapon (Luke 4: 1-12). He quoted the Bible to teach His hearers (John 6: 25-34) and to silence His enemies (Matthew 15: 1-9). Even on the cross the Lord Jesus quoted Scripture (Matthew 27: 46). And when He was risen from the dead He still spoke of the Old Testament Scriptures (Luke 24: 27).
Probably the kind of things that people at school tell you they do not believe are about Adam and Eve, about Noah and his ark, about Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt, or about Jonah and the whale. It is very interesting that Jesus Himself picked out all these stories and referred to them as being true! (Matthew 19: 4, 5; Luke 17: 26, 27; Luke 10: 12; Matthew 12: 39-41.)
Some girls and boys will ask: 'What is the Apocrypha?' The Apocrypha is a number of old books from Bible days which have never really been counted as part of the Bible. Our Bible consists of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New. You will notice that often in the New Testament the Old is quoted with 'God said', or, 'The Holy Ghost said', but never is the Apocrypha quoted.
Our Bible was, of course, first written in Hebrew and Greek, but we thank God for a good translation. Many children will have read of how William Tyndale spent hours turning the Bible into English. He said he wanted the most ignorant ploughboy to be able to understand the Bible as much as a learned man. How wonderful to think of the love of this man, hidden away year after year in an attic, working day and night that we might have our English Bible! And at last he was caught, strangled, and burned. It is one thing to be a famous preacher with hundreds listening, and another to be shut away in secret, wearily translating.
We thank God for our Bible in English. We think of the days when a farmer gave a whole cart-load of hay to buy one page of the Bible!
We have heard of some people who would fight until death for the fact that the Bible is true. But they never read it!
A little girl had a Bible given to her. She wrote at the front:
Divine Instructor! gracious Lord!
Be Thou for ever near;
Teach me to love Thy sacred Word,
And find the Saviour there.
And she did find the Saviour there. May we read it, and love it, and above all, find the Lord Jesus there.
That is a good prayer in reading the Bible: 'Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law'(Psalm 119: 18).
Suggested Bible readings
Psalm 19.
Any part or all of Psalm 119.